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Your "second camp" of tutorial works exceedingly well at getting other hackers to understand how git works. Git "clicked" when I learned the internals, teachin

by Crito 12y ago

Your "second camp" of tutorial works exceedingly well at getting other hackers to understand how git works. Git "clicked" when I learned the internals, teaching me about various porcelain commands and their flags without teaching me what git actually is did nothing for me. The reason why so many people are keen on teaching git by teaching how it works is because that is how they learned git.

skywhopper 12y ago
Agreed. I sorta knew the details before, but this article laid out the meaning of refs, trees, branches, and tags in a way that finally clicked for me. Would it have helped me get started with git back in the day when I only grokked Subversion? I can't say for sure now, but reading it today it clicked in a major way.
SoftwareMaven 12y ago
This is true, if you actually care. Many people don't want to have to know the inner guts of how every tool they use works and just want to get their work done. It's unfortunate that git seems to (almost) require it (most likely because of its inconsistent UI (which has gotten better)).
- Crito 12y ago
  The way I see it, the CLI stuff is a distraction, when you "want to learn git", what you really want to do is understand how a DAG can be used for version control. Git is the idea. The standard/stock CLI is just one of many imperfect realizations of the idea that is git. Getting the handle of that particular realization of git is an unfortunate distraction that is needlessly weird in some cases. Think of it like the difference between learning how an engine works, and learning how [some particular engine, in some particular car] works. The first is pretty simple and illuminating. The second has lots of annoying details and imperfections. If you want to work with cars, you learn the former first.
todd8 12y ago
Your second paragraph hits the nail on the head. It's the Feynman Technique for learning. See: http://www.scotthyoung.com/learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFeynman.pdf http://www.scotthyoung.com/learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFe...

by Crito 12y ago

skywhopper 12y ago

Agreed. I sorta knew the details before, but this article laid out the meaning of refs, trees, branches, and tags in a way that finally clicked for me. Would it have helped me get started with git back in the day when I only grokked Subversion? I can't say for sure now, but reading it today it clicked in a major way.

SoftwareMaven 12y ago

This is true, if you actually care. Many people don't want to have to know the inner guts of how every tool they use works and just want to get their work done. It's unfortunate that git seems to (almost) require it (most likely because of its inconsistent UI (which has gotten better)).

Crito 12y ago
The way I see it, the CLI stuff is a distraction, when you "want to learn git", what you really want to do is understand how a DAG can be used for version control. Git is the idea. The standard/stock CLI is just one of many imperfect realizations of the idea that is git. Getting the handle of that particular realization of git is an unfortunate distraction that is needlessly weird in some cases. Think of it like the difference between learning how an engine works, and learning how [some particular engine, in some particular car] works. The first is pretty simple and illuminating. The second has lots of annoying details and imperfections. If you want to work with cars, you learn the former first.

todd8 12y ago

Your second paragraph hits the nail on the head. It's the Feynman Technique for learning. See: http://www.scotthyoung.com/learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFeynman.pdf http://www.scotthyoung.com/learnonsteroids/grab/TranscriptFe...