Comment by imiric

Comment by imiric 16 hours ago

6 replies

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Am I the only one who simply doesn't mind Git's CLI?

Sure, it's rough around the edges, but I know those edges well. I sometimes do need to look up how to do something, but those cases are rare. Over the years I've accumulated about a dozen shell aliases and a modest `.gitconfig`, and along with a couple of helper tools[1][2], I can do 90% of what I need Git for in seconds. I truly don't need a fancy TUI, GUI, or any wrappers around Git. Git itself is fine.

I tried Magit a few times, and even though Emacs is my main editor, I couldn't get used to it. It forces the user into doing things the "Magit way", and I'd rather not.

I don't understand the push to replace Git's porcelain with something shinier. If, and when, a better VCS comes along that truly feels like the next step forward, I'll give it a try. In the meantime, Git does the job I need.

[1]: https://github.com/mroth/scmpuff

[2]: https://github.com/dandavison/delta

skydhash 13 hours ago

I can use the CLI, but magit is mostly CLI on steroids. All the information you could have accessed through the cli is quickly available, and they are active objects, meaning subsequent commands will take that into account. Any mutation is also available through quick keybindings as well.

The one thing that I truly like about Magit, and the builtin vc-mode, is that I can focus for a couple of hours on coding, then quickly create a serie of commits to capture that work. Like doing line art after sketching. I like when administrative work (filing patches under commits) is isolated from creative work (solving problems and designing practical solutions).

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duskdozer 14 hours ago

No - unless you took away my gitconfig, which is pretty big at this point. Though I guess that's mostly a time-saver. Even so, I've found most of the GUI tools to be confusing because it's hard to tell what they're actually doing under the hood.

I do use sublime merge at times though now - it's nice for [un]staging individual lines and for looking at some diffs. I also like git-foresta[1] more than log sometimes. I'll have to check out scmpuff - it should be easier than going through a patch add.

[1]: https://github.com/takaaki-kasai/git-foresta

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tcoff91 15 hours ago

There is a new VCS that is a step forward (while being compatible with git). It’s called jujutsu.

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  • imiric 6 hours ago

    Yeah, I disagree.

    I've read the Jujutsu documentation and a lot of praises for it, and its most compelling feature is a simpler UI compared to Git. There have been other VCS tools with arguably better UIs and feature sets than Git (Mercurial, Fossil), and yet they haven't gained traction, for better or worse. The only reason jj is having more momentum is because of its compatibility with Git, which was a smart decision by its developers.

    A better UI is not something I would consider a next step for a VCS tool. I can do that myself with my shell and small helper tools. Whereas features like semantic and binary diffing would be compelling generational improvements over Git. I know these can technically be tacked on to Git itself, but a VCS built for them would be able to do things Git simply can't. These are just two I can think of, but a next generation tool would be evident without requiring much explanation. Just like DVCSs were over the previous generation of tools.

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sublinear 15 hours ago

I completely agree, and I would add that in just about any dev role beyond being a junior it's so common to need to work efficiently without much of a dev environment anyway.

There's just no point in fighting this battle. I will admit it's sometimes nice to have fancy tools, but they're just that. I don't get the need to make a hobby out of it when there's so much other stuff to do.

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