git's data model is incredibly powerful and flexible, but its UX is famously... interesting:

https://stevelosh.com/blog/2013/04/git-koans/

▲ freehorse 5 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

I puzzled over the "The Long and Short of It" as for me (git version 2.54.0)

  git -h branch

gives the same output as

  git branch --help

so I could not understand why master git jumped and died. But it seems that in older versions it threw an argument error according to the old discussion [0].

I see that `git -h branch`, `git branch --help` and `git --help branch` give the long output but `git branch -h` gives the short. I suspect the former (eg `git -h branch`) are converted to `git help branch` which runs `help` with argument `branch`. But `git branch -h` runs `branch` with argument `-h`. Also as `git -h alias` prints the alias definition while `git alias -h` gives the short help for the aliased command.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5512103

▲ inigyou 6 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I don't fully agree with the checkout one. We do speak of checking out a file and checking out a branch using the same word, and they are not the same thing.

checkout -b however makes no sense. It should be the default behavior of git branch. It was probably put under checkout because it made for more straightforward code.

▲ inigyou 11 minutes ago | parent | prev | next [-]

TortoiseGit was very cool, and nothing stops us making more alternative UXes.

I miss the extensibility of Windows, back when programs still fought for the users (Tron reference). Shell extensions, COM/OLE, ActiveX controls. Sure they were annoying but they actually did stuff that we just can't do any more. Even start menu folders with more than one entry. It was like each thing you installed could be a plugin for your whole computer, not just an isolated space where you visit sometimes (the iOS model).

▲ ffsm8 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It's always such a good experience to read well written articles like this from the early 2010s when our industry was a lot less self-important

Especially because the text is actually written by a human, and it's clear from every sentence

▲

dc3k 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I also appreciated that the site didn’t give me a popup asking me to sign up to its newsletter.

	▲	lukan 40 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I did not appreciate reading with a mobile, though. Text did not fit the screen, but FF reader mode fixed it.

▲ ulrikrasmussen an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I use git every day and can do quite advanced stuff with it, but I do all of my work using magit in emacs. I don't even use emacs for writing code anymore, I only use it for git. I just can't be bothered with using the CLI, it is too painfully inconsistent.

The only downside to this is that it is hard for me to help people with git problems since I can only tell them what conceptually has to be done, not how to accomplish it using the CLI.

▲ Bugg4 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

The hobgoblin one sent me

▲ peheje 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

These are great

▲

andy99 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I don’t understand any of them. Normally even when I’m not really familiar with a tool, I have enough background knowledge to understand why it’s funny e.g. Scheme and Haskell jokes or something. I do use basic git regularly and all of this is over my head. I don’t know if that speaks to how complicated and unintuitive some of the advanced stuff is?

	▲	xigoi 6 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The second one is about how Git uses the word “checkout” for three unrelated operations, violating the Unix philosophy.
	▲	jibal 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		The context here is the statement that "its UX is famously... interesting". You don't have to understand anything other than how wildly inconsistent the git CLI is.

▲ pydry 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

iirc Linus actually conceded this very early on and said that he thought it would be better if it were used as infrastructure to build tools on rather than the tool itself.

no idea where I saw that though and it was many many years ago.

	▲	inigyou 12 minutes ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I think at that point he only had the plumbing commands. Commands like "git commit" are the tools he meant.
	▲	edelbitter 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		In any case, the refined version of that admission - the deliberate porcelain/plumbing distinction - is still best explained in the git docs and I wish more tools would copy it. apt(-get) has cautiously started that process, while GnuPG sadly remains a box shock full of surprises in both API and CLI.