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Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2008

From
Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 23, 2008, 13:08 UTC
Message-ID
<200807231508.42334.jnareb@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<alpine.DEB.1.00.0807231128090.2830@eeepc-johanness>
On Wed, 23 Jul 2008, Johannes Schindelin wrote:
Show 12 quoted lines
> On Wed, 23 Jul 2008, Jakub Narebski wrote:
> 
> Some people prefer to stay anonymous, so I think email is out.
> 
> >    04. Which programming languages you are proficient with?
> >        (The choices include programming languages used by git)
> >        (zero or more: multiple choice)
> >      - C, shell, Perl, Python, Tcl/Tk
> >      + (should we include other languages, like C++, Java, PHP,
> >         Ruby,...?)
> 
> Yes, I think this should be a long list.
I'd rather not have a "laundry list" of languages.  I have put C++
because QGit uses it, Java because of egit/jgit, PHP for web
interfaces, Ruby because of GitHub and because of Ruby comminity
choosing Git.  I should perhaps add Emacs Lisp, HTML+CSS and
JavaScript here.  What other languages should be considered?
Show 8 quoted lines
> >    07. What helped you most in learning to use it?
> >        (free form question)
> 
> Is it possible to have multiple choice, with "other" (free-form)?  Then 
> I'd suggest:
> 
> 	Colleague/Instructor, User Manual, Manpages, Tutorials, Tutorials 
> 	(elsewhere; not in git.git), Mailing list, IRC, Git Wiki, Other.

By "Tutorials (elsewhere; not in git.git)" you mean here many various "git guide" pages, like "Git for Computer Scientists", "Git Magic", etc.?

I'm not sure about having multiple choice vs. free-form question here. Multiple choice is easier to analyze, especially if one would want histogram of replies... but free form is more rich. But perhaps multiple choice with free-form "other" choice would be the best?

Besides proposed choices limit person filling the survey to single understanding of "what helped you in learning to use Git", which can be also understood as asking for list of features helping with learning Git, not only list of documentation and such.

Show 11 quoted lines
> >    08. What did you find hardest in learning Git?
> >        What did you find harderst in using Git?
> 
> s/harderst/hardest.
> 
> >        (free form question)
> 
> Again, I'd suggest a multiple choice + Other:
> 
> 	The amount of commands, the amount of options, the index (AKA 
> 	staging), branching, user interface, bugs, Other.

Here it can be hard to come up with good list of choices. For example among responses in 2007 survey there were 'inconsistent commands', 'obtuse command messages', 'insufficient/hard to use documentation', and many more.

I'm not sure if troubles with coming with extensive but not too large list of options for this question is worth it; I think that we need only list of responses, and not number of responses (perhaps mentioning which one occur [much] more frequently).

Show 10 quoted lines
> > Other SCMs (shortened compared with 2007 survey)
> > 
> >    10. What other SCM did or do you use?
> >        (zero or more: multiple choice)
> >      - CVS, Subversion, GNU Arch or arch clone (ArX, tla, ...),
> >        Bazaar-NG, Darcs, Mercurial, Monotone, SVK, AccuRev, Perforce,
> >        BitKeeper, ClearCase, MS Visual Source Safe, MS Visual Studio
> >        Team System, custom, other(*)
> 
> PVCS seems to be pretty popular, too.
O.K., I'll add it.  I think I'd better add RCS too.
Show 8 quoted lines
> >    11. Why did you choose Git? (if you use Git)
> >        What do you like about using Git?
> >        (free form, not to be tabulated)
> 
> Again, to avoid hassles with free-form:
> 
> 	Mandatory: work, mandatory: open source project I am participating 
> 	in, speed, scalability, It's What Linus Uses, Other.

Free form has some hassles. Because here histogram of responses might be interesting, perhaps it would be good to use multiple choice here.

I would add "features" and/or "unique features" to the list, and also perhaps "being popular/hype".

Show 9 quoted lines
> >    12. Why did you choose other SCMs? (if you use other SCMs)
> >        What do you like about using other SCMs?
> >        Note: please write name of SCMs you are talking about.
> >        (free form, not to be tabulated).
> 
> Again:
> 
> 	ease-of use, simplicity, existing project uses it, I Do Not Like 
> 	Linus, Other
Again: free form has some hassles, but so does coming up with good
choice of fixed answers in multiple choice question.  I'll add
"ease to install on MS Windows" (or something like that) if we decide
to have this question multiple choice.
Show 16 quoted lines
> >    15. What operating system do you use Git on?
> >        (one or more: multiple choice, as one can use more than one OS)
> >      - Linux, *BSD (FreeBSD, OpenBSD, etc.), MS Windows/Cygwin,
> >        MS Windows/msysGit, MacOS X, other UNIX, other
> 
> You should include "Dunno", which gets automatically mapped to "MS 
> Windows/msysGit" ;-)
> 
> >    19. How do you publish/propagate your changes?
> >        (zero or more: multiple choice)
> >      - push, pull request, format-patch + email, bundle, other
> 
> git svn
> 
> You might laugh, but it is a sad fact that some guy promotes "Using Git 
> with Google Code" by using git-svn to drive their crappy Subversion.
O.K.  I'll add "git-svn (or other to foreign SCM)".
Show 7 quoted lines
> >    22. How does Git compare to other SCM tools you have used?
> >      - worse/equal (or comparable)/better
> >    23. What would you most like to see improved about Git?
> >        (features, bugs, plug-ins, documentation, ...)
> 
> Maybe here should be another question "What are the most useful features 
> of Git?" but maybe that is covered by earlier questions.
I think it is.  I'd rather try to reduce number of questions...
Show 6 quoted lines
> >    24. If you want to see Git more widely used, what do you
> >        think we could do to make this happen?
> >      + Is this question necessary/useful?  Do we need wider adoption?
> 
> I agree with Junio: this is not so interesting for us; we are no company, 
> and we have no sales department who could wank of on these answers.
I'll remove it, then.
Show 6 quoted lines
> >    27. Which of the following features do you use?
> >        (zero or more: multiple choice)
> >      - git-gui or other commit tool, gitk or other history viewer, patch
> >        management interface (e.g. StGIT), bundle, eol conversion,
> 
> For our Windows friends, we should add " (crlf)" to the last item.
Right.  Thanks.
> >    42. Do you find traffic levels on Git mailing list OK.
> >     -  yes/no? (optional)
> 
> /too low?  *ducksandrunsforcover*
???
> >    44. If yes, do you find IRC channel useful?
> >     -  yes/no (optional)
> 
> /somewhat.  Even if I would be the only one choosing that option.

I'm sorry about that: I have forgot that this and all similar questions had triple choice: yes/no/somewhat in the final version of 2007 survey. I'll correct it.

Show 7 quoted lines
> >    45. Did you have problems getting GIT help on mailing list or
> >        on IRC channel? What were it? What could be improved?
> >        (free form)
> 
> Yeah, I know who will answer to that, and what... "yaddayadda very 
> unfriendly yaddayadda especially that Johannes guy yaddayadda" (you know 
> who you are)... *lol*
:-)
-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
Previous: Johannes SchindelinNext: Johannes Schindelin
Message 28 of 93 in “[RFC] Git User's Survey 2008”
  1. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  2. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2008
  3. HP-UX issues (WAS: Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2008)Miklos Vajna, Jul 23, 2008
  4. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  5. Miklos VajnaJul 23, 2008
  6. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  7. Marek ZawirskiJul 24, 2008
  8. Mailing lists, was Re: [RFC] Git User's Survey 2008Johannes Schindelin, Jul 24, 2008
  9. Shawn O. PearceJul 25, 2008
  10. Junio C HamanoJul 25, 2008
  11. Jakub NarebskiJul 25, 2008
  12. Shawn O. PearceJul 25, 2008
  13. Junio C HamanoJul 25, 2008
  14. Shawn O. PearceJul 25, 2008
  15. Jakub NarebskiJul 26, 2008
  16. Marek ZawirskiJul 26, 2008
  17. Shawn O. PearceJul 26, 2008
  18. Jean-François VeilletteJul 26, 2008
  19. Petr BaudisJul 25, 2008
  20. Jing XueJul 26, 2008
  21. Jakub NarebskiJul 26, 2008
  22. Shawn O. PearceJul 26, 2008
  23. Jakub NarebskiJul 26, 2008
  24. Johannes SchindelinJul 26, 2008
  25. Scott ChaconJul 26, 2008
  26. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  27. Johannes SchindelinJul 23, 2008
  28. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  29. Johannes SchindelinJul 23, 2008
  30. Robin RosenbergJul 23, 2008
  31. Johannes SchindelinJul 23, 2008
  32. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  33. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  34. Johannes SchindelinJul 23, 2008
  35. Stephan BeyerJul 23, 2008
  36. david@lang.hmJul 24, 2008
  37. Stephan BeyerJul 24, 2008
  38. david@lang.hmJul 24, 2008
  39. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  40. Jakub NarebskiJul 26, 2008
  41. Nguyen Thai Ngoc DuyJul 27, 2008
  42. Junio C HamanoJul 23, 2008
  43. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  44. Dmitry PotapovJul 23, 2008
  45. Johannes SchindelinJul 23, 2008
  46. Stephan BeyerJul 23, 2008
  47. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  48. Alex RiesenJul 23, 2008
  49. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  50. Stephan BeyerJul 23, 2008
  51. Stephan BeyerJul 24, 2008
  52. Dmitry PotapovJul 23, 2008
  53. Matthias KestenholzJul 23, 2008
  54. Dmitry PotapovJul 23, 2008
  55. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  56. Dmitry PotapovJul 24, 2008
  57. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  58. Petr BaudisJul 23, 2008
  59. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  60. Jon LoeligerJul 24, 2008
  61. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  62. Lachele Foley (Lists)Jul 24, 2008
  63. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  64. Dmitry PotapovJul 24, 2008
  65. Jakub NarebskiJul 24, 2008
  66. Jakub NarebskiJul 31, 2008
  67. [RFC v2] Git User's Survey 2008Jakub Narebski, Aug 20, 2008
  68. Alex RiesenAug 20, 2008
  69. Petr BaudisAug 20, 2008
  70. Jakub NarebskiAug 20, 2008
  71. Alex RiesenAug 20, 2008
  72. Junio C HamanoAug 20, 2008
  73. Jakub NarebskiAug 21, 2008
  74. Junio C HamanoAug 21, 2008
  75. Jakub NarebskiAug 21, 2008
  76. Stephan BeyerAug 20, 2008
  77. Stephan BeyerAug 20, 2008
  78. Jakub NarebskiAug 21, 2008
  79. Stephan BeyerAug 21, 2008
  80. Jakub NarebskiAug 22, 2008
  81. Mike GantAug 21, 2008
  82. Stephan BeyerAug 24, 2008
  83. Jakub NarebskiAug 25, 2008
  84. Abhijit BhopatkarAug 20, 2008
  85. [RFC v3] Git User's Survey 2008Jakub Narebski, Aug 25, 2008
  86. Stephan BeyerAug 28, 2008
  87. [RFC v4] Git User's Survey 2008 (cover letters)Jakub Narebski, Aug 30, 2008
  88. Garry DolleyAug 30, 2008
  89. Paolo CiarrocchiSep 1, 2008
  90. Miguel ArrozJul 23, 2008
  91. Jakub NarebskiJul 23, 2008
  92. Sverre RabbelierJul 24, 2008
  93. Jakub NarebskiAug 25, 2008

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