Re: Hey - A Conceptual Simplication....

From: Dmitry Potapov <dpotapov@gmail.com>
Date: Nov 20, 2009, 02:31 UTC
Message-ID: <20091120023103.GC22556@dpotapov.dyndns.org>
In-Reply-To: <00d401ca6954$a29fa020$e7dee060$@com>

On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 03:12:35PM -0500, George Dennie wrote:

Show 5 quoted lines

> 
> I think an important piece of conceptual information missing from the docs
> is a concise list of the conceptual properties defining the context of the
> working tree, index, and repository during normal use. This itemization
> would go far in explaining the synergies between the various commands.

Speaking about "normal use"... I suggest you read about Git workflows:

$ git help gitworkflows

Show 5 quoted lines

> 
> Functionally, all the commands merely manipulate these properties. If these
> properties were summarize in context one would expect that would represent a
> very complete functional model of Git. A user could review the description
> figure what they wanted to do and then find the command(s) to accomplish it.

It is like to say that driving a car merely means to manipulate its components, so if these components were summarized, it would be all that one needs to know to drive a car...

While I don't dispute that basic understanding of key Git concepts is important, understanding of a typical Git workflow cannot be deduced from knowledge of separate parts. Now if I were to describe Git just in a few words, I would say that Git repository is just a DAG of objects, the working tree is the place where you work, and the index is what helps you to create fine-grained commits and do merges. But it says very little (if anything) about how to use it.

Dmitry