Re: [RFC PATCH 0/5] Introduce -t, --table for status/add commands

From: Dragan Simic <dsimic@manjaro.org>
Date: Oct 22, 2023, 12:55 UTC
Message-ID: <58a6a25a7b2eb82c21d9b87143033cef@manjaro.org>
In-Reply-To: <ZTT5uI5Hm1+n0Agx@ugly>

On 2023-10-22 12:30, Oswald Buddenhagen wrote:

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> On Sun, Oct 22, 2023 at 08:38:19AM +0200, Dragan Simic wrote:
>> True, but I still think that having git put its thoughts into tables
>> is actually not helpful.
> 
> i'm not convinced that the proposed feature specifically would have
> helped me, either (i found the index a rather obvious concept once i
> knew that it's there), but i'm making a general argument here. so:
> 
>> To be precise, it actually might be helpful, but only to the first
>> category of users, who will never reach it.  I mean, never say never,
>> but in this case I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it.
> 
> well, and i think that you're wrong about that.
> your categorization is simply wrong, because it assumes an incorrect
> static model.
> 
> while for the last decade i've been as much of a git expert as one can
> reasonably be without being literally obsessed with it or having
> written much of it, i absolutely *did* start out in your first
> category (as in, it was forced upon me, while i couldn't have cared
> less about the specifics - p4 was working well enough (or so i
> thought)). and i hated this stupid git (it was 2009, and it was much
> more of a pita for noobs than it is now). i certainly could have used
> more sensible visualizations at every step - on the command line,
> because that's where i mostly "live".

Oh, that's awesome and I'm really happy to be wrong with my broad classification of VCS users. However, I still need to be convinced further, and I'd assign your example as an exception to the rules, especially because you migrated to git from another VCS, which you liked, and because you use the command line a lot.

Full disclosure, I used Subversion for many years and I loved it. I knew it very well and it did all I needed for me and the team I worked with. Then git came and I really didn't like it, because it was touted to be "the best thing ever". After using git for a while, I can firmly say that git is awesome, but that it also is a total overkill for many projects that need a VCS, for which choosing Subversion would be a much batter choice. Why, you'll ask? Because Subversion is many times simpler, and because many projects actually don't need a distributed VCS.

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> the second major error in the thinking is that "expert" and "gui user"
> are mutually exclusive categories. while i do most things on the
> command line, i would never voluntarily use "add -p" - why should i
> inflict that pain upon me, when i can simply use git-gui to do the job
> in a much more visual and freely navigable way? the same goes for "log
> --graph" vs.  gitk, and git's "blame" function vs. qt creator's (or
> git-gui's, but i don't use it for that).

I also ask myself why would I use git-gui or any other GUI utility? To me, clicking on something that represents a file is often simply wrong. Though, I understand that many people prefer GUI utilities and I respect that, everyone is free to do anything, but I also expect others to respect my own preferences.