Re: Newbie grief

From: Michael Witten <mfwitten@gmail.com>
Date: May 4, 2012, 19:22 UTC
Message-ID: <CAMOZ1BtoEPJfBRobLv6Vq9ACec718HX3qxm60cuWJ_oSguFw=Q@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <4FA418A7.2050100@palm.com>

On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 5:57 PM, Rich Pixley <rich.pixley@palm.com> wrote:

Show 49 quoted lines

> On 5/3/12 21:35 , Michael Witten wrote:
>>
>> On Thu, 3 May 2012 20:13:01 -0700, Nathan Gray wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, May 3, 2012 at 6:01 PM, Illia Bobyr<ibobyr@blizzard.com>  wrote:
>>>>
>>>> It is just a "non-fast forward" move of a branch tip.  This term
>>>> describes what happens precisely :)
>>>>
>>>> It is true, that the term is non obvious to the new comers.
>>>> One may google and get an explanation of the error pretty quickly.
>>>> First hit for "git non fast forward error" gives an explanation from a
>>>> new comer point of view for the simplest case.
>>>
>>> I just led a team of reasonably bright people through a transition
>>> from SVN to git.  Not one of them understood this message.  Every one
>>> of them thought something was broken.  This is a very common
>>> occurrence, so a short, simple message without jargon for this error
>>> would be a big, big win.
>>
>> Well, what is your suggestion?
>>
>> Nobody in this thread has yet provided an explicit improvement because
>> the actual complaint is that the vast majority of people (including
>> supposed "professionals") don't RTFM; it never even occurs to them!
>>
>> Let's look at the message in question:
>>
>>   To $uri_for_central_repo
>>    ! [rejected]        HEAD ->  feature_0 (non-fast-forward)
>>   error: failed to push some refs to '$uri_for_central_repo'
>>   To prevent you from losing history, non-fast-forward updates were
>> rejected
>>   Merge the remote changes (e.g. 'git pull') before pushing again.  See
>> the
>>   'Note about fast-forwards' section of 'git push --help' for details.
>>
>> Not only does this already spoonfeed the reader with a suggested
>> command for getting back on track (i.e., 'git pull'), but it also
>> explicitly points out the relevant documentation and HOW to gain
>> immediate access to that information from the command line!
>
> Let's take it line by line.
>
> "Rejected - mumble" - the tool did not do what you asked.
> "error: failed to mumble"  - your data is corrupt.
> "To prevent you mumble mumble" - you're not allowed to do what you want
>
> I stopped reading there.

You are not somebody worth helping.

> I'm not saying this is a correct interpretation.  I'm offering it as a data
> point from a sophisticated, although new, user.

LOL