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Re: Why is it important to learn git?

From
Scott Chacon <schacon@gmail.com>
Date
Jul 22, 2009, 18:31 UTC
Message-ID
<d411cc4a0907221131q28ffb24av8715c4497f50deb3@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To
<e1a5e9a00907212208t10a071d0oe59a39b357a1111a@mail.gmail.com>
Hey,
On Tue, Jul 21, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Tim Harper<timcharper@gmail.com> wrote:
Show 9 quoted lines
> Hi all,
>
> I'm preparing to teach a workshop on git, and would like to know how
> other people benefit from the advanced features of git.  So, if you're
> feeling kind enough to share a few minutes to respond (which I will
> receive with gratitude):
>
> How has mastering the advanced features of git helped you to be a
> better programmer?

I think the biggest gain Git gives many developers over other VCSs (even other DVCSs) is the lightweight branching flexibility and easy merging. In Git, lightweight branches or topic branches are used in much the same way that patch queuing tools like Hg's mq extension or quilt, but I think most users find them much, much easier to use and understand and often less error prone. Using branches as silos dedicated to a single work topic and being able to easily keep them separated until you are ready to apply them to a main line of work (such as merging with your master branch) is very powerful and is done via a very simple and understandable existing paradigm of branches rather than trying to learn a whole new command set of patching. This allows for fast and simple context switching and work unit isolation that both very definitively changes most developers workflows in ways that were completely impossible in SVN or Perforce or what-have-you.

Hope that helps. If you need any material for your workshop, I have a number of slides (Keynote and PDF) for presentations I have given at:

http://github.com/schacon/git-presentations

You can also get the PDF of the slides of the tutorial I gave at OSCON yesterday on Git here:

http://en.oreilly.com/oscon2009/public/schedule/detail/7953
Let me know if there is anything else I can do to help.

Thanks, Scott

Previous: Andreas EricssonNext: Dmitry Potapov
Message 7 of 10 in “Why is it important to learn git?”
  1. Tim HarperJul 22, 2009
  2. Thomas RastJul 22, 2009
  3. Sverre RabbelierJul 22, 2009
  4. Jakub NarebskiJul 22, 2009
  5. Jeff KingJul 23, 2009
  6. Andreas EricssonAug 4, 2009
  7. Scott ChaconJul 22, 2009
  8. Dmitry PotapovJul 22, 2009
  9. Jakub NarebskiJul 22, 2009
  10. Allan KellyJul 22, 2009

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