Re: GIT 1.5.0 binary installer available.

From: Marco Costalba <mcostalba@gmail.com>
Date: Feb 16, 2007, 19:10 UTC
Message-ID: <e5bfff550702161110x3507da82v1820bca9d4e37bc1@mail.gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <20070216050615.GC28894@spearce.org>

On 2/16/07, Shawn O. Pearce <spearce@spearce.org> wrote:

Show 8 quoted lines

>
> One problem that I had with the last version of qgit that I looked at
> was creating commits was sort of a secondary operation in the UI.
> It very much felt like that feature was bolted onto the side,
> and was a second class citizen.  The primary focus of the UI was
> showing the graphical history.  Which is fine if that's what your
> primary task is.  But its not for everyone I know.
>

Yes commit in qgit is very simple: check files you want to commit, write commit message and press a button. That's all. In case you are on a StGIT repo it will create a patch / push on top of current patch instead.

qgit commit is definitely not for hardcore use but for a developer that just want to save and document his job. For anything outside the *main path* you need something else [1]. qgit is not THE git GUI interface and IMHO it is good like this. Why?

- Easy to use for first time user approaching git (Linux and Windows)

- Easy and quick for the most common browsing/committing/ patch
export-import tasks.

- No git 'slang/glossary' required

- No deeply understanding of git main concepts required (index-merging-etc...)

So in the conquer of the SCM world by git, I see qgit as a 'git advertising tool', it is instrumental in spreading git use among the big part of developers that never tried/know our wonderful 'stupid content tracker' and could be potentially scared by a frontal approach to 'git help --all' output.

I imagine qgit at the 'entry level' of the long, and at times steep, git learning curve.

Marco

[1] BTW for any command not supported you could use the IMHO powerful and flexible 'custom action' paradigm, where you can associate a custom menu entry to *any* kind of command/script you can imagine (also with parameter passing!). As an example, in my private branch I have created custom actions like:

- make
- make install
- git pull
- merge <branch name>

And few scripts too.

This lets qgit interface to stay simple, and on the other side allows the user to quickly run also very complex or very uncommon git commands. Given the sheer number of git commands times git commands options (and counting ;-) I had no better idea then 'custom actions' to keep it simple and at the same time potentially command complete for any git user.