Re: Git graph on GitHub

From: Jakub Narebski <jnareb@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 18, 2008, 20:56 UTC
Message-ID: <m3zll1ipw6.fsf@localhost.localdomain>
In-Reply-To: <530345950810150047v75bfbf9clebbb8a406b172c4c@mail.gmail.com>

"Tom Werner" <pubsub@rubyisawesome.com> writes:

Show 10 quoted lines

> We've just pushed out an update to the Network Graph on GitHub this
> evening that finally allows us to draw very large repositories
> (including Git). We're mirroring the Git repo on the site and I
> thought it might be interesting for people to see this visualization.
> Enjoy!
> 
> http://github.com/git/git/network
> 
> Let me know if you have any ideas for improvements on the graph. I'm
> always looking for ways to enhance it.

First, I wonder a bit why did you choose horizontal layout of revision
graph, instead of displaying it vertically alongside log (log like
view) like graphical history viewers and other web interfaces offering
graphical log, e.g.
  http://lwn.net/Articles/140350/  (gitk screenshoot)
  http://repo.or.cz/git-browser/by-commit.html?r=alt-git.git
  http://people.proekspert.ee/peeter/git/git.php?p=git-git.git
I guess it is because you can show complicated history better, and
because of the "network" feature which is simply not visible for
git.git repository. On the other hand in vertical view you can display
commit subject alongside graph.

Second, the "go to commit" on click doesn't work for me, but perhaps that is just I have to update my ancient web browser (Mozilla 1.17.2 for Linux, with Shockwave Flash 9.0 r124). I would expect that after clicking on commit I would get _whole_ commit message, not only commit subject (first line / first paragraph of commit message). Or at least have some option (keyboard shortcut?) to toggle viewing full commit message. BTW. what does having commit sha-1 there give you? You can't select it for copy'n'paste, can you?

Third, it is nice to have refs markers for branches, but I wonder why I cannot see refs markers for _tags_ (so one can easily see what is in released version, and what isn't). I also wonder why in commit description box visible on mouseover you don't have refs markers there (even if they are turned off for graph, for example for better visibility because they obscure some line).

By the way, it might be not relevant because while (if I understand
correctly) graphs are ordered by commit date they are not aligned on
time axis, but the timeline of commits for given author on Ohloh looks
quite nice.  (Unfortunately this part of Ohloh is not open source,
although AFAIK it is also in Ruby).  Example:
  https://www.ohloh.net/projects/git/contributors/1194000913727
(but it doesn't use Flash).

Thank you for your work on GitHub

-- 
Jakub Narebski
Poland
ShadeHawk on #git