Re: Question: regarding understanding code base

From: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
Date: Jun 16, 2025, 00:40 UTC
Message-ID: <xmqqy0ts4izb.fsf@gitster.g>
In-Reply-To: <CA+rGoLcsuhhSOVJoK2vEV3m7PgH+8hpfpdih2furnyim=0gP+A@mail.gmail.com>

JAYATHEERTH K <jayatheerthkulkarni2005@gmail.com> writes:

Show 18 quoted lines

> On Sun, Jun 15, 2025 at 6:13 AM Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com> wrote:
>>
>> JAYATHEERTH K <jayatheerthkulkarni2005@gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > What I meant was:
>> > You previously suggested that one good way to understand Git is to
>> > start from the initial commit of the Git repo and move forward
>> > chronologically through the commits.
>>
>> Not at all.  I only suggested to study the initial one.  It is more
>> like biology students learning the common principles that apply to
>> all kinds of life by studying a lot simpler organism as a model,
>> instead of studying a lot higher order ones like mammals.
>>
>> Moving forward is all your invention or hallucination ;-)
>>
> Fair enough I have read your biology metaphor
> into a full evolutionary theory.

I should probably have said "before" instead of "instead of" in the above. You were looking for a way to see what higher order organisms there are to study, after learning from the simplest organism.

"git log --reverse -p" is a simpler replacement for your shell script loop to do so.

If I were doing this, after studying the initial one, I would probably see how much of what I learned from the initial version remains in 1.0.0, 1.3.0, 1.5.3, and 1.6.0.

1.5.3 was probably the last version one can read cover to cover in one sitting. Anything after that version are just too big, I think, but there probably are those with more patience than I have ;-).