From: Theodore Tso <tytso@mit.edu>
To: Avery Pennarun <apenwarr@gmail.com>
Cc: Johannes Schindelin <Johannes.Schindelin@gmx.de>, git@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Re: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:13:33 -0400 [thread overview]
Message-ID: <20080716201333.GI2167@mit.edu> (raw)
In-Reply-To: <32541b130807161135h64024151xc60e23d222a3a508@mail.gmail.com>
On Wed, Jul 16, 2008 at 02:35:16PM -0400, Avery Pennarun wrote:
> In svn, a branch is a revision-controlled directory. In git, a branch
> is a "ref". What's a ref? Well, it's a name for a commit. What's a
> commit? Well, it's a blob. What's a blob? Err, that's complicated.
> What happens when I delete a branch? Well, it's still in the reflog.
> What's the reflog? Well, it's the local revision history of each
> branch. Local? Why not shared? In svn, the revision history of each
> branch is shared, but in git, you don't need to, because...
>
> Even git branches are surprisingly concept heavy, unless your users
> ask a lot fewer questions than mine. The really critical question is
> why it's so easy to delete a branch in git, and that leads rapidly
> into the commit-tree stuff, which is always a spiral into plumbing as
> you try to explain the tree of commits.
I don't think you need to go into the plumbing to explain the commit
tree. What I normally do is tell people that branches point at
commits, and that commits are identified by commit ID's, which can be
full SHA-1 hashes, or which can be abbreviated for convenience's sake.
It's not strictly necessary to tell them about the commit-tree
plumbing command; just that each commit creates a snapshot, and that
commits can have one or more parents, plus the commit mesage, plus the
snapshot.
I do absolutely agree with Johannes' assertion that you don't have to
explain commit-tree, git-rev-list, and all the rest. The only reason
why users will need to see git-rev-list is because git-log references
it so prominently, and some of the more powerful git-log options are
only documented in git-rev-list.
- Ted
next prev parent reply other threads:[~2008-07-16 20:14 UTC|newest]
Thread overview: 114+ messages / expand[flat|nested] mbox.gz Atom feed top
2008-07-16 17:21 Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 17:50 ` Jesper Eskilson
2008-07-16 18:14 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 18:19 ` Jesper Eskilson
2008-07-16 18:27 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 17:53 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 18:12 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 18:35 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 20:13 ` Theodore Tso [this message]
2008-07-16 21:53 ` Daniel Barkalow
2008-07-17 11:18 ` David Kastrup
2008-07-17 15:52 ` Jakub Narebski
2008-07-17 16:05 ` David Kastrup
2008-07-17 16:18 ` Subversion's do-everything-via-copying paradigm ( was RE: Re: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful) Craig L. Ching
2008-07-17 21:05 ` David Kastrup
2008-07-17 22:06 ` Craig L. Ching
2008-07-17 22:07 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-17 22:11 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-17 20:04 ` Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful Jakub Narebski
2008-07-17 20:12 ` Kevin Ballard
2008-07-17 20:26 ` Petr Baudis
2008-07-17 20:40 ` Kevin Ballard
2008-07-17 21:03 ` Jakub Narebski
2008-07-17 21:10 ` Kevin Ballard
2008-07-17 20:34 ` Jakub Narebski
2008-07-17 20:42 ` Kevin Ballard
2008-07-17 20:15 ` Kevin Ballard
2008-07-17 21:02 ` David Kastrup
2008-07-17 22:32 ` Robin Rosenberg
2008-07-18 7:41 ` Dmitry Potapov
2008-07-17 16:11 ` Subversion is actually not so simple (was RE: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful) Craig L. Ching
2008-07-17 17:37 ` Jakub Narebski
2008-07-17 19:00 ` Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful Daniel Barkalow
2008-07-16 18:18 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 18:51 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 18:59 ` Petr Baudis
2008-07-16 19:22 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 19:09 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 19:29 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 19:34 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 19:46 ` Avery Pennarun
2008-07-16 20:12 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 22:32 ` Theodore Tso
2008-07-16 22:41 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 22:53 ` Sean Kelley
2008-07-16 23:17 ` Nigel Magnay
2008-07-17 3:21 ` Stephen Sinclair
2008-07-18 17:02 ` Ping Yin
2008-07-16 22:24 ` Dmitry Potapov
2008-07-16 22:28 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 22:49 ` Theodore Tso
2008-07-17 0:25 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-17 2:47 ` Theodore Tso
2008-07-17 14:21 ` Craig L. Ching
2008-07-17 14:51 ` Petr Baudis
2008-07-17 15:57 ` J. Bruce Fields
2008-07-16 21:16 ` david
2008-07-16 21:59 ` Dmitry Potapov
2008-07-16 20:23 ` Stephen R. van den Berg
2008-07-16 20:27 ` Nicolas Pitre
2008-07-16 20:51 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-16 23:05 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 23:40 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-17 0:02 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-17 6:53 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-17 15:55 ` J. Bruce Fields
2008-07-17 16:03 ` Karl Hasselström
2008-07-17 18:16 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-17 18:29 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-17 18:43 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-17 19:10 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-18 14:35 ` J. Bruce Fields
2008-07-18 9:55 ` Addremove equivalent [was: Re: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful] Michael J Gruber
2008-07-18 20:18 ` Jay Soffian
2008-07-18 23:03 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-20 3:27 ` Addremove equivalent Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 3:28 ` [PATCH 1/2] builtin-add.c: restructure the code for maintainability Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 3:29 ` [PATCH 2/2] git-add -a: add all files Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 3:32 ` [PATCH 3/2] git-add -a: tests Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 4:20 ` [PATCH 2/2] git-add -a: add all files Tarmigan
2008-07-20 4:28 ` Tarmigan
2008-07-20 10:56 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-20 12:45 ` Jay Soffian
2008-07-20 18:30 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 20:46 ` Lars Noschinski
2008-07-20 23:59 ` Jeff King
2008-07-21 0:06 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-21 0:17 ` Jeff King
2008-07-21 0:22 ` Jeff King
2008-07-21 2:11 ` Jay Soffian
2008-07-20 20:34 ` Sverre Rabbelier
2008-07-16 21:48 ` Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful Dmitry Potapov
2008-07-16 23:19 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-16 22:09 ` Stephan Beyer
2008-07-16 23:22 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-17 1:01 ` Stephan Beyer
2008-07-17 7:30 ` "Peter Valdemar Mørch (Lists)"
2008-07-17 12:38 ` Dmitry Potapov
2008-07-17 12:55 ` Theodore Tso
2008-07-17 13:35 ` Peter Valdemar Mørch
2008-07-17 14:26 ` Theodore Tso
2008-07-17 16:38 ` Junio C Hamano
2008-07-18 8:19 ` Andreas Ericsson
2008-07-18 18:26 ` Jeff King
2008-07-18 10:14 ` Suggestion: doc restructuring [was: Re: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful] Michael J Gruber
2008-07-18 18:26 ` Jon Loeliger
2008-07-18 18:52 ` Craig L. Ching
2008-07-18 19:50 ` Suggestion: doc restructuring Junio C Hamano
2008-07-19 1:19 ` Suggestion: doc restructuring [was: Re: Considering teaching plumbing to users harmful] Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-20 8:14 ` Suggestion: doc restructuring Junio C Hamano
2008-07-20 11:02 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-21 6:41 ` Andreas Ericsson
2008-07-21 10:04 ` Johannes Schindelin
2008-07-21 16:22 ` Junio C Hamano
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