From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Johan Herland Subject: Re: What's cooking in git.git (topics) Date: Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:24:12 +0100 Message-ID: <200711290924.12508.johan@herland.net> References: <200711270622.lAR6MFXQ010010@mi0.bluebottle.com> <7vlk8hzx0g.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Cc: git@vger.kernel.org, Nicolas Pitre , "J. Bruce Fields" , Johannes Schindelin , =?utf-8?q?=E3=81=97=E3=82=89=E3=81=84=E3=81=97=E3=81=AA=E3=81=AA=E3=81=93?= =?utf-8?q?_?= , Andreas Ericsson , Jakub Narebski To: Junio C Hamano X-From: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Thu Nov 29 09:25:18 2007 Return-path: Envelope-to: gcvg-git-2@gmane.org Received: from vger.kernel.org ([209.132.176.167]) by lo.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1Ixehq-00023k-9a for gcvg-git-2@gmane.org; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:25:10 +0100 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754775AbXK2IYr (ORCPT ); Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:24:47 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1754170AbXK2IYr (ORCPT ); Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:24:47 -0500 Received: from smtp.getmail.no ([84.208.20.33]:34694 "EHLO smtp.getmail.no" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1754158AbXK2IYq (ORCPT ); Thu, 29 Nov 2007 03:24:46 -0500 Received: from pmxchannel-daemon.no-osl-m323-srv-004-z2.isp.get.no by no-osl-m323-srv-004-z2.isp.get.no (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-7.05 (built Sep 5 2006)) id <0JS900D0JE18FW00@no-osl-m323-srv-004-z2.isp.get.no> for git@vger.kernel.org; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:24:44 +0100 (CET) Received: from smtp.getmail.no ([10.5.16.1]) by no-osl-m323-srv-004-z2.isp.get.no (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-7.05 (built Sep 5 2006)) with ESMTP id <0JS900ICOE0DJU40@no-osl-m323-srv-004-z2.isp.get.no> for git@vger.kernel.org; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:24:13 +0100 (CET) Received: from alpha.herland ([84.215.102.95]) by no-osl-m323-srv-009-z1.isp.get.no (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-7.05 (built Sep 5 2006)) with ESMTP id <0JS900C9RE0D83B0@no-osl-m323-srv-009-z1.isp.get.no> for git@vger.kernel.org; Thu, 29 Nov 2007 09:24:13 +0100 (CET) In-reply-to: <7vlk8hzx0g.fsf@gitster.siamese.dyndns.org> Content-disposition: inline User-Agent: KMail/1.9.7 Sender: git-owner@vger.kernel.org Precedence: bulk X-Mailing-List: git@vger.kernel.org Archived-At: On Thursday 29 November 2007, Junio C Hamano wrote: > Nicolas Pitre writes: > > ... In all the tutorials for $job I've done so > > far, I simply never talk about pull nor clone, but rather about init, > > "git remote", fetch and merge, with explicit and meaningful branch > > names. I think that basic commands, even if there is a bit more of > > them, make Git easier to learn and understand than talking about those > > magic meta commands hiding the truth away. > > That's actually a quite interesting approach for teaching. > > The original "tutorial" (now core-tutorial) was similar in spirit; it > built the user experience by starting at sequence of low level commands, > and then finally said "since this is so often used combination, there is > a short-hand for it that does all". I think the approach would work > quite well for people who want to use the tool with deep understanding. > > However, I am not so sure about people who just want canned set of > instructions and follow them blindly to get their work done. And I do > not think the latter classes of users are necessarily wrong. > > Such a canned set of instructions would (if the project that supplies > the cheat-sheet encourages merges instead of rebases) talk about "clone > then commit then push then pull and repeat", without mentioning what > pull does is fetch+merge nor what fetch means and what merge means, and > that would let people get started without deeper understanding. > > But the lack of deeper understanding would hurt them in the longer run > (e.g. "my push was rejected with something called non-fast-forward --- > what does that mean and what would I do now?"). What about ending the cheat-sheet with a big fat link to a FAQ? The FAQ answers common questions like the above (resulting from the cheat-sheet glossing over the details) with links to appropriate sections in the more thorough introduction (core-tutorial), explaining what's _really_ going on. Just a thought. Have fun! :) ...Johan -- Johan Herland, www.herland.net