Re: Pull is Evil

[David Kastrup <dak@gnu.org>]

Andreas Krey <a.krey@gmx.de> writes:

> On Fri, 02 May 2014 10:46:09 +0000, David Kastrup wrote:
> ...
>> What the gibbins?  I don't even use git pull.
>
> I do, but I watch for the fast-forward message
> and undo as appropriate.
>
>> I use git fetch, and then, depending on my needs, I rebase or merge.
>
> I wouldn't mind that, but I have a century of newbies who are used
> to having other people's changes appear in their workspace without
> any interaction. Teaching them the mainline thing (aka first-parent)
> and the commands to properly merge&push is...tricky.
>
> And that goes for every user base, so some improvement would be
> greatly appreciated.

I've seen the proposals for "git update" and whatever.  It's sort of
like having an assembly line where there are separate automatic screw
drivers for screwing and unscrewing.  The latter are hard to find in the
rare case you need them, with quite different handling and looks.

This is modeled after the successful fastening model for nails, where
hammer and pliers look and behave quite differently, so people are used
to handle and arrange hammer and pliers on different racks and have
different numbers for them.

Since this model works well for nails, let's employ it for screws as
well and call right-turning screwdrivers "hammers" and left-turning
screwdrivers "pliers" and sort them accordingly in order to avoid
confusion for beginners and help them learn to deal with screws properly
and deftly.

-- 
David Kastrup