Comment by flatline3 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by flatline3 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

> But anybody that sticks with SVN and refuses to learn modern DVCS is not somebody I'd hire.

You wouldn't hire me. I'm OK with that.

I use git (required for an assortment of OSS projects), but for my own work, at at work, I use SVN. I'd never willingly choose git.

It's complex, involved, powerful, and incredibly distracting from the actual thing I want to do, which is write software.

The minute someone says something like this, my eyes glaze over: "Anything you add to the Index (eg git add foo.py) or commit is stored in the Reflog (which is just a DAG)."

Not because I don't understand git's fundamental model, or I'm unfamiliar with a DAG, but simply because I SHOULD NOT HAVE TO CARE.

My job is to write software, not operate heavy revision control machinery to some arbitrary level of dvcs revision control fetish perfectionism.

I don't want to hide my work from my coworkers, I don't wind to hide my work history from my coworkers, and I don't want to maintain wildly diverging branches (the cost of branches is primarily found in code divergence, not SCM headaches). Git isn't for me.

You sound like you've got a "production line" mindset. "This is my narrowly defined job, I'm not interested in learning new things, I just wanna do what I'm paid to do and get out."

That's fine and all, but I want to work with craftsmen. People who give a shit about their trade, love their tools and relish in the oportunity to learn something that will help them do their job better. I wouldn't hire you.

"I want to work with craftsmen"

And craftsmen are picky about their tools.

Git has a terrible, terrible, command line UI. It's entirely possible to do distributed source control with an easy command line interface: Mercurial. I've never had trouble teaching people how to use it, and I've almost never had to sit around scratching my head, wondering what arbitrary set of command line arguments I need to pass to it.

Maybe git is the most powerful chainsaw ever devised, but the fact that so many of its users are either covered in bandages or fastidiously studying man pages and googling proper usage so they don't end up covered in bandages is not a good sign.

I really like Mercurial, but even with it I've had some trouble getting the other developers I work with to really understand it. I could not imagine trying to show them Git. I think those who have mastered Git are blinding by how Smart and wizard-like they feel.

I also think its worth pointing out that many of the people here complaining about Git (including the OP), use it very frequently. These are the people who have bothered to invest the time in learning the tool and hate it anyway.

I'm fine with learning new things. I do use git on a number of projects: I just don't think it helps me do my job better.

The job of a SCM, in my opinion, is to be as invisible as possible. Record my commits, and then stay out of the way of what I'm really here to do: write code, architect systems, engineer products.

Futzing around with an overly complex revision control system doesn't help me do a better job.

This is also why I switched from Linux & BSD desktops to Max OS X. I can still write an XFree86 config file by hand, and the fact that I spent time and effort learning this is mind bogglingly awful.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com