Julia EvansMar 8, 2024

poll: when you see this message in `git status`:

”Your branch is up to date with 'origin/main’.”

do you know that your branch may not actually be up to date with the `main` branch on the remote?

yes
63.6%
mostly yes
15.7%
no
7.5%
what?
13.3%
Poll ended at .
Show threadJulia EvansMar 8, 2024
(i've been wondering if there's a world where it's possible to convince the folks who make git to change that message to add “... as of 5 minutes/3 days/6 years ago”, but I think it might be hard to implement)
Show threadNick has moved to MathstodonMar 8, 2024
@b0rk It seems like being opaque is sort of a git design principle. Like I could imagine someone creating a git fork that's just "git but make the messages and nomenclature not comically misleading." I guess in the meantime we'll have to settle for the illuminating things you post. 😀
Show threadJakub NarębskiMar 8, 2024
@internic @b0rk In my opinion git being cryptic is the result of a.) being created by [advanced] software developers b.) incrementally developed with backward-compatibility requirement and c.) if you know git you don't need docs, if you need docs you don't know what they should say (unfortunately).
Show threadNick has moved to Mathstodon
@jnareb It seems like (b) is true of a lot of software and (c) is true of virtually all software, so it still doesn't seem to explain why git has such exceptionally opaque semantics. I would assume that they don't do user testing, but again that doesn't seem exceptional among software projects.
@b0rk
Mar 9, 2024 at 5:02amWeb
Show threadJakub NarębskiMar 9, 2024
@internic @b0rk The (b) that it was incrementally developed in a bottoms-up fashion may explain why the abstractions used by Git UI are that much leaky.