Julia Evans

today in git zine writing: we spent an hour talking about how to explain HEAD and came up with 30 words that i’m almost happy with as an introduction

(previously: a 2000 word blog post, many mastodon threads, more hours of discussion, several zine pages we’re probably going to rewrite, and several beta reader comments)

basically everything is going great and we’re going to get there

(please do not tell me how you think I should explain HEAD)

Mar 20, 2024 at 5:44pmWeb
Show threadJulia EvansMar 20, 2024

for folks who have been asking when this zine on Git I'm working on will be released: you can sign up here to get an email when it comes out! https://wizardzines.com/zine-announcements/

(if you want an RSS option, you can sign up for my blog's RSS feed at https://jvns.ca)

Zine announcements

wizard zines
Show threadJagoMar 20, 2024
@b0rk where can I find this consistently excellent git coverage I keep hearing about? (Or when, if that’s more relevant?)
Show threadJulia EvansMar 20, 2024
@dayglojago you can sign up here to get an email when it comes out! https://wizardzines.com/zine-announcements/
Zine announcements

wizard zines
Show threadJagoMar 20, 2024
@b0rk done and done!
Show threadAnshuman TripathiMar 20, 2024
@b0rk @dayglojago ✅
Show threadNicholas GuarracinoMar 20, 2024
@b0rk Really excited for this to be released! I'm part of a ~100 person team finally switching to git. I'm far from an expert, but because I have used git for non-work projects, I get a lot of questions from my teammates. Just this morning, I was trying to find a simple way to explain HEAD to somebody. (I landed somewhere between 30 and 2000 words, but probably did not do a great job.)
Show threadChristian TietzeMar 20, 2024

@b0rk it's really funny (as a reader of your post who is not involved in the process) that you end your Mastodon posts with LLM-like instructions:

- do not tell me that X is the wrong approach
- do not send tips on doing Y instead
etc.

So that's where humanity is a.t.m. 😆

Show threadRyan MullinsMar 20, 2024
@b0rk oh isn’t that fun exercise to go from manymany words to like <50? It was the first assignment we got in grad school and it just makes you such a better writer. I still recommend it to people
I mentor.
Show threadchxMar 20, 2024
@b0rk
Show threadslootMar 20, 2024
@b0rk
It's soooo challenging to distill things down to the essential 30 words
Show threadNorman WilsonMar 20, 2024
@b0rk More and more I look forward to the result.
Show threadDacharyMar 21, 2024
@b0rk SO excited and appreciative of all the work you’re doing around this!
Show threadBen ZaninMar 21, 2024
@b0rk I _love_ hitting on that perfect, crystalized explanation of a complicated thing!! Such a great feeling!
Show threadAndy FMar 21, 2024
@b0rk I am SO looking forward to this! I’ve been following your git threads here with great interest, and it’s made me realise I really don’t know much about how git works at all, and that my mental model was full of holes and misunderstandings.