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Why don't people use git properly? | deadSimpleTech
deadsimpletech.comI think the worst failure mode I've ever seen is one team that maintained a "git repository" for a collection of analysis scripts that was simply a directory on a shared drive. It was technically speaking initiated as a git repository, but practically speaking it wasn't used as one: rather, the directory contained zipped copies of the code timestamped with when they were modified. There were very few commits to be seen, and I honestly hesitated to try and branch from them in any meaningful way. Of course there was no command line interface or anything to be had, and the git GUI software they had available was muddled enough that it confused me. In this situation, yes, *technically* they were using git, but in any real sense this clearly wasn't the case.
I don’t agree that Git has a “steep learning curve”. you can literally pick up the basics for what an average dev actually needs in like 5 minutes. made a change? commit it. didn’t work? ok diff it or whatever or just go back to the working version. everything good? cool push it. done. That’s pretty much what most people just use it for. Is this the proper way? no it’s not but honestly who cares? I highly doubt Linus even cares or thinks about how people use or don’t use Git. By his own admission Git is just an afterthought for him, just a simple tool he needed for Linux and then handed it off to another maintainer at the first possible opportunity.
So no I don’t believe we need extensive courses or even an alternative “easier to use” Git. It’s a tool that can be learned in 5min for the basics of which the basics is all the majority of devs actually need.