[Numpy-discussion] DVCS at PyCon

[Eric Firing]

David Cournapeau wrote:
> On Sat, Apr 11, 2009 at 10:59 AM, Eric Firing <efiring@hawaii.edu> wrote:
> 
>> Important note: if there are any uncommitted changes when you run git
>> checkout, Git will behave very strangely. The strangeness is predictable
>> and sometimes useful, but it is best to avoid it. All you need to do, of
>> course, is commit all the new changes before checking out the new head.
> 
> If by strange and confused, the OP means refuse to change branch, then
> yes. Otherwise, I have no idea what he is talking about. Maybe an old
> git version - he does not say which one he is using.

Could be.  All of these tools are moving targets.  The tutorial was last 
modified in June, 2008.

> 
> Also, it is said in the introduction that the OP was using git but did
> not understand what was happening under the hood. So his conclusion is
> you have to understand git internals to understand git internals ?
> Sounds tautological to me.

No, I think the point of Duan's introduction was that *initially* he had 
trouble *using* git because he did not understand its internals; 
therefore he was writing a tutorial that would explain the usage in 
terms of what the commands do internally, instead of simply providing 
lists of commands to accomplish a given set of tasks.  The description 
of internals that he provides is pretty minimal, though.

> 
> I am all for hearing git bashing by people - but I would prefer if it
> was coming after actual use of the tool.

Please understand, I am not trying to bash git--it is clearly an 
enormously powerful and well-made tool--and I apologize if my posts have 
appeared to tend in that direction.  I guess I am trying to keep hg from 
being dismissed too quickly, and I am trying to understand what the 
similarities and differences are, and what consequences the choice of 
one or the other would be likely to have. The quotes were from a 
tutorial http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~cduan/technical/git/ referenced by 
Matthew.  The author of the tutorial appears to have been writing after 
actual use of git.  I certainly am not, and will say no more about it.

> 
>> The state you are in while your HEAD is detached is not recorded by any
>>        branch...
> 

I included the above quote because it made me laugh, and I hoped it 
would do the same for others.  That's all.

Eric

> The only occasion it happened to me was with git-svn - which I would
> no advocate using as a transition path, indeed. It is great for
> individual people (I use it all the time for numpy) but it is
> definitely strange UI-wise sometimes.
> 
> David
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