[dreamcompiler]

The tax code is a completely inscrutable mess but git's internal model is one of the most simple and elegant structures in modern computer science. It's just covered over with utterly stupid commands and terminology that obscures the beauty of the underlying architecture.

I used to despise git because it was so hard to learn. Then as an exercise I started writing my own code to read and write its underlying files and it finally dawned on me how simple the whole thing was.

Git's a very unusual piece of software; it's mind-bogglingly useful, the basic data structures and algorithms are perfectly matched to its job, and it has a UI that's a train wreck.