[bm5k]

This looks neat, but I don’t see anything off hand that will pull me away from my current git tower + kaleidoscope ~rut~ workflow.

In particular, the drag & drop rebase support in tower is very convenient. Kaleidoscope is capable of all kinds of diffing but the text conflict resolution is probably the feature that I use the most.

[Armic]

I used to use tower, but I switched to fork for two reasons - it was more performant with my work monorepo, and fork's a one time payment and tower's an annual subscription (and more expensive). I'm not affiliated with them at all but I'm a happy customer and recommend you give it a shot; they have a free trial.

[AnonC]

I’m not the GP. I don’t like subscriptions and looked at Fork after your comment. I couldn’t find the policy on versions and upgrades. Is it a one time purchase with updates for major versions or for a period of time (after which updates wouldn’t be available) or a one time purchase forever (how would the developers and the product survive)? The purchase page says one license is for up to three computers. It doesn’t explain it there is some activation process (in which case there needs to be a way to deactivate and reassign).

[DanPristupov]

Hi! I develop Fork with my wife. We don't have manager, marketing team, designers, etc. We also don't have meetings which makes us more efficient :). So, we don't need too much money to survive. Answering your question, yes, it's a one-time purchase which includes future updates. We may release a major paid update in the future, however currently we don't have plans for that. The license is cross-platform. You can activate, deactivate and reassign the license.

[AnonC]

GP here. Thanks for your detailed reply. Please add this information on your website, maybe on the license page or elsewhere.

[sathomasga]

Same reaction. My Tower subscription is up for renewal next month, so I'm primed to give this a try. A cursory look, however, and I find the user interface to be baffling. As one example, on loading the app presents a list of repositories to manage. Select one and you get to interact with that particular repo. But, as far as I can tell, there's no simple way to go back to the repository list to select a different repo to manage. At least, no way other than closing the app and relaunching it. Maybe I'm just used to the way Tower presents things and Fork is simply different, but I felt totally lost in the app, unsure of what to do or how to accomplish non-trivial tasks. With Tower, by contrast, all the interactions seem intuitive and straightforward. Looks like Tower will be getting my money in June as scheduled.

[DanPristupov]

Press the first button on the toolbar (or use Cmd+P). You can open Repository Manager by opening new tab (Cmd+T).

[sathomasga]

I merely cited this as one example of a confusing UI, but this response makes my point even stronger. For most applications, the normal user flow is from general (what the app calls Repository Manager, I guess) to specific (a particular repository). Well-designed user interfaces anticipate the typical user flow and give the user a chance to "go back." For example, a user may accidentally click on the wrong repository. That user likely wants to return the app to its previous state so as to make the correct choice.

Neither of these steps really does that. The first opens a command palette which does not have anything resembling a "go back" command. It does list "Recent Repositories," but there is no reason for a user to assume that "Recent" is the same as All the repositories listed on the first screen. The command palette also omits the folder hierarchy present on the first screen, and that hierarchy may be key to finding the desired repo. Opening a new tab is not at all intuitive for a user that wants to go back. And the most obvious result of the command is a new blank screen.

There a lots of things about Fork that look to be very well-done, and it appears to have a great feature set. But if I'm going to use a GUI instead of the command line for git, then I expect the app to be intuitive and easy to use. For me, Fork is not that. I appreciate that other users may have different opinions, and I do wish the developers great success with the project.