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by MatthewPhillips 5209 days ago
GUIs are for abstracting details the user doesn't need to know about.

I would argue that revision control is too important to try and hide the details from its users. I imagine that a GUI that only accounts for best-case-scenarios and 90% tasks is a great way to shoot yourself in the foot when your repo gets into a dangerous state.

1 comments

Agreed. Every time git comes up on HN there seem to be a lot of people making arguments that boil down to "I don't want to know the details of my revision control tool's user interface", and it really puzzles me. All software development is aimed at the production and maintenance of source code, and revision control is how you manage and understand its evolution through time. Aren't hackers meant to be curious about everything? Aren't hackers meant to be experts in computing tools? Why wouldn't hackers want to know the intimate details of one of their most important tools?