The main argument I tend to hear against using GUIs, is that developers do not understand the commands that are being run on their behalf. The Typical Arguments against using a GUI Not Groking Git Likewise when diffing or doing a three-way merge - this is far easier to visualize in a GUI. if I want to compare two different commits - regardless of whether they're on the same branch or not - I can just select the two commit, holding down the control key to multi-select, and you can immediately see the differences. There's also plenty of other benefits - eg. Easy Diffing and Merge Conflict Resolutions I don't have to keep on typing git log all the time. Whilst performing these actions via keyboard shortcuts - the view in the screenshot above automatically updates without me having to do anything. Doing it on the CLI might look cooler, but it certainly isn't faster - even when the CLI user uses aliases. When I watch someone use Git via the CLI - I see an awful lot of typing to achieve what I get by just mashing a couple of hotkey combos. So rather than typing git fetch, git rebase, git log, git push, etc, etc - I'm instead literally just hitting keyboard shortcut combinations. Then when I want to actually do something, most of my workflow is very keyboard shortcut driven. Imagine what you'd have to have typed to get all that information on the CLI. I haven't even typed anything yet either. Implicit VisualizationĪs you can see from the screenshot - without even typing anything - I can immediately look at the screen and see: branch information, commit history, commit details of the selected commit, the list of files in that selected commit, a file diff of the selected file in the selected commit, what branches the selected commit is in, etc, etc. The points I make in this post apply to most other GUIs too though. This is the log view from my preferred Git Client SmartGit.
Let's take this screenshot as an example. So if I'm such a fan of the CLI - why do I not think it's a good fit for source control? Well, source control is actually extremely visual! You're looking at logs, commit graphs, diffs, and much much more. I thought this was an important point to make before I begin, so you know that I'm not just someone who's generally biased towards GUIs. So this post is certainly not coming from someone who's anti-CLI.
I quite often have a second monitor dedicated to ConEmu, with multiple split console screens. Someone who pretends, in an argument or discussion, to be against an idea or plan that a lot of people support, in order to make people discuss and consider it in more detailĪlthough, in all honesty - I'm not pretending, I do genuinely think the GUI is a better fit - but, I enjoy using both! This post is to make people think more about which is actually more productive.įirst of all, I want to point out that I am a big fan of the CLI, and use it very heavily in my daily workflow.
In a very light-hearted and friendly way of course! Do remember that the term Devil's Advocate is all about making a point just to make people think about both sides of the argument more. So this post is here to play devil's advocate, and argue against the CLI for your primary Git usage. I certainly know Git very well, and honestly think I'm far faster and more efficient in a Git GUI than I could possibly be on the command line - and I'm certainly not slow in the CLI. Whilst I understand the reasons given, I also think it's a huge generalization that unfairly sees Git GUI users as unlikely to really understand Git properly. I quite often hear experienced Git users say that you should always use the command line for Git, and you should try to avoid using Git GUIs.
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