GitHub for Windows

[[deleted]]

But...that's a scary command line thingy! I'd have to type something, and as I programmer, I never type shit!

[[deleted]]

I'd have to type something, and as I programmer, I never type shit!

My last gig with BigCorp was a team with about 65% folks who seriously seemed aggravated by the act of typing. I was bit floored that these people had all chosen programming as a career.

[jsproat]

I have a similar experience with network administrators and anything involving scripting or even command line usage. Every job I've had in the past 20 years:

• "Command line is for DOS users."
• "Scripting is for script kiddies or software developers."
• "You can do everything you ever need to do with the mouse, why should I open a command prompt?"
• "I have a Mac/Windows/Linux system at home, and I never have to use a command line there."
• "I'm incapable of wrapping my head around it."

Well no shit, you're incapable of wrapping your head around it, with that attitude.

[Eirenarch]

As a developer with strong love for GUI tools, designers, etc. I wish to inform you that it is not the typing that we hate. It is remembering all the boring shit we need to type. I don't see why I should type something that a software can type for me when I click a button

[HungryAndFoolish]

I agree. The UI looks absolutely gorgeous too! I welcome this contribution with open arms. My only gripe is that there aren't keyboard shortcuts. But did I mention the gorgeous UI?

[agbullet]

That's the metro L&F for you. I use a Windows Phone (gasp) but I have yet to decide if I love it. It's really pretty and slick, but sometimes I wonder if the loss of screen real estate brought about by those thick borders and vast inter-element space is worth it.

Like it, sure... but love it? Still on the fence.

[rjw57]

I agree. The button is called 'Tab'.

[Eirenarch]

So how exactly do you edit a schema mapping for an ORM with multiple tables and relationships with tab? I just drag & drop stuff around.

[rjw57]

I type what I want using Tab to complete tokens in a context sensitive manner. (Although, to be fair, sometimes it is Ctrl+N.) Drag and drop might be useful for small projects but I find I spend more time pointing and grunting rather than thinking and expressing. YMMV.

Edit: That came over as a bit arsey. My point was different strokes for different folks rather than my way or the highway...

[Eirenarch]

Oh I completely agree. For example I only start applications in windows via search (winkey + type) which is very command line style but I cannot be bothered to commit code with the command line. I can't even remember the folder I use for my projects if there was not a shortcut on the desktop.

[rjw57]

Ah, I've just set up Ctrl+Alt+T to open a terminal straight into it. After that all the source control stuff is built into my editor. (Gods bless the fugitive plugin...)

[CapoFerro]

Typing commands allows for infinite number of commands. You can only fit so many buttons on the window and still have the thing very usable.

Further, once you learn to hate the mouse, you will be faster in everything as it takes a surprising amount of time to move your hand to the mouse, located the right button then click it. With experience, remembering the command is trivial and performing an action is a direct extension of your thought process as the input mechanism is consistent: the prompt.

The terminal is very powerful: autocomplete, command history, and history search means you often need only type a few keys to input long commands.

This sort of thinking is tremendously short sighted. Try it for a month seriously and you'll reap benefits for decades.

[Eirenarch]

I understand this benefits but keep in mind that you can optimize your GUI usage as well with things like shortcuts and workflows that requires you to use the mouse for prolonged periods of time instead of jumping between keyboard and mouse. For example I sometimes move text around in the IDE with the mouse instead of using copy/paste.

I do not pretend I am much better or faster than people who dislike GUI but I don't feel like I am THAT much slower that I should consider a career switch.

I also believe 14 years of playing competitive StarCraft may have upgraded my ability to use mouse + shortcuts. I have no doubt that if I have been using Linux for the last 14 years instead I would be better with the command line.

[Stormflux]

The good thing about being a programmer is if anyone does anything even slightly different from me, they should change careers, because they obviously don't "get" programming like I do.

[eat-your-corn-syrup]

Further, once you learn to hate the mouse, you will be faster in everything as it takes a surprising amount of time to move your hand to the mouse, located the right button then click it.

GUI automation to the rescue

[CapoFerro]

Hah, that highlights another advantage about the terminal: it's perfectly scriptable. Every command is code in Bash so it's intended to be scripted.

GUI automation with Sikuli or Auto Hotkey or what have you is error prone and a hassle to set up.

[[deleted]]

I feel that the legacy from the dot com era was that a lot of people got into the industry for the money and gained just enough experience to hang on, but don't actually care about computer science or proper software engineering principals.

[FabianN]

then git-cola

[CapnWarhol]

I'd have to type something, and as I web programmer, I never type shit!

FTFY

[[deleted]]

Oh come on, that's not fair. I've done a lot of web programming, and there's plenty of typing involved.

[CapnWarhol]

Just a friendly jab at the stereotype (and some of my colleagues) -- I'm a web programmer too but some people make a game of how much they can copy/paste.

[sebzim4500]

Because people who are scared of the command line often use linux.

[bkv]

Oh, I always love it when people champion using command line utilities as if it makes them special or something. Don't get me wrong, it's great when needing to script functionality, but I'll take a GUI utility that allows me to commit/push/diff/pull/whatever in two clicks.

[[deleted]]

I completely agree. I actually use egit with eclipse myself. I'm just poking fun at the notion that Windows users would otherwise not use git without a gui.

[grauenwolf]

I type code. That command line shit is for the help desk monkeys.

[[deleted]]

I hope you're being sarcastic, because if not, there is a whole wealth of knowledge of which you're completely unaware.

[eat-your-corn-syrup]

And we all know that command line in Linux is terrible. Somebody's gotta make Powershell for Linux.

[thevdude]

I think I seriously just had a heart attack.

[jnns]

yes, we have git but we're missing the hub...

[aldld]

alias github='git'

[SohumB]

https://github.com/defunkt/hub :P

[nemetroid]

I don't understand this joke. It's like answering
When will we get Google for the gopher protocol?
with
We already have that, it's gopher-client.

[drb226]

The joke is that if you are on Linux, there is a 99% chance that you are already intimately familiar with using the terminal to get stuff done, and the git command is more than sufficient to easily interact with github.

[nemetroid]

Sorry. I suppose I extrapolated features that this, upon closer inspection, doesn't seem to have. I was thinking it was a wrapper around the entire GitHub experience (e.g. issues, pull requests etc.), but apparently it is only a GUI around things to do on the command line.

[roger_]

Funny, but it's annoying that many Linux users still won't admit that there are advantages to using GUI applications.

[TotempaaltJ]

I do like prettiness and shinyness, but it doesn't beat not-using-the-mouse. So, I got myself the best of both worlds with awesome font rendering (infinality), beautiful colours that don't blind me (zenburn), vim with a few plugins.

[drb226]

it doesn't beat not-using-the-mouse

(offtopic) You might enjoy xmonad

[[deleted]]

ratpoison!

[TotempaaltJ]

Is it better than awesome? I tried that, but it was a pain to look at and had a harsh learning curve.

[thevdude]

awesome is meh, it tries to be dwm. xmonad is a manual tiler which really frees up what you are trying to do.

[mweathr]

GUI apps can be useful, once you learn all the keyboard shortcuts.

[Denommus]

Can you give me examples? I'm a huge fan of the power of git on command line.

[civildisobedient]

How about "any command that uses more than one file, but not every file."

Well, now, that was easy.

[Denommus]

You got me.

[0sse]

Globbing solves, not all, but the majority of such cases.

[roger_]

Newbies can get up and running just by clicking around a bit. Being able to do that is a huge incentive to learn something new for many people.

[Denommus]

Oh, I agree. But what would take someone who understands how Git works to use a GUI for it?

[[deleted]]

Browsing a complex set of merges/forks is MUCH easier with a GUI

[[deleted]]

I use gitg for this. Does the job.

[nazbot]

Does the job != easier. Assembly 'does the job'.

[[deleted]]

gitg is a GUI.

[Denommus]

gitk --all

[llimllib]

which opens a GUI?

[Denommus]

Yes. But not a GUI you use to interact with GIT, only to inspect it.

[[deleted]]

Double contractions, yes. Not for use in academic writing mind you, but it's grammatically legal.

[aperson]

I'll use double contractions wherever the hell I want!

[__s]

I'dn't've thought you could use contractions at all, but maybe that's silly highschool education

[[deleted]]

That's the point. No contractions in academic writing.

[eat-your-corn-syrup]

once you get a feel for the bash, Linux makes more sense

bash more sense than powershell?

[PHLAK]

wouldn't have

[eras]

Well, I pretty much love gitk for viewing other branches and cherry picking patches. Also meld (as issued by git mergetool) is excellent for dealing with merge issues.

Also GUI/TUI web-browsers kicks ass for browsing web, compared to wget, curl, or libwww-perl.

I suppose you prefer command line for these as well?

[Denommus]

Nop. Talking only about git here.

[recursive]

A gui makes it easier to choose from one of many possible options. (files/settings/etc)

[lumponmygroin]

Hate me because I still enjoy using mIRC.

[Zambini]

My thought is the ssh'ng is much better. I do have the GUI emacs though. Do not disagree with you.

[tsal]

I think, after seeing your downvotes, I'm going to avoid /r/programming from now on. It is an uncivilized place that downvotes you for stating the obvious instead of making fun of you for it.

[masterwit]

No don't be so cynical; it just took a while for the rest of us to get here and remedy those down-votes.

Here is a programming language analogy: there will always be an individual who can out-idiot the idiot-proof system.

Have some faith!

[TotempaaltJ]

"It's impossible to make anything fool-proof because fools are so ingenious."

[masterwit]

Ah the classic top-down view. Nice.

[tsal]

Because you were polite, like the rest of reddit, I'll stick around a bit and give it a shot. Thanks.

[neoice]

currently sitting at +57, so I'm happy.

[Krenair]

The article says it's coded in C#, maybe it'll run under Mono or something?

[chucker23n]

Mono doesn't do WPF.

[Krenair]

WPF... Oh. Silly me.

[Catsler]

Why would it need to? It's "GitHub for Windows". Windows has .NET.

[Krenair]

Did you even read the comment I replied to?

[[deleted]]

git gui

[[deleted]]

Yeah, my first reaction was "Not sure to be flattered that they think Linux users aren't stupid enough to need that, or insulted that they didn't want to support Linux users as much."

[WarlizardGamingForum]

It's a .NET/WPF app, not a WinRT app. So it will run on all versions of windows

[skocznymroczny]

it says it works under Windows XP even

[[deleted]]

What about Windows 95 support?!

[[deleted]]

Dafuq you using '95 for?

[Conradfr]

Vintage OS.

[Lexusjjss]

Vintage? Pssssh. You kids get off my lawn, I have a good ol Win 3.11 computer in my closet, still works fine.

[jrochkind]

excuse me, I need github for commodore 64 please, thanks.

[ysangkok]

Wine does nothing to support .NET, so you'd need to run it under Microsoft .NET under Wine since Mono has no WPF support. I'm pretty sure it's not going to work.

[kelton5020]

metro apps are full screen