Git Overview - Computerphile

One of the most useful tools in code development, Git protects your code from yourself and others! Dr Max Wilson gives us an overview.


This video was filmed and edited by Sean Riley.

[kbreezy]

When British folks type `git init` does the shell respond with "yes"?

[teppichboden]

It's unironically one of the best pieces of software out there. It's super useful, free and open source, and incredibly efficient.

[atmly]

decent collaborative versioning systems have been one of the most important advances in software engineering. i say this as somebody that started programming over 20 years ago when we were literally emailing source files and tarballs around, before we got cvs (and then subversion and so on)

[Android]

I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve been using git professionally for years now, and really don’t know how it works internally. I have an idea about how it might track differences rather than just raw copies, but it’s magic to me.

[TheMilli]

I really would like a full video on how the .git folder actually keeps track of my version history. That would be incredibly interesting!

[MrTridac]

I like the fact that Linus Torvalds developed git mostly out of spite. But now - like Linux in the world of OS's - it seems to take over the world of code management.

[Bob_Burton]

This would have been so much better with some demonstrations of Git in action

[Kuchenklau]

I'm in my 5th semester of CS and while I've learned a whole lot about algorithms and Turing Machines, I'm an absolute git illiterate. So this video is much appreciated :D

[Desolator-fzem]

I remember back in my college days where I just make an archive of my source code for thesis (a record management system), and I name the archive like "rms-v1.0" and when I put some changes in source code i copy the archive again, put the changes and rename the newly updated archive into v1.1 or v2.0 whatever. Just a manual versioning of my source code back in the days. 😂

[michaelcumming]

Git is magic. I used to use it daily and forgot how it worked. Git, I think is one of the foundations of our technical culture. Isn't it surprising how so few people know about it and how, if you mention it to anyone at a party, their eyes glaze over immediately?

[stef]

I was wondering if you guys have ever done a video on memoization, I think it'd be a great topic to cover for this channel, since you've already covered recursion, they go hand in hand.

[briancoverstone]

The real power of git is where it figures out when and which files change (especially when there are hundreds of thousands of files), what the differences are between any two versions, merging with all kinds of different conflict resolve mechanisms... source code becomes moldable like clay, so much more than any other source code system that I've used.

[GreatLakesDrifta]

GIT is terrific. A feature my team uses extensively is Pull Requests, great for quick code reviews. Also, git integration with IntelliJ/IDEA IDE tools is great for finding potential breaking changes when "nothing works anymore".

[IceMetalPunk]

I can't imagine doing my job without git (or, I suppose, some other versioning system). But I still remember the very first time I ever used it, back during a university group project. None of us had ever used git before, and while we were learning decently, we all panicked when there was a merge conflict *in a PNG file.* We didn't know about git reset, or git merge --abort, or even anything about what a merge marker was; all we knew was that we'd pulled some changes and suddenly our logo was completely corrupted and we didn't know why. That was a long night... To this day, I still think git needs better merge marking of non-text files...

[lawrencedoliveiro]

9:20 Unlike Subversion, Git does not keep track of what you have checked out at the commit level, only at the branch level.

To get around this, it can be helpful to use the “checkout -b” command to create a new, temporary branch pointing to the commit you just checked out. Since this branch is considered “fully merged” (the commit is part of the past history of some branch you really want to keep), you can delete it afterwards with “branch -d” (lowercase d, not uppercase D).

[_real_bruh]

You can also use git to automate backups if you're sick of services like Windows Backup by creating a local repo, it doesn't *just* work for code, even if that is it's main purpose

[ffdc]

Hey, nice electric upright bass at the background!

[jenna_tools]

I never realized how critical Git is until I was had to use it professionally. Now I'd never go without. Git it the ultimate undo button. It gives the freedom to experiment and break things with reckless abandon, always knowing that you have the git repo to fall back on if you brick the whole app. 10/10 would recommend.

[jasonzvaniga]

I wish you would say `files` instead of `codes` .. Git is useful for any files/folder, not just for coders/codes.

[paxdriver]

a live demo would've been peeeerfect in this video ;p thanks guys, love your work