Why everyone should be using Git

I am a long-time user of source code management tools, for many years I used Microsoft Visual SourceSafe (VSS). I tried several times to understand and use Git but found the learning curve rather steep and went back to my comfort zone of VSS. As the use of GitHub grew over recent years I came to the conclusion that the time was right to dive in and find out what Git was all about and start using it.

My first port of call when needing to learn some new technology over the last couple of years has been Udemy and I was pleased to find the course “Git Complete: The definitive, step-by-step guide to Git.” The course helped me get to grips with the fundamentals of Git, in particular, the basic difference between VSS and Git. VSS works with the concept of a single master repository for the project source code. For me this meant hosting that repository on a local network attached hard disk so that it could be accessed from any one of the several computers and virtual machines I use for my work. Git on the other hand, does not have the same concept of a master repository. The repositories of Git can be hosted locally and/or on any number of remote computers. Within the repository the is a master branch but no particular repository is considered the master. I encourage anyone wanting to know more about Git to take the course linked above.

Historically, Git is a command line tool and I prefer to work in a UI most of the time. When I decided to start using Git for all my work I searched for a nice, stable UI client. Several are available and initially I chose SourceTree from Atlassian. While it worked quite well there were some things I didn’t like about it and I switched to using GitKraken from Axosoft and I have been using it exclusively for my projects for a couple of years. Axosoft is very active in bringing new features to GitKraken and they offer excellent support for Pro version users. The Pro version allows commercial use and also adds some extra features. At the time of this writing the price is $49/year.

So, to address the title of this blog; why should you be using Git? Having a good control of your project source code with source code management system is the obvious answer, however, that is not the only reason. What I have found is that Git allows me to experiment with code changes and designs with greater freedom. I just don’t get concerned about trying a radical update to my code for fear of breaking an already working project.

The reason for this is embodied in the best practices published on GitHub, “Commit early and often.” With Git a “commit” is a snapshot of your code changes at that moment. More than that however, Git marks each commit with a unique ID and provides the tools to manage these commits so that reverting to a previous commit is relatively easy. This means that one always has the tools available to go back in time to before a code-breaking change was made. For me, being this free to experiment with code in the secure knowledge that any wrong decisions may be undone really makes a difference to my work flow. Plus, if you do make a code breaking change that goes unnoticed for a while, git allows comparison of file changes between any two commits. GitKraken offers this file compare in its UI, however I prefer to use an external “diff” tool, Beyond Compare. I have it setup in GitKraken as my default diff tool.

If you would like to learn more about GitKraken and Git just visit the GitKraken channel on YouTube.

So, what are you waiting for? Sign up for the Udemy course, download GitKraken, and watch their tutorials. Your code productivity and creativity will both increase.

Sid