I use a git UI, and so should you… here’s why.
I’ve been working as a professional developer for quite some time now, and I have almost always, used git, for every single project I do. Small or big, it doesn’t matter git is great for any size. The only difference, is how I use it.
For small projects I generally just do it single branch style, no fuss, just for the history and have the ability to branch out, in the literal sense.
In larger projects I always use “git flow” which was made popular by Vincent Driessen. Which allows for easy parallel development, having a develop branch, where feature branches are spun out from, and then merged back in. Once stable, develop is then merged into master . Gitflow in particular, is A LOT easier using a UI for the work, as it eases the burden of the workflow, not having to remember to merge into hotfixes into both develop and master and just being able to drag 2 things together instead of typing git checkout master ->git merge -X theirs develop.
Looking is easier than thinking.
Having a UI to look at, to see changes in git, is just 100.000.000 times better than doing git diff, if you changed more than a few lines of code. git log also has a way of getting out of control really fast.
Solving merge conflicts can be hard.
It doesn’t have to be though. Usually you would have a separate tool for that, which was made specifically to sort out this sort of thing, but some git UIs has this ability built in.
Release the kraken.
History lesson
There are multiple git UIs out there, you can see some of them here. Of those, I have tried quite a few, but none have come close to GitKraken.
I’ve used GitKraken extensively over the past couple of years, and it has moved quite a bit since its launch.
At its launch there were basically only a single really good client on the market, namely Sourcetree. GitKraken blew it out of the water for me, GitKraken was beautiful, fast and the UI was intuitive.
Git Flow
It is super easy to create new git flow branches and finish them through the UI.
Merge Conflicts
In gitkraken, merge conflicts are seamlessly fixed, in the UI — see the short video below.
Git Diff
Super easy to to use diff views WITH inline editing!
My list of small, but really useful features
- Right click
revert. - Drag’n drop merge.
- Stashing made super easy.
- Right click
git reset <option> - Dark theme!
- Fuzzy finder.
- Cross platform.
A lot of the time, I just find using a UI simpler, and much easier to get an overview of.
Want to try GitKraken? Please use the link below to sign-up.
Disclaimer: I am a GitKraken Ambassador, not a paid employee of GitKraken by
Axosoft.
