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1. Embed this notice
   powersoffour (powersoffour@mastodon.social)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 22:01:26 JST powersoffour

   in reply to

   • Julia Evans

   @b0rk if really in doubt I usually look at the branches elsewhere (like on github) to verify which is which. gets really tricky when trying to navigate if I have the branch checked out, or if I'm merging into main, etc.

   • Embed this notice
     Julia Evans (b0rk@social.jvns.ca)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 22:01:27 JST Julia Evans

     let's imagine you're resolving this merge conflict (in screenshot).

     You've forgotten which code comes from your current branch and which one comes from the "other" branch. How do you figure it out? Do you:

     * remember what the "top" and "bottom" parts correspond to from past merge conflicts?
     * remember what `HEAD` means?
     * read the last line of the merge conflict?
     * run something like `git show main` or `git diff mybranch..main` to see the diff?
     * something else?

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 22:24:37 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Julia Evans

     @b0rk
     I usually end up inspecting history with a GUI. (I like gitup.co for these sorts of task.)

     This is a situation where GitHub fails extra hard, imo. It seems to me other version control systems somehow aren’t as confusing about how they show the conflict.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 22:57:01 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Julia Evans

     @b0rk
     It doesn’t! It shows me what the heck other people were doing before I tried to pull.

   • Embed this notice
     Julia Evans (b0rk@social.jvns.ca)'s status on Monday, 11-Mar-2024 22:57:03 JST Julia Evans

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands huh i didn't know that github showed merge conflicts at all

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 02:11:52 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ShadSterling
     • Julia Evans

     @ShadSterling @b0rk
     Huh, I’d never even considered using that for investigating my own local merge conflicts! I guess it could be useful.

     I find that the thing Git’s out-of-the-box behavior does especially poorly is explaining to me what •other• developers did. It’s hard enough to be mindful of not losing / garbling my own work in the merge, but at least I (theoretically) know what I did!

   • Embed this notice
     ShadSterling (shadsterling@mastodon.social)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 02:11:53 JST ShadSterling

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell
     • Julia Evans

     @inthehands @b0rk it does if you make a pull request

   • Embed this notice
     Julia Evans (b0rk@social.jvns.ca)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 03:42:18 JST Julia Evans

     in reply to

     a bunch of people have said that they feel embarrassed that they're still confused about which side of a merge conflict is which, even after many years using git.

     I want to say that I have a hard time with it too (and I am uh EXTREMELY confident in my git skills at this point). Really appreciate everyone sharing their coping strategies for dealing with this not-very-clear UI.

   • Embed this notice
     Cameron Watters (watters@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 04:29:59 JST Cameron Watters

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • Julia Evans

     @thomasfuchs @b0rk Perhaps, at a minimum, they might reconsider the "easy to learn" claim they make on the website…

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Tuesday, 12-Mar-2024 05:05:54 JST Paul Cantrell

     • Thomas 🔭🕹️
     • Julia Evans

     @thomasfuchs @b0rk
     I just on Friday gave two of my classes a spiel to the effect of “it’s not you, it’s Git, it’s incredibly user-hostile and it’s not your fault.”