bow to the gitextensions cow

Recently I tried out gitextensions. A rhapsodic blog post seems to be in order.

There's an installer that includes msysgit and kdiff3. This means I haven't needed to download anything else to get started. The installer asked, up-front, how to handle the *nix/Windows line-ending issue and what to use for my name and email address. The GUI contains an easy way to edit .gitignore entries and it comes with default entries that are relevant to almost all Visual Studio development. It suggests and directly supports integration with the PuTTY tools for SSH authentication. This means I haven't needed to find and edit configuration files or go online to research recommended entries. As someone who considers himself to be at least minimally competent, I'm not phobic of manual configuration or command line usage, but why shouldn't the easy and predictable modifications be even easier?

My intense appreciation continued as I started using it. All the typical functions and their typical options are available. (Long-time git users doubtless prefer to perform the same tasks by rapid rote typing; there's an icon to pop open a "git bash" at any time, which is good to keep in mind.) Creating a branch is just a matter of entering a name when prompted, with a checkbox if you want to also immediately check it out.

The view includes the annotated history graph, the current working directory, and the current branch. Clicking on the branch name brings up a drop-down list of other branches. Choose one, and you check it out. Clicking on a commit in the graph brings up information about it in the bottom part of the screen, such as full commit details and the diff and the file hierarchy (each directory expandable and each file right-button-clickable for file-level commands like individual history). Clicking one commit then CTRL-clicking a second brings up the diff below.

Remember how git newbs tend to have trouble navigating the movements of files between the index and the working directory, especially before git became more friendly and talky? In gitextensions, the commit window simply has separate panes with buttons to move added/modified/deleted files in-between. There's also a button for amending. After the commit, or any other moderately-complicated operations, the git output pops up in a window for review.

Of course, pull, push, merge, rebase, cherry-pick, branch deletion are present, too. All are fairly straightforward assuming the user can follow the on-screen instructions and isn't completely ignorant about git. gitextensions has a manual that contains abundant screen captures, yet I imagine it's more useful as a reference for figuring out where/how in the GUI to accomplish a specific task than as a tutorial. I was pleasantly surprised by the smoothness of my first series of gitextensions conflict resolutions. kdiff3 came up, I chose the chunks and saved, then I clicked a continue button. Despite my later realization that I could've accomplished my goal through a more streamlined procedure, the end result was nevertheless perfect in the sense that I didn't need to apply a "fix-it" commit afterward (the credit likely should be split among git and kdiff3 and gitextensions).

My praise keeps going. gitextensions offers fine interfaces for "gc" and "recover lost objects", although thus far I haven't strictly needed either in my short usage span. It adds right-click items to the Windows file explorer. It adds both a toolbar and a menu to Visual Studio. If it isn't obvious, my personal preference is to keep the gitextensions GUI open all the time, supplemented by git-bash. On occasion, when I'm otherwise manipulating a file in explorer, I might invoke file operations right from there.

The remaining question is: are gitextension upgrades frictionless? Sooner or later the cow will tire of wearing that Santa hat...

Postlude: Farewell, Mercurial

Uh, this is uncomfortable. I'm sure you've heard this before, but it's not you, it's me. The cause definitely isn't something awful you did. You're still a great VCS that could make other developers very, very happy. I'm just looking for something else. My horizons have broadened a bit since we first met, and we don't think as alike as we did then. There are other options and considerations that I need to take into account. If I stuck with you forever, I worry that I'd become regretful or resentful. Some day, as we both change over time, I may come back to visit. Until then, I genuinely wish you well.