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Comment by pyre | Hacker News Reader

I don't have the same background as the "person that wrote it," and I consistently find the git command-line tools easier to work with than other tools (SourceTree, magit-mode, vim-fugitive, etc [1]). I think that in this case, it's just the mental model of a DAG[2] of commits that people have trouble wrapping their minds around. The tools are just there to help you slice and dice the DAG.

[1] I haven't used TortoiseGit, but I do imagine that having file browser menu items for files that are maintained by git could be useful from time-to-time, but I would still be using the cli most of the time.

[2] Directed Acyclic Graph

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There are more DSCM implementations based on a DAG. (for example git, mercurial, bzr, monotone, codeville, fossil)

The only one that draws serious usability complaints all the time is git.

To be fair, some of the usability complaints aren't about the interface so much as things like:

* Unreasonable ideas about the idea that commits/history can be rewritten, so therefore "nothing is safe."

* Arguments over how some git commands are similarly named to svn commands, yet don't do the same thing. The svn way is the 'right' way, and git is 'doing it wrong,' but really it's just an argument about familiarity (sharing many traits with arguments over Mac vs. Windows keyboard shortcuts, for example).

* Complaining about a recoverable error because they don't know about the reflog.

* etc.

I'm sure there are legitimate complaints, but most of the complaints that I see are around things like that.

To borrow a turn of phrase from Bjarne Stroustroup, there are two kinds of software: software people complain about, and software nobody uses.

Yeah, the reason everyone complains about Git is because everyone uses git. SVN was the horse to beat 10 years ago, because everyone used it.

people complained about git's UI 10 years ago. They didn't complain (as much, by far) about the UI of the other DAG based DSCMs.

A couple of years ago the others were in use as well.

git won for various reasons, but the UI complaints certainly aren't because people don't understand DAGs.

I consistently find the git command-line tools easier to work with than other tools

Yes, but how many weeks and months did you spend learning all the quirks? http://git-man-page-generator.lokaltog.net

that people have trouble wrapping their minds around.

If you create a product and just tell people "sorry, you're not smart enough to understand it," was it a good idea?

When git was still one of many competing DVCSes - I tried darcs, and the CLI was pretty great. Spoiled for ever.

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