I was digging into tutorials about Git internals recently and was surprised to learn just how straightforward the data structures are. Given how stupid-simple the data is, I'm all the more confused about how straightforward the CLI isn't.

There are very few if any ways to accumulate and amplify errors in the system. It's no wonder Linus created a working prototype so fast. It's the simplest thing that could possibly work. But this simplicity is also the reason why binaries occupy so much space.

A system can be so simple that there are obviously no errors, or so complex that no errors are obvious. In the middle ground we get progress by someone mathematically proving the soundness of a technique, and then a group of people working together to match the implementation verbatim to the proven technique.

Pijul seems to be stepping into that middle space, but it's not clear to me if we're going to follow, or if something else like it will get us moving. I do like the concept, but as someone else stated, it doesn't seem to be very lively right now.