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Comment by cledet | Hacker News Reader

GitHub for Windows is another beautifully designed Windows app. They even published a blog post about it:

https://github.com/blog/1151-designing-github-for-windows

It's a little over-simplified, I think. In migrating some technical writers to git, I thought it might be a good tool to introduce people to git.

I ran into 5 problems:

1. It spit out vague error messages, requiring repeating the action in the CLI to see git's actual, specific problem.

2. There's no option to do the initial clone via ssh, which was a problem because http was failing to download the full repository.

3. It can't do merges, so you end up needing to use the git CLI anyways.

4. It crashed repeatedly while trying to handle large (1GB) repositories. Very sluggish and occasionally unresponsive on smaller repositories, too, especially with large single commits.

5. Various minor bugs. People would ask me stuff like 'how do I discard changes?' and I'd discover they'd gotten into a state where the menu would not appear until the software was restarted. They found it difficult to know when something confusing was inherent or a bug.

I wanted to love it, because it looks like it's good for beginners. Unfortunately, being pretty is not the same as being easy to use.

I've found Sourcetree to be powerful, simple and beautiful. It is also clear and good for learning.

I was able to get some people who were apprehensive about git on board after finding SourceTree.

Huh. I didn't realize Sourcetree was available for Windows. That would have been worth a shot.

In the end, I introduced them to the git CLI, simply because I could always answer or find an answer to their questions about it.

I have run into 2, 3, 4, 5 as well. And in general, I often feel like the tool is not telling me what it is doing (especially while handling large repos when operations some time take considerably longer)

I have since switched to SourceTree and it is working out well so far.

Here is a library that helps to create such an interface: http://mahapps.com/

It's also mentioned in the blog post you've posted.

Disclaimer: I'm one of the developers of MahApps.Metro, I hope nobody minds the shameless self-promotion

It would be really cool to use this with pyQt. I know Qt has styling already so maybe it isn't needed?

This is a WPF library, so I don't think it'd work with pyQt

Oh I know it's a WPF, I just meant a library for pyQT or if Qt could do it by itself.

Thank you for your work on MahApps. It's not perfect but does 95% of what I need when I drop it in to small WPF applications.

If you tell me what's not perfect, maybe I can fix it :)

MahApps.Metro has been my go to for simple interfaces. Mix it with ReactiveUI and some saner DI, and it's just awesome. Thanks very much for your work!

Ha, yeah, ReactiveUI is awesome, I use it in all of my projects

GitHub for windows was awful last time I tried it. Didn't follow standard desktop application HIG and was annoying to figure out, sluggish. I've had a markedly better time with SourceTree. I hate it when apps force their own design instead of following the user's window manager settings and form.

Github for windows is mind bogglingly bad. It's like staring into the sun. Nothing works like you'd expect it. They do their own thing. They should consider using a design similar to btSync. Now that's a good clean UI/UX.

that app has less features than a rock.

While true, it does what i need to do, sync my branches with my github for doing PRs.

I use Github for Mac, just for that feature - selectively write 'meaningful' comments while pushing files.

Finally. I thought I was stupid for not being able to help the Windows guys in class with their git guis.

Nailed down the whole Windows Metro style experience.

Useless for actual computing but designed to appeal to anyone a room temperature IQ.

Didn't you get the metro^H^H^H^H^Hmemo? Features and options are bad as they will confuse and scare the user. </s>

Agreed. At least with a rock I can print off my source code, wrap it around the rock, and rapidly transfer it to my coworker.

Looks like the Zune app for Windows.

Too metro for my tastes (or to be usable).

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