What! I was git gui user for decade and didn't notice this feature =D But yea, git gui is amazing overall. I don't think it's maintained anymore though.
BTW lazygit offers that too and it's a bit easier to discover and use (e.g. you don't need a mouse).
1. Yes, it's been a frustration initially, but it has a nice benefit - it forces you to use native features (e.g. patch based copy/reset). Apparently it's on the radar, but not implemented yet: https://github.com/jesseduffield/lazygit/issues/4365#issueco...
2. Yes, see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898167 discussion. Using IDE is great if all your machines has this IDE installed (and GUI in general). The stability (graphical layout) is likely changing often though.
That's a great point. I should have mention the IDE Git UIs, def a nice option and sounds like the JB one works well for you!
I do use it heavily for "annotating git blame"!
I've never consider using JB Git UI fully mainly because of the point made earlier, so stability (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45898089). Once you learn, especially visually, you don't want cosmetic changes. IDEs change yearly to stay "consistent".
Another point is portability. E.g. I didn't want to pay for personal use of JB (so rare case), so I have to use different IDE. Separate tools (especially free and OSS) is a big advantage. Not mentioning ability to use it on remote shells or different machines!
lazy git offers 1, but 2 and 3 points are interesting. Wonder if there's an easy way to compare commits and filter commits by user and folder in lazygit. (:
EDIT: Actually, I also use JB for conflict resolutions ;P so not entirely 100% lazygit flow.
I don't think JB UIs been changing that much, albeit I haven't been working in the industry long enough. I think the last major UI redo was like 2,3 years ago and most of it is to make UI more compact, and I definitely like it. That being said YMMV.
IMHO another good thing of using JB IDE git UI (especially in a corporate setting) instead of using another software is that everyone has the IDE so it's easier to collaborate. Imagine if you're helping a junior member debug their local branch and they don't have lazy git installed.
I think there's a learning around stability of devtools here. It takes time to get used to things, but once you do you are ultra productive. That's why IDE Git UIs are not ideal, because the graphics change so often, confusing you more than helping etc.
I got stuck to git gui / gitk for so long for this reason, I couldn't parse other UIs e.g. for diffs until I forced myself to have a less productive time to learn new UI.
I hope lazygit is stable - I think I might need to construct some stable config for visuals / colors to ensure this! (:
This is epic prove that we can still learn a lot from developers in 1980! Recently wrote "Effient Go" book and there were tons of valuable info from that era, and we usually skip this knowledge thinking it's irrelevant.
What! I was git gui user for decade and didn't notice this feature =D But yea, git gui is amazing overall. I don't think it's maintained anymore though.
BTW lazygit offers that too and it's a bit easier to discover and use (e.g. you don't need a mouse).