Looks like a solid app, and fast as well. It's clear that the developers care about quality. But I'm sticking with GitX because GitBox is still missing a few key features:
- It doesn't have a good representation of the branch tree (like GitX). It's a must for anyone who deals with multiple branches.
- I can't stage parts of a file. GitX makes that really easy.
- I can't see the contents of a stash (again, easy in GitX). But GitBox makes it easy to see my list of stashes, which GitX doesn't.
- GitX also wins in that I can see the changes made in a commit by simply clicking the file name. GitX opens a third party app.
- It's not clear to me why there is a big vertical space on the left dedicated to listing my repositories, while my branches are hidden behind a small drop-down box. I'm more likely to deal with multiple branches than multiple repositories at any one time so it makes more sense to keep my branches visible and hide my other repositories behind a drop-down menu.
On the other hand, I really like that GitBox refreshes it's state automatically. This is one of the issues with GitX that I need to hit Cmd-R every time I switch to it. Overall, great start.
Visualizing diffs inside the app is also a must-have for me. Fewer clicks = simpler = easier to use = better.
I also note that the apparent keyboard shortcut for "Show Difference" is just "D". Not command-D. Just "D". Not only is this highly unusual (no keyboard modifier like Cmd/Ctrl/Shift/etc.) but it also doesn't work.
is zero-friction undo even a good idea? rewinding in git is something that should be done with care, I'm not sure I would be comfortable with non-experts making "undo commit" part of their everyday toolset.
Yes. It's the major missing feature for git. Novices spend more time figuring out how to undo their mistakes than anything else.
If the undo has side effects (i.e. "if someone cloned this branch since you did the action you want to undo, stuff will break"), the tool should display that warning and ask to continue.
Undo on local working branches only would already be a big help.
I've thought long and hard about undo for git operations. I always decided against it (in git-cola). all it takes is someone doing some git commands in a terminal to (dangerously) confuse the undo stack. That's not the target audience of this GUI, though. pretty neat.
About a month ago I tried all the commercial Mac Git clients (SourceTree, GitBox, Tower, Gitty) after being frustrated with my old copy of GitX. I just couldn't get into any of them. I was missing the tree views, so I can see where branches diverge, staging of hunks, and overall they were all too "weird" to use in their own way.
I ended up going back to GitX when I found there's a more recently updated fork maintained by German Laullon: http://gitx.laullon.com/ It has a few bugs, but I find it's much more usable than the commercial alternatives.
> I generally think it can be dangerous to build a reliance on tools like these, especially when one doesn't yet understand the command line equivalents
Good point. I agree.
That's interesting that you use it exclusively for merge conflicts. I will give it a look.
Pretty nice, though I am a little annoyed that the number of repositories in the demo went from three to one. Other than that, seems like a nice update!
I was coming in here to ask what Gitbox has over the Github no-cost alternative, but found out about GitX. When did GitX get a native GUI!?
I've used GitX in the past but mostly as a crutch when the terminal client confused me (or when I needed pretty pictures.); It's X11 foundation always turned me off on the Mac. However, the latest GitX looks really good and might even turn me from my terminal ways. :)
- It doesn't have a good representation of the branch tree (like GitX). It's a must for anyone who deals with multiple branches.
- I can't stage parts of a file. GitX makes that really easy.
- I can't see the contents of a stash (again, easy in GitX). But GitBox makes it easy to see my list of stashes, which GitX doesn't.
- GitX also wins in that I can see the changes made in a commit by simply clicking the file name. GitX opens a third party app.
- It's not clear to me why there is a big vertical space on the left dedicated to listing my repositories, while my branches are hidden behind a small drop-down box. I'm more likely to deal with multiple branches than multiple repositories at any one time so it makes more sense to keep my branches visible and hide my other repositories behind a drop-down menu.
On the other hand, I really like that GitBox refreshes it's state automatically. This is one of the issues with GitX that I need to hit Cmd-R every time I switch to it. Overall, great start.