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Head First Git - Coming from old version control

 
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Hi Raju,
Congrats on writing a Head First.

What would you say about your book for an old SVN/CVS user?
We never needed a book for just using these old version control systems where only administrators needed a managing book?
Now, for using Git we need either a course or a book.
Does your book give comparisons of how we did it in the old ones and how we do it in Git? Or it is plain Git?
 
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I'm sure Raju can provide lots of info, but when I migrated, I just exported projects from the old VCS and did a "git init" on the exported project. That does have the problem that it loses old history, but I generally don't care, since it doesn't affect the original archives and the time when I actively need to go check prior history is usually short. Maybe Raju can offer some migration aids, though.

True, though. The git manual is a LOT bigger than anything the other VCS's offered. Fortunately, it's well-documented. And now we have Raju's book to add to the toolbox!
 
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Hi Jorge!

First, many thanks to Tom Holloway for their wisdom, which is absolutely on point. Git's documentation is very impressive, and there are tons of resources out there, particularly b/c now multi-billion dollar companies are making money hand-over-fist thanks to Git. And leaving aside my book, there are many other good books and online resources (text, visual, video) that can help you get acquainted with Git.

For SVN users, there is a git-svn bridge (https://git-scm.com/docs/git-svn) where you use Git commands to work with a SVN repo. This allows you to start using Git, without having to migrate over SVN repos (or be able to use Git without telling your colleagues )

What would you say about your book for an old SVN/CVS user?
Does your book give comparisons of how we did it in the old ones and how we do it in Git? Or it is plain Git?



Before I answer your question, let me tell you a story—my full time gig is that of a consultant, specializing in DevOps. But I feel that the best way to learn something well is to teach it, so I spend about 30% of my time teaching—be that at conferences, online workshops, O'Reilly's platform and others. The other day I was teaching Docker, specifically Docker networking, and I decided to call my network "skynet". For folks like me, this is a relevant reference (from the Terminal movies in the 90s)—however, a third of the class had no idea what skynet was!

Head First Git is designed for beginners—however, at the beginning of this project I was at the horns of a dilemma—who's the actual audience? Folks who are well versed with other VCSs or folks who've never used one? And it was after speaking with my good friend and mentor Venkat Subramanian (who is a prolific speaker and author) it dawned on me—the majority of folks reading this book will probably be from the same class that don't know what skynet is—in other words, this would probably be amongst the first VCS they would be using in anger. They would probably never have heard of, or used a centralized VCS. And not just that—Git's mindshare is over 95% (per GitHub a few years ago).

To respond to your question—no. I explain what a distributed version control system is, what benefits and caveats come with any distributed system, wherein Git is no exception, and make a passing reference to centralized version control systems like SVN. I make no attempt to provide analogies or migration paths away from older version control systems simply b/c there are too many of them, and I felt that if I was going to broach that subject, I should be fair, or not do it at all.

That said, for someone who has used SVN or CVS, the transition shouldn't be hard because you understand the role and need for VCS.

Hope this helps. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions.

Regards,
 
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Raju Gandhi wrote:For folks like me, this is a relevant reference (from the Terminal movies in the 90s)—however, [b]a third of the class had no idea what skynet was



Hopefully, that was the Management side of the class. So, professionally clueless. Next you'll be telling me that they didn't know the airspeed of an unladen swallow or the significance of 42.

Really, what do they teach in schools these days? Doesn't anyone value a Classical Education anymore?

Incidentally, I believe there's a new Terminator movie in the works.
 
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Hopefully, that was the Management side of the class. So, professionally clueless. Next you'll be telling me that they didn't know the airspeed of an unladen swallow or the significance of 42.



LOL! Nah! Just folks born in the 2000s FWIW, I still don't know what Snapchat or TikTok is, so there is that.

Really, what do they teach in schools these days? Doesn't anyone value a Classical Education anymore?



Right?! James Cameron should be required viewing!

Incidentally, I believe there's a new Terminator movie in the works.



I believe you are right, with James Cameron at the helm. Despite the disappointment of the last few, I still cannot wait for it to come out.
 
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I don't spend time on SnapChat, TikTok, Pinterest, Twitter or Facebook. Never went to Geocities, either. I'm just plain anti-social.

While I don't consider Terminator as Great Art, I do appreciate that it pays attention to things that other franchises don't, such as that you couldn't blow up SkyNet, because SkyNet was a distributed network not a single computer and how in the last movie Arnold explained his age ("I took the long way around") - because cyborgs, unlike robots contain human tissue so they would indeed age.

Ah well. Diversions aside, we're still here for people with actual git questions!
 
With a little knowledge, a cast iron skillet is non-stick and lasts a lifetime.
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