Comment by Jianghong94
3 months ago
Wait, no one mentions the default JetBrains IDE git UI? I mean, I get it if you're working from another IDE/text editor that doesn't have good git UI support out of the box, but JB's git UI is reasonably good enough that I don't want anything else.
Things that I use (and I like): 1. quick checkout to another branch and automatically stash and unstash your local changes; when I just need to inspect code elsewhere I find it really useful. My changes are small so I can always remember to stash them later; 2. compare branch/commit etc via UI; again I know you can do that in git diff, but then you would need to know the command and the commit SHA to compare; in UI it comes in really handy, just select the branch or commits you want to compare and that's it. I've seen my coworkers trying to come up with the command and I just say: use IDE and a couple of clicks they got it working. 3. filter commits by user and by folder.
(author of the blog here)
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.
The diffs are the biggest reason I use it (beside the 3-way diff, I can't live without: blame, optimize imports, all the editor functions inside the diff, diff files/commits/branches).
Beyond that: separating into change lists (staging changes by line inside a file) and the graphical presentation and filtering of the commit history (highlighting what commits are in/out of your branch, show the git history of a section or line of code, show repo files at a commit)
100%. One big benefit of IDE integration is that it’s the same editor. Same keybindings, same syntax highlighting, etc.