“Jujutsu (jj) is a version control system with a significantly simplified mental model and command-line interface compared to Git, without sacrificing expressibility or power (in fact, you could argue Jujutsu is more powerful). Stacked-diff workflows, seamless rebases, and ephemeral revisions are all natural with jj […]”
Part 2 of the series is out and is here.
This is… unforgivably obnoxious. What’s the point of this? That’s like saying “Instead of giving every directory a name manually you identify them by inode.” The entire point of branches is to have a name that has meaning to me that I can use to refer to work I’m doing.
I create log files of runs, temporary helper scripts, build output, etc. in my working copy all the time. And this thing is going to “save me the burden” of having to add files manually by just adding… everything it sees.
“Simpler” apparently means I get to do a lot more book-keeping than when I use git.
Jj’s closest equivalent of branches are bookmarks, but they don’t auto update when you pull from a remote. I wish it was more like a git branch in that sense.
However, editing past commits and reorganizing the tree is MUCH easier in jj. It feels like the commands are more in line with what I want to do rather than having to figure out the specific set of git commands to do what I want.
I did find the “adding EVERYTHING” behavior to be annoying initially. My workaround was to create a local folder and add it to git ignore and push all those temp files there.
YMMV but I’ve found it much easier to manage complex workflows with jj compared to git.
It is no secret that git’s interface is a bit too complex - even XKCD has made fun of it.
But what is amusing is that people now have a kind of Stockholm Syndrome, and plain refuse to believe there could be something better.
(Perhaps motivated by the long list of half-assed helper interfaces and GUIs which just were hapless trying to hide the sprawling complexity).
Telling people they have Stockholm syndrome is not a good way to convince them to change their behavior. Present the pros, be honest about the cons and let people make their own decisions. The jj workflow isn’t for everyone, and sometimes people’s git workflows are simple enough that there isn’t a benefit to learning a new tool. I like jj because I have to deal with complicated workflows for work and jj makes them much easier. At a different job it was much simpler and I wouldn’t have paid too much attention to jj.
I do a lot of complicated stuff with git - what sort of workflow does this solve for you?
git rebase -iandgit squashwork well for combining commits and cleaning up history. I’m not finding anything aboutjjyet that does better? And I’m finding a lot about it that are just deal breakers (auto-commit everything, make me lookup hashes of things).