Beginners don't trust the command line

2 points by ghassenfaidi 52 days ago | 2 comments

After learning Git in the summer, I went to my some of my friends and classmates who study CS and told them: "I'm going to force you to learn Git". I don't want to work alone!

One thing kept happening over and over: whenever I explained how branches work and how we switch branches, and I showed them how files do change in the working directory (using ls command -- in either WSL or git bash), they nodded and thought it made sense. Then I open the file explorer (finder) and show them that the files DO change; they go quiet for a second, "wow" they say. It's as if the command line isn't something concrete.

ghassenfaidi 52 days ago |

I also think it has something to do with Windows and growing up around GUIs, for instance, when I was starting out I used to think it's impossible to name a python file "script.mp4", how could that be! even VS code won't color it for you! -- I think it has something to do with what happens when you change the file extension in the file explorer and the scary warning one sees.

gus_massa 51 days ago |

I use TortoiseGit for 99% of the git operations. (And Git Cola on Linux)