Tamar,

git is created by Linus Torvalds - what do you expect? I guess he thinks GUI is witch-work. On Linux, a GUI is mostly nothing then a wrapper for command line tools - and only half thought in most cases. Not that M$ interfaces are much better, it goes worst by the day.

There are some reasons to use it
- free as in free beer
- a lot of support on the web, almost any problem might be solved as long as google is working
- most free hosters stuck to it.
- co-working without any host or server. (gitlab or github only provide a nice interface, extra co working, documentary and access regulating features, non of them are needed to work)
- private hosting (what I prefer) is no a big deal
- works completely offline
- does only interfere in ones workflow if one need it
- common way to distribute and share sources
- ProGit https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2 (also as free ebook) is enough to start
- the merging function is such a great tool for fixing bugs while developing.
- if one goes deeper it can do so much more - like parallel working on development and patching on the same machine the same time. Seamless on the same repo.

The reveres side is
- if one was using mercurial or VSS (or other server based stuff) before, its a different mindset.
- needs some learning, at least to grok the basics (not that I know much more)
- git workflow is free to choose- or depending on ones needs. There is no right or wrong here. But one have to think about it, then.
- killer app. with all bells and whistles.
- It's meant as command line tool. There is a bunch of GUI support, see https://git-scm.com/download/gui/win for example. For a GUI I can only hope that all is implemented the right way - and any GUI runs git in background. Each of those one need to learn - for me the reason the skip them and learn command line. More flexibility. And if one does not grok git, I think one should not use GUI. To much assumptions.

The staging - commiting problem. This is, with VFP, binary-source -> text-source -> staging -> commiting [-> pushing]) and reverse
If you really dislike it

#on a set up project, in most cases:
git commit -a
#or
git add .; git commit

Store the later to an bash-alias and you will never notice it.
SourceTree should have an option to hide staging, as far as I see on google.
That's why I've created a tool like Text2Bin. Just run a menu and the above is processed. It's not very tricky from VFP anyway. Adding some strings to a bat file and run it is the whole trick. So for me, the major part of the work is done via VFP menu. For anything I need on a regular base I create a sh (because I prefer bash on windows comp, all help is linux based ...) or simply add something to my VFP app.
git is great and fast as hell with it's stored deltas. But this works on text only. FoxBin2Prg does a great and reliable job here. No need to store the binary sources.
And it is great to merge VCX based classes. (The FoxBin2PRG single-class-style)
I've used VSS for more then 15 years - and git was like a spell.

Possibly a very small subset of init, clone, remote, add, commit, push, pull will do for start. In most cases w/o to much of the parameters. The benefits from switch (old school: checkout) and reset, merge one might learn on the fly. One only need to remember that a copy of the whole directoy opens up a safe playground ...

It is the tool of the time. I do not regret the time spend to learn it.

Lutz
>>Dear Tamar,
>>
>>After half a decade of git I must admit that you learn command line or pray.
>>
>
>That's the strongest argument I've heard yet for finding a different provider that supports Mercurial and switching back.
>
>>Anyway, I do not see what you try to achive. Any ??X file can not be compared because its binary? Also, from a git POV it is wrong to store ??X files and the memos at all. It will blow the repo. That's the reason for FoxBin2PRG - and store the ??2 files only. The ??2 will work with any compare tool because of there text nature.
>>I'm reluctant for the DBF and DBC - but I have not tried the compare function there.
>
>Using BeyondCompare with Frank's add-in (http://pfsolutions-mi.com/blog/category/vfp2text.aspx), I can compare ??X files with no problem. Hg Workbench supports this.
>
>>If you can do that (including FoxBin2PRg into your workflow) almost any GUI will do - if don't do to tricky stuff.
>>Anyway, I prefer bash, and my personal choice UltraCompare for comparision. But this is a matter of choice.
>>
>
>I just don't get why people prefer Git. You have the stupid extra step of staging and no decent UI.
>
>>I'm sorry for the missing session - the workflow was one of the ideas ...
>>
>>Let me know if there is more help you need.
>
>Thanks for trying.
>
>Tamar
>
>>
>>>Until last year, I'd been happily using Mercurial for years. But Bitbucket, my web repository, dropped support for Mercurial last year and I switched to Git rather than moving to another provider. I've been tearing my hair out ever since because I cannot find a front-end tool for Git that is anywhere near as easy to use and helpful as Hg Workbench is for Mercurial.
>>>
>>>Let me start by saying that I DO NOT want to work at the command line. If I have to do that, I will end up not saving things to the repository. The appeal of Mercurial in the first place was that it was the first example of a version control system that didn't make it hard to use version control.
>>>
>>>I've tried Git GUI that installs with Git and found it impenetrable. I'm now trying Sourcetree and it seems easier to work with. But I'm having one major problem. I use BeyondCompare with Frank Perez's VFP add-in to do diffs and merges, but Sourcetree doesn't seem to be able to handle VFP's X files (SCX, VCX, etc.) In Hg Workbench, if I highlighted both the SCX and SCT or VCX and VCT and chose a diff, it worked seamlessly. I'd get a comparison that worked perfectly.
>>>
>>>Sourcetree doesn't seem to have that capability. I've asked Frank and he even sent me the code for the add-in, but I don't see a way to configure Sourcetree to understand it should pass the two files together.
>>>
>>>So is anyone using a Git UI that is straightforward and can do these comparisons?
>>>
>>>Guess I need to add that yes, I know I can switch to using one of the tools that converts between X files and text, but that raises two problems. First, I have to remember to do it and to do it in the right direction each time. Experience with another project where we do that has convinced me that I won't get it right.
>>>
>>>Second, I have years of version control history for the relevant projects and this would create a breakpoint before which I can't do the comparison.
>>>
>>>Fundamentally, I just want what I had and so far, I can't seem to get it from Git. (To be honest, I don't understand why it won. It's so much hard to use than Mercurial. I've had to kill and recreate local repositories multiple times because it's so frigging hard to use.)
>>>
>>>Tamar