A little background: Through my teens in the 90’s I did a lot of the things you may expect. I was a script kiddie on mIRC, made a tank game in Unreal Engine, and did some Quake modding. From 2002-2004 I landed a job doing Java web dev, SQL, and overall database administration because my father’s friend needed someone that could do that. I was ok at the job, but not great. Being young, my hobby that turned into a 9-5 made me want to stab my eyes out and I quit.
With that said, I can understand a lot of what’s going on, but it doesn’t “click” anymore. I spent 20 years as a career machinist, but I physically can’t do that anymore. Here’s the rub - my twin brother is a brittle diabetic and can’t work (lots of other stuff going on as well), and our mother is getting old (father passed this year). The only reasonable way forward that I can see in order to be able to support my brother is trying to get back into development.
When I stopped, subversion was what we used. I’m trying to understand Git, but it’s a giant conceptual leap. I guess, what I’d like to hear from you all is a way to jump back in as quickly as possible in such a way that it may be a career.
Thanks
Best of luck to you!
I’m trying to understand Git, but it’s a giant conceptual leap.
Git is not that different from svn (I mean, the biggest hurdle is going from a shared folder to any version control system)… I’d say the main difference is that branches live in a different namespace than files (ie. you don’t have trunk/src/whatever but just src/whatever in the main branch). On top of that there’s that commit and push are two different things (and the same with fetch and checkout) and that merges are way easier than in svn (where you had to merge stuff manually).
If you create a repo locally and clone it twice in two different directories, you can easily simulate what would happen when you and a coworker collaborate via a centralized repo (say, github) - do a few experiments and you’ll see it’s not as complicated as it seems (I’d recommend using the CLI instead of some GUI client: it’s way easier to figure things out without the overhead of learning to differentiate between git concepts and how the GUI tries to help).
To piggyback, the true main difference is svn stores commits as snapshots and git commits are deltas from previous. This is why git is depicted as a tree since it’s inherently a node-based structure.
A git commit is a snapshot. The node-based tree structure is an artifact of recording pointers to other snapshots and labeling snapshots with a branch name.
You are correct. Technically a snapshot, but unmodified files are not duplicated from the previous. Imho that is one of the key things to understand about how git works ( and why rebasing and branch manipulation works so well)
Best advice I have:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FPO4fm4nxc
Keep at it. Do actual projects. Actually use the tools for a while. It will eventually make sense.
I want you to understand how surreal this particular link is for me. Video edits are my hobby, and I’ve just recently started yet another play-through of Morrowind. I get the whole “do actual projects” thing and that’s valid, but I’ve no clue where to start here. Should I finally learn C#? Is Rust the only way forward? Should I just try to catch back up on Java? I guess what I’m asking here is should I just try to find a FLOSS/OSS project and try to contribute or think of something new?
All the cool kids right now are mostly on JavaScript/type script. It’s probably a good place to get started since you’ll need it on the front end.
I’m guessing most work on the U.S. side is react. You can probably pick up a bit of node/react native as you go for the backend and for native dev.
Java is the new COBOL. Big corps luuuuuuuuurve it. It’s not what I would expect a single dev to use. C# is similar but smaller, if you forget unity game dev. And you should forget unity game dev.
Rust is basically a less bad C. If you do things you used to do in C, learn rust. If not, don’t.
Python is also still a thing. If you like it you can probably use it for most things, but if not there are other options.
If you do decide to go the web route, I recommend Build Responsive Real-World Websites with HTML and CSS and The Complete JavaScript Course 2024: From Zero to Expert! as a good starting point. Being Udemy, you don’t have to pay full price. If they don’t have a sale on now, they will fairly soon. The courses are worth full price though!
My heart belongs to Vue.js
I like Vue better than react tbh.
My latest project is alpine.js. It’s not bad, it stays out of the way.
That said, I don’t do content often enough to keep up.
Mixing js and template like react does with jsx has always rubbed me wrong. I like how Vue separates everything.
{!found && <p>Not Found</p>}😕<p v-if=“!found”>Not Found</p>🙂Yes!
But I’ve learned that there are A LOT of people that are incredibly pritective of react, so I generally don’t wade out into that particular debate.
I think for me it is because my background is in the web first, as opposed to having gone to school for general computer science and then entered web apps second. The idea of returning blocks of HTML with JSX makes more sense to them.
You can either decide by what is currently in demand in the industry and then pick a project that you can exercise that language with or you can think of a project you’d like to do and then go by what the best language is for a given project.
In the end, languages are just like different wrenches. First you have to learn how to use a wrench, size or features don’t matter much at this point (unless you already know that you want to become an expert with one particular wrench).
I think starting a new project is way easier than contributing to an existing one.
As for git, many basic concepts (e.g. staging area) clicked for me after reading some articles that Atlassian (people behind BitBucket) wrote. Other than that, I’d recommend adamj.eu 's book “Git DX” which is on gumroad. Haven’t read it, tho. But I read his Django DX and like 90% of it was stuff I had to learn on my own, and thought: oh, how come I didn’t find this book earlier…
Just remember: imposter syndrome is real. Everything you learn exposes you to ten things you don’t yet know. Successful devs are comfortable with this reality - the job is one of constant learning. Best of luck!
You said it. I spent the first six months at a FAANG convinced that everyone could look at me and instantly tell that I didn’t belong there. Glad I was able to flip my thinking on that one.
Get a book on Spring Boot and jump back inro Java web development.
With git, you don’t need to master it, just find some subversion to git howto and start using it. It’s half a page of text. Once you learn the basics you can learn more as you go. There are many otherwise competent programmers who don’t know git too well, I know because I support them from time to time.
If it’s a motivation issue, you will need to figure it out on your own. I could give you some advice but motivation depends on a specific use case. If you want I can share what motivates me but there’s no guarantee it will work for you.
As for getting back on a tech horse, there’s a trick I’ve been using every time I was learning a new thing and it worked every single time. I start with a project idea. I write down the major goals I want to achieve and start working on it. At first I do the “quick start” adjusted to fit my project. It usually ends up with a working proof of concept and a list of things I don’t know/understand. Next, I learn about the those unknowns and update the project with what I have learned. This raises more unknowns which leads to more things to learn about. After few iterations, when I’m happy about the project, I start a new, more complex project. And so on.
Just use a good GUI tool for git and Google how to do stuff with command line when needed, you’ll eventually pick it up. Chatgpt and it’s ilk can also be helpful with figuring out things when Google fails.
I’m trying to understand Git, but it’s a giant conceptual leap.
In that case, I suggest learning Mercurial first. Its underlying design is very similar to Git, but the interface is more consistent and does a much better job of presenting the concepts to humans (especially those already familiar with traditional version control). Then, once you’re comfortable with the concepts and commands in Mercurial, learn Git, since it’s everywhere nowadays.
Consider learning at least one new language. Java is only one of many (and not even a nice one IMHO). If you want something more flexible, consider Python. For more structure, maybe Go. If mobile apps interest you, there are Kotlin (Android), Swift (iOS), and Dart (both). If joining the web development army appeals to you, JavaScript. If you fancy the esoteric (and well-paying), Elixir and Erlang are worth a look. Try to find a language that you enjoy using; your programming life will be better for it.
Above all, please make sure you’re reserving time for things that make you happy, sleep, and (if still possible) some kind of exercise. Your own physical and mental health are important. If you tolerate a bad working environment or wear yourself thin for too long, you will burn out, and then you won’t be able to provide for yourself or anyone else.
Take care, OP.
Someone will probably shoot me down for this but I actually find ChatGPT good for explaining concepts to me. Especially when I just want a high level understanding of a concept as I try to understand another one without getting too bogged down. A lot of Google results go into way too much detail.
A few months back I would have said the same. Lately, however, ChatGPT very often returned very incorrect information on very basic topics. Each wrong answer erodes my trust a little bit more. Lately to a point where I consider googling first instead of asking ChatGPT
It’s great for explaining entry level information on a wide variety of topics. More advanced / obscure topics are more prone to hallucinations. I used it to learn React and it was a great introduction.
It’s also great for solving issues when you’re stuck. Not because of its superior reasoning skills but it can solve beginner issues and write you a list of things to try when it doesn’t know the answer right away. It’s like a rubber duck that will talk back.
Did you use Spring back then? It would be a useful thing to learn. Might as well see if you like to do frontend things such as React / Vue
Yeah Spring wasn’t 1.0 until 2004. We had XML files upon XML files just to describe one single Java “Bean”. I did java programming from 2001-2002 and the again from 2011-today. Things dramatically changed (framework-wise) in that short decade I was away from it.
I would agree, Spring Boot and Spring are very useful to learn. React, despite having its origins in Facebook and still with Meta’s hands on it, is a good web framework especially if you use it with Typescript.
For getting a grip in current web development, I would recommend fullstackopen.com - it’s a free online course by the University of Helsinki and starts from basically zero, and gives you a lot of insights into web dev.
It may take some time, but it’s really worth it and an overall great course.
This is great. I’m going to try it out.
FSO is good, but it does assume some JS knowledge to start. I would argue that App Academy’s is more comprehensive (over 200hrs of material).
Or The Odin Project if you don’t want to cover Python in the curriculum and just stick to JavaScript.
https://www.theodinproject.com/
(The Odin Project also has an option for Ruby along with JavaScript)
One of the best tutorials on really “grokking”
gitconcepts, and it’s online and interactive: https://learngitbranching.js.orgFor programming, start with buildings things for yourself. Be practical, start small, and iterate, regardless if you consider the previous iteration was a success or failure. I’ve heard good things about https://automatetheboringstuff.com/ (in Python) in this regard.
Start with a git GUI application. I use git extensions on windows.
You’ll be able to get a feel for how it all works and it actually shows you the commands it’s running.
I also use bingai a lot when learning. The more specific your question the more likely you are to run into hallucinations and that. But for explaining basic concepts or query things that are well documented it’s really good.
It also sources it’s answers so you can follow the link for further reading if needed.
Just don’t trust it to generate large amounts of code.
So the big important part of git is that it’s a collection of commits. A branch is just a labeled commit and each commit is a list of what changed from the parent. Rebasing (the most confusing one for people) is when you fiddle with a commit from underneath yourself. Or in even more simple terms editing a parent commit. Rebasing is extremely powerful but most useful for when you notice a bug you wrote a couple commits ago. Fixing such issues via rebase (or
!fixupcommits you auto squash at the end) keeps your history clean. It’s as though you never wrote the bug. The other thing you do a lot with rebasing is moving your branch up in the history cause somebody updated the remote.I mean, this could be useful, but I need a much higher level of understanding. When I was a dev, all we used was basically version control. There was no concept of commit, pulls, etc. I’m having to understand this from a standpoint of no understanding whatsoever. For most devs, they’ve done this for at least a decade with Git. Git is so much more complicated than a simple version control. I understand why it’s necessary for large teams, but I still see it lke this:
You likely have a mental model of Subversion, so what I would suggest is to try to forget as much of it as possible first, as Git is very different.
Take a tutorial that is aimed at Git beginners, e.g. [1]. This will help you start building a new mental model as well as get first practical experience.
After that, read the official docs starting wtih the object model[2]. The reason why many people struggle to get into git, especially after using other VCS, is that it was built from the ground up, without much regard of the established conventions and terminology. Linus Torvalds once mentioned that he used his experience designing file systems when developing git.
So the object model of git is very simple, but also not intuitive. However, once you understand it, everything will start making sense, including the xkcd you’ve linked.
[1] https://gitimmersion.com/ [2] https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2/Git-Internals-Git-Objects
You’ve linked into it, but I was just going to point at the Git book: https://git-scm.com/book/en/v2
It’s an afternoon’s reading; it does an excellent job of giving you the right mental model - and a crib aheet of commands to navigate it.
When I stopped, subversion was what we used. I’m trying to understand Git, but it’s a giant conceptual leap.
It’s probably not ‘that much of a leap’ as you imagine. If you’re looking at Git tutorials, they’re usually covering all kinda complex scenarios of how to ‘properly use Git’. But a lot of people barely care about ‘properly using Git’ and they just kinda use it as a substitute for SVN… You create branches, you merge them back and forth, and that’s about it.
Like if you want to contribute to an open source project, all you have to do is create a fork (your own branch in SVN terms) - commit some stuff to it, and create a pull request (request to have your changes merged) back to the original branch.
git pullis justsvn update- getting someone elses commitsNot saying there aren’t more complex features in git, or that learning git properly isn’t worth it, just saying, I don’t think you have to see it as a ‘giant conceptual leap’ that’s preventing you from jumping back into programming. Easiest approach just to get started would be probably to just download a GUI like Sourcetree or Fork, and you just kinda pretend you’re still using SVN - approach wise
