HACKER Q&A
📣 999900000999

Why is version control so hard?


So I'm trying to teach one of my friends how to program yesterday

We are working on a project in Unity.

I quickly realized setting up Git, with ignore and LTS is just too much.

I told him for now, just make sure to zip up the project and upload to Dropbox once a week or so.

And Unity themselves tried to add collaborate, to the editor but didn't work right.

Why ?

  👤 chiefalchemist Accepted Answer ✓
Probably unpopular to say on HN but ultimately VC benefits from having a visual representation. Have you looked at something like GitKraken?

https://www.gitkraken.com/

Everything you have to imagine / visualize is reflected via a UI.

👤 superchroma
It seems to me they didn't build the engine and file structure with source control in mind and that it was an afterthought. They didn't make the setup with unit tests in mind either for that matter.

That said, I do track my unity projects in git. It's heavy but works ok these days. What's too much about it for you?

👤 verdverm
You are trying to teach programming with the wrong tools.

Use python or JS and avoid game programming. Game programming is not for the novice. There is no need to push version control on a beginner, this is just extra stuff which adds confusion.

Start with functions, to show how to build reusable pieces with good abstractions, then scale up

Your best bet will be to help them find a good course and act as the "TA"