How would you redesign git?

Question

Git is popular. We have years of usage behind us now. With the benefit of hindsight, if you could redesign it now from scratch, with nary a concern for backwards compatibility, how would you improve its interface or architecture?

JoeyBananas · Accepted Answer

I would change the term "The index" to "The staging area."https://felipec.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/git-staging-area-re...

felipec · Answer

So many things, but if I were to pick one, I would add a `git stage` command to work with the staging area (wrongly called "the index").git stage add (git add), git stage delete (git rm --cached), git stage diff (git diff --cached), git stage edit (not possible today)

marssaxman · Answer

That's easy: I'd replace git with mercurial.

wmf · Answer

Check out Gitless and Sapling.

more_corn · Answer

Name things better

How would you redesign git?

Git is popular. We have years of usage behind us now. With the benefit of hindsight, if you could redesign it now from scratch, with nary a concern for backwards compatibility, how would you improve its interface or architecture?

I would change the term "The index" to "The staging area."
https://felipec.wordpress.com/2021/08/10/git-staging-area-re...

So many things, but if I were to pick one, I would add a `git stage` command to work with the staging area (wrongly called "the index").
git stage add (git add), git stage delete (git rm --cached), git stage diff (git diff --cached), git stage edit (not possible today)

That's easy: I'd replace git with mercurial.

Check out Gitless and Sapling.

Name things better