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Cherie Burgett
8,711 PointsGetting frustrated with Git on windows
I really want to follow along with the video using git on my windows computer but it seams like every simple task is harder than it should be.
I understand that I have to use notepad instead of nano, no biggie. file paths end with .txt, not explained but I got past it, I get to the part about adding a discription to commit. it asks me to set up my user info. I do that. proceed to repeat steps to get back to where I should be to commit, I add some text and then .... how do I save this commit ?
Please include more teachers notes about the differences. There are far more then just.. oh remember to use notepad instead of nano.
James Barnett
39,199 PointsTagging Tommy Morgan on this one.
3 Answers
Tommy Morgan
Treehouse Guest TeacherI'm sorry this has been frustrating for you so far, and looking at it I can see why - I'll update the teacher's notes to address these issues. In the meantime, though, here's what I think you can do to hopefully make the experience better for you:
- Install GitPad. GitPad is a fix provided by GitHub that will force git on your system to use notepad as its default editor - something it occasionally does on its own, but in your case (and on my windows 8 gaming machine where I tested it just now) it seems to default to vim. Which is a fantastic editor, but it has a rather steep learning curve and can be a really frustrating piece of software if you're not familiar with it. GitPad is really easy to install, though (just look for the big "Click This Link" button, which downloads a .zip file containing the simple installer), and after that gets installed and you restart your git environment, git will use notepad every time it needs an editor.
- Files don't have to be named with a .txt extension, but it all depends on how you created them originally. If you want to rename your files to match what we do in the video, it should be as easy as running commands like
mv file1.txt file1(which renames file1.txt to file1) in order to make it easier to follow along.
I hope this helps, and again I'm sorry for the frustration - we wanted to make this as easy an introduction to git as possible, and clearly we overlooked some big Windows-related kinks in the process. Hopefully the fixes above will work for you, though, and because you raised it to our attention maybe we can help other folks avoid the same frustrations in the future.
Tommy Morgan
Treehouse Guest TeacherJust a heads up that I've updated the Teacher's Notes to include the above.
Cherie Burgett
8,711 PointsThank you, I personally dont mind trying to learn the vim editor. A little bit of a heads up though makes all the differnce when trying to follow along.
Alejandro Cavazos
4,250 PointsGit uses a shell text editor called 'vim'. To commit changes without going into it, do this: git commit -m "Your commit description"
It is some sort of shortcut.
Cherie Burgett
8,711 PointsCherie Burgett
8,711 PointsSo I've looked it up and apparently its esc then :wq . This is going to be a really frustating course.