pursuade me to use git

I'm the only person who will ever work on my own website and it's great to know that I can edit and lose track of all the files I change. Then with beanstalk I can just commit + push and it will deploy all those files to my server. I also have caching setup and have a deployment hook to make sure that's cleared on every push.

Using git with deployments takes so much hassle out of that whole process. It's nice to never have to touch ftp.

Having a record of all your history and comments is great. Deployment is great. All professional software developers use source control for every project: it's just so clearly the right way to do it.

It's really hard to convince someone about the benefits of source control who hasn't experienced them. So let me tell you my own journey to source control. Like you, I worked on my own files for a long time: I would edit them directly on my server, and I would keep backups off the server.

Then one day I wanted to contribute some code to a WordPress plugin on GitHub. I emailed the owner my changes, and he told me just to do a pull request on GitHub. It took a bit of time to figure it all out, but I eventually did. I submitted the pull request for the code, and it was included.

Then I started a couple of collaborative projects, and I had to figure out even more of Git to set those up. It was complex and a little painful, yes, but it was worth it.

Now, when I start a personal project, I wouldn't even consider not using Git. No one persuaded me to do it: instead, I used it first for a collaborative project and now wouldn't even think of not using it. The first thing I do is create an empty Git repository and pull it down to my development environment. No questions. No deliberating. I just do it. Whatever else I'll need to do with the code base -- deploy to a production server, invite a collaborator, whatever -- I know I can do because I have a Git repository for it.

@Steve, +1 for no more FTP!

great feedback thanks!

I'd suggest you use Bitbucket because unlike github they offer unlimited free private repos and supports both mercurial and git.

Compared to Git, Mercurial has:

• More GUI options
• Easier to learn
• Better cross-OS support

Read more about the pro's and con's of Mercurial vs Git

Mercurial is easier to use, but its simplicity comes at a cost :) For everything that Mercurial does more easily than git, there's a potential issue that could bite you once you start doing more complicated interactions (which inevitably happen if you're working in a team).

$0.02

@Tommy - What is this potential issue of which you speak?