GitHead questions from the uninitiated

[Alan Milewczyk]

On 03/12/2014 01:23, Jeremy Nicoll - ml get_iplayer wrote:
> Alan Milewczyk <alan at soulman1949.com> wrote:
>
>> In the last week or so, I've been patching get_iplayer using GitHeadWin to
>> make sure I'm using the latest version.
> That's not necessarily very sensible.
Can't do right for doing wrong.
> If you look through the commits log
> (as other people have suggested) you'll quite often see instances of some
> change being made and in the next few days more work being done in the same
> area of the code when it's discovered that the first chunk of work didn't
> take everything necessary into account.  If you patch at every opportunity
> you're as likely to give yourself problems as you are to get better code.
>
> It's probably a better idea to read the commits log and the descriptions of
> what's being changed, and every so often, when you think they may represent
> a moderately stable stage in development,
How would I know?
>   grab the latest version. Or do
> what almost every user does, wait until DP announces a new /stable/ version
> here, and grab that.
>
> Or, only grab a newer version from git if you've read here that some
> just-discovered problem - which you're experiencing - has just been fixed in
> git.
>
Think I'll invest in a crystal ball! ;-)

A