Micro-optimisations

I finally got around to setting up some aliases for git commands that I issue many, many times a day. Can't believe it's taken me this long to do it. I've also placed them in a file in my Dropbox so I'll always be able to add them to any machine I work on regularly.

alias gs="git status"
alias gcm="git checkout master"
alias gp="git pull"
alias gd="git diff"
alias gcam="git commit -am"

Although I have a few other oft-used and favourite git commands, namely:

• git push - to push code to the server
• git merge master - to merge the code from master with code on this branch
• git checkout - - to switch to the previously-used branch (analogous to cd -)

I consider them either too powerful to be made dangerously accessible (in the first two cases) or, conversely, and perhaps not intuitively at first, too valuable to "forget" behind an alias (for the last case). I only recently discovered the - option to git checkout, but it's so good I'm deliberately trying to burn it into my brain.

This actually harks back to my first ever job as a professional engineer; we were using the mighty and fearsome ClearCase version control system, and I was tempted to shortcut some of the arcane commands required, but my manager (very wisely) cautioned similarly against aliasing away complexity. Don't underestimate the power of repetition for both muscle- and conventional memory!