GitHub needs an offline option. Why can't we manage meta information like pull requests and projects in a decentralized repository style but instead we seem to have to use a real-time UI in the browser that fails when there is no internet eventually.

How do people manage to work with GitHub day to day when there are power outages or when they're on a train crossing areas with no internet connection?

You can use git directly for that. Github's major selling point is bypassing the crappy git CLI and make it usable.

Also, most people have reliable power and connections. They don't work in trains, but in offices or with WFH. It's a non-issue.

As you *specifically* mention pull requests and other things....

Because it's important to have that online.

Pull requests with unordered comments, as the comments get updated randomly on having online connection...

Oh Lord, that's a nightmare.

Or do you mean a read-only kind of offline?

If yes, well... That's cause people like it that way.

You can say what you want, but mailing lists solve exactly that problem.

@IntrusionCM the comments wouldn't get out of order but you would need to solve the merge conflict in pull request state

@Fast-Nop so at home or office, everyone is always online every day of course, at least if you're working in Silicon Valley I guess

@usr--2ndry It's like that in most parts of the world where it matters. If the infrastructure is so unreliable that basic shit doesn't work, you're looking at a country that has more pressing needs than accessing Github - which is why it won't matter to Github anyway.

@usr--2ndry @Fast-Nop you're both from Germany

@electrineer yeah 😂
the thing is tho, even in DE the experience can be different. I remember i had a Power outage last year across two days in the middle of the week, because some old ass cable broke, without having a redundant cable (which they implemented afterwards). It still didn't prevent it from corrupting my server's OS because i was boldly believing, that Power in DE is stable. Basically one phase of the 3 phase power broke, which rendered some rooms unusable and some rooms not.

I also remember, that DE has laws specifically for ISPs against messing around with their customers, and that using measured data as proof is default, for good reason.

So yeah... atleast internet shouldn't be a base for usability of software, and atleast the always online problem is not impossible to fix either. But i somehow doubt, that Github will ever release an offline desktop based app, ever.

Still. I think this is a problem of people thinking git = GitHub.

Which is false.

Pull requests are a "GitHub feature", they are not a core git concept, do of course, they depend on GitHub's infra working.

Then again, how do you expect to manage a *decentralized* repository *offline*?

That's an oxymoron if I've ever seen one.

@CoreFusionX Actually: https://git-scm.com/docs/... 🧐

@CoreFusionX That's what git's stash is for: decentralised offline.

@Oktokolo

I stand corrected. Seems pull requests is contemplated by git.

Then again, like everything else, if offline, you can't do jack shit with it.

@CoreFusionX You can commit everything in a normal workflow, using the stash for each commit, and then when you do get online again, sync up everything at once with the remote repo. That's the point of the stash.

@electrineer @usr--2ndry @Fast-Nop I'm German, and that's an ongoing paradox between objective well-being and luxury on one hand, and disappointment about how we fail to either solve our first-world problems properly or change our view to a global perspective and stop start making an impact on the crisises with all our country's wealth, knowledge and influence.

But then again, once we start tentatively following one path or another, we fail again and see how little wealth, knowledge and influence we as individuals actually have. Or maybe we do but we need to adjust our goals and expectations to our real position as pawns on life's chessboard.

Trying to work on a German train regularly is a good first step for becoming more humble and grateful again.

@Fast-Nop

I'd argue that's not the point of stash.

You can commit all you want even if you are offline. That's the point of git.

Once you are online again, you can push/merge/rebase or whatever.

Stash serves for when you want to keep a set of changes but do not want to commit them for whatever reason (and actually, that's a use case that happens, and can be done, offline.)

@usr--2ndry With German trains, I have much more urgent issues - such as missing connections due to delays, completely cancelled trains, heating gone in winter, AC gone in summer, or lost seat reservation because the train has been changed for a model with different coach layout.

Means, if you get around to ranting about committing code on trains, that must already be an exceptionally good day.

@CoreFusionX You can send pull requests per email and they can then be applied locally by the recipient. And Git actually fully supports working fully offline where you carry pull requests around on usb sticks (not sure if anyone uses it that way, but it is a fully supported scenario).

Also: With earlier version control systems you really can't do shit without being online. If your Git server is offline, you can still use almost the full functionality of git on your local copy and then can sync when the remote becomes reachable again. You can commit, branch, reset, merge, rebase, cherry pick... all locally. And when you get back online you fetch, update and rebase before pushing or making a pull request.

@Fast-Nop i dunno 'bout you, but on a long train ride i would be too bored to not code on something.

As an anecdote, because were speaking of train rides anyways:
i travel to Switzerland on a regular basis (6-7h ride), and whenever the borders were crossed, the internet connection immediately improved, despite dem swiss mountains. To a point, where i could easily work on code via remote desktop.

Reproducing the same problem with one of those notorious home box router wifi combination devices used as a new cheap default by Telekom, Vodafone, Telefonica, O2, that don't go along well with my wifi card, I notice that GitHub is one of a few websites that time out very quickly when the majority of other websites loads fine when treated with a little more patience.

Edited an issue comment in GitHub's online UI,

clicked on the save button while offline,

GitHub: "failed to fetch", editor closed,

issue unchanged, edits gone.

Has anyone ever thought of inventing something like local storage or exception handling?

@usr--2ndry

Browsers implement (and for good reason) explicit limits on all kinds of local storage.

When working with online-expected stuff, you gotta be prepared to deal with offline problems.

I always tend to copy paste a long field before submitting a form just in case.

@CoreFusionX it's not that it's a large amount of data, sometimes a complex argument fits in a few lines of text. I always used to Ctrl+C before send back in the days. I should adopt that habit again!