When I click the "forks" button on github, I want to get a summary, which is what I get with the network graph viewer - but it's not exactly ideal.
What I would ideally like is a summary that:
- shows commit messages and lists changed files
- excludes commits and branches that have been merged into other branches
- excludes commits and branches that have been merged into other branches, even if git doesn't "know" that they have been merged (i.e. a cherry pick or rebase rather than an explicit git merge or pull)
- give some indication of the "momentum" of a fork (e.g. commit rate, number of forks that have forked from it instead of forking from the original, etc.) so you can realise when a fork is heading towards becoming the de facto standard version.
- works with any given list of related repositories, in addition to github forks
In terms of usability, it should ideally:
- work well on a touchscreen device (where you can't hover the pointer, and the browser may already be using gestures for navigation, so you have to resort to an [on-screen] keyboard to scroll the github network graph). This could mean just a completely textual UI, or it could mean a GUI that doesn't use tooltips.
- work well for "fat-fingered" users (which includes touchscreen users, but also disabled/elderly users). It can be frustrating having to click or hover on a tiny little point to see a commit. It doesn't have to be that way.
The tool wouldn't necessarily have to show the graph relationships between branches. I'm generally most interested in what has changed, and most forks that I look at are simple linear forks anyway.
This would be particularly useful for repos with lots of forks.
I don't mind if the tool has to fetch all branches from all forks from github to do this (though it might make sense to make this a public, web-based app with some form of caching, to reduce the load on github for popular or heavily-forked repos).
something like this? http://dev.choonkeat.com/branchesapp/
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