These criticisms of git always seems so shallow to me.
'add' tells git to start tracking some file(s)
'commit' tells git to save the currently tracked files
'push' says "upload my changes to some other location." Git isn't dropbox magically 'rsync'ing the directory to some server.
'pull' says "download any changes from some other location." Same deal as push.
That should satisfy the majority of git casuals that get frustrated with it. You should learn the tools of your trade, and version control (specifically git) is one of the tools of the software trade. If you work adjacent to software why is it so hard to learn a little about git?
I hate the word mansplaining but this comment could go into the dictionary as an example.
The point was that this bothered me when I used git for the very first time (what is it like 15 years ago at this point) and indeed did not understand it yet. Hope your comment made you feel better about yourself at least.
> The point was that this bothered me when I used git for the very first time
and that is fine. From your original comment, you "just" wanted to save things and got confused why you had to `add`, `commit` and `push`. Its just that you didn't know that git isn't a word processor that gives you a way to save your work - you've done that already when you saved the file with your editor.
When I came to git, I was also confused why commit and push are different steps - so much work, I thought. Until one day it finally hit - wait, this lets me keep "saving" my work locally until I'm ready to upload it - which is when I push.
> I was also confused why commit and push are different steps
I think most people think about file access in the word processor terms, like you mentioned. You "edit," "save," "upload," and "download." Actions like that.
Then they have to use git for the first time and the terms/actions are really foreign. It's likely made worse if they have experience with auto-syncing file software, since that software does the whole remote management process for them.