When comparing Xcode vs gitk, the Slant community recommends gitk for most people. In the question“What are the best Git clients for macOS?” gitk is ranked 14th while Xcode is ranked 22nd. The most important reason people chose gitk is:
When using gitk to scan a long list of changes, the user is able to see more of the list without pagination, as there is no huge buffer of whitespace between each entry.
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Pros
Pro Live syntax checking, built-in documentation, code completion
Makes programming quick and painless.
Pro Great iOS integration
iOS integration makes it easy to deploy apps.
Pro Easy to install
Just head to AppStore and install it for free.
Pro Visibly more compact overview output than many other options
When using gitk to scan a long list of changes, the user is able to see more of the list without pagination, as there is no huge buffer of whitespace between each entry.
Pro Fast
Since it's pretty minimalistic and does not contain a lot of features (for example, it can't commit), it's quite fast.
Pro Free
Gitk is a free and open source tool. It forms part of the official git suite.
Pro Comes with Git
Gitk is a part of the git package, so no additional application is necessary: it is developed right alongside git itself.
Pro Easy to use
Cons
Con Cannot commit
The user needs to use a different Git client (GUI or otherwise) to commit changes.
Con Does not automatically update
The user must press F5 to refresh the view as there is no automatic update available.