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To track the changes and rollback them if necessary, use GitHub, Bitbucket, or GitLab. If you don’t know how to use Git, consider using a GUI client; if this is too much either, use a bunch of local timestamped copies and compare them using Meld or another comparison application.

I want to discourage beginner programmers ("students" for short) from using comments to track changes. Instead of using comments, I suggest them to use one of the three options:

  • Git (for the most ambitious students)
  • Git + GUI client over it (for students that are not that ambitious)
  • Local copies + comparison application (for the least ambitious ones)

I'm not sure that if this is too much either is a correct way to show the jump from the second option to the third. I tried to find usage examples, and there are very few of them.

  • Google: "if this is too much either" - only 2 real results, 0 trustworthy (e.g., from New York Times or some book).
  • Google: "if this is too much as well" - 0 results.

And so I think this phrases are wrong. How to fix it? Or may be I should choose the completely different one?

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  • I think your choice of words are perfect. The second option though sounds weird to me. I mean it is right, but doesn't fit into this context. – Dhanishtha Ghosh Sep 15 '20 at 16:41
  • @DhanishthaGhosh "The second option though sounds weird to me." - Which exactly phrase you mean? – jsv Sep 15 '20 at 17:35
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    I was taking about the second bulleted point at the ending of your question, "if this is too much as well"...that one. – Dhanishtha Ghosh Sep 15 '20 at 17:48
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    In general, compound words that can be used as a noun or a verb are written as one word when used as a noun and two words when used as a verb. For example: Please set up the software and configure it, Setup and configuration should take no more than 15 minutes. – Kevin Sep 15 '20 at 18:03
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First of all, a native speaker probably wouldn't say "rollback them". I would definitely say "roll them back" or "perform rollbacks".

It does not make sense to use either here. I would suggest taking that whole if phrase out and replacing it with "Or, ...", "Otherwise, ..." or "Else, ...". Keep it simple!

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Either doesn't really fit - the way you're using it, you'd normally pair it with a negative phrase, like "if you don't know how to use this either...".

Personally I'd go with "if this is also too advanced" or "still too advanced", but something a little gentler like "if you're not comfortable with Git/this/these advanced tools" might be better, so they don't feel bad if they look at the Git manual pages and go pale :D

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