@agressivelyPassive @technom That's a self-fulfilling prophecy, IMO. Well-structured commit histories with clear descriptions can be a godsend for spelunking through old code and trying to work out why a change was made. That is the actual point, after all - the Linux kernel project, which is what git was originally built to manage, is fastidious about this. Most projects don't need that level of hygiene, but they can still benefit from taking lessons from it.

To that end, sure, git can be arcane at the best of times and a lot of the tools aren't strictly necessary, but they're very useful for managing that history.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I'd still argue, that the overhead is not worth it most of the time.

Linux is one of the largest single pieces of software in existence, of course it has different needs than the standard business crap the vast majority of us develop.

To keep your analogy: not every room is an operating room, you might have some theoretical advantages from keeping your kitchen as clean as an OR, but it's probably not worth the hassle.

[–] chamomile@furry.engineer 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

@agressivelyPassive You should still clean your kitchen though, that's my point.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

Did I say anything otherwise?

[–] zalgotext@sh.itjust.works 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

To keep your analogy, most people's git histories, when using a merge-based workflow, is the equivalent of never cleaning the kitchen, ever.

[–] agressivelyPassive@feddit.de 0 points 7 months ago

No, it's not. And you know that.

Seriously, ask yourself, how often did the need arise to look into old commits and if it did, wasn't the underlying issue caused by the processes around it? I've been in the industry for a few years now and I can literally count on one hand how often I had to actually look at commit history for more than maybe 10 commits back. And I spend maybe 10min per year on that on average, if at all.

I honestly don't see a use case that would justify the overhead. It's always just "but what if X, then you'd save hours!" But X never happens or X is caused by a fucked up process somewhere else and git is just the hammer to nail down every problem.