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Comment by PUSH_AX | Hacker News Reader

I haven’t found meaningful use for history in years. Neither has anyone on any of the teams I’ve worked on. Nitpicking git practices really feels like a waste of time. Pick something that works and roll with it.

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I regularly look up the git blame on lines of code; I’m hoping to get anything from “documentation” on magic numbers, to seeing what else that line went with, although usually to find out who to go ask when I find a WTF.

Before I started regularly looking up that ‘blame’, I also didn’t care too much about got history. Now, I put some effort into making my own history useful to everyone (including future me).

Future me advocates are the best advocates.

Then why are you even using a VCS?

To work on the same code base as the rest of my team? Like everyone else. Certainly not to nitpick about how history is written, in what order or what is omitted.

I'm very surprised you've never gone hunting for bugs in your git history.

"Hey something went wrong with X service"

Find commit like "add y to x service'

It's a time saver to me. Plus if the bug is extra tricky, you can ~easily~ revert or pick it out.

I did try when I was a junior. I learned this relies on good commit messages, and the information can be lost during squash. Honestly if I’m playing the role of bug detective I’ve become much faster using other techniques.

"I've found history is useless because people don't maintain good history, so don't bother with maintaining a good history"

Pick something that works != don't bother. But nice attempt at misrepresenting my argument!

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