Comments on: How to use source control – treat it like a video game

By: João Marcus Christ

João Marcus Christ — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 13:36:16 +0000

“The more frequently you commit, and the more organized you are about it, the less you have to worry about keeping track of every change you make.”

If you’re using SVN and only commiting “production-ready” code, it’s not possible to commit ofter. What, you never heard of companies that don’t have any kind of automated testing, test plans, or even test/staging databases and application servers?

By: Joe the Killjoy

Joe the Killjoy — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:58:25 +0000

The tricky part is merging the savegames…

By: JLR

JLR — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 07:08:16 +0000

You know, this actually helps.

I already commit often, but somehow thinking about it this way makes things clearer. I think this will help orient me when using version control.

Thanks for taking the time to write it up!

By: Shawn

Shawn — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 00:00:25 +0000

I agree on commit often but I think “quick-save” is a poor analogy. Commits should be more like checkpoints. Places to return to after you’ve met a certain condition (fixed a problem, updated code, etcetera) rather than when you think you might break something. There should be a milestone, however small it may be.

By: Marius Gedminas

Marius Gedminas — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 23:37:36 +0000

There are games where you can save at any point. That doesn’t work well with code: you should only be checking in working code. Perhaps a game that has specific save points and won’t let you save at other times would be a better analogy. On the other hand, that might leave you checking in not as often as you should be.

I prefer to look at source control as a game in its own: find the smallest self-contained meaningful code change on the way to whatever you’re trying to achieve, then commit that.

By: Successful Scrum | csixty4

Successful Scrum | csixty4 — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 20:42:33 +0000

[...] I talk about the need to treat the less fun aspects of programming like rituals. For example, treat checking code into source control like saving in a video game: Now, back to my game, what if I come to a fork in the road. I can go left through the ominous [...]

By: Justin Lilly

Justin Lilly — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 19:28:31 +0000

I really like the point you’ve made here. Haven’t really thought of branching in that way.

I can’t help but be reminded of playing through mike tyson’s punchout on my NES emulator. I would save game state after every successful punch so I could quickly revert if something went wrong. A bit of cheating, but a fond memory

By: Nub

Nub — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 18:14:43 +0000

Am I the only one who, upon reading the title, thought this would be something about highscores in terms of number of commits?

Good article, I absolutely agree. I used to do the same thing on “Below the Root” back on the Apple IIc — omg I am old.