On good commit messages

The evolution goes on.  Now that we’ve kind of sorted out most of our infrastructure, development tools, flows and processes, I guess, it’s time to look deeper into the things we’ve had for a while and reiterate over them.

Recently, I’m seeing a lot of blog posts on articles on how to write good commit messages.  Sure, we’ve had these for a while.  But lately things get a little bit more serious.

Here’s one (in Russian) that I’ve read recently.  Here’s another one (in English) that shares some of the concepts and suggestions.

What are they saying?  Well, “write better commit messages”, obviously.  But there are a couple of specific bits which I found interesting.  They are:

  • Conventional Commits – a specification for adding human and machine readable meaning to commit messages.
  • Commitizen (git cz) – a tool that help to write conventional commits.

For the skeptics among you, I slightly share your feeling.  It does seem like a bit too much overhead.  But as someone who works with an ever-growing team on a large number of projects, I think there is a place for it.  It’ll take a while to integrate, update the process, and enforce the discipline, but I think it’s well worth it.  At the very least, it deserves a try.

Jon Richardson: A Little Bit OCD

I really enjoyed Jon Richardson’s documentary on the obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).  OCD is one of those weird mental disorders where almost everyone has it to some degree.  It can even be funny at times (especially during those code review or paired programming sessions).  But it can get extremely serious, to the point of people actually dying from it.  And it can progress real quick too.

It’s OK to have a laugh here or there, but it’s also important to remember that it’s not just a hip thing to say, and that there are people who suffer significantly from the OCD.

Very eye-opening. 

Internet Search Tips

This title almost sounds stupid, right?  I mean, pretty much everyone who has ever been online knows how to Google.  Even kids.

But I promise you it’s not.  Searching for quick and simple stuff – yes, sure, is easy.  But not many people I’ve met know how to use even Google’s advanced search options (despite there being a gadzillion articles online), let alone other search engines.  Searching for something non-trivial, like research papers and books, is even trickier.

Hence the Internet Search Tips.  Here’s the intro from the author:

Over time, I developed a certain google-fu and expertise in finding references, papers, and books online. Some of these tricks are not well-known, like checking the Internet Archive (IA) for books. I try to write down my search workflow, and give general advice about finding and hosting documents.

Awesome git addons

Awesome git addons is yet another one of those curated awesome lists.  This time it’s for git version control tool.  And once again, it’s mind blowing.

Git itself is a very flexible and powerful tool.  But it truly amazing how far some people take it.  In the list you can find anything from aliases for complex commands, to full-featured integrations with GitHub, git flow process, deployment tools, and much more.

Practical programming projects

Mega Project List is a list of practical projects that anyone can solve in any programming language. These projects are divided in multiple categories, such as algorithms, data structures, networking, security, threading, files, web, databases, graphics, and more.

There’s also a separate repository with solutions, in case you need some assistance.