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Comment by xp84

8 hours ago

Useless? So you never use “git annotate” or your IDE to see who wrote a line of code whose purpose puzzles you, and go to the commit message to see what they were trying to accomplish? This is invaluable to me as long as commit messages are clear.

As a manager, one of the first things I do is make sure that the PR titles (the PR text becomes the commit messages in squash-merging workflows) at minimum begin with a ticket number. Then we can later read both the intention and the commentary on it.

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xp84

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alt_422568  3 hours ago

> you never use “git annotate” or your IDE to see who wrote a line of code whose purpose puzzles you, and go to the commit message to see what they were trying to accomplish? This is invaluable to me as long as commit messages are clear.

You're thinking like someone with a mature understanding of version control. Plenty of developers seem set on going their whole careers using git like beginners.

PUSH_AX  8 hours ago

> Useless? So you never use “git annotate” or your IDE to see who wrote a line of code whose purpose puzzles you, and go to the commit message to see what they were trying to accomplish?

Personally no, the code is the "truth". If I need more I'm going to open a dialog with the author, not spend time trying to interpret a 7 word commit message, "good" or otherwise.

  • agateau  4 hours ago

    The code is the present truth, the commit messages can inform you about how it got turned into this truth. Interestingly, I recently wrote a short article about this: https://agateau.com/2026/on-commit-messages/

    • cratermoon  4 hours ago

      Your argument on conventional commits is something I've come to agree with. There are even tools that can generate release notes from conventional commits, and they are premised on the same mistake.

  • macintux  8 hours ago

    The code can only convey what is being done (and then, in some cases, only superficially). It can't convey what decisions were made, what alternatives were discarded, what business motivations may have led to that code.

    And for old enough code, the author may not be available, or more likely doesn't remember.