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March 25, 2008

I've had a really bad habit when using subversion since I first started using it in 2004: I like to write fictional stories in the commit messages

It started as a training exercise to write better comments. Then it quickly became a way to do blogging/creative writing at work.

Depending on the project, I'd take on different personas. For a particularly awful project I was working as a PM/co-Developer on, I recall writing every commit message as a mentally unstable contractor who just got his first job out a vocational school. My character was paranoid and delusional... hearing voices and always scared that people would find out he has no idea what he's doing.

Integer? Y the fuck dn't thy just call it NUMBER???

On another project, I wrote as a middle-aged midwestern Sr. Developer. He was always missing his daughter's plays, and worked in a nondescript cubicle in a cliched office tower. He often felt guilty that his dreams of seeing the Sun /not/ just on his morning commute began to catch up with his desire to spend more time with his family. His boss looked like Dilbert.

- Performance tuning: Updated the SQL abstraction layer to better use function indexes - I hear its a beautiful outside today. Thanks to a calendaring mistake in the head office, I won't be able to see for myself. Did I mention that my daughter is in a play on Friday, and I'll probably have to miss it? No one reads this stuff, do they. No one. Am I alone here?

Sometimes I would write Haikus

Sometimes I would create new accounts under different names, and write out a dialogue between two committers... much like a screenplay.

Every so often, I would write in a 'nervous' message from an unnamed contractor:

I got you the proof of over-billing and rigging the machines. Get me out of here, NOW. I think they're onto me.

With that all said, subversion can be a really great way to relieve the monotony of your day... and fuck with your colleagues.

Posted by Jonathan at March 25, 2008 6:41 PM

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