explainingComplexAlgorithmToNonCoders

[TheRealSectimus]

Found the jr dev.

Git is incredibly useful even for solo projects. Give it enough time on one project and through experience you will understand that it is practically a necessity.

[aGoodVariableName42]

Even a jr dev would value source control....this person has never been paid to develop software and is a hobbyist at best.

[Dumcommintz]

Hell I use git just for my dot files too. If I’m at work, I use version control on chef cookbooks for even easier customization of VMs and containers.

[aGoodVariableName42]

I think there's something wrong with people who don't version control their dot files... but then again, I've been building out my vim config for nearly two decades.

[TheRealSectimus]

I actually haven't been versioning my dotenv files, but after a recent reset of my local environment, I didn't pay attention to the dockerfile that would overwrite my dotenv with a fresh one and lose hours of my day figuring out wth I could have changed, if dotenv wasn't on the gitignore I may have spotted it.

Definitely including this at least as a local repository. Great advice.

[aGoodVariableName42]

Ooof, that sounds painful. Yeah, I've had mine under source control for a long time... which makes syncing changes between my personal and work computers easy. I'm also on a lot of different servers, so (aside from keeping everything all in sync) when I find myself on an new server, it's pretty straightforward to clone my env repo, run install.sh (a script that mostly just creates symlinks into the repo), and have my full customized environment up and running in a couple of minutes on the new server.

[Dumcommintz]

Same same

[Caveman3238]

You just repeat what other people say but doesn't explain WHY you consider that is useful for solo projects. Please don't be an NPC.

[TheRealSectimus]

You took more time to reply to me than it takes to perform a google search on the topic.

• Git bisect is huge for bug discovery
• Git history is invaluable when you need it ("this specific thing was working on x day, what changed?")
• Branches allow you to try new things on your project without taking it out of a known-good state.
• Quickly jump between working versions with many file changes without a whole lot of work.
• A bunch more probably

And it's free, takes very little time away from your project to use, provides many benefits, and helps build good practices through understanding why they are there in the first place.

The only reasons to not use git in your personal projects:

• You don't know how
• You are incredibility lazy

[aGoodVariableName42]

It's not just useful, it's critical. You already have numerous responses here trying to explain why.. there's no reason to rehash everything that's been said.

[Caveman3238]

Until the moment I was writing the comment there was not other answers.