> I have yet to see a project fail because commit messages
That could be said about a lot of things. I have not seen a project fail because they didn't use tests, so you shouldn't bother to write any?
To use a close analogy, surprisingly many professional developers need to be reminded about the proper use of indentation and comments. Not because the project doesn't build otherwise but because code generally needs to be read much more than it is written. The only code that is never read again is failed code.
The same is true of version control. A couple of years ago it was very popular to think in terms of storytelling. Your version control system is the story about why your software ended up the way it did. It's a story that every new developer will need to read, partially. Even if you are the masterful engineer that instinctively knows why "made bugfix" was written that way and not another, at least put in the effort for those of us who aren't.
> That could be said about a lot of things. I have not seen a project fail because they didn't use tests, so you shouldn't bother to write any?
This is a false equivalency. Commit messages do not validate that the program functions. I can just throw random garbage into the commit messages and the program with tests will still function.
I know what you are trying to convey, I just think it's a bad comparison.
That could be said about a lot of things. I have not seen a project fail because they didn't use tests, so you shouldn't bother to write any?
To use a close analogy, surprisingly many professional developers need to be reminded about the proper use of indentation and comments. Not because the project doesn't build otherwise but because code generally needs to be read much more than it is written. The only code that is never read again is failed code.
The same is true of version control. A couple of years ago it was very popular to think in terms of storytelling. Your version control system is the story about why your software ended up the way it did. It's a story that every new developer will need to read, partially. Even if you are the masterful engineer that instinctively knows why "made bugfix" was written that way and not another, at least put in the effort for those of us who aren't.