What does version control remember that your latest file cannot?
Overwriting a file leaves you looking at its current state. Recording versions also creates a history that can be compared and revisited, while work that was never recorded may still be missing from that history.
Questions you could explore
- How is a working edit different from a saved checkpoint in version control?
- What could a history reveal about how a document changed?
Start reading
- Scott Chacon and Ben Straub; Pro GitGetting Started: About Version Control
Pro Git introduces version history, comparison, and recovery.
- Pro Git, hosted at git-scm.comGetting Started: What is Git?
Its explanation of Git’s states distinguishes modified work from committed history; this is not a promise of automatic backup.
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