Feel free to print out a copy of these commandments and tape them to your coworker's monitor.
- You shall check in early and check in often. You anger your coworkers when you check out a file and insist on keeping it checked out until some future point in time that is measured using variables that exist solely in your brain.
- You shall never check in code that breaks the build. If you code does not compile, it does not belong in the source control repository.
- You shall not go home for the day with files checked out, nor shall you depart for the weekend or for a vacation, with files checked out.
- You shall leave a descriptive comment when checking in your code. You need not include your name or the date in the comment as that information is already tracked.
- You shall use the 'Undo Checkout' option if you check out a file and do not make any changes. It displeases your coworkers when you check in code that has not changed at all from the original.
- You shall not use comments to 'save' defunct code. Fear not, for the code you delete still exists in the source control code history and can be retrieved if needed.
- You shall use source control for more than archiving just code. The source code control repository makes an excellent storage for technical docs, SQL scripts, and other documents and files related to the project.
- You shall religiously backup your source code control database on a regular basis and store a copy in an off-site location.