16 ms·

cognitive load

durnygbur 7y ago
They same applies to software professionals who just would like "to code". Yet, the leverage of distributed version control proves to be exponential in the end.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  It really doesn't. In software, you need to track versions because you keep everything in multiple files, and you're making changes to multiple files, and you can have regressions with each new version. In a negotiated legal document, you have just the one authoritative version: the offer you've sent to the other party (or the counter-offer they've sent back to you). For lawyers, this takes the form of edits to the document as highlighted by the Track Changes feature. (Prior versions are basically irrelevant except for historical interest.) And even then, the document going back and forth isn't even the executed (aka "production") document, it's just the development version. Once the document is executed, the development versions get deleted because the executed document is the only truth legally and so prior versions absolutely do not matter.
  - durnygbur 7y ago
    One can equally think of the entire code base as a single document, and of the release version as an executed document. In the long run the non-release repository states don't matter that much either, they're just helpful for anyone willing to gain an insight on why the things work the way they do.
    - deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    - marktani 7y ago
      > In the long run the non-release repository states don't matter that much either That's not true. Many a times I needed to comb through old commits for debugging purposes. Also, with multi-branch development, you often have many non-release branches that are relevant at a specific point in time.
    - gamblor956 7y ago
      One can equally think of the entire code base as a single document No, you literally can't. They're separate files. A legal agreement is just one document. It makes a world of difference for version tracking. Also, software has versions. If you have an issue, you can just rollback to a working version. Legal agreements don't have multiple working versions. They just have the one, and you don't get to update it, because if you change it, you have a different agreement that supersedes all old copies, which are now longer worth the paper they're printed or or the bytes that store them. Sure, you could have needlessly more complicated version tracking for legal documents. But Track Changes in Word works fine, because the legal field doesn't need anything more complicated.
      - jameshart 7y ago
        A legal agreement is one document, sure. But a large scale legal operation like a sale of a company must consist of thousands of documents that are changing in concert, right? Wouldn't that be a case for a more comprehensive and consistent change control process?
        gamblor956 7y ago
        No, the sale of a company is governed by the one sale agreement.
        tingletech 7y ago
        manifest as one singular physical "file" with nothing incorporated by reference? Interesting.
        gamblor956 7y ago
        That is correct. Nothing can be incorporated by reference. The closest you can get are attachments which must be incorporated by the time the document is executed.
      - sjy 7y ago
        If the legal field doesn’t need anything more complicated, I suppose you think this Git repo is a pointless novelty, not something that would actually be really useful if it were available and authoritative for all statutes?

cognitive load

They same applies to software professionals who just would like "to code". Yet, the leverage of distributed version control proves to be exponential in the end.

gamblor956 7y ago
It really doesn't. In software, you need to track versions because you keep everything in multiple files, and you're making changes to multiple files, and you can have regressions with each new version. In a negotiated legal document, you have just the one authoritative version: the offer you've sent to the other party (or the counter-offer they've sent back to you). For lawyers, this takes the form of edits to the document as highlighted by the Track Changes feature. (Prior versions are basically irrelevant except for historical interest.) And even then, the document going back and forth isn't even the executed (aka "production") document, it's just the development version. Once the document is executed, the development versions get deleted because the executed document is the only truth legally and so prior versions absolutely do not matter.
- durnygbur 7y ago
  One can equally think of the entire code base as a single document, and of the release version as an executed document. In the long run the non-release repository states don't matter that much either, they're just helpful for anyone willing to gain an insight on why the things work the way they do.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - marktani 7y ago
    > In the long run the non-release repository states don't matter that much either That's not true. Many a times I needed to comb through old commits for debugging purposes. Also, with multi-branch development, you often have many non-release branches that are relevant at a specific point in time.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    One can equally think of the entire code base as a single document No, you literally can't. They're separate files. A legal agreement is just one document. It makes a world of difference for version tracking. Also, software has versions. If you have an issue, you can just rollback to a working version. Legal agreements don't have multiple working versions. They just have the one, and you don't get to update it, because if you change it, you have a different agreement that supersedes all old copies, which are now longer worth the paper they're printed or or the bytes that store them. Sure, you could have needlessly more complicated version tracking for legal documents. But Track Changes in Word works fine, because the legal field doesn't need anything more complicated.
    - jameshart 7y ago
      A legal agreement is one document, sure. But a large scale legal operation like a sale of a company must consist of thousands of documents that are changing in concert, right? Wouldn't that be a case for a more comprehensive and consistent change control process?
      - gamblor956 7y ago
        No, the sale of a company is governed by the one sale agreement.
        tingletech 7y ago
        manifest as one singular physical "file" with nothing incorporated by reference? Interesting.
        gamblor956 7y ago
        That is correct. Nothing can be incorporated by reference. The closest you can get are attachments which must be incorporated by the time the document is executed.
    - sjy 7y ago
      If the legal field doesn’t need anything more complicated, I suppose you think this Git repo is a pointless novelty, not something that would actually be really useful if it were available and authoritative for all statutes?