I don't think so:

> Back in 2015 I was suspicious of abstractions and big on tests and version control. Code seemed awash in bad abstractions, while tests and versions seemed like the key advances of the 2000s.

> In effect I stopped thinking about version control. Giving up tests and versions, I ended up with a much better program.

> Version control kept me attached to the past. Both were counter-productive. It took a major reorientation to let go of them.

I don't get what they mean by "Version control kept me attached to the past."

You don't have to look at the history to use other features of version control. Typically everything is moving forwards in a repository.

Best guess, a reflexive need to keep diffs as small as possible. Personally I think this is a completely wrong mindset, having version control is what allows you to go wild because you can always use the version from before a crazy refactor - and if it goes wrong you can even keep it around on a branch for reference later on with a second attempt.

Holy cherry-picking batman.

Oh good, Reddit seems to be leaking in again.

He specifically mentions version control and avoiding merge conflicts, so I'm pretty sure it's stuff like git that he's finding himself cautious about.

How do you get a merge conflict with yourself?

By maintaining a family of related forks/branches: https://akkartik.name/freewheeling

Thanks a bunch, now the coffee is on my keyboard.

By trying really hard

That makes sense, but then why not just work on trunk and don't worry about branching?

This is about a desktop text editor built with LUA on a C++-based native framework for writing 2D games: https://git.sr.ht/~akkartik/lines2.love Very unlikely to have versioned API endpoints involved.