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Dhwanit Shah
Dhwanit Shah

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The Importance of Using Source Control

A young monk arrives at the monastery and is assigned to work with other monks who have been copying the old canons and laws of the church by hand. He notices that each of them is copying from another handwritten copy, and not the original manuscript.

The next time he meets with the abbot, he points out that if any of the monks makes even a tiny error, then it could be passed down in subsequent copies. The abbot says they have been doing things this way for centuries, and such mistakes just don’t happen and decides he would compare a recent copy with the original manuscript to prove to the young monk the wisdom in their ways.

And so the abbot heads down into the basement of the monastery where the original manuscript is stored in a locked vault. Several hours later, when he still hasn’t returned, the young monk gets worried and heads into the basement, where he finds the abbot completely distraught, openly weeping. He runs over to ask what has happened, and the abbot keeps repeating, “we missed the ‘R’!”.

The young monk walks over to the manuscript to see what the abbot is talking about.

The word was celebRate.

And this is why you should always use source control.

Photo by Vlad Hilitanu on Unsplash.

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