views:

47

answers:

1

If I have a procedure definition that has been stored in source control, is it necessary or helpful to keep the 'tombstone' up to date as well?

Here's what I mean by a 'tombstone':

CREATE proc [dbo].[getCreditTransactions]      
AS   
/*
2001-02-12 jdoe : created proc
2003-04-15 kdoe : added handling for credit business rules 
*/
etc... 
A: 

To not update the tombstone, would assume that people are entering pertinent information when checking the update into source control. This was a big problem at my last job - it was company policy but there was no means of implementing business rules to enforce the behavior.

A benefit of having the tombstone updated would be:

  • to see history without needing access to source control
  • if source control software was changed - the history wouldn't be lost.
OMG Ponies
it seems like a problem along the lines of code review: the only way to get people to put good comments in source is to check up on their butts from time to time. I wonder if most good SCMs have a switch for forcing people to put in comments. Still, I find the tombstone to be of really dubious value. Like anyone could really use that tombstone to put the proc/view/whatnot back to the state it was in before the change.
jcollum
@jcollum: The shop used JIRA, and commits were supposed to quote the jira issue number at a minimum. There was talk of integration/testing to ensure they were valid but nothing came of it in the time I was there.
OMG Ponies
@OMGP: Not a good omen... my shop uses JIRA right now....
jcollum
@jcollum: Confluence too? If so, you are doomed! DOOMED! :)
OMG Ponies
the only answer wins by default!
jcollum