Here's to History: Programming Through Archaeology
summary
Compares archaeological methods to everyday repo work and shows concrete techniques: uses git bisect and git blame to find a bug introduced in 2012, adds a regression test and fixes a change where an authorization response drifted from 403→404; explains stratigraphy vs git log and how context (a pottery shard dating the Temple of Corinth 625 BC) anchors interpretation; argues for preserving commit context, clearer messages, and tests so future excavators can reconstruct intent and behavior.
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chapters (6)
- 0:00Introduction and background
- 3:53What is archaeology
- 9:54Human intention in code
- 13:22Context and stratigraphy
- 20:19Importance of context in code
- 23:11Technology and its roots
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