When should I make the first commit to source control?

Posted by Kendall Frey on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by Kendall Frey
Published on 2012-11-22T15:26:52Z Indexed on 2012/11/22 17:10 UTC
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I'm never sure when a project is far enough along to first commit to source control. I tend to put off committing until the project is 'framework-complete' and primarily commit features from then on. (I haven't done any personal projects large enough to have a core framework too big for this.) I have a feeling this isn't best practice, though I'm not sure what all could go wrong.

Let's say, for example, I have a project which consists of a single code file. It will take about 10 lines of boilerplate code, and 100 lines to get the project working with extremely basic functionality (1 or 2 features). Should I first check in:

  1. The empty file?
  2. The boilerplate code?
  3. The first features?
  4. At some other point?

Also, what are the reasons to check in at a specific point?

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