In one timeline a quick path to clarity. In the other a long and painful journey trying to understand the obscure intent of a line of code. The only difference between these two realities? The revision history.

This is a talk about writing maintainable code. But rather than the code itself, we’ll see the impact a codebase’s history can have on its maintainability. We’ll explore the differences between a useful history and an unhelpful one, and you’ll learn about the practices, tools and techniques that can make the difference.

Tekin Suleyman is a freelance consultant who’s been shipping Ruby code for over a decade. He’s worked with teams, large and small. He also runs the North West Ruby User Group in Manchester.