I merely demonstrate my past-mastery of the obvious when I say that not all software features are created equal. There aren't too many applications, for instance, that could exist without "Save." But then there's Clippy.
But after today, my sense is that the separator between a crucial feature and a worthless bell/whistle is not (as I used to think) "What would I do if x were missing?" Rather, it's "What would I do if x only half-worked?" To wit: "What if my text editor only saved half the document?" vs. "What would I do if I could only kill Clippy half the time?" That sort of thing.
For a software development application, half-baked integration with version control (a.k.a. source control) is nothing short of an EPIC FAIL. My "tribe" and I learned that all too well this morning. In non-software terms, that's like the brakes on a car working only part of the time. Even 99% success would be unacceptable. Giving user data the same reverence as a newborn in her car seat is definitely not the worst ethos one can have as a software developer. Something I wish a certain brand-name company would grok.
