Sent as a file, or kept in a repo

after an original for the documents-in-git lesson

Sent as a file, or kept in a repo one spec, three people

one spec · 84 linesthree people touch itthree weeks later, one question

they part company here — where the change lives

Attachment

it travels as a copy

spec.xlsxTanaka
spec_latest.xlsxSato
spec_latest_suzuki.xlsxSuzuki
spec_latest_suzuki_v2_final.xlsxTanaka

Search the thread, ask around, guess.

copies of the truth4
who changed whatno mechanical answer
getting the last version backsearch the thread

Repository

it stays in one place

spec.mdmain
  • a1b2c3dspec: first draftTanaka+84
  • b4d5e6fspec: fix the timeout wordingSato+2 −1
  • c7e8f90spec: add the SSO sectionSuzuki+11

git blame line 41 → b4d5e6f → “fix the timeout wording”.

copies of the truth1
who changed whatevery line knows
getting the last version backone command

three weeks laterSomeone asks why the timeout is 30 seconds. On the right that is one command, and the answer arrives with its reason attached. On the left it is an archaeology project with no guarantee of a finding.

None of this is about Excel being a bad program. It is about an attachment being a COPY: the moment a document travels as one, “which version is true” stops having a mechanical answer — and every habit a team invents to compensate (a naming convention, a shared drive, one person who remembers) is an unpaid version-control system with no diff.

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