Why Small Git Commits Matter (and How to Make Them!)

Recap, Recording, and Resources from Our May 2025 Meetup

R-Ladies Rome hosted Maëlle Salmon for a remote session on the importance of small Git commits. Learn why they matter and how to implement them effectively.

Registered Attendees (51)

This May, R-Ladies Rome hosted a remote session featuring Maëlle Salmon: “Why Small Git Commits Matter (and How to Make Them!)”. The talk focused on the why and how of using Git more deliberately—especially the practice of creating small, atomic commits with clear messages.

Whether you work in code, prose, or both, using Git thoughtfully can transform your workflow—and your collaboration with others.

💡 Key Takeaways

In this session, we explored:

• 🧩 Why small, well-labeled commits improve traceability, reduce merge conflicts, and support collaboration
• 🧠 How to structure your work to commit in logical, meaningful units
• 🔧 How to fix and refine commit history with tools like git commit --amend and git rebase
• 🧪 How to experiment safely using saperlipopette, a package for practicing Git workflows in R projects
• 🎤 Bonus Q&A with community tips, questions, and shared real-world use cases

🎥 Watch the Recording

Missed the event? No problem—you can catch the full session on YouTube:

Don’t forget to like and subscribe to our R-Ladies Rome YouTube channel!

📦 Materials & Resources

• 🖥️ Slides from the talk
• ✍️ GitHub: Write Better Commits, Build Better Projects
• 🧰 Positron Debugging – Lisa M. Mowinckel

For continued learning: - 📘 Pro Git Book (free) - 🧪 Git for Data Science - 🧭 GitHub Learning Lab - 🧾 GitHub Cheat Sheet (PDF)

🧵 Why This Talk Mattered

At R-Ladies Rome, we’re committed to making tools like Git approachable and useful—especially for data scientists, researchers, and R users in biostatistics, public health, and beyond.

In this session, Maëlle showed us how even small improvements in commit practices can make a big impact: not just in terms of technical tidiness, but in our ability to tell the story of our work. Her message was simple but powerful:

Git is more than a tool—it’s a practice.

She helped us see version control not as a chore, but as an ally in building reproducible, transparent, and collaborative projects.

🤝 Get Involved!

• Want to speak at a future event? Drop your email in the comments!
• Have someone in mind? Suggest a speaker you’d love to see.
• Stay connected on Meetup, YouTube, and GitHub

Our events are free, open-source, and beginner-friendly. Every month, we share kick-start resources so you can keep learning after the meetup.

Let’s keep learning, coding, and sharing—one small commit at a time. 💜

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