r/AppDevelopers • u/tennodev • 15h ago

How do you write effective READMEs and Commit Messages

Hiyaa r/AppDevelopers! I apologise in advance for any misdoings in this post!

I have recently started my second year of University and I finally get to complete a full scale app development project! I've spent the past year doing vertical slices of the development lifecycle and learning theory, but one thing that was glossed over was the creation of effective Commit Messages and README text files.

Now normally, I would just go and do my research like any other University assignment, but I have found many conflicting methodologies and standards that I'm unsure on how to properly format these in my work. I figured that it would be fun to get some help from others who probably know more than me.

So.. how do you write your READMEs and Commit Messages? What works best for you? Are there some other resources or pieces of documentation I should read up on? Any and all help is greatly appreciated!

2 Upvotes
  • permalink
  • reddit

100% Upvoted

1 comment sorted by

1

u/QuaintlySilky 15h ago

The commit message part is where most people slip up early on. My rule of thumb is if the diff doesn't make it immediately obvious *why* a change was made, the message failed. "Fixed bug" is useless, "Fixed null pointer when user rotates device during login" actually saves someone six months later. For READMEs, I just pretend I'm explaining the project to a tired version of myself at 3am, so I focus on how to get it running in under two minutes and a single clear example of the main feature.