I look through commit messages and try to link it up to a Jira ticket and piece it together. Often the original developer has left, or if they are still present doesn't remember why.
Most of the time I don't know why something was done a particular way .
In the corporate environments I've worked in it is often company policy that all commits to source code control should have messages that start with reference codes to the coresponding ticket in the issue tracker (often jira). This how I look up the whys and wherefores of code changes.
A lot of places just don't do this. Unless there is a threat of a written warning some devs will do the bare minimum. I currently work with a guy that sometimes doesn't even run the code he checks in, I doubt he really knows how to code and everything is basically AI, management won't do anything and it the only remote job I could get. Another guy I work with won't do basic CSS fixes to things that are broken, so I cleaned up the login page for the site he is responsible for.
By whose judgement is the css you speak of 'broken'? Just making random code changes without a corresponding ticket is a recipe for troubles down the line. If you must do unprioritised work at the bare minimum create a issue tracker ticket to provide more information than can fit in a commit message. Something like selenium is good to automate acceptance testing (with screenshotting) cross browser as well.
> By whose judgement is the css you speak of 'broken'? Just making random code changes without a corresponding ticket is a recipe for troubles down the line. I
Obvious display issues in a mobile app on the login which is the first thing you see. Like the login not being on the page, things being misaligned (by quite a lot). Fixed in like literally 2 minutes.
This is basically due to laziness.
> If you must do unprioritised work at the bare minimum create a issue tracker ticket to provide more information than can fit in a commit message.
I create tickets for each commit I do. So people know why I have done things. These people don't do anything of the sort.
> Something like selenium is good to automate acceptance testing (with screenshotting) cross browser as well.
I can't even get these guys to write basic unit tests for React components.
There are two different worlds. There is the world where things are done more or less properly and there is the rest of us. I've heard of some places that don't even use source control, CI builds or anything that may have been novel 25 years ago.