[edmccard]

>I reflexively ^S every couple of words...

Why not just decrease the autosave interval in your editor :)

>What's the purpose committing more often than logical chunks of code which can be considered in some sense "done"?

There are different degrees of "doneness". For example, (1) code that isn't finished but you don't want to lose it if the power goes out, (2) code that you're not sure if you're going to keep, but you'd like to be able to refer back to it even if you later decide to change it, (3) code that completely accomplishes its purpose in a logical and coherent manner.

I use "Ctrl-S" for (1), "git commit" to a local branch for (2), and "git rebase/git push" for (3). Maybe I'm just a sloppy programmer, but my workflow often involves writing some code, making certain changes, then realizing that what I really need is the previous version but with different changes. So for me, frequent commits on a local branch have replaced frequent saves under different filenames (foo.c, foo_old.c, foo_tried_it_this_way.c)

[mikeash]

My ^S reflex is almost 30 years old. It costs nothing, and occasionally saves me, so I have no reason to fight it. Autosave is great, but every so often you'll hit a situation where it turns out that it's not firing (misconfiguration or something) and then you're doomed. Belt and suspenders is best.

As for the rest, that's interesting stuff to ponder.