> > You could just publish local IDE history… Would be equally "good" I think. (My IDE is saving files every few key strokes btw; the resulting history would be a bloody mess).
> Google does this, it has saved my butt on more than one occasion.
You mean backups? Yes, backups are a very good idea.
But this has nothing to do with VCS. That are separate topics.
> Like my normal workflow is basically "change 2-3 files such that things are passing, hg commit, send for review", and then I continue working
As long as the requirements are so trivial even CVS would suffice.
But even considerably simple refactorings (in e.g. static languages) can be much more complex. It's easy to end up with hundreds of files changed. Than you need more powerful tools. Doing such things without the staging area is almost impossible to get right. (The only alternative would be quite some rebase sessions; and those are way more complicated than using the staging area upfront; also you would need some way to do diffs against "pined" changes—which is something you get for free with the staging area).
