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This is my workflow and has been for the past 10 years or so. Whenever you think of something else that needs doing, write it down so you stop feeling the need to keep it in mind.
Excellent; but does it ever get done?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Excellent; but does it ever get done?
Yes. In particular, if you use the same place to note down things you want to do in the first place. Then it boils down to continuously reviewing the list and picking the next thing to work on.
How is something as frivolous as taking notes while programming, which many people do, worth a blog post and a mention here on HN? Let alone turning it into some dogmatic principle to work by, by calling it 'log driven' programming. What is next? Keyboard driven programming? 3-monitor-driven programming? I do this: While programming it pays off to stop and think about the code. I call this, thought driven programming…
Yes you are a very clever person, who doesn't need this blogpost. Good for you.
# after running 'irb'
puts "Hello, World"
How is something as frivolous as taking notes while programming, which many people do, worth a blog post and a mention here on HN? Let alone turning it into some dogmatic principle to work by, by calling it 'log driven' programming. What is next? Keyboard driven programming? 3-monitor-driven programming? I do this: While programming it pays off to stop and think about the code. I call this, thought driven programming…
Yes you are a very clever person, who doesn't need this blogpost. Good for you.
How is something as frivolous as taking notes while programming, which many people do, worth a blog post and a mention here on HN? Let alone turning it into some dogmatic principle to work by, by calling it 'log driven' programming. What is next? Keyboard driven programming? 3-monitor-driven programming? I do this: While programming it pays off to stop and think about the code. I call this, thought driven programming…
In my experience, not a lot of developers manage to organize their thoughts well enough to write them down. Maybe you manage to work with only people who can write down their thoughts coherently. But that's the rare exception and not the norm.
This is exactly what I mean with something becoming a dogma when you call it 'xyz driven' programming. You are painting a picture where taking notes while programming is a requirement of being a good programming. I am saying that it doesn't have to be.
Peter Buwalda is a Dutch writer who takes multiple showers a day. He says it helps him overcome his writers block. There is also some science behind this; it turns out your senses will be so busy with the steady flow of sound, the feeling of the water and the fact that there is no visual distraction that you can focus on your thoughts better. He isn't the first to realise this, hence the term 'shower-thoughts'.
So, one could argue, 'shower driven programming' is something we should all do. Installing showers in offices for this purpose or expecting people who work at home to take multiple showers a day in order to focus would be nonsense, but then I could also counter by saying "Well maybe you manage to work with people who can focus without taking constant showers, but that is not the norm."
Ridiculous right? So why isn't it ridiculous to demand that people take notes when programming?
Some of the replies on my comment have been along the lines of 'will someone please think of the children!' with reference to junior programmers. What junior programmers don't need is yet another dogma by which they should 'drive' their development.
It would have been completely different if the 'post' would have been 'Taking notes while programming can be helpful'. That strikes a completely different chord, namely, a helpful one. The word 'driven' does what you demonstrate: it makes people feel inferior when they don't do whatever the given driver is.
Ostensibly, this is what TODO comments have always been for. Realistically, I guess it's probably better that these types of comments remain out of the code itself unless you and your team can practice proper rigor around them, e.g. using prehooks to enforce that no TODOs are left around before committing or merging.
> I guess it's probably better that these types of comments remain out of the code itself unless you and your team can practice proper rigor around them, e.g. using prehooks to enforce that no TODOs are left around before committing or merging. Why? If they're "out of the code" they still can be ignored before committing or merging just as well...
I could train myself to regularly grep for TODO comments, and perhaps I will, but so far adding them to my actual 'todo app' is much more effective.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience, not a lot of developers manage to organize their thoughts well enough to write them down. Maybe you manage to work with only people who can write down their thoughts coherently. But that's the rare exception and not the norm.
"Maybe you manage to work with only people who can write down their thoughts coherently." This is exactly what I mean with something becoming a dogma when you call it 'xyz driven' programming. You are painting a picture where taking notes while programming is a requirement of being a good programming. I am saying that it doesn't have to be. Peter Buwalda is a Dutch writer who takes multiple showers a day. He says it…
Who, exactly, is demanding anything? You're way overblowing what is just a useful suggestion from someone who probably realized that would have been useful earlier in their career, and hence is trying to help others.
It's "log driven" because the logs, when read back, direct what you work on. Making that title to be some sort of mandate is inferring something that, frankly, simply isn't there.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience, not a lot of developers manage to organize their thoughts well enough to write them down. Maybe you manage to work with only people who can write down their thoughts coherently. But that's the rare exception and not the norm.
"Maybe you manage to work with only people who can write down their thoughts coherently." This is exactly what I mean with something becoming a dogma when you call it 'xyz driven' programming. You are painting a picture where taking notes while programming is a requirement of being a good programming. I am saying that it doesn't have to be. Peter Buwalda is a Dutch writer who takes multiple showers a day. He says it…