Keep a programming journal • Hacker News Board

Re: Keep a programming journal

#21

Post by lelandbatey » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:03 PM UTC

I agree, though I would extend the call to more than just a programming journal.

All my life I've been told that keeping a journal would be a worthwhile and valuable experience. However, I could never stick with it for more than a few days or a week at max.

Cut to this summer, where I got my first "real" job, and made friends with a very cool guy[1]. At some point, he mentioned how he adapted the idea of journaling into his life. He had encountered the same issue I had, where he could never keep a journal for any amount of time. Instead, he bought a moleskine large notebook and began using it for notes of all kinds.

The genius is that while it is an organizational tool, it also acts as a "no-effort journal." He showed me all the things he had been working on and thinking about just by looking back at the previous pages of his notebook.

With his advice in mind, I have also started keeping a notebook just to write things down in. It's tremendously helpful for my own organization, and it gives me a clear view of all the things I've had on my mind.

In short, I recommend a notebook for everything in your life, not just programming (although a separate programming notebook may be worthwhile to you).

[1]http://adamryman.com

Re: Keep a programming journal

#22

Post by roqetman » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:11 PM UTC

I've learned to keep a log of all the work I do (so I can search for information on request or if I want to recall something months or even years later), but I just use a specially formatted vim file (that has references to other scripts etc. if needed). More recently I've started a personal version of this to keep me on track with my own app projects. I love the look'n'feel of a physical journal, but it's just not practical in the long run for the work I do.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#23

Post by lenkite » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:29 PM UTC

I use Google tasks and an android app. There isn't currently a great desktop app for Google tasks and I don't like the gmail web interface for tasks so I am building one in C# using AppBars. I guess I publish to HN when done :p

Re: Keep a programming journal

#24

Post by southphillyman » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:31 PM UTC

What kind of developer doesn't keep notes? 1 half of 1 wall in my bedroom is WHITE BOARD. The first thing that I'm greeted with when I wake up in the morning are problem sets and notes on my bedroom white board! I have note books from 2004 full of notes and pseudo code. I have EverNote and I have Notepad++. Note taking and diagramming/planning is SO essential in my opinion.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#25

Post by kabdib » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

I use various sizes of acid-free Strathmore Sketch books. Nice surface for drawing or sketching, and they're relatively cheap.

Different size notebooks for different size ideas. A friend of mine (who I stole this habit from) said he had a coffee-table-sized sketchbook at home that he'd never used, because he'd never had an idea that big. :-)

Re: Keep a programming journal

#26

Post by autotravis » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:39 PM UTC

asynchronous13 wrote: post #10

My background is in Electrical Engineering, and we were always taught to keep a work journal with specific features so it would be a legal document. I just figured they were trying to sell us the more expensive notebooks. That is, until some colleagues were called to court to testify in a patent challenge about the contents of their journals (regarding work from 10 years prior). I take my journal a lot more seriously…

"If the notebook is bound (can't add or remove pages), with pre-numbered pages (proves no pages added or removed)..."

Does anyone know of a good place to get an inexpensive (and leatherless) one of these? I would say any notebook would work, but I haven't ran on to many with numbered pages.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#27

Post by kstenerud » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:41 PM UTC

All my notes (of which there aren't many) are kept in text files in a well known directory, along with all my code. I can grep for things I've solved or thought about in the past and get the information instantly. And since it's electronic, I can back it up, copy it, and access it from anywhere.

The only times I've found myself needing paper is when dealing with graphics programming, in which case it's simply for figuring out the best way to tell the computer how to do something. Once it's in code, I don't need the paper anymore; I can just grep for it.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#28

Post by agentultra » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

Do this for every hobby you have as well, whether carpentry, learning Mandarin, or reading.

Keeping a record of your thoughts is so useful in establishing how you arrived at your current opinions. It helps you to make the mirror on yourself much clearer. I find it immensely useful to look at how I've approached problems and discover new insights from the patterns I can glean in my journals.

Plus it leaves behind a record of yourself in meat-space. Depending on the nature of the up-coming apocalypse this might come in handy.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#29

Post by pnathan » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:45 PM UTC

roqetman wrote: post #22

I've learned to keep a log of all the work I do (so I can search for information on request or if I want to recall something months or even years later), but I just use a specially formatted vim file (that has references to other scripts etc. if needed). More recently I've started a personal version of this to keep me on track with my own app projects. I love the look'n'feel of a physical journal, but it's just not p…

I keep an org-mode file in emacs as a log of thoughts and actions. It's pretty useful, especially as as a retrospective.

Re: Keep a programming journal

#30

Post by JamesLeonis » Wed, Aug 29, 2012, 5:56 PM UTC

I started doing this when my last job offered free spiral bound notebooks. For a couple of years I've kept an intermittent traditional journal, but I've found many were too cumbersome for my hands or my writing. The spiral bounds have the advantage of cleanly flattening out when open and going from one page to the next. The page size suited me for both long form writing as well as enough space to draw out visual diagrams. They also help when I start up the next day, as I know what I was thinking from the day before.

I kept written notebooks for several years now. These contain anything including scratch paper, programming logs, long form writing, and ideas. I use standard spiral bound notebooks that always go on sale this time of year for a buck. They are reasonably well made and stand up to the abuses that I throw at them. Right now I am carrying three of these with me along with my laptop. My current notebook has four website ideas, one story idea, one game idea, and nearly two dozen short essays.

At the top of the page, I generally give a title to what I'm doing. I have some common labels, like what the project is or the title of a short essay. Right now I don't have a way to organize it, so I'm usually flipping to find what I'm looking for. Sometimes I become distracted by reading about something else I wrote months before, and it would inspire a new essay or idea.

I'm currently trying out some ways to digitize my old journals so I can put my old notebooks in long term storage and not disturb them. If anybody has some suggestions, I'm open :)