Keep a programming journal
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Keep a programming journal
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Re: Keep a programming journal
#2As long as we're on this subject, I'd like to strongly encourage programmers to adopt a "pen-and-paper" approach to problem solving. Just like mentionned in the article, there are great benefits coming from actually writing down the problem.
For the past year or so, every time I worked on a non-trivial problem, I did it on a sheet of paper. It definitely took discipline at first but now I couldn't do it any other way.
My motivation for adopting this approach came from reading a blog post by Guido Van Rossum (http://neopythonic.blogspot.fr/2011/07/before-python.html).
Then I went to university in Amsterdam to study mathematics and they had a computer that was free for students to use!
(Not unlimited though. We were allowed to use something like one second of CPU time per day. :-)
Re: Keep a programming journal
#3As long as we're on this subject, I'd like to strongly encourage programmers to adopt a "pen-and-paper" approach to problem solving. Just like mentionned in the article, there are great benefits coming from actually writing down the problem. For the past year or so, every time I worked on a non-trivial problem, I did it on a sheet of paper. It definitely took discipline at first but now I couldn't do it any other way…
I have a small (~A4) whiteboard for this reason. This method of writing pseudo-code to outline a solution is what caused me to learn Python as I found I was pretty much drafting Python code. I've found I produce much more efficient (and less buggy) solutions when I've stopped to think about them bit-by-bit.
Re: Keep a programming journal
#4I wish the article had a bit more meat to it. Not that this is a sin but he's just parroting things said in about 1000 other places by 1000 other people. Pen and paper good. Check. Daily journal. Check.
Re: Keep a programming journal
#5If you're interested in a digital approach to this, take a look at Labradoc (http://www.labradoc.com/) a site I created to make it easier to keep project logs.
I primarily created it for myself (http://www.labradoc.com/i/follower) because getting into the habit of creating project logs had a huge positive impact for me.
Here's an example of a small project I worked on earlier this year: http://www.labradoc.com/i/follower/p/project-sms-text-scroll...
I consider it a form of a "commit log for your day"...
Re: Keep a programming journal
#6I wish the article had a bit more meat to it. Not that this is a sin but he's just parroting things said in about 1000 other places by 1000 other people. Pen and paper good. Check. Daily journal. Check.
The OP is keeping a journal, so he has developed a real practice that works for him. I agree that a few sentences describing what he puts in there would have made this article stronger.
The second image of the journal page seems to show a list of possible approaches to a problem. The fourth image looks as if it has performance data and evaluation of a working system, so that is a couple of ideas. I think it is quite a brave thing to post the actual images. Perhaps fortunate the OP does not record team dynamics in his journal.
I work as a teacher, and I use a cheap page a day diary to record a few key points from each lesson. The 'readymade' aspect of the page a day diary seems to reduce the 'threshold' for making notes.
Re: Keep a programming journal
#7As long as we're on this subject, I'd like to strongly encourage programmers to adopt a "pen-and-paper" approach to problem solving. Just like mentionned in the article, there are great benefits coming from actually writing down the problem. For the past year or so, every time I worked on a non-trivial problem, I did it on a sheet of paper. It definitely took discipline at first but now I couldn't do it any other way…
After switching to a Model M keyboard a few years ago (one that I found in a shed covered in 10yrs of dirt and grease that still worked like new once it was cleaned up), I switched to writing conference call notes on a Mead notebook instead of typing them, because the keyboard was so loud.
After a few weeks of this, my handwriting got back to a decent quality and efficiency and now I find that I take notes on paper for all sorts of things. It's great for working through problems.
I tried a whiteboard for a while and it just didn't do it for me. I think there's something about the tactile experience of holding a notebook in my hand and scrawling on it with a pen; the movement, the sound, the texture of pen on paper, not to mention being able to keep and flip through previous work and go back and make notes in the margins that makes it far better than trying to work out problems on a computer or a whiteboard.
Re: Keep a programming journal
#8I actually use paper a lot. It is especially helpful when I am away from computer and I need to design a code flow, algorithm or just write down feature or todo list. Paper and pen rocks!
Re: Keep a programming journal
#9I've kept an engineering notebook for years. It was something I was told to do in college. It seem that the act of writing down the problem slows me down enough to focus my thoughts more on the task.
I've tried keeping notes on the computer and they are useful. But, I've never gotten the same level of focus from writing in an online journal. I wonder if the focus comes with practice. I type much faster than I write longhand, so perhaps I lose the trigger of slowing myself down.
Re: Keep a programming journal
#10My 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 now.
If the notebook is bound (can't add or remove pages), with pre-numbered pages (proves no pages added or removed), and entries are dated, it's pretty much automatically admissible in court. Loose or missing pages, hand written page numbers, missing dates -- won't necessarily make it inadmissible, but it leaves room for the work to be challenged by the opposing team.