How do you organize all your coding resources?

13    24 Jul 2015 00:08 by u/Du3ts

I am trying to think of the best way to organize all my thoughts and really plan out my next idea. I was wondering what some of you do to plan out your projects. I want to make sure I know what to do and what I will have to figure out when the time comes. So far it looks like excel will be the best route but maybe there are some nifty applications out there to help with this kind of stuff?

13 comments

4 u/n3tw0rkm3 24 Jul 2015 00:35

You should check out Papaly if you're looking to organize all your work across platforms. There is a lot of other resources out there but this one fit perfectly for me across platforms.

My Coding Board: https://papaly.com/alinnert/dMw6/Web-Development

0 u/pinguinos 24 Jul 2015 03:10

I've seen your board before from a comment before. How's that? Do you get money from people clicking on links on your page?

0 u/n3tw0rkm3 24 Jul 2015 03:28

I wish that was the case with all the tools that I use and share!

4 u/king_of_voat 24 Jul 2015 00:59

Classic paper notebook (and no I'm not old)

2 u/Craftkorb 24 Jul 2015 00:15

I have it in my head. What I visualize ends up on sticky notes. Stickys are great in general. Quick and simple, easy to acquire, and not bound by any limitations of random tools. E.g., I just thought about an authentication scheme. I drew a small login button, some steps as text or small 'images', and then a bunch of arrows. Doesn't need much more. Before you found those elements in some kind of tool, you either forgot it or took way longer than drawing a rectangle and putting some text into it.

In general, don't over-engineer on this level. If I had to share this stuff over the Internet with coworkers, I would probably use some kind of multiplayer paint and use it as whiteboard.

1 u/ITW 24 Jul 2015 00:30

OneNote. I have a surface pro 3 and I draw everything out on it. Also useful for boring meetings. I have a whole page dedicated to drawings of eyeballs. There is some project info on there but nobody cares about that. They people come for the eyeballs not my notes, that is my contributing to the meeting.

Markdown files in version control is pretty legit too.

1 u/Master_Foo 24 Jul 2015 06:24

Generally, the most planning I do is to create the model first. So, I open MySQL Workbench (of alternate database equivalent) which has a diagram browser of the relational structure of the database.

This gives me a good idea of how to plan the project itself. Because 90% of the project is going to be determined by the structure of the model anyway.

After the model is created, often a scaffolding script can read the model and make a bare-bones prototype of how the program would roughly work.

I like this approach because the planning isn't just "mental masturbation" It actually creates a usable prototype which can be demonstrated.

TLDR: don't draw things out. Make a prototype of the model.

0 u/404_SLEEP_NOT_FOUND 24 Jul 2015 13:19

I do this when the requirements are coming from a lead (a BA/Product manager/VP/etc). When it's my project, I have to start with UI-screens mockups to make sure that my model doesn't just run-away and turn into a design-paralysis type of thing. That's just how my brain works, as you can see everyone has their own way of thinking.

0 u/Master_Foo 24 Jul 2015 15:48

That's fine, whatever floats your boat. I have a few problems with the "Top Down via UI" approach though.

The reason I don't draw things out is because I consider the UI "marketing". For the same reason you wouldn't make the package for the toothbrush before you design the actual toothbrush. I won't design the interface before the model.

The model is the product. The UI is just what marketers use to sell the product.

UI is a subjective thing while the model is objective. Put 3 guys in a room and have them approve the UI and they will be there for hours arguing. Put them in a room with a model and

  1. They tend to think more rationally about what the NEED and less about what the WANT

  2. They would rather get out of there because models are boring to pointy-haired-boss types.

Also, a project is likely to have multiple UIs, especially if it's a RESTful project. So, when I have a prototype of the model I just send the marketing guy the API and tell him to do what he wants with it. He can build a UI for web. He can build a UI for Android, etc.

Generally, I think UI should be considered separate projects in the same way designing a toothbrush is a separate project from designing a toothbrush package.

0 u/anak1n 24 Jul 2015 01:32

I have a specific folder of bookmarks for online resources, sticky notes as book marks in book resources, and then other stuff I have either written down or in a txt file in a directory.

When trying to outline a new project, I just use my white board. Or I'll have brain storming sessions with someone to kind of weed things out. I also have this little notebook/journal thing that I write things down, just general ideas.

0 u/404_SLEEP_NOT_FOUND 24 Jul 2015 13:17

Notional Velocity. I need to be able to just type it out as it streams off of my consciousness. So far that's the only real productive tool I have found. Others have too many workflows which really break my concentration.

I also use "Tree 2" (OSX outliner) to better organize the chaos that can happen when a linear note gets too big. If I had to, I would write an app that makes breaking a linear note into a Tree system by merely selecting the text and letting it form a new window/bubble. Since ideas tend often sporadically spawn new categories.

0 u/whisky_cat 25 Jul 2015 21:49

I've used Google Docs with Google Drive's file system for that kind of planning. Can keep documents, graphics, spreadsheets organized in folders. Of course there are those who want nothing to do with Google.

0 u/mash_taiters 26 Jul 2015 02:28

I use Evernote (premium). I started using it years ago and it fell by the way side. I started using it wrong, so it didn't really work for me.

I fired it back up again a year or two ago, and have it organised in a way that parallels my workflow. The biggest thing that actually made it work and become so powerful was to put everything in it. I use the android app to photgraph handwritten notes, napkin sketches, etc., and if there's a key email I forward that to my evernote. I now have thousands of notes, but have used notebooks, titles, and tags to make it all searchable.

Why is it so powerful? I now have everything of import in a single place, so no more wondering if that thing was on a sticky note, email, whatever - I know I can find it easily in evernote. Also, I have a brain like a sieve, so I'm able to dump thoughts to evernote and get on with my life without worrying about forgetting things.

I know it doesn't work for everyone, but it you use it right (i.e. always) it can be very powerful.