Quip.net - David Stiller Résumé

Documentation

Commented Code

Luck is the residue of good design.

Philosophy

Keeping people informed is not only useful, it’s essential. When the communiqué involves training, information becomes even more pertinent. Generally speaking, the farther one has to look for information, the longer it takes to find. For this reason, I believe strongly in the return on investment of writing things down.

Examples:

Effectiveness: In the the corporate realm, it is not uncommon that a project is delayed several times, often with months between active and inactive periods. Well commented code can be a lifesaver when productivity resumes, especially when several people are involved, or an initial developer passes the baton. It amazes me, after so many years in the business, to still see uncommented code. I’m something of an “evangelist” in this area.

Second Nature: It takes a bit of practice, but before long, commenting and documentation become habit. This philosophy applies across the tool arsenal, from programming IDEs to Photoshop; even HTML and CSS are not immune.

Zeal may be tempered by a project’s deadline, but as time allows, I tend to:

  • sift through libraries, casts, and layers to delete unused assets;
  • develop snippets, behaviors, and classes, reusing code as often as possible;
  • note 3rd party Components and Xtras by name to differentiate between native code and methods / properties provided by the other software;
  • keep layered Photoshop originals use logically named layers and layer groups to categorize regions;
  • attribute code snippets to the original author, with URLs and email addresses when available, to allow for painless updates;
  • plenty, plenty more!