Thread by @jakedowns

it's funny. no matter how many programming projects I work on, when I get into refactoring and things break (from namespace changes, etc) i always feel awful until everything is in working order again. like ashamed...

i know there are tools to help with this phase. and i know if i were more diligent about writing tests, they’d catch things every step of the way

but sometimes when i’m working on an mvp, i forget about those things. so like, it’s a mess of my own making

and i could go through my commit history, and do diffs to identify breaking changes

but i always wind up doing this loop of like: test. fix error. test. fix error. and it’s probably more time consuming and inefficient than it needs to be

for some reason it’s still my instinct to work this way and i find myself doing it again on my latest project.

i feel like i should be better than this at this point. and have a stable prototype that is good enough to show off at anytime

but maybe that’s unrealistic given the timeframes i typically work with

and for some reason, it feels right, this sketchy, move fast, break things mode.

it helps me recognize natural places to cleave the code into different sections and double check that all the properties and methods i’m working with make sense and are still useful and necessary

upon reflection, i will try harder to write tests sooner and maybe start planning ahead more. it’s like head down, straight ahead animating vs keyframed animation. both are valid styles and have applications when trying to achieve particular results

i typically avoid “architecting” my code up front, because then it becomes overly verbose and i create bottle necks and paint myself into corners before i’ve executed a single line

there’s a balanced approach i’m sure.

just wanted to express this for anyone else who has ever felt it. I’ve been coding for 10+ years and i still find myself in this frustrating place.

it’s a practice. and there’s always room for improvement.

this week i’m going to try to not take it personally or get down on myself because my prototype isn’t ready for viewing or looks busted.

it’s a work in progress. #WIP #RespectTheSketch