Weeknotes #10

Monday’s are usually awash with meetings, and this week wasn’t any different, but there was still time to get the meaty header/navigation component merged in. We’re starting to aggressively track time, so it’ll be interesting to look back and see how long this component took and what we can learn going forward.

Now we’re down to two full-time dev’s at Clearleft, it’s really important we prioritise code reviews. Cassie and I ran through a pull request and performed a review. Simon wrote a great article on objective code reviews, which we used as a frame for the exercise.

Being objective, this allows us to write code in our own personal style; after all, there are many ways to solve the same problem. So long as the criteria are met, the code is acceptable… We also agreed that the code was under review, not the coder, so any perceived criticism need not be taken personally.

In addition, we’ve begun consolidating a list things we’d like to tweak and document for frontend development here. It’s very early days, but it feels good to start nailing down some conventions and seeing where we can improve. We’re going to set some objective and achievable goals too, and probably kickoff some internal projects to stretch our coding muscles. Good fun!

After a few failed attempts, I managed to record a demo of the JS loop pedal, and get it ‘out there’. I still can’t quite believe it’s all running so relatively well in the browser - I keep waiting for it to creak and fall over, but it’s holding up so far!

Work wise, it’s been a week of design snagging and documentation. I quite enjoy snagging lists; achieving lots of bite-sized tasks feels pretty great, and doesn’t require absolute flow state. What does, is writing documentation. It’s so important; and often overlooked, but good docs will make a huge difference to those consuming your code.

I’ve written a few posts this week, including one on the ex-office tradition of ‘snacking’, and a tiny lesson on only showing first letters in CSS!

Songs of the week

• Drink - Jamie Cullum
• Killer + The Sound - Phoebe Bridgers, Noah Gunderson
• Striking - Francis and the Lights

Photo of the week