Getting started

I outlined 3 goals involving computers:

  1. finish the listen along feature on willshake.net for the Living Shakespeare recordings
  2. rebuild kimrice.net so that it doesn't require .NET (and can be moved to Linode)
  3. display my computing activity chronologically. Where? How about on this site, gavinpc.com

The lovely thing about this list is that these are all real live sites that I maintain. I have been working in a lab (codenamed sourdough) and this time around I need to work in the open, on my own turf.

my method

I work by writing.

Specifically, I work by writing documents, such as this one. Even when what I'm working on is a computer program, I work in documents. Two major reasons for this:

  1. My thought process must flow through time, and time flies like an arrow. There's no branching, and there's no going back. Even if the object of my attention is non-linear, my train of thought is one-way. Documenting this train of thought in a (substantially) forward-only manner reflects that reality and helps keep me focused on one thing at a time.
  2. Programs are ultimately for humans. The primary product is never code, but some story that may include code. Keyword: literate programming.