Hard at work

Well I've had a lot of extra time on my hands recently, and I've successfully procrastinated with about every task at hand. It's truly amazing how little you can get done, when you're petrified.

I've begun recoding Slick, using Java-style package names and a centralized namespace. (I got the idea from the fellas working on the dojo toolkit.) The process has caused me to extract the majority (and eventually all) of the nested functions and anonymous objects within my code, into object-definitions and prototype/method functions under a single tree.

The good news is that I'm working on it. The bad news, is that it's difficult work. Overall, this is the best practice to coding that I have ever taken on, and it will greatly support adoption, modification and documentation of the Slick system.

Instead of blathering on about my progress, and non-progress, my next few posts will focus on planning, tools, and workflow.

Using an under-disciplined language like JavaScript, as an amateur programmer, I've been at a lost as to good coding practices and tools. Sure, I've got my trusty text-editor (BBEdit!), and dabbled with version control (RCS - for individual use), but beyond that it's a toss-up with managing workflow, vision, scope, specifications and documentation.

That and more, next time - when I have the time!