May 04, 2010

Fixing things up

A detrimental side effect of bouncing between projects: intricacies are completely obscure by the time you get back. At least, that's true for me. And it's true of web work as well as writing, music, and visual artwork - leave in the middle of a highly-developed concept and return with a blank slate - but unlike those traditional arts, it's usually not a good thing.

I tend to build up levels of complexity easily, and only after many lessons learned (Why did I use this function? Why is this inline CSS and not in the sheet?) have I built up a meta-system that I bring from project to project.  Duplicate, iterate, and customize.  As I don't use many off-the-shelf grids or frameworks, this process has been harder than it otherwise might have been.  One interesting sidelight is that the meta-system gets a little bit better with each project. But because each project is independent in many respects, the latest and greatest improvements to my working environment don't typically get rolled up into past projects.

As I went back and refreshed this site, I had that strange sense of disorientation from being away from the code for so long. But also a small bit of satisfaction - I got to see where I was a few years ago, working with a "proto" version of a platform that has definitely improved since. Concepts I was just staring to incorporate have since been fleshed out and expanded. It's pretty gratifying to see that.

Of course I was too rushed to bring the site fully up to spec. Maybe next time.

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