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Massively increase your productivity on persona...

Massively increase your productivity on personal projects with comprehensive documentation and automated tests

Simon Willison

October 17, 2022
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  1. Massively increase your productivity on personal projects with comprehensive documentation

    and automated tests Simon Willison, DjangoCon US 2022 Talk notes are linked from github.com/simonw
  2. Coping strategies for the serial project hoarder Simon Willison, DjangoCon

    US 2022 Talk notes are linked from github.com/simonw
  3. Tests Prove that the implementation works Pass if the new

    implementation is correct, fail otherwise
  4. Every project should start with a test assert 1 +

    1 == 2 is fine! Adding tests to an existing test suite is SO MUCH less work than starting a new test suite from scratch
  5. Documentation Same repository as the code! Document changes that impact

    external developers Update the docs in the same commit as the change Catch missing documentation updates PR / code review
  6. What goes in an issue? • Background: the reasons for

    the change • State of play before-hand: embed existing code, link to existing docs • Links to things! Documentation, inspiration, clues found on StackOver fl ow • Code snippets illustrating potential designs and false-starts • Decisions. What did you consider? What did you decide? • Screenshots. Animated screenshots even better! • When you close it: a link to the updated documentation and demo
  7. Temporal documentation It’s timestamped and contextual You don’t need to

    commit to keeping it up-to-date in the future (but you can add more comments if you like)
  8. Don’t remember anything You can back to a project in

    six months and pick up right where you left off
  9. Avoid side projects with user accounts If it has user

    accounts it’s not a side-project, it’s an unpaid job
  10. If your project is tested and documented, you have nothing

    to feel guilty about (That’s what I tell myself anyway!)