Commuting tip for Developers

Something that I’m getting used to again with the freelancing is venturing back onto public transport and although I don’t mind it, its not exactly billable, there is only so much email and such you can sort, also as they are not long train trips (30 mins between connections) its not worth getting out your laptop even if there was space, so what to do??

Well write java docs and do code reviews actually,

I’m not kidding, all that documentation and stuff you are supposed to do but never do because it bores the hell out of you and you never have time for, is actually less boring when the alternative is staring at the sweating armpit in front of you, also you would be amazed how much clients love it when your code has proper java docs for all its functions (not to mention that they are a major deliverable in a big project Matt White and I are doing)

The next question is how?

On android at least that that is easy thanks to a little program called AIDE which is basically sold as a android dev IDE, but it has excellent GIT and Dropbox integration, meaning that we can just do a simple git clone of your app, then potter though it when you are travelling, updating the documentation to be just as you would want to find it***

In addition I have found and fixed a couple of scaling issues in my code thanks to being able to view it at leisure, so worth it just for that.

 

 

*It shows a commitment to a clients needs and there is no substitution for some face to face time to keep deliverables in focus

**In fact its not billable at all as I have learnt a important lesson from one of my client’s dealing with their own clients, that NOT charging for travel is excellent for achieving long term client relationships

***Yes I know you are supposed to document as you are coding, but if you tell me you document fully in the middle of a coding frenzy, then I will tell you you are a lying bugger. 🙂

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *