Bug writeups

[denise]

Since ninetydegrees posted recently about dev journals, and since I'd like to see dw_dev_training used as a repository of tutorials and coaching as well as a place for people to ask questions, I thought about the bug walkthroughs a few of us were doing last year and wanted to know if people would be interested in bringing them back.

I'm envisioning posts here in dw_dev_training with anything from things you learned while working on the bug, the steps you took to figure out how to approach the bug, the wrong turns you took while working on the bug, things you tried that you thought should work but didn't and how you figured out what was going wrong, etc, etc. It could be anything from the immensely involved to a few quick bullet points explaining the process you took through the bug.

It wouldn't be anything that anybody would be required to do, but I know that if others were doing this too, it would inspire me to keep better notes about my dev work and my bug-solving process, and to write them up for others to learn from. I really appreciate seeing others' dev notes, because a) it reminds me that I'm not alone in making little errors like forgetting braces or semicolons; b) it gives me insight about how people approach problems, which I can take back to apply to my work; c) it reminds me to work on more bugs!

So, a poll:

Poll #3673

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 26

View Respondents

I find writeups of other people's bug solving process:

View Answers

Helpful
23 (88.5%)

Inspiring
17 (65.4%)

Annoying
1 (3.8%)

Intimidating
3 (11.5%)

Boring
0 (0.0%)

Something else, which I will explain in comments
2 (7.7%)

Assuming we did this regularly, I would write up my bug solving process:

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Often, whenever I had time/energy
4 (19.0%)

Semi-regularly, if the bug wasn't incredibly basic/boring
9 (42.9%)

Semi-regularly, if the bug was quick
6 (28.6%)

Sometimes, if the bug was really out of the ordinary and I thought someone could learn
11 (52.4%)

Almost never or never (I'd rather code instead!)
2 (9.5%)

Ticky:

View Answers

Ticky.
9 (39.1%)

Ticky.
9 (39.1%)

Ticky.
10 (43.5%)

TICKY DAMMIT.
16 (69.6%)

Comments

[cesy]

Maybe people could post links to recent writeups from their dev journals in the comments here? I kind of get the impression that writeups in this community are much more formally written than people's quick notes in their dev journals.

[denise]

Sure! We could even do a monthly post for people to link particularly interesting posts in their journals/dev journals/dev comms.

[pauamma]

I'm interested in others' bug write-ups more because of what tell me about the way they think than by what they tell me about bug-fixing.

Also, I'm more likely to post on design alternatives for bigger problems, as I did a few times already.

[aveleh]

There are a couple of styles-y bugs that I've intended to use as tutorials, once I actually have the time/energy to get my dreamhack set up so that I can work on them. These ones make sense because they're short, and the principles involved in solving them can translate to a handful or so other similar bugs. (That is, for me, I'd be most likely to write up my process on that kind of bug, than on one that is necessarily quick or unusual.)

Here's my something else

[ninetydegrees]

To be brutally honest as I too often am, as a newbie, I find them pretty unhelpful. I'll explain why: they're tl;dr for me, they mention some things I already know, other things I don't understand and it's hard to easily spot the bits that could teach me something (and the lack of specific tagging doesn't help). I would rather have more frequents posts where experts, quite experienced devs and baby devs would share the things they've learned when working on a bug. Or things that get mentioned in comments like "oh you did that but you could have done that, see?" That's very probably why I like dev journals better and wish there were more of them. It feels less formal and is more focused I guess.

[kareila]

I'd prefer this as well, from a workflow standpoint.

[matgb]

For the first one, um, 'all of the above' might be appropriate. They can be boring, intimidating and helpful at the same time.

And for "write up my stuff" what I probably mean is "I hacked this little fix into my layout and..." which may at some point progress into "I built a layout with all these weird features" because that's what I do.

Possibly less helpful, but, y'know, someone will benefit.