deephacks

Tools4j-config is in steady progress but there are still a lots and lots of ideas and functionality to be implemented. At the moment i am working mostly on integration with OSGi and Eclipse RCP/SWT which have been very time-consuming since I havent had any past hands-on experience.

I spend roughly 20h a week on the project and it can be quite exhausting to be honest, especially since I do this on my own. There is a lot more involved than just happy hacking. I need to do field research, take notes, learn new technologies, write documentation and examples, testing, release management and of course think long and hard about purpose, goals, design and conceptual integrity etc.

It is very easy to get carried away into one direction and then accidently neglect the rest. But one good thing about having a tight time-account is that I have gotten (even more) obsessed about my productivity. Good tools truly are a key ingredient in the software development soup.

But the hardest part is the lack of feedback. I have only myself to trust that the project is going in the right direction which can be a bit demoralizing sometimes. I have to tell myself to stay focused, have patience and work hard. However, no users means that the project can change easily, but I cross my fingers that the open source community gradually will begin support me with feedback in the future.

It is not all about wanting success. The project is of course also a very stimulating and fun hobby. I love programming and this something that I wanted to do for a long time. I did not anticipate the great feeling of freedom that allow me to take my time to do stuff right. Very refreshing! I have also stopped watching all that junk on TV and doing mindless website surfing. There is still time over for friends, training and work. Blogging maybe not so much, eh?

Anyway, there is now also a logo for tools4j-config to give the project some identity and style.

I knew I wanted something fresh that would not invite old-fashioned hierarchical thinking into mind. With the logo I have tried capture what I think configuration management is all about: decentralized, autonomous and organic patterns that tell how small pieces connect together to make a whole.

The picture was bought from www.shutterstock.com for a few dollars then resized, some text added, convert to png using GIMP and Voila!

What do you think?

I like coding at night.

Turned off phone, twitter, mail and facebook – quiet with no distractions or interruptions. Dimmed-down lights, but not dark. 3-4 hidden low-light sources does the trick. It is really easy for me to get into the zone under these conditions.

Typing speed increase, keyboard-shortcuts comes easy, not a log statement get missed, bugs get slapped silly, clarity – there is no spoon, creativity flows, time disappear and nothing but the activity itself exist. A highly productive state of absolute concentration and focus.

Long coding sessions like this hurts my eyes since my blinking rate goes down dramatically under these conditions. A lot of bright colors on the screen is not an option for me. I need colors that are easy on the eyes and blends into the environment.

Zenburn is low-contrast color scheme that was originally designed for vim, but there are themes for Eclipse, Emacs, bash and other editors aswell. You can of course also use the palette as inspiration to adjust your environment to your liking.

Here is an example of what my desktop can look like during a coding session with zenburn’ish settings. I haven’t yet figured out how to get Ubuntu to tone down that bright grey colors around the edges of Eclipse though.

It may seem like a silly detail but zenburn really help me to not loose focus from tired and sore eyes. I can code for hours and hours with it and it is by far the best color scheme I have found.

What tricks/techniques do you use to get yourself into the zone and stay there for longer periods of time?