This is a site that has lots of CSS examples for how to layout forms.
I love those commercials from some hotel chain that have a guy walking into a surgery room in a suit and tie and the nurse asks, "Have you ever done brain surgery before?" and the guy answers, "No, but I slept at a
Those commercials crack me up because it would never happen in surgery, but happens all the time in the development community. "Have you ever written a web application before?" and your manager replies, "No, but I use the Internet at home, how hard could it be?" Then they want to jump in and help design the whole thing. I have seen this time and time again and never really could put my finger on exactly what was going on, but Katie put it nicely. People want to simplify the do magic here part of writing specifications and applications for that matter to the point that anyone can do it.
Just like in wood working, or metal working, you still need the right "tool" for the job if you want it done right. In this case, the tool just happens to be a human.
I grabbed this from Joel. If he isn't in your RSS feed reader, you should change that now.
I have never included the estimate for setting up the CM environment while estimating the schedule of a system. This usually means that the time is never taken to properly configure a system.
I learned early on that you can't live without a CVS repository... so I MAKE the time to ensure there is a CVS repository. Then I learned that a bug tracking database was a must have as well. Another thing that I make time for. I am getting to the point now where I want something like CruiseControl and something like FatCow or Fitnesse set up for automated builds and functional testing. I haven't gotten to the point where I force myself to ensure these are part of the project, but it is getting close.
One way around all of this "making time for" business is to just put the efforts into the schedule up front. You know it is going to take x amount of time to setup CVS and y amount of time to get your bug database, etc. Now, you have the time to do it, so there is no excuse to not get it done.
The CM environment is going on my next schedule to ensure that I get exactly what I want.
What do you get when you take a touch of Joel and a bit of Dave and shake vigorously? A damn fine summary of two great explanations of the difference between rookie and expert developers.
One of my favorite sessions at No Fluff Just Stuff is Dave Thomas's "Herding Racehorses and Racing Sheep" presentation. I want to have every manager that I work with see this presentation because it has had such an impact on my life. I communicate better with those above and below me on the Dreyfus model simply because I listened in this session. I actually have a better relationship with my clients because of this session.
Anyway, Jeff gives a very nice overview of what the session is all about and actually ties it to an old Joel article along the same lines. If you ever have a chance to go to No Fluff Just Stuff, do everything you can to see Dave's "Herding Racehorses and Racing Sheep" presentation.
There has been so much pain in my life over the last two months that I have really dropped the ball on posting to my blog. I have been debating how much to put out into the public. For the most part, I have kept my family off of my blog for the same reason I have kept my company off of my blog. There are other people involved and they don't have veto power over what I post, so I leave those aspects of my life out of my blog. I may generalize things from time to time, but for the most part I keep it pretty much goofy and techie.
I will be moving again soon. Which sucks, because I love my house. But forces of nature, nice and vague statement there, have caused me to move. I don't like the circumstances which have caused this move and I wish I could go back six months and stop the train from going down the tracks that lead to the disaster, but what's done is done.
So, please bear with me as I gather the peices of my life together and start to move forward again.