Ionrock Dot Org

Yesterday I was talking to Patrick about working on some new features for the Q site. Specifically, we want a project management tool that is integrated with out other systems. With a testing environment in place I have been able to make a table and get some basic output to a page. Nothing to be proud of yet, but it looks like it will be an interesting experience. I think my biggest struggle with it may be not having to deal with the mundane details of the site.

What I have found in using frameworks and working in PHP is that understanding the model of how the system works allows you to take programmatic shortcuts to become more productive. For example, in TurboGears, I could add to the tg-admin command line tool to scaffold some forms. In .NET this is much different. The underlying model is somewhat hidden behind Visual Studio. Visual Studio provides the framework, organization and administration of the site. Seeing as I would rather use Emacs than an IDE, this way of working is rather odd to me. On the up side, it is something new to learn and I get to expand my horizons a bit, so no worries.

In the mean time, we don't have a good system of tracking projects and keeping organized. We the the ever present Outlook, but I hate the interface and believe I will never enjoy a groupware suite with many forms. I am interested in checking out some Emacs based solutions for keeping notes and todo lists, but from what I have seen, most are rather complicated. I don't know that I want to spend the time to learn more key bindings and patterns for a tool that may not really be of much help.

Along these lines I am thinking about how I can use Trac more effectively. Specifically, I think I want to create a Todo list of sorts with Trac just using the available tools. I am not really sure how this will work just yet, but I think I will be using RSS for monitoring aspects (changes to the wiki, checking in source, etc) and see what I can come up with. I am also thinking I could use something like a blog for taking notes or making todo items. My biggest need is a tool that I can access and work with very quickly. When I have to change my workflow just help me to remember, I feel like I am wasting time. Wish me luck.