Similar but not the same: most days day at work I create one or more txt files in notepad (kate to be exact) where I paste every temporary info while I work on some task. Basically everything that doesn't go to git, and you have to keep somewhere while you're working on it:
- nonobvious terminal commands or small scripts I had to write
- fixes for enviromental/configuration problems
- fragments of stacktraces
- fragments of log files
- packages that needed to be installed
- short todo lists I created while doing sth
- links to webpages I found that had a solution to my problem
- profiling results for solutions I compared
- parts of emails I copied to focus on the important fragments with stuff to check/fix
- names of temporary branches created when working on the problem
- xml fragments from some requests I copypasted to kate to prettify it
There's no structure and no plain English descriptions in these files, just bunch of copypasted stuff separated by a few empty lines in a text file.
I have to keep these things somewhere anyway while I work on them, and pasting them in one file that I later save in one directory preserves them for future. I call the file yyyymmdd_some_keywords.txt.
I don't bother to describe the task in plain English, the stuff that's copypasted there is enough for context, I can also check git from same date if something's not clear. The most important thing is - there's no overhead, just open the file when starting a new task, keep it opened while you work on sth and save it when you finish. So I have hundreds of these files after a while, and when I encounter some problem I can quickly grep to check if I seen similar stacktrace before and what it was about.
Before I started doing this I had several instances of déjà vu - I could swear I've seen this problem before but can't remember what it was about and how it was solved.
If it's appropriate, would it be easier to use a clipboard enhancer that writes everything you copy to a file?
I use ClipX at work (Windows), fairly sure it has a logging feature, and I think it can be told not to record from password fields; and Flycut at home (Mac) but Flycut doesn't seem to have logging.
This is very similar to what I do as a sys eng. I call them weekly's, store them as [date].txt and use notepad++ to compose. I separate stuff with #########[brief desc/todo] and save the all the random tidbits, logs, dumps, presentation outlines, requests, urls, etc.
I have a script that copies them up to my backup drive and Windows full-text indexing is enabled on the folder, so it is easy to search all the content from the start menu. It helps me because my memory is not the best...your point on the deja vu is right on.
The stuff that ends up being really helpful, such as some long bash command, PS for querying AD, complex DB queries, etc. get promoted to helpful_notes.txt.
That's a better idea than in local text editor if you are working in Windows. My machine has a way of deciding to reboot on precisely those days that walk away with something open that I don't want to lose.
Thank you for sharing. It is simple and efficient. I did something like this on a "per-ticket"-basis but did not really thoughtful use it. I will definitely try this again with more focus on putting all necessary/related information in it - I included only a fraction of the relevant information.
I am constantly approached with adhoc requests, often unrelated to the application I work on, probably more of these than actual ticket items.
I've started to number these myself in my own ticket system where I keep scripts, screenshots and logs etc. but I'm using OneNote, because it's so unrestrictive.
- nonobvious terminal commands or small scripts I had to write
- fixes for enviromental/configuration problems
- fragments of stacktraces
- fragments of log files
- packages that needed to be installed
- short todo lists I created while doing sth
- links to webpages I found that had a solution to my problem
- profiling results for solutions I compared
- parts of emails I copied to focus on the important fragments with stuff to check/fix
- names of temporary branches created when working on the problem
- xml fragments from some requests I copypasted to kate to prettify it
There's no structure and no plain English descriptions in these files, just bunch of copypasted stuff separated by a few empty lines in a text file.
I have to keep these things somewhere anyway while I work on them, and pasting them in one file that I later save in one directory preserves them for future. I call the file yyyymmdd_some_keywords.txt.
I don't bother to describe the task in plain English, the stuff that's copypasted there is enough for context, I can also check git from same date if something's not clear. The most important thing is - there's no overhead, just open the file when starting a new task, keep it opened while you work on sth and save it when you finish. So I have hundreds of these files after a while, and when I encounter some problem I can quickly grep to check if I seen similar stacktrace before and what it was about.
Before I started doing this I had several instances of déjà vu - I could swear I've seen this problem before but can't remember what it was about and how it was solved.