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One small step at a time...
Mar. 31st, 2007 12:21 pmIt's funny how little irritations can become a focus of one's life.
As a case in point, take the (relatively) simple task of keeping track of assignment files. There was a time I kept all such files inside of MyDocuments and let files from various assignments rub shoulders with their cousins from other assignments. There were a few problems associated with that, mostly having to do with being able to find stuff that had a little virtual dust on it (e.g., thinking "I did a very similar file some time ago... what was it called again?") Knowing that the file I needed was "somewhere" in MyDocuments was little solace when there were several hundred arbitrarily named files floating around.
So, last year, I devised a System, and I've stuck pretty much to it since (except when it seemed there was no time to stick to it, for which I later paid a price in terms of confusion and lost time). The System consists, simply, of creating a directory for each assignment inside of a generic Assignments subdirectory. To keep things orderly and findable, each directory has a structured name, in the form of YYMMDD-CCC-SLUG, where YYMMDD should be fairly self-explanatory, CCC is a client code, and SLUG is a short description of the work (either the client's job number, or an actual description, such as "SmithContract").
As far as the content of the subdirectory is concerned, well... files sent by the client end up here, as do the eventual translations. Ideally, when first moving files around, I'd want to put any references that came along with a job into a separate subdirectory, and the same is true for any "work authorization" (e.g., assignment form, PO, etc.), just to keep things clear, but in working the system "by hand" for the past 15 months - and what I mean is the whole "right click-wait-select 'New'-select 'Folder'-type Folder name-hit return-open Folder" routine - I've found I'm generally too impatient to get on with work to do that, so all the files end up in the same directory, which is generally no big deal, because not everyone sends references and work authorizations, and it's not all that onerous to tack on "(Ref)" to the end of a reference file name.
Still, my soul cried out for a little automated help...
The idea occurred to me earlier this year of using my old copy of Borland C++Builder 3 to create a small application that would semiautomate the process of creating subdirectories, as often, I'll get ahead of myself when creating a directory by hand (for example, I will forget to jot down the client's job number), which will force me to revisit the name of the folder later. It would then be child's play (I thought) to open up a list box for the newly created directory and drag-n-drop files into it.
It has been years since I've done any programming in anything other than Perl, but C++Builder is so truly easy to use (that or something has been retained after all), that I was able to create the basic application in something under 70 lines of new code, albeit sans the drag-n-drop functionality.
Ah, well... there lay the rub.
(to be continued)
Cheers...
As a case in point, take the (relatively) simple task of keeping track of assignment files. There was a time I kept all such files inside of MyDocuments and let files from various assignments rub shoulders with their cousins from other assignments. There were a few problems associated with that, mostly having to do with being able to find stuff that had a little virtual dust on it (e.g., thinking "I did a very similar file some time ago... what was it called again?") Knowing that the file I needed was "somewhere" in MyDocuments was little solace when there were several hundred arbitrarily named files floating around.
So, last year, I devised a System, and I've stuck pretty much to it since (except when it seemed there was no time to stick to it, for which I later paid a price in terms of confusion and lost time). The System consists, simply, of creating a directory for each assignment inside of a generic Assignments subdirectory. To keep things orderly and findable, each directory has a structured name, in the form of YYMMDD-CCC-SLUG, where YYMMDD should be fairly self-explanatory, CCC is a client code, and SLUG is a short description of the work (either the client's job number, or an actual description, such as "SmithContract").
As far as the content of the subdirectory is concerned, well... files sent by the client end up here, as do the eventual translations. Ideally, when first moving files around, I'd want to put any references that came along with a job into a separate subdirectory, and the same is true for any "work authorization" (e.g., assignment form, PO, etc.), just to keep things clear, but in working the system "by hand" for the past 15 months - and what I mean is the whole "right click-wait-select 'New'-select 'Folder'-type Folder name-hit return-open Folder" routine - I've found I'm generally too impatient to get on with work to do that, so all the files end up in the same directory, which is generally no big deal, because not everyone sends references and work authorizations, and it's not all that onerous to tack on "(Ref)" to the end of a reference file name.
Still, my soul cried out for a little automated help...
The idea occurred to me earlier this year of using my old copy of Borland C++Builder 3 to create a small application that would semiautomate the process of creating subdirectories, as often, I'll get ahead of myself when creating a directory by hand (for example, I will forget to jot down the client's job number), which will force me to revisit the name of the folder later. It would then be child's play (I thought) to open up a list box for the newly created directory and drag-n-drop files into it.
It has been years since I've done any programming in anything other than Perl, but C++Builder is so truly easy to use (that or something has been retained after all), that I was able to create the basic application in something under 70 lines of new code, albeit sans the drag-n-drop functionality.
Ah, well... there lay the rub.
(to be continued)
Cheers...
