Every time I add a new feature to co.mments, I’m piling code on top of existing code. At some point it starts looking like the messy living room of a bachelor pad, dishes, books, CDs, everywhere. You can’t move around in the mess. So it was time for some spring cleaning.

I reorganized a lot of code, dusted up some old stuff. Less mess so I can easily add new features.

The best part is the new login system, which fixes the old nutty one, and makes it easy to login from different computers. You complained about the schizo login system before, and now I fixed it so it will work the way you expect it to.

That’s a good lesson in software design, and also a good one in organizing your life.

I developed co.mments for my own personal use, and when I decided to make it a free service, I wrote a login system so you can register for a free account. A few weeks later, Gabe Rivera convinced me to let people use co.mments without registering for an account. So I added that feature as well. I love it.

The co.mments data belongs to all of you, and I wanted to open it up, so last week I released the co.mments API. That uses another login system. Three of them is too much, and I couldn’t find my way through the mess. So I spent the week tidying up and fighting dust bunnies, and now there’s less mess, less code and one new feature. You can login to your account from several computers.

And if you accidentally bookmark a conversation but forget to login, login immediately and the recently bookmarked conversations will be added to your account.

I also picked two good habits out of developing the co.mments API. I used REST and XOXO to keep the code simple. I decided to use them out of technical curiosity, and ended up with much simpler, better organized code. And simpler is easier to develop. In fact, I wrote most of the API in just a couple of days.

IconBuffet has a great article on how REST helped them simplify their code. Technology aside, keep things simple, tidy the mess once in a while, and you can do more with your life. Spring clean often.

Posted by Assaf in General on Monday, July 24th, 2006. You can follow any responses using co.mments, leave a response, or trackback from your own site.