Until the Fusebox conference ( September 18th - September 19th), we will be talking with featured speakers at the conference.
Interviews
5. Steve Nelson - Fusedocs
In this Fusebox Conference interview Hal Helms interviews Steve Nelson on Fusedocs.
Hal: So, Steve, I understand you're talking on Fusedocs.
Steve: Yes, I think Fusedocs may be the most underused aspect
of FLiP.
Hal: Well, no one likes documentation.
Steve: I started off not liking it either. I couldn't see
the point of it,
other than for "posterity". It's like those admonitions
to "eat your
vegetables" or "be nice". It's hard to argue
against, but it's even harder
to take seriously.
Hal: I remember we used to have long, passionate arguments
about this.
Steve: Yes, when you first came up with these crazy things
called Fusedocs,
I thought, "There's Crazy Hal" again.
Hal: It's nice to be held in high regard by one's peers...
Steve: But one day, I had a realization. You weren't talking
about
documenting your code; you were talking about coding your
documentation!
Hal: Exactly right, Steve.
Steve: A lot of people use Fusedocs simply to document the
existing app,
which is OK, but writing them BEFORE the app gets written
is where the power
is.
Hal: I think everyone's probably tired of hearing my story
about my friend
from Boston who got a contract to develop a large, ecommerce
site.
Steve: The one that had to be done in one month?
Hal: That's the one. When he asked me for help, I thought
it was impossible,
especially since I was working on a huge project under a
very tight
deadline, but we were able to do it using FLiP. We wrote
the Fusedocs and
sent them off overseas. The coding took 48 hours and the
job was successful.
Steve: That's what SecretAgents.com is based on: a well-architected
application that can be distributed to many developers, wherever
they live.
And the secret behind SecretAgents is Fusedocing before you
write the app.
Hal: Well, gee, now that we've told everyone about Fusedocs,
why should
anyone come to the conference?
Steve: Because just knowing ABOUT them won't do anyone any
good. And there
are a LOT of ways to screw Fusedocs up so that they just
cost extra time,
but don't help out much.
Hal: Ah! So you're going to show people how to write good
Fusedocs?
Steve: Yes, how to write Fusedocs that can enormously affect
the speed and
quality of code that's written. I've got some great tools
for helping with
Fusedocs. And Sandy Clark wrote tag completion files that
plug into
HomeSite, Studio, or Dreamweaver to make writing Fusedocs
really easy.
Hal: Maybe you can take this occasion of your talk to finally
agree with me
on all the other stuff we've argued about? Sort of make a
clean breast of it
in front of all the Fuseboxers?
Steve: Yeah, that's gonna happen. Everybody come to the
conference so they
can see me reduce Hal to tears with the power of my argument!
Hal: I've often been reduced to tears in my attempts to
follow your
arguments. There's only so much illogic a man can take.
Steve: Well, one thing we can agree on: Fusedocs rock when
they're done
right.
Hal: Amen, brother.
Previous Interviews:
Week 1: Hal Helms - Keynote Speech
Week 2: John Quarto-vonTivadar - New Aspects of Fusebox 4.1
Week 3: Michael Smith - Real World FLiP
Week 4: Rey Muradaz - How NOT to Fusebox
Other News
SecretAgents.com to sponsor Fusebox Conference