A Small But Helpful Tip

If you're using CFEclipse, one feature you may not be aware of is the special attention it pays to comments marked with "todo". I've found this feature very helpful in managing the complexity of writing software.

Let's say I'm in a certain area of code and, to make it work, I need to add something into another area of code. Here it is, fresh on my mind. I know just what it needs to do, what arguments it requires, etc. Human brains are terrific at some things; remembering things is not one most of us excel at.

I can suspend the work I'm doing right now and go over and make the additions to that other area, but then I'll be out of the flow with the work I'm doing now. I can write it down in the little composition book I spoke of in a previous blog post and, in fact, if what I'll need to do is quite complicated, I'll do just that. But for small "to dos", I really like how CFEclipse (thank you, Mark Drew!) handles comments marked with "todo". Here's a recent comment I made:

Upon saving the file, in my "Tasks" view (in the main menu, "Window/Show View/Tasks"), my comment appears. Not only that, it shows me exactly where I place the "to do" comment and, if I double-click on the task, it will open up the appropriate page and highlight the comment.

As the title advertised, it's a small tip, but one I've found to be very helpful. If you're not using this, you should try it.