Welcome to Everything But Code!

This is going to be a series of posts covering what I feel are the most important/useful topics in programming that aren't writing the actual code.

But surely the code is the most important thing?

True! Having the slickest workflow means nothing if the code you end up writing doesn't work. But I think that having a good setup can help you to write code more efficiently and accurately, which will ultimately lead to better code!

Ok, but I already have a setup, why should I read this?

It is easy to get comfortable with a particular way of coding, and you may think it won't be worth the time adjusting to a new system, especially if you don't know for certain that it will lead to an improvement. I would encourage you to give any concepts you read here a long think before trying so that you spend that precious time on solutions you do feel could improve your coding.

 Yeah, but, I know I have the best setup, I spent ages researching it 4 years ago!

You are probably right that your setup was the best for you ... 4 years ago. But in the four following years not only will new systems and technologies have been created, but you will also have changed. I feel that it is worth having a look at your setup every so often to ensure it is still the best for you that it possibly can.

Hold up, I'm a complete newbie, can we slow down?

Absolutely! Several of the posts in this series may be discussing things that you have never heard of before. Don't expect yourself to read through everything in one weekend and come out with the best setup ever; take your time and slowly introduce things to your workflow over time. This will allow you to adjust much more easily to each thing you introduce and give you the time and space to make sure you understand how each new introduction works with the systems you already have in place.