20% of the horse takes 80% of the cowboy
2 minute read
forging the horse
Over the last few days I've been making progress on forge.horse. Small wins:
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I implemented loose-coupling, changing each component to use an observer pattern instead of reaching up into different components directly. This has made for simpler code, and made it easier to extend.
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I can now send a comic object with 3 images and have the server save it to a path.
Now I need to finish the thing. As always, it's far easier to start than to finish, and it always takes much longer than expected. This is I think part of why I set the theme for the year as "small". At this point my ability to scope a project correctly means almost anything is liable to blow out, and the smaller I can keep the initial seed, the less opportunities there are for it to blow out in complexity. There's probably an equation out there to do with number of discrete steps x number of dependencies x number of completed projects in the same medium. Maybe I'll find one, maybe I'll make one for myself? This particular project is of course suffering from being started during covid, without much in the way of a plan - I just launched into the prototype while sitting in bed.
I've made headway on the new design of the site too; A necessary component to finish forge.horse as I'll need to compile it into the new design. I'm a little worried about it feeling too austere - but I'm reminding myself that this is first and foremost for me, and the brutalist simplicity of the design aids the ongoing project of making these comics and making a lot of them. Also, perhaps in another 3 months, a redesign? To add some frivolity, or something.
Further thinking about design - the text on the comics is very small and I'm concerned how this affects readability, especially on phones - considering a touch of redesign - perhaps even just reducing the generous margins?
Need to haves for the finished version are
- lets me make drafts, saves them to the file
- lets me publish and update new comics - publishes site to server
Nice to haves
- Launchbutton on desktop / always running?
- publishes to instagram
- other feeds
Listening to:
questions
- I've looked at the visuals of the project and drawn a loose plan - what about the writing?
- Can I make things in my life smaller?
- What would a complexity risk evaluation equation look like?