My favorite stage of a programming project is the initial creative act, figuring out what a piece of software should do, how it should look, and how it should be written. I often refactor wildly during this phase. For example, I completely scrapped the initial Python-based front end I had created for this project in favor of Tiny File Manager, a full featured file management UI in a single PHP file. It was fun getting to know that code and build a plugin system for it so I could add screens and navigation items without mucking too much with the source. But, having used it a bit, now I’m thinking a tree-based IDE-style UI will work better. Every good CMS has a content tree. So I’m going to mock up something for that in HTML/CSS/JS and see what works. This is why I code for fun on my own time: you can’t do this when you’re getting paid. Maybe something great will come of it, maybe not. Either way, I had a lot of fun along the way and learned some things, too. This is is what I refer to as code painting.
This topic reminds of my favorite poem by Frank O’Hara: Why I Am Not a Painter.
