When you are done with any project, for YOUR OWN SAKE write a few lines of comments about the process in which the project has been done. I don't mean comments in the code. I mean things like which files are final revisions, which one exactly produced the figures/tables in your report, What happened that made you write another version or why some algorithm/code didn't work. I am saying that because, in few years from now, YOU will be the person who is going to dig up these files to find out what was happening and cursing yourself won't help at all.
I am digging up codes and data files from 2-3 years ago and even though I made fairly enough documentation, in the way I just mentioned, there are parts which take my time to understand what I have done. But overall it is much better than codes without any description!
PS. I am happy with the codes I wrote for that project, though my numerical analysis knowledge was quite limited at that time (Yeah, I am patting myself on the back!). The only reason, that I can think of, is that we tried to write the code the simplest form possible without any algorithmic complexity to make debugging easy. So now when I reread those codes it is like reading a report. Obviously the main code isn't the fastest implementation but is quite robust!
Labels: coding