After launching Cheqlist last week, I felt compelled to give you a peek under the covers to see the tools involved and why I chose certain technologies. I hope to give you insight for times where you decide what to work with.
Getting started
Before I could really start working on a major project, I had to choose a VCS. I went with mercurial based on a friend’s insistence that I introduce myself to a DVCS (specifically Hg) immediately. I knew what it was but never took time to try it myself. I am very glad I tried it.
Anyone looking to stay productive with their work, errands or chores keeps a to-do list. You need to have that to-do list available at all times and be easy to manage.
With that in mind, I am introducing an application that I think will help you with that: Cheqlist. A desktop application powered by Remember The Milk that does 2 things very well: make managing tasks very efficient and look sweet on your desktop.
What makes Cheqlist awesome
I wanted to build an application that I, myself, would use everyday. There are a few key features that would make that happen:
I gave a talk this last Tuesday at the Boulder JUG on the topic of JavaFX for the Java developer. My audience and I both learned a lot from the experience.
I took Fred Jean’s advice and used the Codex presentation system which is a Ruby gem that adds to Eric Meyer’s S5. Unlike Fred, though, I opted to use Mercurial to keep track of versioning.
Anyone looking to stay productive with their work, errands or chores keeps a to-do list. You need to have that to-do list available at all times and be easy to manage. 