Hey guys! Sorry if this isn’t the best place for this but I couldn’t really find anywhere else.
I’ve been working for 6/7 years as a web developer full-time now, and I’m still plagued by one mega frustrating habit. When I’m working on something complex on one page, and it gets completed, I’ll fairly often get notified either by the client or my boss a day or two later while they’re testing the whole site that there’s something broken on another page.
Almost always, it’ll be down to the fix I’ve recently made.
Is there a way to avoid this kind of tunnel vision? I try to keep my code localised as much as possible, avoiding interacting with global scope and, if it’s really for one specific thing, tying it down to that page in particular, but short of testing the entire site every time I make any change… is there anything else I can do?
Thanks!
Sometimes I step away from the screen and talk out is happening in my head.
Often times my coworkers and I will ask each other for help. Much of the time the person explaining will see the problem as they explain it to the other person. Usually before the other person has a chance to get the full explanation.
Also called the rubber duck debugging effect.
But yeah, articulating your thoughts, be it by talking or even by writing down your train of thoughts (which is a good habit to have while debugging complex issues) really helps spotting the holes in your own thinking.
Awesome! I found out this worked for me years ago when I was a lone dev. I would walk around muttering to myself. Glad to know there is a term I can use now!