The practice of modding is full of stops and starts. Progress is dispersed; a lump of time here, a lump of time there, and long periods of non-engagement. This period of non-engagement impacts on my understanding of the mod; during this time my knowledge of the project begins to atrophy. This is particularly the case with my long running B&O MP3 project.
With the task no longer “at hand” the skills I’ve learned are leaving me. It’s a frustrating situation, the longer the non-engagement, the more estranged I become form the project. A language was developed through the modding process. This language both structured and opened a space of dialogue where the productive possibilities of the project could be explored and brought forth. Through lack of engagement, dialogue becomes more difficult; the mod still speaks the same language but it has become foreign to me. Why a screw here and not there? Why a program variable for ALL_ITEMS? Finding the answers to these questions will involve relearning the mods language.
Good project documentation is the solution (project diaries, sketch books, code commenting, etc.) but I often find my documentation is a little on the light side. This is were the blog can help; on numerous occasions I’ve used my own Pokia post as a reference while I repeat the mod. In the case of the B&O mod my blogging hasn’t been particularly useful, there’s a lot of stuff that just hasn’t made it up here. Over the next few weeks I’ll be digging around in the ‘Drafts’ section of WordPress and dragging some of the files into public view. Hopefully this will get me reengaged with the B&O mod, who knows I may actually finish it one day.