Ideas about preserving history of "fixes" to problems you've encountered?

Every so often, you get stuck...and sometimes you run into a problem that you know you've solved before, right? Often for me it's some annoying issue with a dev tool.

After having to experience re-Googling and re-researching, I've been trying to use browser bookmarks and notes as a sort of library by topics/tags to keep a history of fixes to problems that I encounter. Sometimes they never come up again, but occasionally they do.

What tools do you guys use to combat the dreaded re-Googling? Or are you okay with re-Googling?

Comments

[1hoog]

I use mkdocs, a simple markdown to html builder. I use it for oneliners, code snippets or short bulletlist styled instructions.

I mount the remote folder and when making a change to that folder (edit a file, add a file etc) the markdown files get build to html on the server so the changes will be available online immediately. I'm using

 to watch for changes and call

 ```mkdocs build```

 when there are any.

The readthedocs theme has search built in so I created the following function and

 ```xdg-open http://mysnippets.net/search.html?q=$1+$2+$3+$4+$5+$6+$7+$8 2>/dev/null &```

 and created an alias for it. Now when I need to search for something I can do something like

 ```sd vim+cut+paste```

 and it will open up my browser fill in the search parameters and serve me the matched snippets. 

[Tony]

Evernote.

I can easily collect articles and links and fixes, and snippets in one place, organize them, tag them, and search is a breeze, even without tags, etc!

I like it so much I'm actually paying for it!

[Cary Reams]

Recently added a "post-mortem" label to our Github repo. Any issues worthy of a more detailed write-up -- beyond the scope of code comments -- earn additional issue comments and a "post-mortem" label.

[Craig Butcher]

It might be worth checking out Gitbook and host it via github/gitlab?

[Justin Riedyk]

A list in Onenote, it's not great.
I mostly just re-Google.

[Dina Gathe]

Wow, so many great ideas and thoughts. I can't wait to try some of these! :-)

[Jacqui Read]

I have used gists in the past and then fleshed out out in a post in my blog, with credit as appropriate. Sometimes they only make it to a draft post though, and I need to add more tags really to make it more searchable.
Useful to have it online so I can reference from anywhere with a connection. Also if it only helps one other person when they Google it then that's good :)
jacqui.tk/blog to see what I mean.

[Lazaro Herrera]

I actually use a Personal Wiki for this. I write the most common patterns and things I write in my target programming language and also add new things I find as I research issues (tiddlywiki.com/).

It's a single self-contained HTML file.

[Daniel Corrêa]

I use jrnl. You can add tags with @, eg. @mysql and later call jrnl @mysql. Saves entries as a text file. Very fast.

[Adam Brandizzi]

That depends on what I'm trying to recall and how frequently I need it.

1. If it is a terminal command, the shell history is more than enough. If it is a somewhat complicated command that I need too frequently, I create an alias or a script for it.

2. When I depend on some code snippet too frequently, I tend to create a template for it in my editor or IDE.

3. The code changes or patterns I have to recall, I find them in my version history. Indeed I consult it a lot!

4. If it is an answer to a problem, I count with my browser history. (Indeed, I've got really frustrated when Firefox started to limit the history it saves.)

5. Often, when I find a solution to a problem myself, I post the question in Stack Overflow (if it is acceptable there) and answer it myself. It tends to work very well, I frequently go back to my profile to look for those bookmarks.

6. Very rarely, if I find a very good text, I add it to my Pinboard bookmarks.

7. If it is some non-googleable stuff (intranet content, company policy etc.) and I keep consulting it, I bookmark it in Firefox and that is it.

Indeed, it appears I'm more Google-tolerant than most people :) I guess the main reason are the scripts and templates: most of my colleagues save them in text files but I'd rather have them as much automated as possible. It demands some patience at first but we get better at this when we practice it.

[Alexandra Wolfe]

I like the idea of posting it as a question on StackOverflow. That way you're not just helping yourself out, but you're helping out many more people. Great idea :)