This is the second in a series of posts showing how we use Campfire as our virtual office. All screenshots shown are from real usage and were taken during one week in September.

CampfireIn the first “Behind the scenes” post, we showed how we use Campfire for design. Now let’s take a look at how it helps us code. To the examples…

Offer code advice
Ryan sees a couple different ways to code an element and asks Sam for advice. A few things to note here: 1) They enter the “Small Talk” room that we use for sidebar discussions. Chatting in a separate room eliminates distractions and keeps the main room clear for the rest of the team. 2) Sharing images inline makes it easy to see what’s being discussed. This is superhandy for both design and programming issues. 3) The “View paste” feature makes it easy to share snippets of code (and clearly differentiates code from regular entries).

one week in CF

Keep code clean and clear
We always strive to keep code clean. Here, Ryan writes a method and shares it with the wizards who guide him toward a simpler solution.

one week in CF

Explain an ongoing code project
Sam and Jason discuss iCal integration challenges. Campfire is great for quick “check-ins” like this (and link sharing too).

one week in CF

Support a code suggestion with hard data
Jeremy posts the sizes of search terms in order to support his argument for sorting by relevance instead of creation date. “View paste” comes in handy again, this time for displaying data.

one week in CF

Related: Behind the scenes at 37signals: Design

Coming soon: How we use Campfire for copywriting, sysadmin, and more.