[Pfhreak]

I usually sketch out what I'm going to write with comments and/or function names. It gives me the sort of 'blocks' of how data is going to flow, where responsibility is divided, etc. Then I go back in and fill the details of the block. Five or six comments becomes five or six chunks of code.

I don't usually try to maintain an entire state in my head, but I do try to make sure each of those blocks is something that I can reason about and hold the entire state of. If I'm finding it hard to figure out what each block does with data, I subdivide and write two comments.

For example, I might write something like:

// Iterate over every transform and do the matrix math

and realize that there's too much for me to hold mentally, so I'll do this:

// Iterate over every transform

// Invert each matrix

// Get the position vector

// Multiply by the character's scalar

... etc.

After that all scans, then I'll start writing the actual code.

[ToFab123]

I do exactly the same and it gives you a the added benefits, that you get a bit of documentation of the code for free.