Jan 19, 2022The Art of Maintainable CodeFirst of all, what do I mean by the term maintainable code? It is a term that is quite elusive to define, many have tried to quantify it with varying degrees of success. The difficulty is that it is composed from numerous factors, coming together in a complex way to…Development6 min readDevelopment6 min read
Apr 11, 2021Adding Business Logic to TerraformHow to separate your business logic with abstraction layers. Following on from my previous post, Making Terraform Work a Bit Harder, another important factor in making any code scalable is to create abstraction layers in your code to reduce risks associated with change, and to just make life easier with…Terraform9 min readTerraform9 min read
Dec 8, 2020Making Terraform Work a Bit HarderLots of people use Terraform but they only scratch the surface of what it can do. I thought I would explore some of Terraforms capabilities to keep your code ‘DRY’. First of all consider this little piece of Terraform HCL resource "aws_security_group" "basic_sg" { name…Terraform9 min readTerraform9 min read
Published inThe Startup·Oct 25, 2020Software Engineering Is About More Than Just the CodeIt’s heartening to see the positivity coming from people learning to code at the bootcamps I follow, people who had previously considered coding to be reserved for the domain of ‘experts’, seeing the fruits of their efforts come to life is so encouraging. Just about anyone can learn to code…Coding8 min readCoding8 min read
Nov 6, 2017An average guy trying to come to terms with the #MeToo FalloutThis piece was prompted by my response to this post by Deborah Copaken. It got me thinking about how I’m responding to the current rush of sexual predator stories. I like to think I’m respectful to everyone, not just women. It’s just that at the moment I find myself questioning…Sexual Harassment3 min readSexual Harassment3 min read
Jun 11, 2017The De-skilling of Software Engineers is happening but does it matter?I’ve been a software engineer for over 20 years now. Someone asked me the other day whether the job had changed much and it started me thinking. When I started, the languages of choice were C and to a lesser extent C++. Writing in these languages at the time, by…Programming4 min readProgramming4 min read
May 24, 2017The Manchester bombing, it could have been any of usI don’t live in Manchester, you could count on your fingers the number of times that I’ve been there but that doesn’t really matter. It could have been any one of a number of UK cities, Glasgow, Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol, the list goes on. …2 min read2 min read
Mar 28, 2017….so you want to write Software for a livingI’ve been asked numerous times over the years, usually by parents whose children want to learn, what is the best way to get into a job as a Software Engineer. Everyone in this job has an opinion on how best to get started, blogs and forums are full of threads…Programming4 min readProgramming4 min read
Jun 28, 2016Life After the Brexit Vote and why I think it happenedI was talking to a Polish colleague on the morning of the announcement of the result. I asked her what she thought of what was happening, she was concerned about being able to afford her mortgage and whether the interest rates would go up. This surprised me, I expected her…Brexit4 min readBrexit4 min read
Jun 14, 2016Why Docker will Change the Way we do SoftwareI was quite late to the Docker party, I only started working with it about 18 months ago. At the time it I wasn’t impressed ‘Really? Another Technology Fad I have to learn only for it to be dropped next year?’ I can’t say I was overly enamoured at the…Docker3 min readDocker3 min read
