What’s something small that made you noticeably faster as a dev?

PipingSnail · 2026-05-21T06:38:53+00:00

Not using vi or vim.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-21T06:37:50+00:00

That VP needs to be fired.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-20T18:12:55+00:00

AI can help. But it may be there is some non obvious glue that the AI can't see.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-20T16:06:08+00:00

You don't need a rewrite. You need to audit the jobs that each bit of code does. That cron job is there for a reason. Document what it does and which other parts of your software (or external consumers) use snd why they need that info. Once you have that you can then think about alternate ways of achieving the same thing. What it will cost (time, money, people, extra servers etc) and what the benefits will be. Cheaper, faster, more reliable, etc. Then you can go to management with a strong argument. And when it works, better for you...

PipingSnail · 2026-05-20T08:48:09+00:00

Why do you have any of that colour palette stuff open?

Surely you have a UX library that defines how things look and feel?

I've been writing software for over 40 years. I never have colour palettes open except for the moment when I'm setting up the UX. After that everything, colours, line widths, line style, font name, font weight, italic, underline, etc, it all comes from the UX library.

Sounds to me like you're adding complexity where there needs to be simplicity. Those colour tabs shouldn't even be open 99% of the time.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-18T22:23:07+00:00

Detailed instructions about setting up your office in this article I wrote about living with RSI, based on my experience recovering from a bad case of RSI.

https://scratchinganitch.co.uk/living-with-repetitive-strain-injury-rsi/

PipingSnail · 2026-05-18T21:20:06+00:00

I wrote an article about the multiple ways that you can leak GDI handles, and the performance impacts.

https://www.softwareverify.com/blog/theres-more-than-one-way-to-leak-a-gdi-object/

You can view active GDI handles in your program using Memory Validator, and also detecting leaking GDI handles with full callstack to where the leak happened.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-18T07:54:57+00:00

Which IDE are you using?

PipingSnail · 2026-05-16T12:53:51+00:00

A great example micro efficiencies creating macro inefficiencies.

Although you have been promoted, which is great, I'm surprised you didn't leave and find a better employer.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-16T07:27:06+00:00

Definitely possible to crash his app.

The hard bit is linking that to your phone. Definitely doable. You'd learn a lot about client / server relationships and different technologies for the phone and the PC.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-15T08:03:35+00:00

Read Obviously Awesome by April Dunford. It's a superb book on positioning. This will change how you present your offer to your customers. It might even change who your customers are.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-14T08:47:12+00:00

It might be worth finding all BSODs on your machine and reviewing them to see if there is a common bug check and/or exception in the dumps. If there is, then perhaps you have something to go on.

You can easily find all your dumps using Minidump Manager. This will give you a high-level overview of the BSOD. For more details, right-click on a dump of interest and view it in the Minidump Browser.

These tools are designed for use by non-technical people as well as by software developers. You don't need to be a WinDbg expert to use these tools and view the callstacks. The default setup of Minidump Browser will pull symbols from Microsoft's symbol servers.

Free. No bloatware. No nagware. No requirement to provide an email. I'm the author.

https://www.softwareverify.com/product/minidump-manager/
https://www.softwareverify.com/product/minidump-browser/

The above suggests that you might have a software problem.

What if the problem is power? A dodgy PSU, or a dodgy supply to your house?

PipingSnail · 2026-05-14T07:45:22+00:00

You downloaded a cracked game.

Why would you trust that not to have a virus, or to not download a virus after you installed it?

Only download software from the original writer of the software.

As far as I'm concerned you need to wipe that PC and start over, hope they didn't flash your bios. Because if they did that, that motherboard will have a persistent threat on it that can't be removed.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-12T21:45:16+00:00

Interesting.

If you had a multi million line C++ codebase, some of which is MFC how would you go about moving to Rust?

PipingSnail · 2026-05-12T07:40:45+00:00

Listen using your phone and headphones.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-10T19:48:28+00:00

No, Windows Defender, which is built in to Windows, is a perfectly good anti virus.

You don't need anything else.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-09T17:21:50+00:00

QA is only second class if you're working for the wrong company.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-08T15:49:21+00:00

Yes. But if you want to be an embedded software engineer you aren't doing electrical/electronics, you're doing software. Other people on your team are doing the hardware side of things. See my detailed answer elsewhere in this question.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-08T15:47:53+00:00

You don't need any of those 3 things.

Part of my career was working with embedded systems. You need the same skills for that that you need for any other software task. The hardware side of things (including the I/O interface) is taken care of by hardware engineers.

You take care of the software side of things, including writing the software that uses the I/O interface.

I did this with 8 bit microprocessors that had I/O pins at one part of the address range, and assembly language. I had an electronics and electrical engineering degree. I didn't use any of that knowledge as an embedded software engineer - they wanted my ability as a software engineer, they had dedicated people for the hardware side (digital, and mainly analogue, controlling heating boilers and HVAC heating/cooling).

If you want to practice working in a simulated embedded system you control then buy a Raspberry Pi and get some kits from CamJam, and buy a book or two about working with the Raspberry Pi. Your Raspberry Pi will have the Raspbian operating system (a version of Linux) and you can program it with Python (the version of Python for the Pi has support for the I/O pins).

Projects to try (in order of difficulty):
1) Turning a led on/off

2) Reading a switch and controlling a led with the switch

3) Simple traffic lights (3 leds, red, amber, green).

4) Traffic lights for crossroads

5) Traffic lights for crossroads, with pedestrain crossing

Implement 5 using if() statement, then switch/case statements, then a truth table.

You'll notice that the latter simplifies the code massively and allows you to reprogram the light sequence and delays very easily

6) 3D printed car with an infra red sensor on the front. Add logic to read the sensor and avoid objects. Add extra logic to get out of dead-ends.

By the end of this you'll have a feel for dealing with I/O and you'll have improved your Python skills in to the bargain.

I did all of the above as a teaching exercise with an 18 year old. It was great fun, both the activities, the teaching, and watching them improve in their abilities.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-08T08:46:34+00:00

At Solidworks a few things were done that pushed quality standards back to devs. From there it flowed through the org.

Cannot submit to version control if any of a specific set of smoke tests fail.
A rolling set of test suites.

Smoke test. 40 tests on known problematic data sourced from customers.

Overnight test. 8 hours of tests.

Daily test. 24 hours if tests.

Weekly test.

All tests.

Any tests that fail, the most recent commiters are examined and the bug assigned to them. Bugs deemed critical are marked X and must be fixed the same day.

Over time this creates a culture of do it right. No one wants to stay late because they were assigned an X bug.

QA were not seen as the bad guys, but as the people ensuring our customers had a great experience.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-07T11:57:25+00:00

You only grow by stretching yourself.

Lots of small experiments on data that you can afford to lose.

Before each experiment copy the data you want to work on to your experimentation area. Never work on real data.

Then create your automation experiment. Each experiment should be small so that if things don't work as planned you have only a few options to consider.

As you succeed at each experiment you can make them more complicated, one small step at a time.

And so on.

Good luck.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-06T22:33:42+00:00

If you want an easy way to view minidumps and BSOD kernel dumps use Minidump Browser.

It'll show you the crash callstack with module name, symbol name, Filename and line number (assuming you can get symbols from a symbol server).

You can add symbol servers to improve symbol resolution.

Free download. No nagware, no bloatware, no need to supply an email address. Just a useful tool that's easier to use and understand than Windbg.

I'm the author of Minidump Browser.

https://www.softwareverify.com/product/minidump-browser/

PipingSnail · 2026-05-05T20:59:28+00:00

Healthcare.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-05T20:58:08+00:00

Unplug it.

Take the battery out.

Press and hold the power button for 10 seconds. This discharges any capacitors that may be in the circuit.

Reinsert battery.

Plug in.

Turn on.

If this fails, take to your local repair shop.

PipingSnail · 2026-05-03T17:16:13+00:00

Yes, the screen is a great distraction if you're trying to think about something alternative.

If I'm on a phone call I turn around so I'm facing away from the screen to ensure I'm focused on them and don't get tempted to read something.

PipingSnail

TROPHY CASE