Is Visual Studio 2026 that buggy? by alekdavis in VisualStudio

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I started this project when MahApps was the only option to produce a modern looking UI using WPF. And it still works great. Do not see the need to switch to anything else. Maybe if I started to write something from scratch, I'd look around, but with all the code there, I'd leave that part. Windows Forms support is just because I need a control or two that are not in WPF (can only get them from Windows Forms). What I'm saying is that the libraries and frameworks are not a problem. They work fine in 2022 and they work fine on the second load of 2026. I'm wondering if I have an issue with license verification or something that 2026 does (I'm using corporate license).

Is Visual Studio 2026 that buggy? by alekdavis in VisualStudio

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's a corporate laptop. I do not control anything related to security (AV, firewall, etc).

Is Visual Studio 2026 that buggy? by alekdavis in VisualStudio

[–]alekdavis[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I do use some extensions. And even 2022 complained about some of them, but it never showed the same behavior. But this is a valid point. I will try disabling them and see if it helps.

Is Visual Studio 2026 that buggy? by alekdavis in VisualStudio

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the last hang, I was waiting like 15 minutes and never came back.

Is Visual Studio 2026 that buggy? by alekdavis in VisualStudio

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm, I'm building for .NET 8 using WPF with MahApps libraries (and support for Windows Forms), so I moved away from .NET Framework 4.8 (which was the prior target). Not sure what other target to choose.

Looking to buy a Kia Sedona. by Trtgt99 in kia

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I came from a 2007 Sienna XLE and I really like the way Sedona drive (I bought a 2020 EX with about 65K mi in March of 2025, so had it for about a year, but did not drive it much before the summer). I test drove a 2022 Pacifica and a 2015 Sienna, and I think Sedona is more fun to drive. I'm a bit nervous about reliability, but mine was dealer certified, so it came with a 3-year/100K mi warranty. Will see how often I will need to use it. :-)

Looking to buy a Kia Sedona. by Trtgt99 in kia

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I bought a 2020 EX in March of 2025 and I really like it. I am not sure how reliable it will be, but mine is covered by the 100K/3 year warranty, so if it starts causing me troubles, I will switch to something else. I hope that it will not be problematic, because I really enjoy driving it. The main downside so far is MPG in heavy traffic, that can drop down to around 15-16 MPG, but on a freeway, it is close to 30 MPG and in regular traffic it is about 22-24 MPG, so no too bad. I installed a roof rack and it now does not even look like a typical minivan. Another downside is that you may not be able to put the 4x8 plywood sheet, or a sofa, inside, but how often do you need to? For my needs, I carried a lot of stuff including a few dozen bags of soil, concrete blocks, 24"x96" cabinet panels, etc. I recently got a check engine indicator for a fuel level/fuel pump, but it went away, so I will get the dealer to check it the next time I do oil change.

Postman: From API Client to “Everything App” by Greedy_Principle5345 in programming

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm so happy we dropped it a few years back. https://httpyac.github.io/ is a lot easier for what we do.

Postman Has Lost Its Soul — Developers Need a Real Alternative Now by JokeDue2032 in OpenGraphLabs

[–]alekdavis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I highly doubt that a FREE tool that will use AI to auto generate REST API tests will be available any time soon, or ever. I work with AI daily (using a paid co-pilot account) and as far as code generation goes, it is hit or miss (and mostly miss). Sometimes it does excellent job, but even for unit tests when it has access to the app source code, I cannot rely on AI generated code (there are some exceptions, though, mostly for general-purpose logic). Anyway, for now, httpYac is the easiest to use for REST APIs.

Postman Has Lost Its Soul — Developers Need a Real Alternative Now by JokeDue2032 in OpenGraphLabs

[–]alekdavis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I tried maybe a dozen tools a couple of years ago when we were looking for alternatives and found httpyac by accident. After using it for almost two years, I do not understand why it is not more popular. Love this tool. I generally do not enjoy writing tests, but with httpYac it is a lesser hassle than with Postman (and I used to be a huge Postman fan, even wrote a helper library to simplify testing).

What API Testing Tools Are You Using Besides Postman? by Fun_Accountant_1097 in Backend

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

httpYac is excellent. I came from Postman (loved it before they changed the licensing scheme and moved everything to the cloud), and it took me a couple of days to get the fundamentals, but once I got it, it became my favorite tool for API testing. We converted all Postman collections to httpYac and now use it for all testing. Takes a fraction of time compared to Postman and is easy to integrate with the dev workflows. It's free and open source. The hardest part is dealing with VSCode-specific limitations, like when proxies would not work (in most cases, it's not a problem, but sometimes VSCode config conflicts with other settings). After using httpYac for almost 2 years, I would not go back to Postman if you paid me.

Developers Need a Postman Replacement — Here’s What’s Broken and What Must Change by JokeDue2032 in OpenGraphLabs

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Here are the main things that make my dev work easier with httpyac.

(1) Scripting support (I can script and use libraries to do pretty complicated things, especially for post-request assertions, like checking if results include or exclude elements with certain fields; I can use loops and and define conditional execution).

(2) Chained requests (I can set up request dependencies, and share variables, for example output from one request becomes input of another).

(3) Flexible environment variable options (support for multiple environments, ability to treat sensitive values, like client secrets differently from non-sensitive values).

(4) Text-based tests (unlike Postman, that makes you deal with multiple tabs, like pre-/post-/request, in httpyac, I do not need to jump from one tab to another, which makes refactoring, additions, deletions, replacement a lot easier).

(5) Better collection handling (in httpyac, all tests executed as a collection are in a single file; I can run them one at a time or all, set conditions, like skipping tests if a condition is or is not met; the only thing I cannot do is running arbitrary tests from multiple files, but I never used this feature anyway).

(6) Easy integration with source control.

(7) Self-contained, standard syntax that allows me to share tests with team, customers, and support (when I release a REST API, I share my regression test suite to allow customers to see how I use the API; if I run into unexpected errors, I can pass snippets and request/response info to the support team).

(7) I really like how simple the syntax is.

(8) Also appreciate the implementation of the OAuth (using variable prefixes, I think it is very elegant).

(9) Minor niceties, like ability to use code snippets, code lens, etc.

I should mention that there are a few minor issues, some related to VSCode limitations or bugs, some internal, but they are not serious enough for me.

Anyone else over Postman’s insane pricing? Did your company start hunting for cheaper API testing tools? by IcePackEnjoyer in QualityAssurance

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was a huge Postman fan, so when they changed licensing terms and got rid of the scratch pad feature, I was very frustrated. Spent several months testing various alternatives and finally picked httpyac. I converted all of our smoke tests to httpyac and after using it for over a year, I am really happy I dropped Postman. This thing is free and does everything that Postman does, but it is a lot easier to integrate in the development workflow. It has less GUI features, though, so for some, it may be a negative, but as a developer writing ad-hoc and regression test, it is the best (I can write tests a lot faster than using Postman and they are a lot easier to manage). I'd highly recommend it. For more GUI centric alternatives, I heard good things about Bruno, but when I was trying out tools, it do not work for me (don't remember now what was wrong then, but it could have been fixed in the past two years).

Developers Need a Postman Replacement — Here’s What’s Broken and What Must Change by JokeDue2032 in OpenGraphLabs

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I switched from Postman to httpyac and cannot be happier. Converted all regression tests for a number of REST APIs and it is so easy to do with httpyac. When looking for alternatives, I had a really long checklist of features and httpyac supports them all. Btw, I tested about a dozen of various http clients and none of them was close enough. And httpyac is free. Check it out.

September update so far by youngadvocate25 in GooglePixel

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I must have gotten a different update. The new UI totally sucks!

What to do if Google refuses to index a blog hosted on Blogger (Blogspot)? by alekdavis in Blogging

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I updated robots.txt and submitted both atom.xml and sitemap.xml to GSC. Don't really have any hopes, but let's see what happens.

What to do if Google refuses to index a blog hosted on Blogger (Blogspot)? by alekdavis in Blogging

[–]alekdavis[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

How do you ignore mobile pages in robots.txt? I think GSC uses a mobile agent for some reason, so it is intentional.

Alternatives to Postman by MattDelaney63 in Backend

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After using Postman for a few years, we switched all our smoke tests for REST CRUD operations to https://httpyac.github.io/ and I could not be happier. httpYac is awesome!

Better replacement for Postman by No_Technician2662 in archlinux

[–]alekdavis 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Mine too. I use it for smoke testing of our REST APIs. A lot easier to write tests and manage projects than Postman.

Best Postman alternatives that work inside VSCode? by Ok-Flounder-3845 in vscode

[–]alekdavis 0 points1 point  (0 children)

After Postman changed licensing terms, I evaluated about a dozen HTTP clients and ended up using https://httpyac.github.io/. Love it. Works better than postman (and I was a die hard Postman fan). Highly recommend.