Stuff Adam Makes

by Adam Dangoor

Another pair of eyes: Reviewing code well — July 21, 2016

Another pair of eyes: Reviewing code well

I was lucky enough be invited to speak at EuroPython 2016 where I spoke on the subject of code review.

The slides are available on SlideShare.
The presenter notes are on Pastebin.
And the video is on YouTube.

I talked about what code review is, how to do it, and what can go wrong.

I also offer training and consulting on code review as well as testing (including TDD) and technical interviewing and hiring practices.

I owe a lot to jml’s “Your code sucks, and I hate you, The Social Dynamics of Code Reviews” and the Magnetic platform guidelines.

IMG_0585

Advertisement
Using Hypothesis at work might get you promoted — April 26, 2016
Tested and Correct, How to Make Sure Your Documentation Keeps Working — September 2, 2015

Tested and Correct, How to Make Sure Your Documentation Keeps Working

I recently spoke at Write the Docs Prague 2015. A video will be published soon, but for now the slides are available with a rough transcript.

The topic was “Tested and Correct, How to Make Sure Your Documentation Keeps Working” and the abstract was

When you are writing documentation for software, a top priority is surely that what you write is correct. That is, the examples you provide give the output you say they will. Or perhaps it is that the links in your documentation link to an expected page. Usually this is done with manual testing at the time of writing. Your organisation may have practices in place to make sure that these examples don’t get too out of date – maybe someone checks them periodically, maybe code review comes with comments like “I remember that this part of the code is used in an example on Page 37 of our docs, change it”. But these methods are tedious and flawed. This talk will give examples from my work as a software engineer in creating tested snippets for documentation which are linked to the code they represent. It will show how using techniques traditionally reserved for software testing can ease the burden of keeping documentation up to date.

A rough transcript is here.

Technologies mentioned include:

Lettertap (and some blog posts I’ve written) — November 16, 2013

Lettertap (and some blog posts I’ve written)

I’ve been really busy at work over the last year but I have got a couple of things to show off from that time. My major side-project has been Lettertap, a tool which is built to help people with certain disabilities communicate. I have made a prototype for someone in particular with Progressive supranuclear palsy to use but I think that when it is more mature it could be suitable for a larger audience. You can contribute to Lettertap and see a more detailed explanation from its GitHub page.

The gist of Lettertap that it is a jQuery Mobile-based web page designed for iPad which shows one letter at a time. Almost the whole screen is tappable and will add the current letter to a list. Lettertap is designed for those who have difficulty communicating, but can perform a recognisable action. This action could be tapping the screen to add a letter, or even blinking to let a carer know to tap the screen. A carer has control over the speed at which the letters change, and over which alphabet to use (current options include the A-Z, a frequency-based alphabet and a “Yes / No” alphabet). Get in touch if you have a friend or relative with a similar disability and I will do my best to accommodate their needs into Lettertap if it is suitable.

Thanks go to Bristol Web Folk for kicking me into action on this, and providing me some nice prizes too. Thank you also to the other Meetup-ers who provided documentation and vision.

I’ve also written some blog posts for Delib and HybridCluster, on Agile (http://www.delib.net/dblog/delib-goes-agiler/) and dealing with feature requests (http://www.hybridcluster.com/blog/dealing-with-feature-requests/).

Who Directed? for Alfred — December 29, 2012
Mountain Lion checker — July 25, 2012
URL Expander copies expanded links — January 28, 2012
Relaunching apps from Alfred — January 27, 2012
Extension Updater support — January 15, 2012

Extension Updater support

The most popular extension on this site is Time Somewhere which was helped greatly by @jdfwarrior‘s WolframAlpha extension. He also made Extension Updater which my shell script extensions now support (everything but Relaunch, Consider Unpausing and Windows Booter). Just install the Extension Updater extension and type update check to check for updates or update to check for and install updates. Check out his Tumblr for more great extensions.

Consider Unpausing — November 29, 2011
Snap! Take a picture with Alfred — November 23, 2011
London Tube extension — November 21, 2011
Windows Booter – Restart in Boot Camp —
My first @alfredapp extension, Time Somewhere — November 20, 2011