The SAS Workshops Blog (Page 2)

Wild West to Agile

We've all heard the terms "agile" and "waterfall", but what is the real history behind each? and how did we migrate from one to the other? Here is a firsthand account.

Software tools

Rainbow Terminal in honor of Pride Month

Here is a cool little tool from Felipe Silva to allow you to easily use color in your terminal output.

Unit Testing , Book Reviews , Software tools , Python

Python Testing with PyTest

I recently read the PyTest book. It is quite good. If you are looking to learn Python, I recommend checking out PyTest. Unit Tests are a great tool to help learning a new language.

Book Reviews , Security

Tracers In the Dark

This is a really interesting read about the history of tracing blockchain transactions.

Conferences , Community , Python

PyCon and NI Connect

I recently attended both PyCon and NI Connect. Here are some thoughts and a comparison.

Book Reviews , Python

Dead Simple Python

If you want to take a deep dive into Python and skip all the beginner tutorials that assume you don't know anything about programming, then this is the book for you!

Coding Philosophy

Baba is You

What can a puzzle game teach you about software development? More than you think.

Business

S&T Happens

The world is a crazy unpredictable place. How do you survive and thrive in the chaos?

Random , Software Engineering , Announcements

The Architect of Adventure

Apparently, I've been knighted the "Architect of Adventure" by Nancy. In that spirit Steve, Nancy, and I have started something new.

Software tools , Unit Testing , How to

Approvals New Features - Date Scrubber and Custom DiffTool

Have you tried out Approval Testing yet? if no, why not? It's a great way to tame Legacy Code.

Announcements

Beyond NI Training Revisited

NI Training is good and what else do you need to know? What other skills do you need to be successful?

Conferences , Coding Philosophy

David Neal on Leadership

Leadership is more than just a title. Anyone can be a leader - even you. Come to David's Workshop at GDevCon NA to learn more.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , DevOps

Are Your Lights On?

What is the real problem? Whose problem is it? Who has the power to fix it? and how do you motivate that person to fix the problem?

Coding Philosophy

The Case For Virtual Folders

Do you use folders on disk to organize VIs inside libraries? Why? or Why not?

Coding Philosophy

Scaling

Does the advice you give depend on the size of the development team? If so, how does your advice change? and where is the limit for small versus large teams?

Coding Philosophy

The 10 Commandments of Legacy Code

I saw a great Twitter post from Joe Anderson about the 10 Commandments of Legacy Code.

GLA Summit 2024

The GLA Summit is taking place virtually this year at 25-26 March 2024. Come join us!

Unit Testing , Software Engineering , Legacy Code , Resources , Software tools , How to

Approval Testing For LabVIEW 2.0 Released

If you haven't tried approval testing yet, you definitely should. It makes unit testing a lot easier, particularly for legacy code or for verifying complicated objects.

Software tools , Continuous Integration , DevOps , Software Engineering

SAS-GCLI-TOOLS Update

The first step in setting up CI/CD is being able to perform common tasks from the CLI. Here are a set of tools to do just that.

Business

Sell like an ophthalmologist

A recent experience at the ophthalmologist makes a good case study of how to sell.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , Legacy Code

The Best Book on Legacy Code I've Read Yet

You have inherited a Legacy System, what do you do now? How do you manage a successful modernization effort?

Book Reviews

Training From the Back of the Room

When you lead training are you in the front of the room or the back? Does your training implement the 4 Cs?

A screenshot showing a Git Bash Window. The command is`g-cli blue -- .` The output is "5 Files Processed 2 Formatted"

Software Engineering , Software tools , Legacy Code , Resources , Announcements

Announcing the Blue Formatter for LabVIEW

If you like Nattify, you'll probably like this tool. It lets you run Nattify on an entire directory from the command line.

Someone wearing white loafers and jeans (that is all you can see of them) sweeping with a broom and a dustpan on a stick.

Coding Philosophy

The Right Amount of Technical Debt

How do you determine the right amount of technical debt on a project? Both too much and too little can slow you down.

A cairn (stack of rocks) on a mountainside. You can see a valley and some partiall snow covered mountains in the background.

Goals

2024 Big Rocks

What are your goals for 2024? Here are mine.