The SAS Workshops Blog

Coding Philosophy

Worry About The Message First, Then The Handwriting

We judge LabVIEW code all wrong. Straighter wires and prettier icons are not the solution to poor design.

Interviews

Bug Hunters Cafe

I recently sat down Jason C. MacDonald at the Bug Hunters Cafe. We had a really great conversation about bug hunting in LabVIEW.

Coding Philosophy

The Value of Open Source

There is a lot of value in open source tools and it goes beyond just the initial problem they are designed to solve.

Coding Philosophy

Go slow to Go Fast.

Every time I read my kids the book, the tortoise always wins. Yet as adults we seem to have missed the lesson.

How to , Software tools

Publishing AntiDoc Documentation using GitLab Pages

I just discovered GitLab Pages recently. It has been around for a while, so this may not be news to anyone, but I'm sure it's news to at least one of my readers and I've found a somewhat novel use case for it, so I decided to do a blog post about it.

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy

How To Make Mistakes in Python

I stumbled upon this book recently. It was quite good. I highly recommend everyone (yes even LabVIEW Developers) read it. It is very insightful. It's also free and very short at 76 pages and it reads fast. There really is no excuse. I very much like the title.

Coding Philosophy , Conferences

The Best Programmers Are Constantly Learning.

The best programmers are constantly learning and we only fully learn when we share. This is why we need conferences like GDevCon N.A.

Software tools , Announcements , Frameworks , Resources

Automatically Generate Sequence Diagrams

Sequence Diagrams are essential for designing, understanding, and debugging concurrent systems. Here is a tool to automatically generate them from running code.

Conferences

Should I go to NI Connect?

Since returning from NI Connect last month, I have gotten asked this question several times. There are a few things to consider before answering this question.

How Do I Get Started With CI/CD in LabVIEW?

Too many choices can be overwhelming. Where should you invest your energy? Why is the answer CI/CD? and How do you get started?

Continuous Integration , Software tools , DevOps , SCC , How to

Git SubModules and GitLab CI

I generally prefer using VIPM to share code, but sometimes submodules are useful. However, using them with GitLab CI can be tricky.

Announcements

Consultant of the Year!

I am very proud to announce that SAS Workshops was awarded the Consultant Impact award recently at NI Connect.

Announcements , Resources

The LabVIEW Experiment is 9 months old!

Nine months ago I started the LabVIEW Experiment. So far it has been very well received. I am very happy with the way it has turned out. We've had a lot of great guests and covered some very important topics. Nothing Good is Free Unfortunately, nothing worthwhile is

Book Reviews

Waltzing With Bears

Risk management or crisis management, the choice is yours. This book will teach you proper risk management so you can avoid crisis management.

Software Engineering , Python

Software Engineering in Python

I recently took another Python course from Enthought on Software Engineering. I highly recommend it.

Book Reviews

Caste

Coding is much more about humans than technology. Understanding the human condition better makes you a better coder. This book is all about the human condition.

Coding Philosophy

Teaching Software Engineering to Scientists and Engineers

"It is easier to hire a scientist or engineer with domain knowledge and teach them how to be a software engineer than it is to turn a software engineer into a domain expert."

Announcements

Beyond NI Training

We all know NI offers LabVIEW training. Many of us have been through their classes. A few of us have even taken all of NI's classes. If you are new to LabVIEW, Core 1 and Core 2 are a great place to start. If you are an intermediate

Book Reviews , Python

Python Workout

If you are looking to get more comfortable with Python, this is definitely a good place to start.

Coding Philosophy

Counterindications

What is helpful in some situations can be harmful in others. Context matters.

Security , DDD , Design Patterns , Software Engineering

Secure By Design

You don't need to be a security expert to write secure code. You can make your code more secure simply by following Domain Driven Design (DDD) practices.

Coding Philosophy , Software Engineering

Non-Negotiables For Software Development Process

What absolutely has to be in place for a software project to be successful? What are your non-negotiables?

Book Reviews , Coding Philosophy , Design Patterns

Domain-Driven Design Quickly

If you are likely for a primer to get started learning DDD, Domain Driven Design Quickly is a good starting point.

Coding Philosophy

It's harder to downclimb

Writing code is much easier than reading it. If you write code at your maximum level of cleverness, then by definition you are not smart enough to read and understand it. The trick is to make sure that you leave yourself some margin.

Coupling Cohesion and Information Hiding

The better you understand the basics, the more advanced you are. Coupling, Cohesion and Information Hiding are the basics.