Older posts

• 2016-09-28

  Taming a Legacy Application with Docker

  Installing TestRail, a legacy LAMP application, in a Docker container, making it simple to deploy a new staging server.

• 2015-05-13

  From Python to Go

  After fifteen years of Python, I picked Go for a new test automation system. This is what I liked about it and what took time to get used to.

• 2014-07-01

  A subprocess bug? Nah.

  Python's subprocess reported success for a failed command. It took some work to find the cause.

• 2014-06-18

  Buffers will fill up... eventually

  A Python tool that had worked for five years suddenly hung once the output of a command grew past the 64k pipe buffer.

• 2012-06-20

  Why I don't like 'Transparent' RPC

  Transparent RPC makes remote code look local, which makes distributed code hard to debug. I'd rather use explicit message passing.

• 2012-06-15

  The YAGNI/NIH conundrum

  I prefer reusing existing code over writing my own, even at the cost of some creativity, because someone else will have to maintain what I write.

• 2012-02-16

  Generating virtual FC WWPNs for a storage lab

  How we generated unique virtual Fibre Channel WWPNs for NPIV in a storage lab, without clashing with the WWPNs of real HBAs.

• 2012-02-16

  Improving readability and flow control in Python

  A colleague and I refactored a small Python menu to make its flow control easier to read.