In this episode, Jared speaks with Coraline Ada Ehmke, a veteran software developer and creator of the Contributor Covenant and Hippocratic License, about the ethics of open-source software. Coraline discusses common justifications developers use to avoid accountability for the potential harm their software may cause, such as the "freedom zero" argument advocating for unrestricted use of software and the belief that access to the source code ensures ethical behavior. She critiques these views, e...
Oct 15, 2024•31 min•Ep. 13
In this episode, host Jared Norman and SuperGood teammates and guests Mat Harvard, Sofia Besenski, Noah Silvera, and Chris Todorov recap their experiences at Rails World 2024. They discuss the unique venue in Toronto, key takeaways from David Heinemeier Hansson's keynote on making Rails more accessible, and the shift towards on-prem solutions over services like Heroku. The panel highlights technical talks on scaling Postgres, Shopify’s automated Rails upgrade process, and debates on Kamal 2.0’s ...
Oct 08, 2024•47 min•Ep. 12
In this episode of Dead Code, J.B. Rainsberger discusses the pitfalls of integrated tests, calling them a "scam" due to their tendency to complicate rather than solve testing problems. He advocates for writing smaller, more focused tests, like unit tests, to simplify debugging and avoid tangled code. J.B. emphasizes that test-driven development (TDD) should be flexible, guiding developers to test based on what they're afraid might break, rather than following rigid rules. He introduces the conce...
Oct 01, 2024•46 min•Ep. 11
In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews Kevin Newton, Staff Software Engineer at Shopify, about his work on Ruby's new parser, Prism. Kevin explains how Prism was created to address the limitations of Ruby's original parser by providing a portable, error-tolerant solution that unifies the ecosystem, replacing multiple outdated parsers used across different tools. They discuss the challenges of parsing Ruby's complex syntax, including quirky features like heredocs and regular expressions, ...
Sep 24, 2024•29 min•Ep. 10
In this episode of the Dead Code Podcast, Jared Norman talks with Stefanni Brasil, a Senior Software Developer at thoughtbot and co-founder of hexdevs, about career growth, open source, and mentorship in tech. Stefanni shares her non-traditional path into software development and her passion for helping mid-level developers advance through her program "Get to Senior," which addresses both technical and non-technical skills. They discuss the challenges of career progression, the importance of und...
Sep 17, 2024•38 min•Ep. 9
Hilary Stohs-Krause and Jared discuss the importance of applying accessibility principles to coding environments, emphasizing how it benefits both developers and end-users. Hilary, a senior software engineer, shares insights from her talk at Madison Ruby, highlighting how small changes, like using descriptive variable names, avoiding acronyms, and incorporating linters, make code more readable and maintainable. These practices not only support programmers with disabilities, such as ADHD or visio...
Sep 10, 2024•35 min•Ep. 8
In this episode of "Dead Code," Jared and Harmony, a self-taught programmer with extensive experience in Ruby, explore the benefits of experimenting with unconventional programming languages. They discuss Fennel, a Lisp that compiles to Lua, highlighting its simplicity and versatility for applications like game modding. Jared shares his experience with ReScript, a language in the ML family that compiles to JavaScript, emphasizing its strong type system and seamless integration with React. They a...
Sep 03, 2024•37 min•Ep. 7
In this episode of "Dead Code," host Jared Norman interviews Jim Remsik, a Ruby developer and founder of the consultancy Flagrant. Jim shares his journey from .NET to Ruby on Rails, reflecting on the early days of the Ruby community and the impact of its vibrant, collaborative environment on his career. He discusses the importance of mentorship and nurturing junior developers, stressing the need for more opportunities within the Ruby community to help them grow into senior roles. Jim also talks ...
Aug 27, 2024•32 min•Ep. 6
In this episode of the Dead Code podcast, Jared welcomes RailsConf speakers Joël Quenneville and Stephanie Minn, both from thoughtbot and co-hosts of The Bike Shed podcast. Stephanie discusses her talk on the stages of change model, initially about codebase changes but ultimately focusing on adopting testing practices, highlighting the evolution of her topic and the importance of addressing test pain. Joël introduces Hotwire and Turbo through building an interactive Dungeons & Dragons charac...
Aug 13, 2024•37 min•Ep. 5
In this episode of the Dead Code Podcast, Jared interviews his brother Alistair Norman and colleague Senem Soy about their experiences with conference talks. Alistair recently spoke at RailsConf in Detroit on mentorship and pair programming, choosing the topic for its broad relevance and personal interest. He prepared for the talk by biking 750 kilometers from Toronto to Detroit, which, while mentally relaxing, left him less time to finalize his presentation. Senem, gearing up for her first talk...
Jul 30, 2024•33 min•Ep. 4
In this episode of the Dead Code podcast, host Jared Norman interviews Robby Russell, the CEO of Planet Argon and creator of Oh My Zsh, who shares insights from his extensive experience in software development, particularly Ruby on Rails. Robby discusses the challenges of software maintenance and technical debt, emphasizing the importance of understanding and managing different types of debt within teams. He advocates for building simpler, more maintainable systems, taking ownership of the codeb...
Jul 16, 2024•49 min•Ep. 3
What does Quora.com think of TDD? Guests: Noah Silvera (she/her), Benjamin Wil (he/him) Jared Norman: Mastodon , Twitter , Threads Dead Code: Mastodon , Twitter , Threads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Apr 17, 2024•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 2
What's going on with the TDD heads these days? Byron Alley: Website , Twitter , Mastodon Jared Norman: Mastodon , Twitter , Threads Dead Code: Mastodon , Twitter , Threads References: The Tweet Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 1
A short preview of what you can expect from future episodes of Dead Code. I promise better editing and mic position in the future. Dead Code Socials: Mastodon Twitter Threads Jared Norman Socials: Mastodon Twitter Threads References: Oddly Influenced, Episode 40 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....
Mar 12, 2024•6 min
