PostHoc: Testing Apps that Send Email

I have developed a utility program that is extremely useful for testing and demonstrating applications that send email.  It is called Post Hoc.   As far as your application is concerned, it is an SMTP server, but it comes with a built in user interface to let you see and inspect the email that was sent.  Without any fuss.

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Grounding Design for the Real World

One common rabbit hole that programmers often fall into is creating designs for abstract capabilities that then prove to be useless in real life. To avoid this, we must focus on concrete real-world examples when designing capabilities.

Don’t Write Insulting Error Messages

Error messages are incredibly important in communicating to the user when something happened that the program was not designed to handle.  Programmers usually write these messages, and there are common pitfalls to avoid.

Extreme Precision Programming

What is “Extreme Precision Programming”?  It is a style of programming that aims to perform the intended function, while being very noisy about anything that deviates from the intended mode of behavior.  It is nothing like a complete methodology, but rather a philosophical leaning to guide choices at the implementation level.

It’s OK to Ship Tests with Product

A product is a product, and testing is testing, and they should be kept separate, right?  The thinking goes that consumers would never want to test the product.  Of course they don’t, but they are not the only people in the field.

When are “best practices” less than best?

A “best practice” is a heuristic which is used to guide early stages of a project, in order to set some patterns.  When should you use them?  More important: when are you justified in ignoring a best practice?