PinnedDevelopers need better FHIR toolsNot long ago I worked on a greenfield project for a healthcare company. I was building the API that sat between the UI screens and the backend FHIR database, hosted on one of the larger cloud providers. It was my first exposure to FHIR. I’ve worked with databases of all…Fhir3 min read
Dec 29, 2021You have an idea for an app. What should you do on Day 1?Let’s assume you’re happy with the app you’re about to build; that your idea has legs or at least the prospect of legs based on an itch you’re scratching or a gap that needs filling. (There’s an 800 page book in that sentence, but let’s not go there right now.) …Fhir5 min read
Feb 10, 2021Generate SQL from Excel Spreadsheets or CSV FilesGryphon Sql is a Windows desktop (64 bit) application that takes a CSV or Tab delimited text file and builds a SQL script from its contents. Version 1 has basic functionality that allows you to filter which rows and columns in your data file are used to build the script. Download here …Sql7 min read
Feb 10, 2021From Idea to MVP to Hacker News in 44 HoursUnfinished side projects are the bane of a hacker’s life. How many incomplete apps are languishing in forgotten folders, 80% finished but destined never to see the light of day? It’s the Dev equivalent of writer’s block. We love working on the interesting and the challenging parts, but it’s that…Startup12 min read
Jun 24, 2020Working From Home When Home is an Island in the SunI’m a software developer living and working in Dublin, Ireland. Except I’m not. For the past three months I’ve been living on the Canarian island of Lanzarote, 100 kilometres off the North African coast. My job is the same as it always was: writing code, building new features into the…Covid 195 min read
May 29, 2020Excel to SQL — Bridging the Gap Between Business Analysts and DevelopersThe Problem Business analysts and developers work with data in different ways. By and large, analysts work with Excel spreadsheets output from company applications, from Power BI reports, or from CSV extracts provided by developers. The developers themselves tend to be more comfortable accessing raw data via SQL queries. The difficulty with…Sql4 min read
Apr 18, 2020How to build a Vue.js application using DevExtreme UI components and a .Net Core APII’m a backend developer with little experience of the frontend. My JavaScript skills are basic at best. A new app I’m working on requires a polished and maintainable UI, which lead me to investigate the top three frameworks of the day: React, Angular and Vue. I chose Vue as the…Programming9 min read
Published in Better Programming·Apr 13, 2020From Side Project to Alpha ReleaseWhat developers can learn from writers — “Ideas are easy, implementation is hard.” Does this sound familiar? If you read the same blogs as I do, hang out on the same websites, listen to the same podcasts, you’ll have heard this gem a thousand times. But rarely are we offered advice on what to do about it…Startup4 min read
Apr 3, 2020Building an App as a Solo Developer — 6 Stage Development PlanA solo developer building a fully featured commercial application faces a number of challenges not faced by startups and dev teams, the largest of which is he’s on his own: one decision maker, one perspective, one opinion, one set of skills and experience. There’s no one to shout out when…Startup9 min read
Mar 31, 2020Choosing a Tech Stack for a New SaaS AppThese past few days I’ve been thinking through the tech stack that I’ll be using for my new Dev Knowledge Base app. …Startup3 min read
