Tools Articles
Beyond Compare: The Diff Tool I Refuse to Live Without
I love boosting productivity. If you’re manually comparing files, squinting at Git diffs, or struggling to sync folders across servers, you’re wasting time and there’s a better way— it’s called Beyond Compare. I’ve been using this tool for over a decade, and I’ve paid for it with my own money. That’s how much I believe […]
Dodging Merge Conflicts in git
This article was originally posted on my personal blog under the same title, “Dodging Merge Conflicts in git.” Introduction Of all the source control management systems that have ever been created, git is certainly one of them. You’ve probably used it, and been burned by a particularly complicated merge conflict. Resolving merge conflicts can be […]
NeurIPS 2024 Developer Tools You Can Deploy & Use Today!
I learned about these open source and commercially licensed tools for developers at NeurIPS 2024. Most of the tools on this list are new to me, but not new to the world. You can deploy and use them today! …pssst – if your manager or your client would rather you make something from scratch instead […]
10 Figma Shortcuts to Improve Your UI Design Proficiencies
Though most shortcuts in work are ill-advised or perceived as lazy, some have proven otherwise. As Figma has exploded in use amongst many in the design field these last few years, almost all SEP’s designers have adopted this tool in their own unique way. Like artists, designers have their own approach to the pieces they […]
Testing React Native Apps: A Sweet Setup for Full-Stack Cross-Platform Testing
Short on time? The answer is to use Jest, React Native Testing Library, and Detox. Here’s a sample repo with it all wired up: https://github.com/klcantrell/testing-react-native-apps-post. The advantages of building an app with React Native apply when testing the app as well. When building, you write code once and get native apps that work well on […]
Powerful Visual Testing with Applitools
Note: This article was originally posted here on my personal blog. —– Up until last year, I had a long-standing impression that automated visual testing was a difficult nut to crack. Simple screenshot comparison tools can be finicky, and doing it manually can take years off your life. Believe me, I know. It’s rough. Figuring […]
3 Tools to Develop Your Agile Product Strategy
I recently had the opportunity to attend a webinar on agile product strategy given by our Director of Innovation, Chris Shinkle. Here are three tools I took away from the presentation that you can use to develop an agile product strategy that works. The Problem Do any of these situations sound familiar? Your product strategy […]
Challenge Your Favorites
I’ve written about the many benefits of personal projects before. One nice aspect is being able to try out tools & frameworks in a low-risk environment. In this post I’ll explain one such trial I’m doing and how the tool Comby made switching easy. Are My Go-To Tools Stale? As we gain experience on projects […]
Automatically keeping Git identities distinct between accounts
I’ve ended up with multiple GitHub identities. One for personal use, another for SEP use, and still more for many of our clients. Leaning on Git conditional includes, and a bit of manual work upfront, my GitHub identities can be “automatically” kept distinct. Like many people, I’ve setup a global Git configuration for my name […]
SEP Acquires Visual Story Mapping Software, CardBoard
CARMEL, Ind. (May 22, 2017) – Carmel-based software product design and development company, SEP, has acquired CardBoard, a collaborative design and story mapping tool. The product was previously owned by DevJam, a Minneapolis-based product development company that pragmatically uses agile/lean methods to their customers’ advantage. The acquisition will enable SEP to expand its global footprint […]
Refactoring JavaScript – a play in three acts
“the JavaScript Code” by Dmitry Baranovskiy is licensed under CC BY 2.0 Originally published on my personal blog. Act 1, the setup Once upon a time, there was a JavaScript codebase. This codebase used the function expression syntax: const returnTheNumberOne = () => 1; For reasons that aren’t relevant to this blog post, I needed […]
GraphViz – A Tool You Aren’t Using, but Should
Recently, we had a book club where we read the Mikado Method, a process of handling large scale rearchitecting via refactors on the Master Branch without adversely impacting new features. One of the techniques that make up the method is visualizing the refactoring plan as a digraph of dependent steps. But as much as I […]