Many of the websites we build require some variation of a search feature. Whether the website targets consumers or other businesses, if you have a robust product offering, you want a robust search to match.  

Test-Driven Development (TDD) has been around a while; you may have heard of it. If you’re new to the idea, I’m going to try to sell you on it. If you’re familiar with it, I’m going to make the argument that it’s the best way to approach new projects. And if you know it and hate it, I’m going to try and change your mind, if you give me the chance.

At Springthrough we use Slack to communicate with each other individually and as a team. In addition to chatting amongst team members, Slack allows for customized commands that will return whatever information that you need. Some are fun, like if you enter a keyword with the Gif command it will provide you with a gif illustrating your keyword. Others are practical and alert our team to work requests.

Just recently, the Michigan Secretary of State faced a big problem. Their digital system stopped working. They had spent too many years updating an old system, trying to make incremental fixes here and there. They didn’t have a plan in place for the software retirement, so before a new solution could be enacted, they faced a total breakdown. Therein lies the danger of ignoring technical debt.

In the modern age, software solutions can span across many platforms. One monster solution alone could contain a range of web projects, web services, desktop applications and mobile applications. If you’ve ever written a class library for .Net Framework and later had to target Mono to use it with iOS, you might want to save yourself from the trouble in the future. You might also be one of the lucky few who have worked with PCLs (Portable Class Libraries) and had the pleasure of dealing with those cumbersome PCL profiles. Well no more! PCL is dead, and long live the new King: .Net Standard!