Martin Joiner's Blog Writing about software development, climbing and life.
28 July 2023

Realising PHPUnit is not just Unit tests

It is far too easy to assume that PHPUnit only does Unit tests. I was guilty of this until a recent shift in thinking and now the latest linguistic faux pas on my list of things to hate is when colleagues casually refer to the PHPUnit tests as "the unit tests". They are not the […]… Read more »
Category: Software
19 May 2023

Canal de les Dames via ferrata in Montserrat

The short summary is: It feels like they've forced a via ferrata in where there is no natural line of climbing. It's more like a walk with 4 muscular V3 bouldering challenges en route. It's May 2023, we're on day 1 of our 9-day roadtrip from Barcelona, through Tarragona region and down to Costa Blanca. […]… Read more »
Category: Climbing
23 March 2023

Open source contribution: Open API validator

I wonder if others experience the same rush of excitement that I do when I discover a bug in an open source package? Spotting an opportunity to contribute an improvement is novel and exciting. I anticipate my pull-request being welcomed with great enthusiasm, celebrated and immediately merged... but that's rarely what happens. For example take […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
26 May 2022

Redefining what Open Mic Finder is to me

I first published the open mic finder website way back in January 2010. Within a few years it was the top resource for information on open mic nights in the United Kingdom. A few months ago I was about to shut it down permanently, but then I changed my mind. One thing that's always been […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
30 August 2021

Removing loose rock in Avon Gorge

I was climbing an obscure route that doesn't get much traffic when I came upon some scary loose rock that made me bail. Wanting to make it safe, I returned with a crow bar and did something about it. This video is my first attempt at making a YouTube video using all the standard modern […]… Read more »
Category: Climbing
24 May 2020

MTN 94 GIMP Palette

I have started an open source repository of GIMP palette files (.glp) for all the major ranges of street art paint. The first range I've added is my personal favourite MTN 94. It would be good to get palettes for all the major ranges covered included other brands like Molotow and Posca. Contributions welcomed. Download […]… Read more »
Category: Art
30 December 2019
Martin speaking at event

Dependency Version Constraints Talk at PHP SW

In November 2019 I delivered a talk at Bristol tech meetup PHP South West covering a small but very useful piece of knowledge. NPM and Composer kind of hit critical popularity at the same time. By 2013/14 a package manager was an integral part of web development if you wanted to use all the shiny […]… Read more »
Category: Software
4 May 2018
Martin stood in front of presentation screen

Speedy Seeding: Lightning talk at PHP SW

Earlier this month I spoke at local developer meetup PHP South West. My lightning talk at focussed on making seeding loads of data quick and painless so as not to discourage yourself from optimising your application.… Read more »
Category: Software
30 January 2018

Krishnan Guru-Murthy’s Tie – 30th Jan 2018

It's been nearly 7 years since Krishnan rocked his attention-grabbing, machine-gun-toting cherub tie in the blue-on-pink colourway on Channel 4 news. Well tonight, thanks to a comment on that 2010 blog post, I was alerted to the fact that he's a return customer at kick-ass tie retailer, Gresham Blake.… Read more »
Category: Life Tagged as:
31 August 2017

Why I think it’s fine to ask a mobile user to “Click”

I wrote a guest opinion piece for TechSpark, check it out: https://techspark.co/fine-ask-mobile-user-click/… Read more »
Category: Software
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