Welcome to Niche Software, a MicroISV based in Wellington, New Zealand.

The primary goal of the site is as a host to my writing - mostly entries in my blog, but also including more detailed articles and the occasional highly opinionated editorial. A secondary, but still important, goal is to be a place to post some tools, utilities and toys that I have written. As I tend to develop applications that "scratch my own itch," most of these are fairly technical in nature. Please check out the license on any item you download - while many are free, some are not.

Using Constructors

Feb 27 2023 api-design

The API we presented last time had a problem - it required users to remember to call Initialize() before an instance could be used without problems occurring.

Read more »

An Inconvenient API

Feb 18 2023 api-design

Imagine that you’re working on an unreleased project, and you discover a need to extend one of your custom types. There’s some complex initialization required before methods will work properly.

Read more »

Method Archetypes

Sep 11 2022 techniques

How do you decide what methods or functions to write as you’re coding? Here’s a technique that I learned about years ago that guides you towards software with great reusability and easier testability.

Read more »

Mandelbrot Screensaver

Mandelbrot Screensaver is a screensaver that automatically generates images from Mandelbrot fractal, generating a never ending display of fractal images on your screen.

Read More »

WordTutor

WordTutor, a tool for running interactive spelling drills: the easy way to improve your spelling.

Read More »

OOS Alarm

OOS Alarm is a repeating alarm clock which pops up regularly to remind you to appropriate breaks during your work each day.

Read More »

Becoming a Better Developer

In this talk I pass on some of the things I've learnt about being a better developer.

Read more »

Static Analysis for the Win

We all know that the earlier we find a bug, the cheaper it is to fix. Shouldn't we therefore be doing everything we can to identify bugs as early as possible?

Read more »

The Pragmatic Programmer

Unusually for a technical book published in 1999, The Pragmatic Programmer remains thoroughly relevant to the modern developer. I present a review of this book, looking at how it is relevant to the modern developer.

Read more »

Writing Maintainable Code

One core skill that every developer should cultivate is the ability to write Maintainable Code - code that can be easily understood.

Read more »

Geek Communication

In June 2014, presenting to the first cohort of the Enspiral Devacademy talking about the nature of "geeks" and how to communicate effectively with them.

Read more »

Unit Testing 101

A beginners introduction to unit testing, based on Roy Oscherove's book Art of Unit Testing. Presented to both Software Quality New Zealand and to Statistics New Zealand.

Read more »