Martin Joiner's Blog Writing about software development, climbing and life.
29 December 2025

I made a prettify for Bruno files

As all the engineers in my team gradually went offline for the last time in 2025, I found myself spending my final day helping the QA guy in our team with some end-of-year housekeeping. On his laptop were hundreds of .bru files containing over 27,000 lines of automated tests. Months of work and none of […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
18 October 2025

De-jQuerification of Open Mic Finder

Let us mark this momentus event: Today I finished stripping all uses of the jQuery library from my long-running side-project Open Mic Finder! Replacing hundreds of uses of $(".item") with document.querySelectorAll(".item") it was a satisfying cull, tinged with a hint of sadness. I remember so fondly, those special years circa 2013. My fellow veterans of […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
24 September 2025

If I could fix 1 thing about Screwfix

Screwfix's systems are undeniably slick, but if there was 1 small improvement I could make it would be a text formatting tweak in both their self check-in interface and the SMS message notification. User journey When my order is ready I get a notification to my phone, travel to the shop and use the self […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
21 February 2025

Solution of the month: Endpoint rename

Sometimes I think we forget that the "I" in API stands for interface. Those endpoints are often a third-party developer's only insight into your database's model. What words you use shape their understanding and affect how they build their integration. For the API that my team maintain, I actually got an outsider's perspective a year […]… Read more »
Category: Software
10 January 2025

Did the Trump election just make 110,621 Americans search for an open mic?

The month of November has never been particularly special for visitor numbers to openmicfinder.com. November 2022 saw 15,144 unique visitors and November 2023 got 16,606, both inline with the other months. The highest month in 2024 was October with 41,843 visitors, until November happened and saw a surprise 198,710 unique visitors, that's a 374% increase […]… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
22 November 2024

Events from the future Vs strict API validation

The first time you install an SSL certificate is very much like the first time you make love to a woman...… Read more »
Category: Software Tagged as:
18 December 2023

Why Climbing holidays in Spain are better than on Kalymnos

The experience of travelling to the crag in Spain is much better than Kalymnos. In Spain you and your buddy climb into an efficient little hatchback, tune into local radio and quietly bumble up the mountain roads. In Kalymnos everyone travels in mobs on badly maintained mopeds, filling the valleys with an annoying whining noise […]… Read more »
Category: Climbing
29 September 2023

How to climb inside a 35 year old body

I only began my climbing journey in 2018 when I was already 35 years old. I started going bouldering after work in an attempt to switch off from the relentlessly satisfying but quite addictive puzzle solving of software engineering. The immersive challenge of climbing was immediately engaging and I've not stopped ever since. It's now […]… Read more »
Category: Climbing
15 September 2023

Eco pension tidy-up

It was a calm summers evening on a sleepy weekday in Bristol. The still air dappled with the distant parp of train horns from nearby Temple Meads station and the gentle clanging of d-locks knocking against bike racks as the punters gathered for another Tech4Good Meetup. I entered the Engine Shed to be greeted by […]… Read more »
Category: Life
11 August 2023

Essential skills to learn to land a junior developer role

My girlfriend has taken the brave choice to career switch, now retraining as a software developer. I am doing my best to support her as she starts from absolute scratch. I have mentored juniors before as part of my professional role as a senior but never a complete beginner. It's a weirdly nostalgic experience witnessing […]… Read more »
Category: Software
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