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David Whitney

@davidwhitney.co.uk

1.8K followers 660 following 13K posts

Director of Architecture @ fintech Consultant. Author. Rum, Alt Culture, Games & Metal. C#, TypeScript, OSS, MVP DevTechnologies. 🔗https://davidwhitney.co.uk/now - Other Socials @david_whitney on Twitter, when that helps the inevitable migration tools.

davidwhitney.co.uk

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David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · Nov 12

Hi, I'm David - you might be here because I:

- Wrote a couple of kids books about programming
- Spoke to you at an event or conference
- Had a fabulous time with you and a cocktail
- Have offered you some software consulting
- Taught you something

Available at davidwhitney.co.uk/now 🖤

davidwhitney.co.uk

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 1d

Oh and that's an affiliate link, any and all proceeds will go straight to "entertainment at the metal bar", so LGFU ;)

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 1d

Exited to be speaking at Build Stuff in Vilnius.

It's always my last conf of the year, has great vibes and is always a great excuse for a party (the metal bar over the road from the venue is excellent).

Come! 15% off tickets with this link: www.buildstuff.events?sca_ref=9646...

Build Stuff 2025 Tickets – Secure Your Spot at the Software Conference

Get your Build Stuff 2025 tickets now! Join top software engineers, architects, and tech visionaries in Vilnius, Lithuania (Dec 3-5, 2025) for hands-on workshops, cutting-edge talks, and game-changing...

www.buildstuff.events

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 1d

Exited to be speaking at Build Stuff in Vilnius.

It's always my last conf of the year, has great vibes and is always a great excuse for a party (the metal bar over the road from the venue is excellent).

Come! 15% off tickets with this link: www.buildstuff.events?sca_ref=9646...

Build Stuff 2025 Tickets – Secure Your Spot at the Software Conference

Get your Build Stuff 2025 tickets now! Join top software engineers, architects, and tech visionaries in Vilnius, Lithuania (Dec 3-5, 2025) for hands-on workshops, cutting-edge talks, and game-changing...

www.buildstuff.events

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 2d

I presume a bot wrote this ;)

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 2d

Trying to get back from Bosnia in time to make the Architects show at the O2 is proving challenging thanks to narrow transfers and Ryanair 😭

Might be about to get a cab to Munich.

Reposted by David Whitney

Dot Net North @dotnetnorth.bsky.social · 3d

🎨 Meditations on Code As Art

This month, explore the artistic side of programming! Discover how developers imprint themselves on their work through history, from elegant patterns to deliberate artistic expression.

🗣️ @davidwhitney.co.uk
📍 Betfred, Manchester
🕕 Tue 14th Oct 18:00

Abstract visualization of colourful code syntax on black background, featuring flowing lines in vibrant colours (orange, blue, purple, pink, green) interweaving with programming keywords and functions like 'else', 'return', 'if', and 'var', creating an artistic representation of code structure

Reposted by David Whitney

Michaël Hompus @energy164.online · 3d

Keynote by @davidwhitney.co.uk at #INIT2025, great as usual!

David on stage with a mic in his hand.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 3d

A cunning plan ;)

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 3d

Excited to be keynoting Init 2025 ( initconf.org ) on Banja Luka in Bosnia & Herzegovina this morning!

A new country for me, excited to see it and meet everyone!

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Oh for sure - the nieve implementation is basically a text pre-processor that replaces the comment with an SDK call at compile time, but real compiler hooks would make it good.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

The urge to forward that to some of my reports as a gentle troll is strong.

Strong "did a CEO write this" 2025 energy to that mailshot.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

What is the most hallmark of holidays and why is it....

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Been wrestling with how I think logging has always been unergonomic, and otel is actually kinda worse.

My thinking is if it "looks like code" it's front and centre always, and I want it to be literally annotations, like marking the margins of a book.

Present but deliberately a secondary read.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

I like the idea of a deliberate format shift for things that "aren't code, they're commentary".

I think there's some obvious ergonomic benefits to reading when you know that this is narrativising things.

But those are exactly the things I want in my telemetry.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Honestly I wasn't sure if the account warning was due to this or something I'd said on r/programming. Strong same energy 😂

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Priority order init 😂

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

A story in three parts.
The comment in question:

"Church burning party! Me first!"

😂😂😂😂😂😂

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Shhh let me nerd snipe my language design friends next ;)

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

I tried to nerd snipe @martindotnet.bsky.social to hack this as a source generator for C# but he said it couldn't work - who wants to prove him wrong? ;)

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

I want to manifest this into the world.

It's a category of absolute dirt and muck that infects all software, in all languages. Makes comments actually useful and contextual.

There is prior art - Wallaby.js does this during debug sessions. Why not prod.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

Let's call them "Active Comments"

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 4d

I wish we could re-invent comments to be the way we instrument code.

I love the idea, despite it breaking from regular form. It might even rescue their utility.

var id = 123;
someAccount.IsLoggedIn = true; //? User {id} authenticated

Imagine if that replaced endless otel and logging.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 9d

Switching between a Mac and Windows a lot at the moment and one of the most useful things I've done is rebind the PowerToys Command Pallet to Win + Space - gives me a more or less identical launcher experience across the different operating systems.

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 14d

Same as it's ever been - I think people struggle with new ideas in tech and frequently lock in on the first thing they learnt.

Ironic, given, well, technology.

Reposted by David Whitney

Jason Schreier @jasonschreier.bsky.social · 15d

It’s official: EA is going private.

The leveraged buyout will be financed by a staggering $20 billion of debt, which likely means some *aggressive* cost cutting is ahead for EA in the coming months and years.

www.businesswire.com/news/home/20...

www.businesswire.com

David Whitney @davidwhitney.co.uk · 15d

(for the avoidance of doubt, I'm chuckling at myself here not someone else)