Nicolas Carlo
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nicoespeon.com
Nicolas Carlo
@nicoespeon.com
🧹 I refactor Legacy Code and build tools to help you do the same!
✏️ understandlegacycode.com

🎩 Mr. Meetup Montréal • Software Crafters / React / TypeScript / Elixir
🍁 guild.host/montreal-tech/network
Pinned
Alright, let's make it official…

I am super-proud to tell you that I have finally published the print version of my book: "Legacy Code: First Aid Kit" 🎉 📕 🥲
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
I am really enjoying having some time between contracts at the moment... I just wrote an article about the test desiderata - this has been on my mind to write about for several years at this point! coding-is-like-cooking.info/2025/12/test...
Test Desiderata 2.0 - Coding Is Like Cooking
Kent Beck is one of the original authors of JUnit, an open source tool that kick-started a huge shift in programmer behaviour that I and others have found immensely valuable. In 2019 he published his ...
coding-is-like-cooking.info
December 8, 2025 at 1:47 PM
🧑‍💻 Hey Claude, can do that same refactor on these 62 files, so I can focus on other things?

🤖 Of course!



🤖 Given the complexity, let me create a script…
🤖 Wait, that's strange. Let me check more carefully…
🤖 I see, they are similar. Let me update in batch…
🤖 I see the issue now…
🤖 Wait…
December 5, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
Git tips and tricks day 4. Learn how git -L can be used to track changes to a method or function.

youtu.be/fOEQSLZ5cDU
Git Tips and Tricks. Day 4: git log -L
Learn how you can follow changes to a single method with git.
youtu.be
December 4, 2025 at 10:03 PM
Current status: processing /dev/mtl 2025 talks to get them published on YouTube asap 🤓
December 4, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
We have started preparing our 2026 edition 🤫

In the meantime, you can find all the talks from previous editions on our YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/@mendercon/v...

Stay tuned to learn more about what's coming 😉
#MenderCon #LegacyCode
MenderCon
MenderCon is a virtual conference celebrating the menders of legacy code. Menders love fixing bugs, refactoring, and testing to make software applications more stable, scalable and secure. MenderCon ...
www.youtube.com
December 2, 2025 at 7:30 PM
Now, that's a rare bird. Feels great 🥰

Turns out, it was also a perfectly good issue number.
November 27, 2025 at 3:41 PM
dev-mtl.ca is happening on Friday

We have definitely entered the "oh my god, there are so many things to take care of" phase 😄

But we learned from the first edition. This year, we are 6 organizers. We just had a productive meeting to review everything 🌈
/dev/mtl 2025
Share the passion. Discover the innovation.
dev-mtl.ca
November 26, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
I don’t know howwww people are vibe coding without knowing how to _actually_ code

My workflow has been:

Claude helps me a little
Claude regresses
I help Claude
Claude tells me I was right all along
I close Claude
I do the rest myself
November 25, 2025 at 11:43 PM
Let's start #ReactSummitUS with @erikras.com

React Beyond the DOM
November 18, 2025 at 2:43 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
Centered alumni meetup at an undisclosed, unrecognizable location today with @fardeem.bsky.social @nicoespeon.com.
November 16, 2025 at 4:00 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
🤔 What if there were a conference without talks? Just hanging out with OSS maintainers & builders, seeing what they’re working on, and learning cool stuff by actually talking to people.

🤯 What if hallway track turned into the whole event!

💡 @tannerlinsley.com is exploring it. Interested? ⬇️
Web Forge Conf - A new kind of web developer conference
A community funded, not for profit event built for creators and the developers who use their work. Less stage. More story. All signal.
webforgeconf.com
November 13, 2025 at 9:36 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
Self reviews were a good idea before AI but are now a necessity. Don't put that burden on your co-workers. If you use AI, review it 🤖
So I'm reviewing a PR from a colleague that was written for like 95% by AI, and while it might have made his job easier, it's making mine a lot harder because it's riddled with mistakes and issues that I have to now fix, and I feel like I have to thoroughly check every single line of code twice
November 4, 2025 at 11:35 AM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
I am looking for a full-time job.

Being independent in open source for 3.5+ years has been wonderful. I've gotten done most of the high-level goals I wanted to, and miss having people & structure around me.

If you know of a role for a staff-level TypeScript+web developer, let me know! 🙂
October 30, 2025 at 2:40 PM
Nous cherchons des Speakers & des Hôtes pour nos prochains événements à React MTL (10 Décembre, 14 Janvier, 11 Février…)

DM moi si ça vous intéresse 😉

---

🇬🇧 We are looking for Speakers & Hosts for the React MTL upcoming events (Dec 10, Jan 14, Feb 11…)

DM me if interested 😉
October 29, 2025 at 7:26 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
🎈 Nov 5th at 6PM: Crafters MTL - Nov 2025

Join us for pizza, networking, and lively round-table discussions on hot tech topics! 🍕💬
Plus, share your insights or discover new tools during our community Quick Shares. ⚡

Check it out 👉 https://guild.host/e/gda61s
Crafters MTL - Nov 2025
Slack: https://slack.softwarecrafters.org/ (channel #loc\_montréal) Our wonderful Host: Osedea 🌟 \-- 18:00 - Greetings 🍕 Meet people, network, eat, and chill before the event begins. It's a fantastic opportunity to get to know each other. 18:50 - Introduction 💁 We regroup. Organizers briefly introduce the newcomers, and we thank the host. 19:00 - Quick Shares ⚡ Short presentations from the community. You can stand up and propose something if you want. Typical interventions could be: I want to say hi (3 seconds) I discovered this new tool, here's the website, you should check it out (1 minute) I've prepared a little presentation with a few slides (max. 10min) 19:30 - Round-table discussions 💬 Anyone can propose one or many subjects. We all vote on these topics and pick the ones with the most votes. Then we'll split into a few groups to discuss these. You're free to stand up and change groups during the evening if you want to. Examples of past topics: What is the ideal work setup for devs at work? (e.g., local, cloud-based, hybrid, etc) AI code editors, workflows + pros and cons What are the soft skills a good developer should have? Clean architecture VS feature-based architecture How do you choose a backend technology? How to handle the evolution of anemic model to DDD model? Discussing how to prepare for and perform well on technical interviews when job hunting. Monorepos: yay or nay? Pros, cons, tooling, and workflow 20:30 - Recap & closing We regroup again. One person in each group does a short recap of what was discussed, so everyone gets a TL;DR of the different discussions. Then we say goodbye and go home, full of joy and motivation, until the next meetup. See you there! 😃
guild.host
October 27, 2025 at 12:25 PM
This one will happen online, in case you're not exactly in MTL 😉
🙌 Nov 11th at 6PM: [ONLINE] Gregor Riegler: "Extreme AI Augmented...

Master Extreme AI Augmented Coding! Teach AI to be your mentee & autonomously craft code. 🚀
Gregor Riegler shares his journey & real-world AI breakthroughs. Don't miss it! 💡

Check it out 👉 https://guild.host/e/1dkgb3
[ONLINE] Gregor Riegler: "Extreme AI Augmented Coding"
This is a special event where Gregor Riegler will talk about augmented coding. 💬 Abstract Augmented Coding is more than just asking an AI to help you write code. You externalize your decision points, heuristics, and workflows into artifacts that the agent can follow. The agent becomes your mentee. As you do that, you change your focus from low-level details to high-level intent and methodology. Decisions that were unconscious become explicit. In this talk, I’ll share my story of how I learned to teach AI a Software Crafter’s approach to development. The agent follows a rigorous TDD process with 121 unique nodes and 131 directed edges that can run autonomously for hours, creating dozens of commits. It covers advanced context engineering and techniques to increase autonomy while aiming to maintain quality. And I will tell real stories of AI-enabled breakthroughs in real-world product development. 🤠 About Gregor Riegler Gregor is a Principal Software Engineer at Tricentis, a market-leading test automation company. He cares about helping people find joy in their work — because he believes that when people enjoy what they do, they create better results. Throughout his career, he has seen how painful software development can be, but he’s also learned it doesn’t have to be that way. Today, he meets people where they are, bringing fresh perspectives and subtle cultural nudges that help teams rediscover joy and deliver better software.
guild.host
October 22, 2025 at 1:47 PM
"Is there a seahorse emoji?"

🍿

chatgpt.com/share/68e939...
October 10, 2025 at 4:55 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
I just shared with my team an example of how NVC (non-violent communication) help me resolve a conflict that made me mad against my CEO, in a previous work experience.
I figured that it may be helpful/interesting to some of you, so here we go:
October 9, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
If you're migrating data from an old system to a new one, and using a new table for the new data, set the auto-increment ID of the new table to be a round number that's higher than the highest ID in the old table. Some day you'll appreciate it.
October 8, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
In a Zod schema, try using default instead of optional and see your code become clearer, free of undefined checks.
October 8, 2025 at 7:02 AM
PSA if you didn't know: Jim has a nice list of great resources to help you deal with legacy code here 👇
October 7, 2025 at 6:08 PM
I've watched Steven Diamante's talk "The Legacy Code Survival Guide: Add Features Without Fear"

Although I'm familiar with the techniques, I've found they are very neatly presented!

The talk is 1h20 long, so I did a breakdown to help you watch it 😉

understandlegacycode.com/blog/legacy-...
The Legacy Code Survival Guide: Add Features Without Fear - Change Messy Software Without Breaking It
Steven Diamante gave a great presentation on Legacy Code at the Seattle Crafter meetup. Let's dive i
understandlegacycode.com
October 7, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted by Nicolas Carlo
🥁 Oct 8th at 6PM: React MTL - Oct 2025

Connect with React & React Native geeks! Enjoy delicious food & refreshing drinks. 🍕🥤
Mohamed Hanou shows how Django simplifies life for React devs: fast APIs, auth, & back-office. 🚀

Check it out 👉 https://guild.host/e/o2g3yi
React MTL - Oct 2025
👥 Join us on Discord: discord.gg/kddEWbFhbc Our wonderful host: Triton digital ⭐ \--- Rejoins-nous pour apprendre et échanger avec des développeurs et développeuses React & React Native de Montréal! Comme d'habitude, il y aura de la bonne nourriture et des boissons rafraichissantes! Join us for an amazing fun evening and meet fellow Montrealer React & React Native geeks! As always, expect delicious food and refreshing drinks!
guild.host
September 29, 2025 at 4:56 PM
📢 Dernier appel / Last call

Le CFP pour /dev/mtl ferme ses portes mercredi. Il ne vous reste qu'aujourd'hui et demain pour proposer des sujets 😉

www.papercall.io/dev-mtl-2025
PaperCall.io - /dev/mtl 2025
*English version below* 🇫🇷 Rejoins-nous le 28 Novembre 2025 pour une journée remplie de présentations des communautés tech locales! L'événement aura lieu à Montréal et proposera des présentations te...
www.papercall.io
September 29, 2025 at 3:04 PM