Build software that lasts! (Interview)

The Changelog: Software Development, Open Source

After 30+ years in the software industry, Bert Hubert has experienced a lot. He founded PowerDNS, published articles for places like IETF / IEEE, and built his own parliament monitoring system. That just scratches the surface.

Recently, Bert wrote about what it takes to build software for the long term. Let’s dig in.

Join the discussion

Changelog++ members get a bonus 10 minutes at the end of this episode and zero ads. Join today!

Sponsors:

• Retool – The low-code platform for developers to build internal tools — Some of the best teams out there trust Retool…Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Doordash, LegalGenius, Amazon, Allbirds, Peloton, and so many more – the developers at these teams trust Retool as the platform to build their internal tools. Try it free at retool.com/changelog
• Temporal – Build invincible applications. Manage failures, network outages, flaky endpoints, long-running processes and more, ensuring your workflows never fail. Register for Replay in London, March 3-5 to break free from the status quo.
• DeleteMe – Text CHANGELOG to 64000 to join DeleteMe. They make it quick, easy, and safe to remove your personal data online.

Featuring:

• Bert Hubert – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Adam Stacoviak – Website, GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X
• Jerod Santo – GitHub, LinkedIn, Mastodon, X

Show Notes:

• Shifting Cyber Norms: Microsoft security POST-ing to you
• On Long Term Software Development
• Life Long Learning: Dealing With New Things
• Lawmakers use haka to protest in New Zealand’s parliament

Something missing or broken? PRs welcome!

Chapters

1. Welcome to The Changelog (00:00:00)

2. Sponsor: Retool (00:01:10)

https://retool.com/changelog

3. Start the show! (00:03:56)

4. Bert's first job (00:04:23)

5. "Redundant" setups (00:08:00)

6. Monitoring the Dutch parliament (00:11:49)

7. Learning in production (00:14:23)

8. MS email scanner now POSTs (00:15:18)

9. Government data formats (00:18:05)

10. New Zealand's haka protest (00:22:35)

11. Sponsor: Temporal (00:25:01)

https://temporal.io

12. Long-term development (00:27:02)

13. Focusing on simplicity (00:35:45)

14. Sponsor: DeleteMe (00:50:33)

https://joindeleteme.com

15. How many deps is too many deps? (00:52:25)

16. You can't trust the network (00:56:33)

17. When dependencies go wrong (00:58:18)

18. Dependency decision tree (01:01:39)

19. Dependency selection efforts (01:03:59)

20. Dealing with new things (01:05:33)

21. Bert's invested languages (01:10:12)

22. Bert's language wish (01:13:56)

23. Don't resist the future (01:17:00)

24. AI dependency selection (01:19:36)

25. Dig in! (01:21:10)

26. Share your findings! (01:22:16)

27. Join the community! (01:23:18)

28. Connecting with Bert (01:23:34)

29. Closing thoughts and stuff (01:25:54)