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Once a month: what we built, what broke on us, and what we learned fixing it.

10 min read
How to check that a gate can fail
A gate that has never gone red is not tested: it is unopened. The method for validating one against the live defect, and the four rules that come out of applying it.

FIELD NOTES

What we built, what broke,
what we learned fixing it.

What you get: One thing we built that month with the code that solves it, one measurement with its method alongside, and something that broke on us and how we fixed it.
How often: Once a month. If in a given month we have nothing worth telling, we send nothing.
Who it is for: For people who decide on or build software and want the technical detail. It is not for anyone after trend headlines: there is code in here.
How you leave: One click on the link at the bottom of every email. No form, no reason, no questions.

Here is what the last issue looked like: How to check that a gate can fail

The probe that asked whether the heading was in view, not whether it was placed correctly
The comment stripper that swallowed half a line of markup
The gate written against the specimen, not against the species
The negative control that could only return zero
The class that was called gradient and painted a flat colour
The four rules that stayed written down