Such a big part of coding becomes mundane after a while. Constantly solving variations of the same kinds of problems.
Now Claude does it at my direction and I get so much more done!
But maybe even more important: It gets me to go outside my comfort zone and try things I wouldn't normally try because of the time it would take me to figure it out.
Like: Wat if I used this other audio library? I don't have to figure it out, I just pass in the interface I need to implement and get 90% of a working solution.
AI augmented programming couldn't have come at a better time and I'm really happy with it!
This feels like how the emergence of Modula / Pascal / Delphi must have felt like. There really was a lot to say for Pascal like languages in the C era.
However, time has not been kind to the early adopters back then.
So I'm inclined to hold out just a little while longer. Let's see if Rust can maintain its momentum.
We're building enterprise software that runs mostly on-premise as well as we're offering some libraries for sending SMS and E-mail.
I try to avoid trends and only run on simple, straightforward but most of all proven and stable tech.
The core software is a mix of C++ and C#. Mostly moving toward C# for new features.
I use JetBrains TeamCity for continuous integration and testing. Where test scripts are mostly VBScript or Powershell. Using plain old self-hosted SVN for versioning.
Backoffice; like sales and licensing servers are all ASP classic.
The website is a custom WordPress template running at a shared hosting company.
Also, I strongly believe in 'dogfooding' as in 'Eat your own dogfood'. I use my own software products wherever I can. That really helps me find weaknesses and improve on usability.
For me it's worth a lot if new functionality, once built, can be left alone an add value for as long as possible.
For me it's all about keeping things simple, automating everything that can be automated and keeping structure in my day. Simple things like always handle all operational stuff as soon as it pops up so you'll never get behind on anything. Once you start getting behind on administration or e-mails it becomes progressively harder to catch up.
And yes, this means that if you're going on holiday your laptop goes with you.
Also, I prioritize eating, exercise and sleeping. If it means I get to spend less billable hours doing an integration project for a customer then so be it. It's almost impossible to overstate how important it is to keep physically and thereby mentally fit when running a business on your own.
We used to offer such a free SMS gateway at ActiveXperts.com. Now moved to AuronSoftware.com and hid it a little better.
It's meant for trial users to be able to test our software without having to have a subscription or GSM modem.
But those gateways saw / see a lot of abuse. Even though we clearly state that each trial user only has 10 free messages we still regularly get an e-mail from an angry 'trial user' because only 10 messages out their 50K+ phone number mass mailing arrived.
In our case we chose to built a custom IMAP-like protocol for integrating with the Android app so 2 way communication would work without any extra steps.
But this project is definitely something that I'll look into supporting as well. The point of our software is to make integration as easy as possible by supporting as many protocols and devices as possible.
You can do SMS to E-mail using Twilio if you don't mind applying some 3rd party software to do it.
Have a look at the SMS Server. This product is able to forward SMS to e-mail and visa versa. Works with almost any SMS and e-mail provider including Twilio.
For me it, feels more like a way integrate search results immediately into my code. Did you also feel threatened by stack overflow?
If you actually try it you'll find it's a multiplier of insight and knowledge.