Instant Gratification

Yesterday afternoon we decided to do a little update to Ladybug. We’ve been having a problem with users uploading large images, which is a big part of the software. Months ago, we learned that switching from one “library” to another, in the software, would let us overcome that issue. However, the host that runs Ladybug only recently installed that software library, so it seemed like a good time to fix our code to make use of it.

It didn’t seem like a huge task – I had set aside an afternoon to do the update. Thanks to fine coding work by Peat of Blue Hill Solutions, there was only one file that needed to be rewritten, and it was very clear and accessible to a non-expert programmer like myself.

But here’s what I didn’t expect: I dove in, rewrote the library in one swift pass, and it worked perfectly the first time! These kinds of things rarely happen in the software world (trust me), but are far more common in Ruby and Rails than in other languages and frameworks.

I can’t tell you how happy this made us! The benefits were instant and very real, for both us and our clients, most of whom are using Ladybug. What a rewarding afternoon!

Raymond Brigleb

Creative Director, dreamer, partner, father, musician, photographer. Has been known to ride the rails. Pulls one heck of a shot.