Hi, I'm Lorna. I'm a software engineer, author, API specialist and open source/standards maintainer based in the UK. On this site you'll find more information about me, my written content, and links to things I've done that exist elsewhere.

    Recent posts

  1. Right-Size Your RESTful API: More Flexibility Without GraphQL

    26 March 2025

    If you publish a RESTful API and there are situations when you need less (or more!) detail in the API responses from your API - then this post is for you. When I run into this with the teams I advise, the initial problem statement usually arrives more like "We need to move to GraphQL", but this is a solution, not a problem to solve. The problem usually turns out to be either or both of:

    • the API responses are simply too large for some of the clients or uses cases, users need to select just the fields they want

    • the API doesn't have enough information in the response payload for this client or use case, users need to choose to include nested data

    GraphQL is one way to achieve these things, but this post is about the RESTful way to provide the right level of detail in an API response.

  2. Who are you writing that commit message for?

    31 March 2022

    I read a lot of commit messages that make me wonder who the committer had in mind when they wrote it. If you don't read commit messages yourself, I think that can make it even more difficult to think about who the audience is, or when someone would be reading …

  3. Lab Book Meets Bullet Journal

    31 January 2021

    I enjoy a productivity hack as much as the next person, and I'm often asked about my setup. My background is in engineering (I hold an MEng in Electronic Engineering from York) and recognise the legacy of the lab book in much of what I do. If you're new to the lab book concept, check out this excellent article on how to maintain one properly. My practice breaks a LOT of the lab book rules and is also heavily influenced by the Bullet Journal trend (if you have time to spare, the instagram #bulletjournal hashtag gives a prettier introduction), which is a way to combine the benefits of productivity and processing information by writing it. Today's post gives a quick tour of my process.