Welcome to Andy Heathershaw

Welcome to the personal website and blog of software developer – Andy Heathershaw.

I’m a commercial Microsoft .NET developer and open-source PHP developer based in the West Midlands, England. I live with my husband and I’m daddy to a nine-year-old Labrador called Mickey and two growing boys.

Check out About Andy Heathershaw to read more about me, or browse my blog posts below.

Microsoft launch Windows 10 developer qualification

Microsoft Learning today announced a new Windows 10 developer qualification aimed at software developers who want to target the recently-released Windows 10 universal platform.

Software Development Read more


Migrate an SVN repository to TFS

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Microsoft’s Team Foundation Server (TFS.) It is a complete tool for managing an application throughout its lifecycle. However I was bought up (and learnt most of my programming skills) on open-source software. It’s important to me that I don’t forget my roots!

While TFS is a fantastic tool for commercial application lifecycle management, SVN (Subversion) also has its place in corporates. It’s free and has lower training overhead: perfect for companies that don’t need anything other than source control (or use other tools.)

In this article I’m going to teach you how to migrate an SVN repository (including all its history) into TFS using a Git repository.

DevOps , Software Development Read more


Linode: Why I chose them to host my website and applications

This post explains why I chose Linode to host my new website (this one) and other web applications I use in my day-to-day work – and why I’d fully recommend them to anyone who needs a virtual server (VPS.)

DevOps , Software Development Read more


Overcoming anxiety

I struggle with anxiety of varying degrees. Sometimes it just stops me having a good time with new people because I’m worried about what they make of me, other times it takes hold over weeks or months, ever-present at the back of my mind.

This weekend was one of the latter.

Health & Wellbeing , Reflections Read more


Hello, world!

Fellow software developers will understand the meaning behind the title of this post.

“Hello, world!” is the typical statement used in programming tutorials when learning to write software – and it’s usually the first words someone entering the wonderful world of software development will teach a computer application to say.

It’s therefore fitting that the title of the first post on the brand-new website of a software developer should be these hallowed words.

Miscellaneous Read more