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Command-Line to Codebase: Learning Software to Expand Your Engineering Toolkit#

DKNOG16 digest Program Adjacent pick Scandic Copenhagen · 5–6 March 2026

Abstract Recording

Thomas Kjær (no affiliation listed)

Play the recording: Command-Line to Codebase: Learning Software to Expand Your Engineering Toolkit

  • Why: A replicable method for network engineers building small software tools, anchored on ECMP troubleshooting — a problem anyone running DC fabrics knows is painful and manual.
  • What: The story of building a small ECMP-aware probing tool while learning a new programming language, starting from familiar tools (traceroute, Wireshark, RFCs). The contribution is the method, not the tool: start in a domain you trust, measure everything, build in small slices, test one change at a time, explain results to yourself as you go. (from abstract only)
  • How: Incrementally translating a manual troubleshooting workflow into code, with validation steps at each slice.
  • Where applicable: Any network engineer; ECMP troubleshooting is universal. Light on novel technical results — the value is the low-risk method for starting and sustaining small tool projects.