Expert .NET Delivery Review
A while ago I used some raw cheek about a copy of Marcs book and he kindly sorted a copy out for me (thanks Marc). I have read it cover to cover and here is what I thought.
Very often its a case of understanding the reasons why you need SCM, a build server and CI and how they map to what you are doing as a team, department/company. With that understanding you then need to decide what tools are available and how best to use them. CCNet, NAnt, CodeSmith, NUnit nd NDoc are all such tools and while they have excellant documentation this book not only covers these subjects, but achieves the task of taking that knowlege one step further.
The book starts with chapters on why a build enviroment is important and the reasons why both in terms of business and technical.Understanding the reasons why is very important both for your own understanding and that of your team and management. Through the use of an example company Marc takes us through requirements to an implementation. This shows first how to setup and use NAnt to automate the build requirements onto using CCNet/NAnt to implement CI and on the way shows us how to use NAnt with NUnit/NDoc and more advanced NAnt features. The book also features subjects such as code generation with Code Smith and database considerations.
The book is the first of its kind to consider the database as part of the build system, its a subject thats often over looked and yet is often vital to an application. hats off to Marc in covering this subject, his experince really shows in this book.
All in all I loved this book and its one I will keep close at hand both in my geek time and work time when working with this tool set and in helping others understand the reasons why. I would have loved to have seen a little bit more NUnit coverage, prehaps showing NCover etc as this really shows the low level testing features that are an important and vital CI automation step. I would have also liked to have seen a little bit more coverage of other source control systems with CCNet. That said, Marc has focused on VSS as the SCP for this book and I can understand that this subject is broad enough to focus on and Marc was right on to keep this focus. So all in all, if Build systems. SCM and CI are important to you, buy this book!