Chris Szurgot's Blog

This is as much a bookmark for me, as anyone else.

http://www.harding.edu/USER/fmccown/WWW/vbnet_csharp_comparison.html

A good outline of the syntactical differences at the language level. I've had to use it a couple of times when switching to VB.NET for a couple of our projects. Now that I've posted it, I'll never use it again, but it's rescued me from a lot of searching in the past.

Tim Dawson, creator of SandBar, recently released SandDock, a Docking Window Manager. It's an update to his already excellent DockingManager control, but it's got better rendering support, and a cleaner interface. Like SandBar, this one is free for Freeware and personal use, and a fee for commercial applications.

http://www.divil.co.uk/net/controls/sanddock/

I've finally gotten enough machines at the office to start implementing some best practices, a dedicated build/test environment, and automated build environment, and Unit Test (with NUnit) and I've one very important thing to say....

Implement these things, and implement them as soon as you can.

Unit Testing has already saved me once, and I've only been using it for a few days, and I can tell that automating the build environment is valuable, but it's a pain to do with a large set of projects. The sooner you implement, the less you'll have to do all at once.

For example, when you do a recursive get from VSS “SS.EXE GET -R $/ProjectName” and there are sub-projects, it automatically places them as subdirectories of the current project, even if they have there own working folders (as a web project that is a sub-project of the solution) But, the files need to be in the web directory to properly build. And if you open Visual Studio after doing this, it tries to reget the web files because the working directory has changed (ARGGH!!!)  So instead of using a full GET of the solution, I've had to get each individual project to it's own directory, and the solution files non-recursively. Key lesson, don't use VS.NET for anything but “DEVENV /build” and don't use SS GET -R on the solution if things go into separate directories.

On the plus side, I now have a first draft of automation that can recreate all of the directories and build from Source Safe, so Yeah me!

Just finished reading Coder To Developer by Mike Gunderloy. It's a really good read that documents the entire process of developing a program, from design to installation and licensing, and all steps in between. It's a very practical book, with 15 major chapters, followup the process. Whereever he touches on a major process point, there are suggestions on how to handle the process, usually with several software recommendations, usually ranging in price from freeware to professional packages ranging in the thousands of dollars. The book rarely makes firm sugguestions, but he usually discusses his choice, the how and why.

My only real dissapointment is that it doesn't cover testing (outside of Unit Testing) in any real detail. That's the one area left that I really need to explore.

All in all, a good real. It's a really good overview of real development practices, and recommends in-depth reading where-ever possible. Very little actual code, but there is a demonstration app that is stored on a vault server at most of the stages the book defines, so you can view it that way.

As a developer running Windows XP, I can do all of my development tasks pretty easily except for developing multiple web sites concurrently. There is a trick found here (http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/demiliani/archive/2004/01/27/6153.aspx) that allows you to create and toggle between mutliple web servers, but doesn't it seem like you should be able to use Windows XP for a development platform for Windows 2000/2003 instead of having to install Windows 2003 or a workstation?

C'mon Microsoft, find a way to allow this on Windows XP (and also, a way to run IIS 6 on Windows XP, even if it is throttled)

I know they did this to prevent people from running servers on Windows XP, but maybe some way to open it up for development purposes.

Just a question I've always wanted to ask. How do people use their desktop? How many people have multi-monitor setups, and do you have background images? How many, rather than use IE's bookmark editor, grab URLs, and throw them on the desktop for later perusal (and better bookmarking if they are any good)

Obviously, I do all of these things. I have a 3 monitor setup (2 19s and 1 17) I have a program that randomly cycles different images across all three monitors (the only one that I'm aware of that works with Multiple monitors. Ultramon only does one set, not rotate). I do frequently drag URLs to the desktop for perusal, and I keep handy icons there as well. Since I got sick of minimizing to get to the desktop icons, I wrote a program that can capture the icons, and present them in a list. And, since I got tired of wrapped URLs in email, a quick program to capture URLs from the clipboard, and open them. When I'm in the zone, it doesn't matter, but if I'm just goofing off, I always make sure I've got a monitor free to cycle the wallpapers on.

I guess I'm kinda curious about how people use their desktop. Are there others like minded, or am I the only one who wastes time like this :)

I've released this before, but I've updated it a little bit, so I'm throwing it back out there. (http://www.szurgot.net/projects -> Tray Runner) Let me know what you think. Written in .NET (obviously) with a few Interop calls for the desktop stuff.

I picked this book up at Barnes & Noble last week, and I'm pretty happy with it, in particular the initial chapters. It's the first thing I've seen that really covers the how and why of the basics of TDD. Most of the things I've looked at just cover creating a class with one or two simple functions, this one actually walks through creating a functional class. (Sure, it's a stack class that's pretty much already in .NET, but it explains the whole process) Instead of just walking through one or two simple tests, and refactors, it faces down the whole problem of making it functional, and how to test functionality, and also how to extend the tests (and underlying functionality they explain) as the class continues to develop. I think that has been my biggest barrier to entry for TDD, grasping the “bigger picture” of development.

My only real gripe is that after the introductory chapters, it jumps to some really advanced topics, and the examples are pretty complex, so you barely get your head around things, and you're off in database and web service land. It'll go onto my shelf for a little while, while I go off and practice what I learned in the first few chapters, then I'll revisit when I'm more comfortable with NUnit.

Well, after getting a nice fast computer on Friday, I'm now trapped in new computer Hell. The place where I can't get everything I need working on the new computer. :( The worst part is that outside of one component (My SD card reader, which won't allow the machine to boot) the problem isn't with my computer, it's with Microsoft.

Back in September, I downloaded the trial of Microsoft Money 2004, and upgraded on the web. If you have to re-install, you can go to the link you purchased it from, enter your activation code, and they send you a file that activate the program. But.... this time around, the link is down, so I can't activate Money. Which means all my ledgers are trapped in a file I can't open. Calling MS Tech Support is a nightmare. I've called about 6 times, been transferred to 4 or 5 different departments, and the only resolution is that I need to order the CD. Well, the CD is free, but it's out of stock, so it's got a ship date of 2 weeks. Eek! I can't go two weeks without my ledgers.

I can't use web support (where I could probably just cut and paste the URL, because it says the license key isn't valid in this country), the phone desk people can't help because I need a CD (won't be here for 2 weeks), I can't find any where to post that the link is broken. Oh yeah, and tech support is super busy because of the Sasser worm!

This has been the most frustrating experience I have ever had with Microsoft. If they would fix that link, everything would be fine, but I can't tell anybody that the damn link is broken.

(On the off chance that anyone is listening: http://moneycentral.msn.com/money/2004/redir.aspx?mcrid=222&V=12&SKU=860-00211&Qty=1&E=1) It's broken.

Update: After all that, I cut/pasted the link onto a Terminal services session on another machine, and this time, it worked. (Something about the activation site doesn't like my fresh install <frown>) So I started the upgrade process from that machine, transferred the resultant link back to my computer, and was able to finish the process. Argh!!!

So Friday was a good day. I bought myself a new MB, CPU, & Memory (2.8 Ghz and 1GB) Who-hoo. Pulled the old MB, installed the new one, re-installed XP, and man, it's fast (Went from a 1.8 to a 2.8) I really wasn't sure I expected as much of a difference, believe it or not. I think using an Intel Motherboard, and good memory makes all the difference.

Anyway, when I get back online from the very fast install, I find some great news. The boss has finally approved our new operations server. (In a pre-me design, several programs are being run on the database and the web server, and really messing things up) So we'll order that next week, and I can finally get work to look more like a real company, instead of the startup it was. <grin>