Tobler.SoftwareArchitecture()
John Tobler's somewhat ordered collection of thoughts and resources mostly related to software architecture and software engineering.
-
[Tools] MbUnit, "an evolutive Unit Test Framework for .Net"
MbUnit is an alternative Unit Test Framework for .Net that includes some evolutions from NUnit and adds some additional features and fixtures. Specifically, some of the new features add benchmarking, performance testing, and "Model-based Testing." MbUnit is the new name for NPerf and represents a significant evolution from that code base. It seems this project had another intermediate name, "GUnit." MbUnit is an ongoing Open Source project and the team is looking for Algorithm writers, GUI designers, Test writers, and Documentation freaks.
-
[Tools] More on PDF: iTextSharp
As mentioned in the comments to "[Tools] PDFCreator," iTextSharp is great for software developers who want to create Adobe Acrobat PDF files on the fly in .NET code. For downloads, etc., please see the iTextSharp SourceForge Project Summary Page. Please note that PDFCreator is *not* a .NET class library; it is a standalone PDF creating utility that installs on your machine as a printer. You simply print to it. Use iTextSharp, or something like it, if you want to generate PDF from code.
-
[Tools] PDFCreator
Yesterday, I found a cool new tool you might find useful. PDFCreator is an Open Source (GPL) tool to easily create PDF files. I have wished for such a free tool for quite some time, now. While I do not normally need the full power of Adobe Acrobat, it is nice to be able to easily create PDF files while browsing or working in my normal applications. PDFCreator installs to work like a printer, so it is very easy to print up a PDF from whatever document you are in at the moment. You can even print PDFs from your web browser. Software developers may find it handy to output syntax-highlighted code directly from VisualStudio.NET (or whatever favorite editors you use) to a PDF file. You can also combine multiple documents into one PDF.
-
[Tools] wxWindows Name Change to wxWidgets
After being "approached" by Microsoft, the current "hosts" for the wxWindows open source C++ GUI framework are changing its name to wxWidgets. See the Name Change Page for details. Julian Smart and Robin Dunn will cease using the name wxWindows by August 2004.
-
[Graphics] Is Blender Insufficiently Appreciated?
This is a bit of a plug for Blender, a fantastic Open Source project that is perhaps the most under-appreciated project on the net. What is Blender? Well, it is just "the open source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback. Available for Windows, Linux, Irix, Sun Solaris, FreeBSD or Mac OS X."
-
[Tools] Whereis for Windows
I thought I once wrote a post about various versions of Whereis that can run on Windows, but I can't seem to find it. You can find a number of ingenious versions but I'm going to cut to the chase and just lead you to a cool .NET implementation: Tim Fitzgerald's The Code Project - Whereis for Windows article, complete with source code that compiled fine on my machine. Enjoy!
UPDATE: Be sure to look at the command file (Whereis.cmd) code in the "MuchSimplerSolution" comment at the bottom. Works for me!
-
[Tools] .WhiteKnights: Get on your Whitehorse!
Microsoft places bet on Whitehorse describes Microsoft's proposed visual modeling method for .NET. Written by Martin LaMonica, a C|Net Staff Writer and published in News.com, the article reports that Whitehorse is scheduled for release with the Whidbey version of Visual Studio.NET. It appears that Whitehorse will be an advanced drag-and-drop visual modeling tool.
-
[Tools] FreeMind Mind Mapping Software
FreeMind is a “premier free mind-mapping software written in Java.” FreeMind is something like Personal Brain, MindManager, MindMapper, and other similar software. It may be a bit simpler but it is free (as in both GPL and beer) and is an Open Source project.
-
[Tools] NPerf, A Performance Benchmark Framework for .NET
“NPerf is a framework for benchmarking classes and methods that tastes like NUnit.” It appears that NPerf has evolved into MbUnit.
-
[Languages] The Tao of Xen
Now, this is really interesting. It appears that Microsoft, via Microsoft Research, is working on another new language, currently titled “Xen” (maybe X# some day?). Microsoft Expands .Net With Xen, an article in ExtremeTech, gives a summary of the idea and cites Microsoft Research Looks to Extend C#, a Microsoft Watch article that adds a little more detail. It appears that the definitive exposition at this moment is Erik Meijer's Programming with Circles, Triangles and Rectangles.