Finally, something on practical application design without all the academic theory. Most of the articles i have got to read on the subject of writing maintainable code are just long winded theory stuff about interfaces and mocking and DIP etc without actually being concrete and understandable. But now, heres a brilliant explanation from Jeremy Miller on writing maintainable code replete with a real life example and some extra scenarios and thoughts thrown in.
Check it out at
http://codebetter.com/blogs/jeremy.miller/archive/2007/01/08/Orthogonal-Code.aspx
Now if only more people could explain refactoring and design patterns in that way, it would make that world much easier to get into.
Although there are lots of differences between these systems (notably one being a product and the other just being a framework), there remains quite a lot of confusion for some people in trying to choose which to use. I came across a couple of good articles with information to help you make a decision between Biztalk and WF for certain projects where it may not be crystal clear.
1. David Chappells excellent Introduction to Windows Workflow Foundation at : http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnlong/html/WFIntro.asp
and
2. Irena Kennedys post on Biztalk or Workflow at :http://softlogger.com/4314/BizTalk/SYSK-216--BizTalk-Orchestration-or-Windows-Workflow-Foundation.aspx
Hope you find these articles useful if you are at such a decision point.
(If anyone knows how to make firefox retain the hyperlink in the rich text editor or IE7 to display the rich text box instead of an ordinary text box, then please email me. Otherwise my only option is to go back to IE6).
Happy New Year to you all. Both the main contributors to this project coincidentally ended up ill over Christmas so it took a really long time to get this out the door, but the release candidate for V2006 R1 is now live. Grab it from the releases page.
We have also added in some steps that make use of EntLib v2.0 so you would need the Jan 2006 version if you wish to compile the source code. The binaries are in the bin folder and in another folder named References so you can repoint them if you have any issues in VS. I think it is possible to run these without actually installing EntLib but you may run into some performance counter errors. There are workarounds such as Installing the services for only the binaries used and setting the permissions for the perf counter user group, but generally on a development machine, you might as well install EntLib (unless you hate it or cannot use it for other reasons). Of course, you dont actually have to use the EntLib steps if you dont want to and you can get by with the others.
Do send us feedback and we will see how best to make use of entlib while keeping the core as lightweight as possible.
By the way, theres some good stuff on BizUnit snippets at : http://blogs.msdn.com/yjhong/archive/2006/05/04/589611.aspx
and : http://www.biztalkgurus.com/blogs/biztalk/archive/2006/07/20/How-To-Add-BizUnit-Snippets-Into-Visual-Studios-2005.aspx
The snippets were done a long time ago by Young Jun Hong and they dont cover all the steps and of course, they dont include the new extensions, but we're trying to contact him to see if we can bring in these snippets into the project so we can keep them updated for all new steps.
(Do excuse the pasting of the links rather than embedding. For some reason firefox removes the embedded links if you use the hyperlink tool and stupid IE7 does not even render the rich text box for blog entries).
I dont usually take these polls and quizzes but i couldnt resist it and heres what i got for superhero personality and supervillain personality (theres a little bit of both in each of us isnt there?) . check it out....
SUPER-HERO
You are Hulk
| Hulk |
| 90% |
| Superman |
| 80% |
| Spider-Man |
| 80% |
| Robin |
| 70% |
| Green Lantern |
| 70% |
| Batman |
| 55% |
| The Flash |
| 50% |
| Iron Man |
| 40% |
| Supergirl |
| 30% |
| Wonder Woman |
| 20% |
| Catwoman |
| 10% |
|
You are a wanderer with
amazing strength.
 |
Click here to take the Superhero Personality QuizSUPER-VILLAIN
You are Venom
| Venom |
| 69% |
| Mr. Freeze |
| 68% |
| Dr. Doom |
| 64% |
| Lex Luthor |
| 64% |
| The Joker |
| 48% |
| Apocalypse |
| 43% |
| Green Goblin |
| 40% |
| Two-Face |
| 40% |
| Magneto |
| 34% |
| Kingpin |
| 34% |
| Riddler |
| 32% |
| Dark Phoenix |
| 32% |
| Mystique |
| 28% |
| Juggernaut |
| 24% |
| Poison Ivy |
| 21% |
| Catwoman |
| 18% |
|
Strength, disguise and adrenaline are your greatest weapons.
 |
Click here to take the Supervillain Personality Quiz