I'm actively blogging again but on my
new blog. What's new?
Please
update your RSS!
Actually, my blog already moved I just forgot to update my old blog! You can now reach me at
http://blog.tshak.net (
rss).
Cheers!
Microsoft and Zend
will be playing nice on the Windows platform via
FastCGI. From the announcement:
Microsoft and Zend will work to help ensure a production-quality PHP runtime environment for IIS 6.0 (Windows Server 2003) and IIS 7.0 (Windows Server "Longhorn").
My experience includes a bit of PHP, and while I'm not a huge fan, I think that it's important for developers to have choice on the Windows platform. Keep it up Microsoft!
A working Project Server to Visual Studio Team Connector was
released by Avanade last week. From the GotDotNet annoncement:
Microsoft® Office Project Server 2003 and Microsoft Visual Studio® 2005 Team System (VSTS) are two powerful applications that are each used in different ways for management of software development projects. Up-to-date project information requires a seamless integration between the development environment and the project management tool. The Connector synchronizes Project, Resource and Task data between the two systems.
I'm proud to have had the opportunity to work on an Avanade asset that we released publically.
You can
read the announcement for download instructions.
The
patterns & practices team is looking for your help to help them define what sort of community infrastructure you would like to nurture and grow the P&P community. Help out by
giving Don Smith your feedback.
Kyle Huntley (are you seeing a new theme for my blog?) has just written on a topic that I've been thinking about lately:
Browser vs Runtime, Atlas/Ajax, WPF thoughts. In the midst of all of the hype around the cool hacks that you can with a web browser, it is important not to ignore the innovation happening around application development on the Windows platform. My favorite quote:
"Ajax is simply a way of trying to paper over the “poor” client characteristics of the browser / markup technology rootstock." My personal take is that there are definitely some good business cases for web applications, but the web browser is still not the appropriate runtime for rich appications.
Kyle Huntley recently posted
a humorous entry comparing Waterfall to Communism.
On another note, for those of you who are wondering where I've been, I have been deeply focused on a few really cool internal projects at Avanade. Unfortunately, at least for the time being, that means I can not talk about them. Just know that I'm still alive and I will make the effort to post on occasion!
Brian Button and
Tom Hollander are doing
a webcast this Thursday on the Configuration Application Block in Enterprise Library 2.0.
Register for it here.
Enterprise Library 2.0 has been
released on MSDN! Check out
Tom Hollander's announcement for additional information, including the Enterprise Library roadmap for the future.
According to
Andrew Delin, agile-thinking isn't that new because MSF told us not to create big design documents up front. This is an interesting bit of history indeed. It is always good to remind ourselves that ideas are never all that new. On the other hand, if any of you have worked with MSF (or even MSF Agile) you'll know that these methodologies are not Agile, even if there is a common idea or two. There's a reason why entire departments within Microsoft are turning to the likes of SCRUM and XP after working with MSF for so many years, and it's not because they have a lot in common with MSF.
I'm posting a lot less than I'd like to be. Between a demanding (but fun) project at work and a lot going on in my personal life, I have not prioritized this blog. For the time being I will try to keep up with my low content "news" type posts. Otherwise do not expect to see much until early next year. A lot has gone on since my last update:
- Enterprise Library has released an interim drop that finally includes the configuration tool and designtime APIs! The team is very close to a final release. If you're curious about some of the core changes in Enterprise Library from an architecture point of view, check out the Enterprise Library Core Architecture Webcast.
- The first version of CAB is complete! I can't stress this enough: If you're building complex WinForm UI's you must check out this asset.
- The Software Lifecycle Blog has launched. This blog represents a team of Avanade folks who are passionate about the Software Lifecycle. While these guys focus on VSTS it is not a limited to VSTS or Microsoft solutions.
- Scott Densmore is leaving PAG! Scott is going to work on some uber secret product at Microsoft. Brian Button will take his place as the Enterprise Library Developer Lead.
- As I predicted, the TDD article on MSDN was pulled. Some people are saying that people (i.e. overzealous agilists) overreacted. If you are in this camp, I strongly encourage you to read Brian Buttons definition and walkthrough of TDD. While you may not agree with this process, you should see a fundamental difference in the definitions. Agile folks were definitely not arguing semantics for semantics' sake.
- Speaking of Agile, patterns & practices discusses how Agile has and has not worked for them from both a developer and management perspective.
- NUnit Converter RC1, the tool for converting NUnit tests to VSTS tests, was just released.
Happy Holidays!
12/27/05 Update: Peter noticed that the agile webcast link was wrong.
It has been fixed.
A
MSDN article on TDD is getting quite a bit of attention. About 100 people have rated it with an avg. of about 1.2 out of 9.
*ouch*. While I feel bad for the author, it's clear that s/he just doesn't get it. Here are some responses that illustrate the problems with this article:
The coolest guidence asset for building composite user interfaces,
CAB, has
just been released! If you are building a WinForms application with any level of complexity you must check this out!
If you live in the Seattle area you should definitely check out the FREE
Seattle Code Camp occuring this Saturday and Sunday. There is a
great list of sessions available covering a wide range of topics focused on Microsoft technologies, although there are quite a few topics covering non-Microsoft technologies such as Linux, OSX, and Ruby. Finally, if you wanted to attend my LINQ presentation last week and missed it I will be giving it again on Sunday at 1:30pm as part of the Languages track. I hope to see you there!
The
patterns & practices team has just released a new version of the
Composite UI Application Block (CAB) for VS.NET 2005 RC. Visit the
GotDotNet Workspace to find out more about CAB, or go
straight to the downloads for the latest bits.
If you missed PDC you probably missed the great sessions on
LINQ, or Language Integrated Queries. If you don't know much about LINQ or if you would like to see a live demo, then you should attend next month's
.NET Developer Association meeting. I will be giving an introduction to LINQ as well as showing off some of LINQ's coolest features. For schedule and location information, please see the
.NET Developer Association's website. See you there!
PDC is over but its legacy lives on via thousands of blog posts from enthusiastic attendees. I've got a lot of One Note entries from sessions, but I don't think I'll be writing anything on them. The blog community has great coverage and doesn't need the redundancy, especially from this author. In addition to the PDC 05 blogs you should also check out the media on Channel 9.
I want to send out a quick "thank you" to everyone who attended the Enterprise Library BOF at PDC last night. It was great meeting all of you and discussing your experiences with Enterprise Library. Here is a quick overview of some of the bigger topics that we covered:
Version Issues When Extending Enterprise Library
Many of the attendants had experience extending Enterprise Library, or rolling Enterprise Library into their own custom framework. One of the challenges that came up had to do with running custom versions of Enterprise Library side by side with other versions of Enterprise Library. For a short term solution some recommended removing the Enterprise Library assemblies from the GAC so that they wouldn't conflict. The longer term solution recommended was to use your own namespace across all Enterprise Library Blocks. Many agreed that this was a reasonably easy task.
Community Contributions, or Lack Thereof
While there have been some great community developed add-ons to Enterprise Library, the number is few especially when compared to the popularity of Enterprise Library. One specific example was the popular Log4Net. With the popularity of both Log4Net and Enterprise Library, why hasn't someone developed a "Log4Net Block"? Good question! One theory was that the culture of Microsoft software is still geared towards Microsoft centric development for new features, not community based features. Another theory was that GotDotNet, which hosts the Enterprise Library project, lacks the tools and usability required to foster good community contributions.
Framework vs. Guidance
There was some interesting discussion around features that are in the .NET Framework vs. features that are in Enterprise Library. Some felt that more of Enterprise Library should be rolled into the base Framework. Others felt that while this makes sense for some features, that others should remain as guidance.
Support?
Some companies are timid to adopt Enterprise Library due to the lack of support from Microsoft. There were responses from a couple of different angles. If you write similar code yourself, you will have to support that code yourself. At least with Enterprise Library you A) don't have to write the code yourself, B) have a community who acts as a support network and C) while not guaranteed, there is still a proven level of support from Microsoft. Another angle was from a vendor or partner standpoint. A company should look into vendors (like Avanade) that offer their own Enterprise Library based framework with enterprise class support agreements.
I hope I accurately covered all of the key issues we discussed. Please comment if you have anything to add.
The
EntLib PDC BOF you voted for has been accepted! It will be held on Monday, September 12, 2005 at 8:15 PM. When you register at PDC you should have a map that will indicate where the BOF sessions will be held. I hope to see you all there!