One Hardheaded Developer

Current Queue

2006-08-29T12:48:00.000-04:00

So, of late what have I been working on?

Extended MAPI access from C# - it's so much faster than the Outlook COM layer it's scary - we're talking 2 minute scan cycles for a deep-scan of a PST of 2500 items versus 4 seconds with a progress bar. Losing the progress bar would get back some fractional seconds, I'm confident.
The WinForms 2.0 DataGridView - why doesn't the CheckBox fire the EditingControlShowing event?
Local admin for my domains have been slow going, but it's going.

IE7Beta1

2005-11-11T15:02:00.000-05:00

So, having a couple minutes free with no projects or testing assignments pending, I go to install IE7B1 on a virtual machine (Since no sane individual would want to install a beta that touchesreplaces wininet.dll on a production machine!).

Okay, you need XPsp2. Sure, makes sense.

So I go to WindowsUpdate to install XPSP2... Hmm, won't let me go without activation.

Funny, I seem to remember seeing in MSDN that you shouldn't activate on machines you're using for testing and are likely to reimage. A VM I'm putting an OS beta into certainly seems to fall under that categorization....

So I install XPsp2 from the corporate local copy of it. Restart. Go to install IE7B1....

And what do I see but this:

Nice job, Redmond... Can you please decide which story you are going to stick to?

Express is a good thing. Really.

2004-07-02T14:17:00.000-04:00

Some others (including one of my business partners and the causticTech) seem to think that the Express flavors of the VS2k5 environment need some kind of warnings against use in production.

Without the Empower ISV program (which requires that you agree to make a commercial endeavor to get your application logo certified), the Express line looks like a good way for people with a dayjob to get the VS environment in a fully licensed fashion to develop their business ideas at home, while hunting for the all-holy first customer.

I know I sure as hell don't want "you're not a programmer, you're an idiot" messages popping up in my IDE, and my wife will probably use the Express Web Developer tool on her laptop for two reasons: it's a dinky laptop (4 gig drive). I will use the Express tools because I can't afford to replace my desktop at the moment, and so I can't afford the space for a full up install of VS.NET2k5B1 and VS.NET2k3. OTOH, I'm looking forward to redoing my desktop after running on the same (miraculously stable) install of Win2K for the past 5 years...

I know that if I was teaching computer goo at a Boy Scout Explorers Post or in a school, I'd be flipped-out angry if it popped up "you're not a real programmer" messages.

I know that if the compiler refused to generate certain types of DLLs or EXEs that were the "norm" for the environment I was executing on because of the version of the product I had, I'd go looking for an "unlocked" tool and find one.

I know that the best thing for Microsoft is to have as many developers as possible in love with their platform from the front end to the back. This means the Express SKUs to make their platform approachable and easy to learn...

You can teach someone to program in most modern languages in a few hours.

Teaching someone the art of design and the mindset to actual develop solutions instead of knowing how to turn a textbox some set of colors that it never should have been... that takes years. Most developers I know are still learning this, some more than others. I know I've got a long, long way to go compared to some people I know, or read...

The blog petition bandwagon

2004-06-14T15:52:00.000-04:00

Unit Testing support should be included with all versions of Visual Studio 2005 and not just with Team System.

The Whitehorse diagramming roundtripper we saw at the VB Roadshow would be nice, too, although I am FAIRLY sure that's already in the include list...

More Source Control goodness

2004-05-20T08:29:00.000-04:00

So I've gotten my hands on an evaluation copy of Borland Together for Visual Studio.NET, as well. Design tool rather than source control ....

So:

Subversion + TortoiseSVN
Subversion + AnkhSVN
(Both)
(Both plus Subversion command line client)
SourceGear Vault
Borland StarTeam

Vault and StarTeam both support the MS SCC API, so they'll integrate tightly into VS.NET... Anhk appears to but doesn't explicitly say one way or the other, and Tortoise is a Windows shell extension that uses WebDAV to talk to SVN.

My inclination is to favor by default a SCC compliant interface, since that's kind of required to play nicely with VFP without just treating all of its files as binary weirdness.

Source Control Systems

2004-05-18T09:02:00.000-04:00

So, here’re my requirements for a source control system:

1) supported inside visual studio 2003 (SCC API compliant)

2) Support (even if its bad) for versioning binary files

3) Stable data store (Source Safe loses major points here)

4) Low administrative overhead with teams of 40 or less.

5) Support for multiple repositories with the same or sharply limited increase in administrative footprint

6) Normal SCCS “retrospective” functionality – get old versions, compare versions, etc.

7) Failsafe “Get current version” functionality / shadow directory that shows the most recent revision

Currently, I’m looking at two possible solutions: SourceGear Vault and Tigris’ Subversion. Looks like I will be doing some evaluation at home this week….

Compellingly enough, Vault is available for single users for free.

Development Blogging

2004-05-17T14:54:00.000-04:00

finding that reading the MSDN blogs is useful, if dense, I think I agree with Bandit0013 about the utility of a blog to keep the rest of the developers apprised of what's changing.

It's certainly better than trying to keep track of what people are muttering.

< mutter > I hate muttering. < /mutter >