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Still real tired from my Oklahoma trip , partying with Raymond sure is exhausting-). Agile/Development Tools On my short list for some time now, is to switch from NUnit to the definitely superior MbUnit. My friend Andrew has done some great work with this tool and he has a new release out with the beta 1 release of MbUnit 2.4. New features in this drop. I really need to switch and get my team to switch over. It's just been an inertia thing with NUNit as I knew all along MbUnit was better Testing private methods for .NET 2.0 rom Ben Hall. Database rollback support for .NET 2.0 from Cathal Connolly and Todd Menier. NUnit style explicit support from Graham Hey. Speaking of NUnit, they also have a new release, NUnit 2.4 Release Candidate (2.4.0). The Release Notes are here and include some nice features: A new syntax and internal architecture for Asserts is being introduced in this release, based on the notion of constraints found in JMock and NMock. The Assert.That method is used to make an assertion based on a constraint Assert.That( actual, constraint, message, args ); Assert.That( actual, constraint, message ); Assert.That( actual, constraint ); The constraint argument may be specified directly using one of the built-in constraint classes or a user-defined class. It may also be specified using one of the syntax helpers provided as static methods of the Is class, such as Is.Null Is.Empty Is.EqualTo( object ) Is.CollectionContaining( object ) Is.SubsetOf( collection ) SCSF is one of the most visible Microsoft projects being done in an Agile way. They are crazy as us doing one week Iterations. Blaine has some reflections on Iteration 3 . CB brother, Jeremy asks what OSS tools are you using in development? As I answered there, they include: NUnit CruiseControl.Net FitNesseDotNet RhinoMocks Subversion TortoiseSVN Ankh Wiki Speaking of tools. my good buddy Tomas (see you next week!) has a nice list of Text Editors One of the things Raymond and I discussed in Oklahoma was Read More...
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Architecture/SOA Blaine Wastell has posted that PAG planning an update of the Smart Client Software Factory to be released in late April of this year. They are encouraging feedback at http://www.codeplex.com/smartclient and enter critical items into the issue tracker ( http://www.codeplex.com/smartclient/WorkItem/List.... ). From where I sit, they have their Priority 1 stuff right with WPF Interoperability. We absolutely need to be able to move to WPF with the existing CAB/SCBAT infrastructure I have been listing posts on WS-RM and its implementation in WCF. Harry Pierson, has an autopost that builds on his recent epiphany about WCF and long running services. He speaks about his conversation with Shy and " At some point in the three years between March 2003 and February 2006, WS-RM went from being the enabler of long running services to "yet another misnamed WS-* protocol". And with it, WCF lost (never had?) the ability to support long running services (as I've written previously )." The main point is that it does not support RM-based durable messaging. As Harry says, "As I said before, lack of support for WS-RM based durable messaging isn't that big a deal. As long as you understand WCF's sweet spot - the current version's sweet spot anyway - and don't try and make it be something it's not, you should be fine. Furthermore, Shy mentions the need for an "interoperable Queued Messaging specification" and wrote that it's something he "expect that we will get to it in the near future". Here's hoping that spec is less flexible than WS-ReliableMessaging." CLR/Tools/Agile/TDD The most indispensable tool in the .NET universe, Reflector, has gone through a big update to V5! As Jamie states , "This is a significant update with lots of refinements and new features. Perhaps most significantly it includes support for C# 3.0 language features such as LINQ query expressions, lambda expressions and extension methods. See my screencast about using Reflector 5.0 from VS Orcas." He also Read More...
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Architecture More competition! No, I am very glad to see my good friend and Architect Harry start a series like mine and Mike's with his Morning Coffee 10 . I'm going to have to quicken the pace-) Software Development/Tools JetBrains has released their 1 .2 version of their new CI and build solution, Team City . This is very intersting from three perspectives. The first is that Jet Brains arguabally makes the best Java IDE on the planet, IntelliJ . The second is the Extreme Programming/Agile angle in that Jet Brains has always understood thsi community much better than Microsoft/VSTS and this has been reflected in IntelliJ and now Team City's support of NAnt, NUnit, and many others. The third is (much needed) competition for VS.NET/VSTS/TFS so that they can get better as well. As Scott said very well, if Microsoft is going to ignore us (Hugo the Agilist), people will look more and more to IDEs and tools that directly support the way they do work. WCF/Security A new series starts on CardSpace [via Mike ] Other Two new papers from Ralf Lämmel, who is the man behind LINQ to XSD , on Function OO Programming and the second is on XML Steaming [via Steve ] Technorati Tags: .NET , Windows Communication Foundation , WCF , Agile Development , Extreme Programming , IDE , Team City , Software Architecture , Microsoft Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! Read More...
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A N&N from Brussels Belgium where I am up in the middle of the night (again I wake up at 3AM!) with my sleep hours all screwed up. I am enjoying my week here nonetheless. I don't know quite what to make of Brussels. Some parts remind me quite a bit of Paris but there is this weird mix of "modern" glass buildings although the style is a bit "older" than such US buildings. I don't know, I'm jet lagged and probably making no sense. The (potential) customer we are visiting is actually quite large > 3,000 employees most in one large building and I have been working hard on a "High Level Technical Document." Its' certainly some BDUF but this is a large SaS type architecture across 3 data centers that has many Enterprise issues (levels of Failover, SLAs, SQL Server Hot Mirroring, Perimeter Zone Security, etc. to deal with and get right. Anyhow, the food is good and there is a lot of espresso-). Architecture The Open Group (the TOGAF guys) has scheduled what appears to be an interesting conference on Enterprise Architecture and SOA in San Diego [via Architecture Blog ] Avalon/WCF Karsten gives an update on the North Face In Store Explorer WCF application that floored many of us at PDC05 and has now been deployed . He also reminds, "Note that the white paper written about this application is still relevant and worth reading. The code samples all work just fine on the final bits and have some useful code as far as state management, image montages and a 3D carousel." My good friend and fellow Smart Client track speaker, Walt Ritscher has started a new WCF blog at http://wpfwonderland.wordpress.com - Subscribed! Check out XAML to IL Explained Part 1 , WPF/e Example - Game of Life WCF/Indigo/SOA Nicholas Allan has his best of 2006 (and what a year it was for him/them!). Also check out Zen Faults Other Ted Neward has his predictions for 2007 , of which I mostly agree with all of them but one of the best qualities of Ted Read More...
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A very good day to leave the country and find a new one... WCF/Indigo/SOA/Workflow/.NET Framework 3 Here are the separate download links for the parts of .NET Framework 3 RTM that I blogged about yesterday: Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 Redistributable Package Microsoft® Windows® Software Development Kit for Windows Vista™ and .NET Framework 3.0 Runtime Components Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (WCF & WPF), November 2006 CTP Visual Studio 2005 extensions for .NET Framework 3.0 (Windows Workflow Foundation) Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System Windows SDK .NET Framework 3.0 Samples - Microsoft Identity and Access Webcast Series [via Craig McMurthy ]. To register for any if these webcasts, including our kickoff webcast: “Identity and Access Vision and Strategy”, visit this link: IDA Webcasts MIIS Identity Integration 2003 SP2 Early-Adopter Access program available . This one would be a real good one for us to jump onto to. Windows SDK: Planning Ahead Mike Taulty on Workflow and ASP.NET Web Services . Nothing to do with Mike's fine article but does anyone else other than Steve and I find that WF doesn't work with another member of WinFX, WCF right out of the box very strange?? I understand the need to support ASMX and I am fine with that but in the last 3 years couldn't they have also integrated WF and WCF before ship for the rest of us?? Data/SQL Server/LINQ/OR/M SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 CTP (November 2006) Support for the upcoming Windows Vista. Data Mining Add-Ins for Office 2007, which enables data mining functionality from SSAS to be used directly within Excel 2007 and Visio 2007. SSRS integration with MOSS 2007, which allows integration with the Report Center in SharePoint providing seamless consumption and management of SSRS reports within SharePoint. SSAS improvements for Excel 2007 and Excel Services relating to performance and functionality. Oracle Support in Read More...
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Now that I got my Feed Demon back, I actually have some stuff in the queue that is not so "new" but perhaps still "notable." Architecture/CAB/Smart Client Oldie but goodie: Eugenio has compiled a list of CAB and Smart Client Software Factory Resources You can also see my mini-tutorial combined with an Agile sense with CAB Smart Clients in an Agile World Part 1 , and Part 2 Microsoft Software Factory Architect Jack Greenfield on Ad-Hoc and Systematic Reuse where he differentiates the two and points out that the "i n the software factories book , we explain that systematic reuse is effective, but ad hoc reuse is not." Indigo/WCF/SOA/BPM/BPEL/Workflow More goodness from Tomas with IServiceBehavior, IDispatchMessageInspector, and Endpoints A pair from the master, David Chappell, with Why BEPL is Like Bytecode , and Standardizing the Right Thing: BPMN or BPEL? Avoiding OneWay Deadlocks from Nicholas Allen Data/SQL Server CTP6 of Data Dude (i.e. VSTS for Database Pros) is out . Cameron has the scoop on the new features. Other/Tools IE7 has made it out of beta and is released The very useful CodeSmith is out in a public Beta 4.2 Agile Martin Fowler calls it the ImprovementRavine Pattern: " If you care about what you do, you care about getting better at it. This involves reflecting about how you do things, and trying out new techniques to see if they make you better. Even if other people recommend new techniques, the only way you know if they work for you is by trying them out yourself and seeing if they improve your performance.The trouble is that improvement, particularly with new techniques isn't linear. Often there is a ravine that opens up when you try a new strategy ." Seventeen Tips for Iteration Planning [from Agile Advice ] Technorati Tags: SOA , Service Oriented Architecture , Windows Communication Foundation , Software Architecture , BPEL , Data , Agile , Agile Development , Microsoft Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! Read More...
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I don't know what to title this post. My friend Scott Hanselman is having all sorts of legitimate problems with Vista RC1 and finds the experience painful, which have led at least some to not install. He lists a bunch of things that either don't install or are not working correctly. As we all know, Scott is the master of machines and software tools so these are very serious issues to be considered. The weird thing, on the other hand, as I reported here , my experiences have been and continue to be great and rewarding. My Vista RC1 experience is so good that not only have I been using it here as my main desktop OS at home but I am doing hard-core development on it without problems and with great performance. As you know from all my posts about our project we are not exactly using old technology but everything bleeding that pushes the edge (.NET 3, WCF, etc). I am working from home today developing some caching code with EntLib and I have all running, without any slowdowns or problems: Visual Studio 2005 Full Team Edition building a 38 project solution CodeRush and Refactor! Pro in VS2005 NUnit SQL Server 2005 Bunch of IE 7 browsers Ent Lib, CAB, etc. xPlorer2 Yahoo Live Messenger Foxit Pro Windows Media 11 and Urge Feed Demon and oh ya, FolderShare syncing megabytes of stuff between my various machines Technorati Tags: Vista , Windows Vista , NET Framework 3 , WPF , Avalon , Microsoft Share this post: Email it! | bookmark it! | digg it! | reddit! | kick it! Read More...
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