August, 2010

Writing Maintainable Code

Submitted by Bevan on Sun, 29/08/2010 - 14:41

I've just uploaded files from todays presentation Writing Maintainable Code, as delivered to the MS Communities Code Camp 2010. Included is the PDF of my speakers notes, and a zip file of the diagrams and code I used.

Building a Programmers Blog: What to deploy

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 28/08/2010 - 09:00

One piece of feedback I've received about this series of posts was about a simple thing that I'd overlooked: If you got your site up and running using an all-in-one installer, such as the one from Acquia, how do you know what you need to deploy when you want to go-live.

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New section - Code

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 23/08/2010 - 11:20

Based on site feedback (and encouragement from a couple of friends), I've added a new top-level area to the site: Code.

The idea is to collect together various code based blog posts in a way that's more accessible for a casual reader.

I'd be interested in your feedback.

Building a Programmers Blog: Theming

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 21/08/2010 - 09:00

If you're like most developers, you're pretty fussy about the way that things look, but you're probably not the hottest designer around. Fortunately, there are plenty of themes available for Drupal that give you a great look and feel with just a little work.

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Top 10 Mistakes to make in class

Submitted by Bevan on Thu, 19/08/2010 - 08:26

A recent post on Paul Randals blog lists the top 10 mistakes people make when attending a course:

  1. Take a phone call during class
  2. Sit at the back and do email/surf and then ask questions
  3. Persist with a tangential rat-hole
  4. Bring your smelly lunch into the classroom
  5. Come to a class where you don't understand the language it's being taught in
  6. Come to a class without the required experience and knowledge
  7. Don't take notes
  8. Ask questions to try to make it look like you know more than the instructor
  9. Argue that the instructor is wrong
  10. Come to class looking for "the answer"

Go read the entire list. Are you guilty of doing any of these? Do you want to change?

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Building a Programmers Blog: Blocks

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 14/08/2010 - 09:00

Blocks are a fundamental part of the way that Drupal structures your site. Blocks are placed into regions around your main content to provide additional information and navigation.

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Gource for Software Visualization

Submitted by Bevan on Fri, 13/08/2010 - 17:24

At this weeks .NET user group, a friend mentioned Gource, a tool that generates a dynamic visualization that shows how a project evolves over time, based on the commits made to source control.

After finding one movie on the Xero blog, I decided to have a go and see what it looked like when run over a large project I've worked on for the last couple of years.

It looks gorgeous:

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DNUG This week: Silverlight in your Hand

Submitted by Bevan on Sun, 08/08/2010 - 17:56

I've watched the announcements around Windows 7 Series Mobile with great interest - it strikes me that using Silverlight for the user experience of a new mobile platform is a stroke of genius, as there's a readily available of developers already familiar with the required techniques and patterns.

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Building a Programmers Blog: Poor Mans Cron

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 07/08/2010 - 09:00

Regular maintenance of your Drupal installation is important - without it, the website may become sluggish and you'll start having some odd issues. Fortunately, Drupal includes functionality to do this automatically.

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