September, 2010

Working with fxCop

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 27/09/2010 - 15:17

So I've finally managed to get fxCop officially adopted on a work project (*). Better yet, thanks to an upgrade, we now are using the Ultimate Edition of Visual Studio: I no longer have to use the command line of fxCop . Instead, It's integrated right into the build.

Of course, no improvement goes unpunished.

Read more »

Building a Programmers Blog: Images

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 25/09/2010 - 09:00

One of the surprising omissions from Drupal Core is that of image handling. There are plenty of modules that provide different kinds of image support. And that, strangely enough, is the core of the problem.

Read more »

Where does your challenge come from?

Submitted by Bevan on Fri, 24/09/2010 - 09:00

Like most developers, I relish any greenfields opportunity - a chance to build a new system from the ground up, unfettered by history and to be able to do things the best way I know how.

But how realistic is this?

It's a simple fact that not every project can be greenfield. I'd venture that most development work is brownfield, maintaining and enhancing existing systems.

What about the assertion by some developers that there's no challenge in a maintenance role?

Read more »

Typography

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 20/09/2010 - 20:00

It's something glossed over by many developers, but Typography is a core part of the users experience, whether they are using a web application, a traditional rich client or a hybrid (like Silverlight).

The website Typography for Lawers is an unusally accessible guide to the subject. While targeted at the needs of lawyers, Matthew Butterick (the author) has written a very clear guide that's applicable to a much wider audience.

New Release of StyleCop Cmd

Submitted by Bevan on Sun, 19/09/2010 - 15:58

I've released a minor update (version 1.2) of the StyleCop Cmd tool, bringing it up to date with StyleCop release 4.4.

Read more »

MoreLINQ

Submitted by Bevan on Wed, 15/09/2010 - 18:09

I just stumbled across this - a very useful extension LINQ library called MoreLinq.

The list of extensions that it provides includes some real gems:

Read more »

Avoiding Null Checks

Submitted by Bevan on Mon, 13/09/2010 - 15:31

Courtesy of a link tweet from Ayende and a blog entry on DevTalk.net, here's an interesting way to avoid null checks in code: the .With() extension method.

Read more »

Clean Code

Submitted by Bevan on Sun, 12/09/2010 - 10:14

Robert C Martin (aka Uncle Bob) gave a couple of presentations on "Clean Code" that I thought were worth sharing.

Read more »

Building a Programmers Blog: External Links

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 11/09/2010 - 09:00

On Wikipedia, internal links (to other wikipedia pages) are distinuished from external links (to other websites) by small icons that appear next to the links. Some users find this very helpful. You can do this on your blog by using ELF.

Read more »

5 Languages in 50 minutes

Submitted by Bevan on Tue, 07/09/2010 - 14:25

Coming up at the Wellington .NET user group:

Owen Evans presents 5 languages in 50 minutes

David Thomas (of The Pragmatic Programmer fame) promoted that as software developers we should be learning a language a year. They say French is the language of love and Italian is apparently the language of diving gratuitously during football matches.

Well, programming languages all try to serve a purpose and fill a need too (they aren’t all just created for academic curiosity).

Owen Evans, Senior Developer at Xero, takes on the challenge of introducing you to 5 unsung development languages (not .Net languages) in the hope of promoting the idea that we can each pick up something new and learn and evolve as software developers.
The aim is not to be masters but to understand better the ideas different language constructs present to us so we can fold them into the day to day development we undertake as professionals.
5 languages in 50 minutes? its a stretch goal but i think we can make it.

Scheduled Date: 
Thursday, 7 October 2010 - 7:00am
Read more »

Building a Programmers Blog: Scheduled Posts

Submitted by Bevan on Sat, 04/09/2010 - 09:00

Sometimes you don't want all of your content to post at one time. Instead of a flurry of posts at the weekend, when you have time to write them, it's better for your site (and your readers) if new posts appear at regular and consistent intervals. Scheduling posts in advance can help you do this.

Read more »