Wednesday, June 09, 2004 - Posts
A few new articles are up on DotNetDevs; I contributed to this one about Reflection and the Visitor design pattern. The DotNetDevs site has a high standard for articles, adhering to the quality over quanitity idea. I like it.
On the subject of design patterns, it's been said “Never hire a programmer within 1 year of having read their first design patterns book.” While it's not meant as a real hiring guideline, there is some truth in the observation. The tendency to abuse and over-use patterns once you're first exposed to them is a common side effect; I know I went through my “everything can be solved with patterns” phase.
WeProgram.Net speaker (three sessions now, if you can believe it!) Steve Metsker has written a solid .Net guide to patterns: http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321126971. It's better than the “other” stuff that is just copied from the Java world (i.e. Metsker took some time and really applied the patterns in C# instead of just changing the source code from Java to C# like “other” books have been known to do).
Happy .Netting!
Some folks at the WeProgram.Net meeting last night pointed out this interesting link at infoWorld: http://www.infoworld.com/article/04/05/28/22FEvs2005_1.html
A notable excerpt:
Microsoft is putting Visual C++ 2005 back at the top of the food chain. When Microsoft released VS .Net, it assumed that C++ developers would jump to C# en masse. Unmanaged — compiled to machine instructions — code was deemed primitive, dangerous, and exploitable. VS .Net derailed Visual C++ to encourage C++ developers to evolve into more civilized and enlightened C# beings.
New efforts on behalf of Visual C++ 2005 suggest that Microsoft has backed off the C# hard-sell.
And:
The best feature of VS Team Foundation may be its completely rewritten SCCS (source code control system). This replaces the weak Visual SourceSafe, which provided only basic
source-code control to small groups of developers. Microsoft estimates that VS Team Foundation will scale to handle as many as 500 developers per group.
Food for thought. I've heard from other sources, too, that C# will not be as emphasized as it has been. This bums me out, a bit, as I took to C# because of my familiarity with Java and it seemed very natural. I know a lot of companies that consider C# their premium development language and I wonder what all this means for those shops? I'm not sure I buy into the infoWorld's analysis on it. Is Microsoft jerking us around on C#, or is this misguided infoWorld-speak?
As for getting rid of SourceSafe, it's long overdue. What I've seen of the Team Services for VS.Net 2005 is very slick as it integrates code coverage and unit testing into the VS tool, not to mention task management and other niceties.
Happy .Netting!
Our local user group, www.WeProgram.Net, is holding the annual .Net cricket match this Saturday between the NullReferenceExceptions and the XPathNavigators. The NullReferenceExceptions have a dark and dreaded reputation, and are known for their physical play (is there physical play in cricket?). The XPathNavigators, on the other hand, play a speedy and quick brand of cricket that is appealing to purists of the game. It should be an entertaining match!
If you're in the Hampton Roads area and want to get in on the action, both the NullRefs and the XPathNavigators are looking for players; no prior cricket experience necessary. If you can't tell already, I don't know much about cricket and I'm helping to organize the event, so everyone is welcome! Fan support is welcome, too. WeProgram.Net is sponsoring picnic goodies and it should be a fun and relatively code-free (except for the programming humour, if there is such a thing) event.
The likes of Mark DiGiovanni and Darrell Norton will be there, but I'm not sure on which team they'll be on.
Get out from under those fluorescent lights already! The weather forecast is good for Saturday, so it'll be a great event!