Tools
Development Tools
xUnit.net 1.0, just released, is an update to NUnit 2.0 that encodes some unit testing best practices and leverages .NET 2.0 technologies like generics. Intro here and download here.
If you don't have Visual Studio Team Developer Edition, consider using xUnit.net for your development project unit testing.
Here's a quick post from the ALM folks at SRL Group that compares/contrasts TFS and ClearCase.
Key shortcomings of ClearCase:
- Integrated Interface like Team Explorer
- No PendingChanges window
- Administration difficult/No delegation
- Difficult to enlist in a project
I'd like to add the extra cost of ClearCase is a clear negative.
It doesn't list any shortcomings of TFS. I would suppose there are some.
Here are two great resources for better using the Visual Studio 2005 IDE
I've had a couple of projects where doing a screen cast would be very beneficial. Where I work now they use TechSmith Camtasia. I've also heard that Windows Media Encoder works fine, which is free. Jeff Atwood posted a list of Screencast software products.
You can find it in the team build targets file, but no one seems to tell you, so I will. Run the team build project file locally on your box (using MSBuild) with the IsDesktopBuild property set to true:
C:\MyTeamProjectFolder\TeamBuildTypes\MyTeamBuildType>MSBuild TFSBuild.proj /p:IsDesktopBuild=true /v:diag > msbuild.log
Had some difficulty finding the Enterprise Library 3.0 (download) PDBs. They were uploaded here.
Note that EntLib 3.0 has been subsumed by EntLib 3.1.
I got tipped off on using the Windows Live Writer beta from a post by Annatthara. Hope this gets me back behind the wheel, so to speak.
We started using the useful Web Service Software Factory at my client. Unfortunately after we checked it in to Team System source control, other users were not able to see the software factory wizards. This thread explains the solution:
Check-in the .gpstate file and then, for each user in VS, go to View | Other Windows | Guidance Navigator. Enable all the packages and you are good to go.
K. Scott Allen is very generous to share his PowerShell script for sorting the frustrating "Add New Item" dialog in Visual Studio. Nice example of the power of PowerShell.
The PowerShell team announced that PowerShell will ship with Longhorn Server. (via Mary Jo Foley)
The official Windows Server Roadmap says that Longhorn Server is expected sometime in 2007.
Microsoft has published a new roadmap for delivery of Visual Studio Team System technologies. The road map includes a detailed features list of several technologies and the following dates for Orcas:
Projected Availability:
- Beta 1 - 2nd Quarter, CY 2007
- Beta 2 - Mid-year CY 2007
- RTM - TBA
I've tried unlocking another person's file three times from the docs (here) and have failed. Most blog entries just repeat the doc signature. However, this blog entry has the magic potion. Inspect this sample command line closely and hope the TSF team fixes the GUI in Orcas.
tf undo "$/MyProject/VersionX/Utils/file.cs" /WORKSPACE:MaorDev;Domain\User /server:MyServerName /recursive
Also useful is the tf workspaces command to find workspace, user, and server info. Good luck!
Just as Team Explorer natively integrates with MS Project and Excel, Personify Design has a beta for TeamSpec, a product that integrates Team System Work Items and Word documents. Basically, it allows you to put in live forms in your Word document for work items.
Screenshot
Quick Description
The Neil Enns on the MSBuild Team Blog has a wonderful fourteen part series on how Visual Studio uses MSBuild. Here's the TOC:
A really neat TFS Power Toy (download here) is the Annotation feature. Imagine looking at a source file and seeing in a bar to the left who last changed that line of code. Imagine no further:
The TFS team has produced a TFS Power Toy for comparing directories. (Screen shot). Looks all the world to me like SourceSafe's. Go figure. Hopefully it will move into the application in the future. Here is where you can get it. Brian Harry has a post on how to customize it.
At least I'll get one entry in in September. :-)
Few things befuddle me more than sending an important email and forgetting the subject line. Outlook 2003 inexplicably does not include a check for this. However you can add a macro to add this functionality. V Sivakumar explains how in his blog entry.
In a nutshell:
In Outlook, press Alt+F11, Drill down to ThisOutlookSession, Paste the code below. Close.
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim strSubject As String
strSubject = Item.Subject
If Len(Trim(strSubject)) = 0 Then
Prompt$ = "Subject is Empty. Are you sure you want to send the Mail?"
If MsgBox(Prompt$, vbYesNo + vbQuestion + vbMsgBoxSetForeground, "Check for Subject") = vbNo Then
Cancel = True
End If
End If
End Sub
It can be a bit of a ramp up to get into PowerScript development. Scott Hanselman shares that a company is currently giving a PowerScript IDE away for free. As he says: Run, don't walk.
Update: I guess Intellisense isn't there. It's a mystery. Please give lots of comments so people know we are serious about wanting Intellisense.
I was extremely disappointed when SQL Server 2005 Management Studio and even the text editor for SQL scripts in Visual Studio 2005 did not support Intellisense for database objects. I was incredulous. This is a feature that is probably available in Team Edition for Database Professionals but not in the base IDE. I am shocked that basic editing, source control, and project features afforded other modules in VS2005 is not available to database projects.
However:
red-gate software has stepped into the gap and provided SQL Prompt, which provides Intellisense features in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio and SQL Server 2000 Query Analyser, for free.
Run, don't walk.
GotDotNet has a great
attribute based command line parser library by C# dev lead
Peter Hallam. I wrote an XML Schema based one some time back. The attribute-based one is much more elegant.