ALT.NET

Via Marc‘s post, I came across ALT.NET and Scott Hanselman posing the question “Is Microsoft losing the Alpha Geeks?”  Ayende has posted in a similar vein.  I’d have preferred a few less capital letters, but  ALT .NET is a reminder that tools are just that.   If the tool starts to get in the way, or if there’s a better tool available it’s time to move on.  The goal of your project is unlikely to be to gain expertise in a specific tool or technique – it’s more likely to be about delivering business value – working software that solves a real problem.  The best tools, like Resharper, make you wonder how you coped without them.  The worst tools make you spend weeks figuring out how to rewire the spodolifier so that the gubbinator doesn’t just produce bobbins.

Marc makes the point that decisions on what tools or techniques to use should be based against a set of guiding principles – themselves subject to reevaluation and change. This is a really important point.  Often, these principles are unwritten.  The trouble starts if they are not communicated and shared.

It’s good to see this thread – especially in the Microsoft development community, which, traditionally, hasn’t always taken it upon itself to look outside.

The Business

Here‘s some useful advice:

“Don’t lump all non-I.T. functions into a single bucket called the business!”

The post goes on to give examples of how to sell the idea of an SOA to a variety of audiences within the enterprise.  However, I think that the quote above is worth re-reading.  I find referring to “the business” to be inaccurate and unhelpful.  Is it really the case that “the business” want to do x – or is it department y or the Head of z.  This contextual information is crucial.   Three things happen without it.  Firstly, the wrong solution may be identified – for instance, a strategic enterprise solution may be identified where a point solution would have sufficed.  Secondly, the impression is created that there is an enterprise wide consensus.  Thirdly, it implies a them and us situation.  If you’ve got into the habit of referring to “the business”, make an effort to identify who you really mean.

New theme

I put some code in the messaging article I posted. The theme I was using (Regulus) didn’t display it especially well the way I had it formatted (using <pre>). So, I thought I’d change themes. Nothing like a fresh lick of paint. Providing you don’t actually lick the paint, of course.

ActiveMQ and NMS

I’ve posted an article about how to use ActiveMQ from .NET. You can read it here.

Feel the Power

PowerCursor is worth looking at.  I’ve not seen anything quite like it on the web before.   I’ve shown this to a few people and they’ve all been captivated.  I’m impressed – although the killer example would be its use in a full blown app.

Oh! Sue you, sir!

I’m assuming you’ve read this news.  If not, go read it.  While this is undoubtedly good news for those practising patent law in the US, for the industry as a whole, the implications and ramifications could be massive.  Other giants in the software industry (think IBM and Sun) have embraced open source and integrated it into their business models.  Microsoft have adopted, well, let’s say a different approach.

Here’s the most concise reaction I’ve found.

Other opinions are available.  The number of patents that are alleged to be infringed may go down as well as up.  The software you use may be at risk if you do not keep up license payments because of such an alleged infringement.

nspectre 1.0.1 release

I’ve released version 1.0.1 of nspectre.  This version has one new feature: the ability to use JSON to store configuration.  Jayrock provides the JSON capability.
The purpose of adding JSON support to nspectre is to demonstrate the capability of storing configuration in multiple formats.
Download the new version of nspectre here.

Mixing it up

It’s been an interesting week so far for announcements from Microsoft.  Having waited patiently for Mix ’07, the cats have been allowed out of their bags.  Here are the ones that have grabbed my attention.

• Silverlight has started to look interesting.  I was unimpressed by the original announcement – I couldn’t see why you wouldn’t use Flash and Flex (which is going to be open-sourced.)  But knowing that a portion of the CLR is going cross-platform (well, sort of – Windows and Mac only) makes it interesting.
• The DLR has been coming – IronPython has been out for a while now.  Now it’s here.  Fantastic.  I can’t wait to see the sort of tools this might make possible.
• Jasper.  “Project Jasper is geared towards iterative and agile development. You
  can start interacting with the data in your database without having to
  create mapping files or define classes.”  There’s a CTP here.   Realistically, given the bits you need, I may need a whole new development environment to test this CTP out.  And it may well be worth it.

These announcements have given a much needed shot in the arm to .NET development.

What are you Watin for?

I was interested to see that there is a Watir inspired testing framework for .NET languages – WatiN.  It has an impressive set of features – worth a look.  I’ve used Selenium to do this sort of testing for some time now.  It’s good to see that there is such innovation in this area of testing – the ability to have a suite of regression tests you can incorporate into your continuous integration set-up is hugely useful.  For now, Selenium gets my vote – I like the fact that the tests are expressed in HTML (very simple) and that there is a browser based recorder (Selenium IDE.)  And if you want to program your tests, there’s Selenium Remote Control.