DotNetKicks.com - published architecture stories

Programmer's Backdoor Trap - Ran Wahle's blog

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 10:27:42 GMT

Today I've encountered something that made a programmer happy but made me sad. He had to pull data out of Data Warehouse and use it for his system. Later, he was informed that DWH personnel made his life easy: They've decided to write the data into his own database so he wouldn't have to work so hard. Unfortunately this news made him happy, and therefore he went on with it, which made me even sadder.

Ditching domain models for reads

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 13:29:50 GMT

always interesting to here useful nhibernate/domain design tidbits from the trenches

Restful WCF / EF POCO / UnitOfWork / Repository / MEF : 1 of 2

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:13:12 GMT

Sacha Barber, creator of the Cinch MVVM framework (http://cinch.codeplex.com/), has written a wonderful article in response to the requests of Cinch users. Sacha sets out to create a LOB application demonstrating how Restful WCF, EF, and the UnitOfWork and Repository patterns can be used together. The application is an excellent example of Domain Driven Design.

Simple explanation of the Repository pattern

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 15:36:50 GMT

One of my favorite design patterns is the 'repository pattern'. That's why I decided to dedicate a complete blog post to it. Using the repository pattern in your application can yield a lot of benefits, such as improved testability, easier ways to implement caching and transactions, avoidance of code duplication and it allows you to replace the data source easier (although that probably won't happen too often).

Dodgy Coder: Modern Cross Platform Development

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:57:26 GMT

Why isn't there a modern technology available for using the same codebase to produce native apps on all of the currently popular platforms - I'm talking iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch), Android, Windows, Mac and Linux? That was my original question before I started looking, and since then I've discovered there actually are plenty of new options out there for cross platform development catering for all of the above platforms.

Ayende on Infinite Scalability

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 15:00:27 GMT

Ayende Rahien shares his thoughts on an excellent article by Udi Dahan on the myth of infinite scalability (http://www.udidahan.com/2011/12/29/the-myth-of-infinite-scalability/). He adds his own 2 cents by setting a goal for scalability when designing a system. By setting a goal that is an order of magnitude above your projected requirements, you can be sure to design a system that can scale comfortably without overengineering a solution that doesn't meet your users requirements (or fails to launch).

Multiparadigmatic .NET

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 17:17:31 GMT

Over the years, many of us in the .NET community have heard of Microsoft's "personas" for the Visual Studio environment: Einstein (the genius), Elvis (the rock star), and Mort (the "average" developer). As useful as these personas might be for Microsoft in trying to figure out precisely for whom they're building Visual Studio and the Microsoft .NET platform, I've found them to be less helpful. In fact, I've come to realize that for the vast majority of the .NET ecosystem, developers mostly fall into one of two basic (and highly stereotypical) camps

Misconceptions About Software Architecture

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 03:21:49 GMT

References to architecture are everywhere: in every article, in every ad. And we take this word for granted. We all seem to understand what it means. But there isn't any wellaccepted definition of software architecture. Are we all understanding the same thing? We gladly accept that software architecture is the design, the structure, or the infrastructure. Many ideas are floating around concerning why and how you design or acquire an architecture and who does it. Here are some of the most common misconceptions about Software Architecture.

Clean Architecture with Bob Martin

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 15:36:07 GMT

"Uncle" Bob Martin discusses some of the finer points of clean architecture and what it is to decouple your layers without duplicating data or code.

Is Continuous Delivery the Key to Software Success?

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:54:30 GMT

Paul Stack discusses the importance of Continuous Delivery, the method of delivering software early and often. This is akin to Continuous Integration, and may be the key to success in selling and shipping your software. Paul also puts to bed the concept that shipping early means sacrificing quality.

Command and Query Responsibility Segregation (CQRS)

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 15:08:38 GMT

Found this article really interesting about CQRS

Architectural and Design Challenges with SOA

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 02:04:44 GMT

With all of the hype about service oriented architecture (SOA) primarily through the use of web services, not much has been said about potential issues of using SOA in the design of an application. I am personally a fan of SOA, but it is not the solution for every application. Proper evaluation should be done on all requirements and use cases prior to deciding to go down the SOA road. It is important to consider how your application/service will handle the following perils as it executes.

NDepend - Visual Studio Addin: takes you as far as you want to go

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 16:41:56 GMT

Clearly NDepend's a very impressive tool for any serious development team to be using. It will help you to learn about reducing complexity, dependencies and generally designing your code in an efficient way. It's basically all about improving quality.

Managed Extensibility Framework: What It is and Where It is Going

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:23:34 GMT

Johnathan Allen aims to set the record straight on what MEF is, what it's used for, how it's being abused/misused today, and what the future holds.

Do you really need an ORM?

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 13:41:53 GMT

Attempts to convince developers and architects that - often - an ORM is over-engineering.

My take on what CQRS is -- and what it isn't

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 14:09:13 GMT

First and foremost: CQRS as an architectural pattern has nothing to do with event sourcing, eventual consistency, messaging, pub/sub, denormalized views and whatever other patterns are being confused with the term CQRS nowadays. CQRS is simply having two separate models for each reads and writes, that are being accessed via queries and commands respectively. [...]

Building small things

Sun, 18 Sep 2011 14:41:38 GMT

Due to the nature of things we build in our day to day job, writing software can wear out even the most fit of us. Most software jobs make you constantly deal with complexity. The amount of things which can lead to a complex software project are immense. A poor first design, and failure to redesign. External dependencies..

A first encounter with Windows8 Development (C#, XAML, JavaScript)

Thu, 15 Sep 2011 13:58:04 GMT

First thoughts on developing in Windows8

Required Skill Sets Of A Software Architect

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 04:23:31 GMT

The question has been asked as to what is the required skill sets of a software architect. The answer to this is that it truly depends. When I state that it depend, it depends on the organization, industry, and skill sets available on the open market and internally within a company. With open ended skill sets even Napoleon Dynamite could be an architect.

Factory Pattern

Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:24:08 GMT

The post presents an implementation of Factory Pattern. Additionally it present also thread-safe version of Singleton Pattern.

Responsive Web Design - Stop and Think

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 02:29:09 GMT

This article by Ethan Marcotte on Responsive Web Design has been widely touted as the designer's panacea for all things mobile. Other leading designers such as Jeffrey Zeldman and Andy Clarke have all jumped on the band wagon. Considering the amount of influence these guys have on young designers, it saddens me that leading designers, of all people, would sacrifice their art on the altar of a quick fix.

Customize ReportViewerWebPart in C# and render in SharePoint Pages

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 02:49:02 GMT

This is one of the major milestone I have achieved recently to customize the report viewer web part for SharePoint sites. The issue I was facing: the SharePoint site which I have developed was too complex and it exposed via 3 zones. http://intranetsite, http://extranetsite, https://internetsite http://intranetsite - which is Windows based authentication site and for intranet people. http://extranetsite - Which is Windows based authentication site and for extranet people http://internetsite - Which is Forms based authentication site and for internet people. .....

New videos from Microsoft on the Async CTP

Sun, 21 Aug 2011 15:36:55 GMT

Microsoft has posted 5 new videos on using the Async CTP, with C# and VB versions of each. The Async CTP seems pretty awesome so far, check out these videos to learn about it!

Exposing internal methods in 3rd party assemblies for external use

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:08:41 GMT

This article shows how you can expose internal methods in 3rd party assemblies for external consumption using PostSharp

Have ORMs introduced extra complexity into our codebase?

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 22:49:22 GMT

Thinktank article to make us think about whether ORMs are a good thing or a bad thing for our codebases