DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by contour

Thought Driven Development a Methodology of Abile Development

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 20:46:03 GMT

Warning: This is a rant against TDD extremism! Sensitive TDD people better step out of this dark sleazy communist place right now! Why do I pick on TDD? Because it makes no sense. The development and design shall be driven by thought not by test. Yes some people are able to "think" better about their problems while using TDD. Kudos to them! But not all people are alike.

Bad advice on exceptions from Joel

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 11:46:02 GMT

Starting from some comments on my exception handling series of articles I run into a couple of blogs pointing to this post on joelonsoftware.com. I think this is the worst advice on exception handling I have ever read, sorry Joel. I know this is an old post, I know Joel is entitled to his own opinion and I know he has the right to write his code as he sees fit. But as an opinion leader he influences others.

The Creators of 30 Programming Languages: pages, blogs, interviews

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 23:46:02 GMT

Behind any programming language there is a creator or sometimes a small team. Each language has a story and a philosophy and each creator had a motivation, a problem to solve. Here is a collection of resources about these people: personal pages, blogs, biographies and interviews.

Code review - The meaningless ritual

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Most of the time code reviews are a meaningless ritual. Everybody pays lip service to the importance of code reviews and a lot of people, especially in the management, are convinced that code reviews very effectively reduce the number of shipped bugs. The problem is. most developers hate code reviews and avoid them like the plague. If they can't avoid them, then they show up and act their part like in a play at the theater of the absurd.

Software development dogmata - good practices gone bad

Thu, 14 Aug 2008 20:46:03 GMT

Many practices in the software development world are widely accepted at some moment in time as the "true way". The trouble starts when the "true way" is forced down the throats of people who need a "new way". Usually popular practices follow a similar path between the moment somebody discovers/creates them and until they get massively popular.

ASP.NET Browsers Filter!!

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 19:16:03 GMT

Yesterday .NET SP1 released and many new features for ASP.NET where added. But yesterday i also discovered a feature that ASP.NET has from version 2.0 Let's say we have a button. We can decide what value will the properties have for different browsers!!! And we can do that with this way...

Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:16:07 GMT

It's finally here! I haven't seen an official announcement yet, but I did a search for "Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1" on Microsoft's Download Center and found the following downloads added today: Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (exe) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=fbee1648-7106-44a7-9649-6d9f6d58056e&DisplayLang=en Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (iso) http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=27673c47-b3b5-4c67-bd99-84e525b5ce61&DisplayLang=en

How bad comments are born in your code

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 08:46:02 GMT

Many programmers mention their support for "good" comments in the code. A significant percentage of all developers think the quality of the comments is one of the traits that separate good experienced programmers from the rest. But the cruel reality is lots of code out there is not commented at all or, even worse, it is commented but the comments are so bad they make understanding the code harder.

No, inheritance is not the way to achieve code reuse!

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 02:01:03 GMT

I am not sure how so many people go through so many years of school, which is supposed to make us better at thinking, and they fail to differentiate the "why" and the "how". During interviews, when I ask their opinion about the purpose of inheritance in OOP, invariably I get this precooked answer (not so nicely expressed): inheritance is the way to achieve code reuse. No it is not!

Why I'm Unimpressed With Rawness Of Skillz

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 05:46:02 GMT

Since forever, geeks who take themselves seriously have loved to brag such things as, "I use Notepad to edit web pages". Carrying this over to actual programming, "I never click into the designer when editing my ASPX", or "I never design a database using designer tools, I always design it all using raw T-SQL," or "I always update my SVN from the command line". (Someone in a local tech user group bears the post signature, "Real men use Notepad.") Puhleeze. I'm not impressed, and frankly I think anyone who brags like this should get a swift kick in the pants.

The Agile 800 Pounds Gorilla

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 08:46:02 GMT

I woke up this morning and I was Agile. We are all Agile now. Or we are gonna become Agile. Soon. No doubt about it. It is an order. And orders are not to be discussed, just executed. The Enterprise goes Agile! With the elegance of the huge battleship being pulled across a desert between oceans by slaves, camels and elephants, the Enterprise goes Agile.

36 steps to success as technical lead

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 22:16:20 GMT

The "tech lead" role can be treacherous at times. While the name implies "leadership", most of the times it doesn't come with implied authority like a manager role for example. It often happens that this role is in a no-man's-land where it brings a lot of responsibility but not enough formal authority. In order to successfully help a project from this position one has to navigate through narrow and convoluted straits.

Documenting Coding Standards - Less is More

Wed, 06 Aug 2008 21:31:11 GMT

A colleague and I were recently invited to provide feedback on a client's coding standards and were sent a 60+ page document to review. In preparation for the meeting I diligently started to go through each section providing comments and suggestions as I went. But after about page 30 my concentration began to wane and my comments grew more and more sparse. The moral of this story... If someone that's being paid to review your coding standards is struggling to get through them then you can bet your bottom dollar your development team won't be reading them either. This post reflects on the things to consider when documenting your company's standards.

Learning Ruby via IronRuby and C# Part 6

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:01:03 GMT

In part 6 we look at Hashes (or Associative Arrays) and how they are used in the Ruby language. We also look at how you can use them in place of explicit method parameters.

The Work-at-Home Developer's Guide to Happiness

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:31:02 GMT

As a long time work-at-home developer, I've come to realize over the years how important it is to have the right work routine and balance to remain happy in both your professional and personal life. I've worked from my home 100% of the time for the last 6-7 years and had often worked from my home in spurts before that. Without question, it requires the right mindset and dedication. There's an upside as well as a downside to working from home, but with the right routine you can be successful at it.

13 reasons for UML's descent into darkness

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:01:03 GMT

UML lost the programmers. There is no doubt about it. in my mind. And when a software design technology loses the programmers it fades away no matter what the academia thinks. This happened because UML was pushed in a direction that most code writers don't like: it started to look a lot like bureaucratic paper work.

Software I can't work without

Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:46:10 GMT

I'm about to configure a new development machine this week. It's going to be my 3rd install from scratch in the last 12 months, which I know is not all that much, but certainly more than I wish I had to.

Five recommendations for starting a startup with ASP.NET

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:16:03 GMT

Here are five practical pieces of advice for developers who want to build a web startup, and use ASP.NET to do it.

UI design patterns library

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 20:46:02 GMT

Very cool site which shows give you ideas about visual presentation for misc elements of user interface

Top 10 Best Practices for Production ASP.NET Applications

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 03:01:02 GMT

A list of some things to pay attention to when dealing with production ASP.NET applications.