Why XML SUCKS(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 4 years, 10 months ago

As many of my colleagues know, I am not a really big fan of XML. I think it's bloated. I think it's not needed. I don't think it accomplishes much if anything that couldn't be done before just by sending text delimited in a different way. I'm not sure why if I want to tell someone a yes or a no answer on something being found, I have to wrap it in 1000 characters of SOAP data when i could just send a 0 a 1 or nothing and accomplish the same thing. Or why if I want a list of data, I have to wrap it up and package it as XML when I could just send the list as regular delimited text instead of delimited by 20% text bloat of so-called self description. Anyway, that's the short version of why I think XML sucks. Here are some other people that think it sucks and some much more in depth articles about it. =) read more...

8 comments |category: XML |Views: 33

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Top 20 .NET Garbage Collection Articles(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 4 years, 11 months ago

Ah. Garbage Collection... how I love and hate thee. =P I think one sad thing about programming in .net is that it seems many developers don't know or care anything about garbage collection and memory management. You used to *have* to know about it in order to write bug free code. I suppose it is a two edge sword in that developers can develop faster as the intention was to relieve developers of the need to know or care anything about memory management. I personally have always tried to follow best practices for implementation and have tried to stay somewhat cautious of issues related to memory. I've been fortunate in never really having any memory management related issues in my previous applications. However, there, but for the grace of God, I too could go. read more...

add a comment |category: CLR |Views: 15

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Office Business Applications Architecture Talk(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 4 years, 11 months ago

The following conversation is a conversation with Microsoft Financial Services Sr. Architect Colin Cole discussing Office Business Applications (OBA). This is a new type of blog post for me and a Drowning In Technical Debt first. I hope to conduct similar conversations in the future. Finally, I would like to thank Colin for making time to have this conversation with me. read more...

1 comment |category: Architecture |Views: 2

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Space Used By SQL Indexes(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 5 years, 6 months ago

How much space are your SQL Indexes using? read more...

add a comment |category: Database |Views: 1

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Hype Cycle(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 5 years, 6 months ago

While researching web service best practices I came across Gartner’s Hype Cycle and was immediately impressed with its simplicity and clarity. It summed up in a simple graph the wild technological rollercoaster ride I’ve (and probably you too) have been on for most of my career. Early on I used to fall for the “coolest” gadgets, the “hot” languages and the “latest” architectures. I’d spend a lot of money and time on books, courses and software in an effort to get up to speed. Aggravatingly, it seemed, I was just in time to see the coolest gadgets cool-off and the hot languages fall by the wayside and replaced by a new wave. Early out of college this was self-inflicted because I wanted to make an impact with my employer. Which lead to enough successes to justify the effort. But then in the early nineties something strange happened. My employer started bringing me the cutting edge technologies to see if there was any business value. And sadly, the same cycle reoccurred. But this time the amount of money, effort and time were exponentially growing with each project. I was amazed at how easy it was for them to drop a million on software license and then in a blink of an eye drop it like yesterday’s dishwater. Yet after the dust settled we did seem to gain from the experience and our technologies matured. read more...

add a comment |category: Architecture |Views: 1

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Systems Integration: No Assumptions(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 5 years, 6 months ago

There are many sayings about assumptions and I’ll let you fill in your favorite. Regarding Systems Integration, the hard lesson I’ve learned is not to assume the other system will properly filter or handle a specific constraint. For example, Windows systems use a carriage-return-line-feed to mark the end-of-a-line. However, UNIX systems simply use a line-feed to mark the end-of-a-line. This is not to say that UNIX systems can’t handle files containing CRLF’s. It just means that most UNIX Systems just use an LF to mark the end-of-a-line. read more...

add a comment |category: Tips & Tricks |Views: 0

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Hacking the Report Viewer Redistributable(drowningintechnicaldebt.com)

submitted by dbottjer(310) 5 years, 7 months ago

I have used the Report Viewer Control included in Visual Studio 2005 to embed reports within our Smart Client. The control allows me to create professional reports without the use of a third party tools. Plus I can always scale up to Reporting Services should the need arrise. There is a Report Viewer Redistributable available for download. However, the Redistributable is an MSI and installs all components in the GAC. This action requires administrator permissions which is not a choice due to our corporate security policy. read more...

add a comment |category: Tips & Tricks |Views: 35

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