Rediscovering the Obvious

It’s much easier to tell somebody why they’re wrong than it is to tell them how to do it right.

Thus, build something quick and dirty (even as a thought exercise), and THEN figure out what’s “right”.

Prototypes. Agile. RAD. Models. Alphas. Betas. Every Microsoft product until version 3.

Isn’t that obvious? duh! Then why do we still do SO MUCH stuff up front? Where’s the balance?

I also think this is related to the “blank paper” problem.. much easier if there’s even one heading or SOMETHING on the page.     

Slipped my mind, but installing TFS 2005 also requires SharePoint.

SharePoint installation sucks.

SharePoint trashes out anything .NET-based that’s installed on the default web site. 

Vault is a .NET product installed on the default web site. (hey! Don’t anticipate the train wreck… I didn’t have the benefit of hindsight!)

(approximately) First thing to do after installing TFS is to migrate source code to the new project.

Oh… Ummm….

Solution: Reinstall vault on a new web site instance (such as server:8000), and point the installer at the old databases.

Per their job search at http://members.microsoft.com/careers/search/default.aspx, Microsoft has 418 job titles (from A-W, I like “Technologist”).

Per my memory, the companies I’ve directly been employed by since college had ~25, ~60 and ~325 people. Adding those together, MS still wins by 8.
 

I’m not quite to Test First, but I’m getting there. As an aside, the lack of having TestDriven.NET yet has forced me to actually use the NUnit GUI… not as bad as I used to think. It automatically reloads when you build the .dll it’s pointing at, parses the test list out again, and nullifies your previous test results… if you think it might pass, click run… that’s all.  Not too bad.

That said, I need TestDriven.NET soon… I love it, and not just for the test execution basics. Test with coverage is among my favorites, although View in Reflector is quickly gaining (or will be, as soon as I convince the boss to sign the PO for it)

A signed copy of his  new book arrived in the post yesterday, I’m looking forward to digging into it. I’ll shamelessly give plugs to good products on this blog, so long as they’re good

As for the book itself, I read into the introduction a bit, and so far I think I like his style this time around better than Code + Markup. We’ll see. 

The business case for TFS is significant, and since we’re still in the “money back” period for both our other tools, we’re headed to TFS. As soon as I can get the domain accounts I’ll be installing it… yay!

So, that said, what do I need?

• TFS Power Tools
• Notion’s Team CI
• Notion’s Team RM and CM (maybe?)
• Test Driven .NET
• NUnit
• What else?

I’m back to Vault (and DevTrack) at my new job… it’s not so bad, even though I do love the many integration possibilities that Team Foundation offers between the different components.

That said, since I’ve had a lot of experience with Vault in the past, I was immediately tagged as “the” Vault administrator (through a rather humorous exchange), and I’m in the process of drafting an SCM plan.

In spite of me using Vault instead of TFS source control, I have found the guidance on CodePlex to be extremely useful. I’m seriously considering an attempt to contribute to that project through attempting an extraction of the technology-specific aspects (TFS) from the generally accepted “Good Things ™”

It was very nice this morning to have a daily stand-up be the first thing of my first day at the office. It gave me a great feel for what the various team members were up to and how they were going about the project, and this was before I even really knew what the project was about… go team!     

All are invited! Come and help me celebrate the first day on my new job!

I’ll be at Scotty’s Brewhouse at 96th St. & Delegates Row Wednesday night at 8pm! 

WEDNESDAY NIGHT – 8PM!

I’ve had a bunch of people ask me recently what the ?? operator is in C#.

From what I’ve seen, the following two declarations have the same effect (other than the names):
        int? myInt = null;
        Nullable<int> myInt2 = null;

As are the following two:
        return myInt ?? 5;
        return myInt2.HasValue ? myInt2.Value : 5;