Loosely Coupled Human Code Factory - A.K.A. Mercenary Engineer

Stand Up, SCRUM, or Some Other Name - Pt. 3 - Super Day

2008-07-17T16:03:16Z

Yesterday was rough going, mainly just because there was so many topics to cover. Today I hope to nail a ton more functional code segments, requirements, and get some unit tests in my work. Yesterday Finished clarification of the task list and working to find the priorities for this iteration. Met to clarify design goals and functional requirements for new features. Today Core focus will be on functional requirements and getting the respective unit tests, preferably via TDD for the interface...(read more)

My Man Shane!

2008-07-16T21:27:01Z

So yeah, if you don't know him, or haven't worked with him, or haven't tasted any of his fine beverages you should make a point to meet this guy. If you can... I'm fortunate I got to work with Mr. Thatcher as he is an A+ Developer (That's an A+ without a bell curve either, if that was the case he'd have like a 180% and I don't know what that letter would be - maybe AAA+ or something) Anyway, he's gettin famous so read up about the fella....(read more)

Stand Up, SCRUM, or Some Other Name - Pt. 2 - The Wash

2008-07-16T15:12:55Z

We scrummed, but then kind of fell of into planning today. Thus no real serious throughput was achieved. We did rectify many questions and clarify what was meant for many of the specifications for the application. It was a very productive day, just not in code productivity. Yesterday Finished clarification of the task list and working to find the priorities for this iteration. Met to clarify design goals and functional requirements for new features. Today Finish clarification...(read more)

Stand Up, SCRUM, or Some Other Name - Pt. 1

2008-07-15T14:06:27Z

I'm not sure if this would be interesting or not to others, but first and foremost this blog is about me maintaining a history of what I do on the projects I work, what I'm accomplishing, and the technologies I'm working with. With that said this is entry Part #1 of numerous entries I am going to attempt to start writing based on daily efforts and the stand ups that I attend. Yesterday Finished view find functionality. This included the UI, presenter, and test data for the functionality....(read more)

Derive Special Folders :: Tip o' The Day

2008-07-14T14:25:25Z

A few blogs I found detailing the API/Object/Library features for getting my documents and other associated paths. So don't hard code em' if you don't have to. Hard Coding "My Documents"? Fix Your Code Environment.GetFolderPath MSDN Documentation Find the My Document Folder in VB.NET The last entry points out several of the other folder types one can gain access to in this way....(read more)

TDD, Architecture and Testing Code in Isolation :: Part 3

2008-07-10T14:13:18Z

Navigate back to Part 2 of this series of entries. Ok, ok, ok, the other two parts where lean on the unit tests. Now we get down to the mocking, faking, and testing. The first two tests I wrote have to do with the UserListing Entity. Once again, since we're in a situation were thing are generated by LINQ, I'm not really sure of a solid reason, or how, to write tests that fail first. How would one do that for testing entities? I'm not sure but here are my first two that...(read more)

Notice #1 - Web Analytics Wednesday on Wednesday

2008-07-09T14:02:48Z

So, if you live in the Portland area and are interested in web analytics or analytics or just want to meet, discuss over a few beers and chit chat on cool geek topics - swing into Henry's on the 23rd. We all have a great time and you'll meet some of the top people in the analytics industry! Check out more info on the event. Plus, I'll be there! ...(read more)

Reference Cards

2008-07-08T04:29:06Z

Alvin, this list is awesome. It's already become useful as I've saved the LINQ card and definitely will be using it. For some reason the stupid functional stuff just will not stick in my head. I'll get it yet though!...(read more)

TDD, Architecture and Testing Code in Isolation :: Part 2

2008-07-08T04:13:09Z

Navigate back to Part 1 of this series of entries. The next steps I undertook are some of my various clean ups. Create respective test classes for each of the pieces of the database that will have respective entities, methods, or objects to test. I like to keep code clean, easy to read, and were it needs to be. I hate code bloat, misplaced code sections, and above all I can't stand arbitrary pieces of using statements, random misuses of methods (such as ToString()) and other such things. ...(read more)

TDD, Architecture and Testing Code in Isolation :: Part 1

2008-07-07T05:57:22Z

Just a few examples here. First we'll setup the basic architecture from the lowest common denominator - the database - bounce up to the first layer, and test in isolation and test in integration. These examples are simply the easiest ways to test the basic data and data access layer using Stubs, Mocks, and general unit test practices. First off here are the pieces of the architecture that you'll NEED regardless. No real coding in this entry (except for the T-SQL), just setting up...(read more)

ByRef, ByVal, COM Objects, and Excel

2008-07-02T18:42:29Z

I'm working on getting things into and out of Excel. In one scenario I copy an Excel Range or Rows from one Excel Worksheet to a Worksheet in another Workbook. This Workbook then acts as a storage repository for the Range of Rows and is saved and closed. Each of these Range of Rows are saved with a unique identifier on the row above the copied in Range of Rows. I then want to retrieve the Range of Rows to insert back into that Workbook's Worksheet in another location. I have...(read more)

Broken Unit Tests, Code Changes, and Refactoring

2008-07-01T01:34:31Z

So the build broke based on a unit test that failed. Is the general rule of thumb that the build breaking check in person fixes the test? What if they did something that broke someone else's test for something? ...hmm, the philosophy of project handling and management. Today I have nothing to proffer or offer the world of the blogosphere, merely that I'm exhausted and going to gladly jump on my bike and high tail it out of the office. Tomorrow is implement functionality and dependency...(read more)

Modern Computer Power Rulez!

2008-06-29T00:24:02Z

I was running three virtual machines on my laptop and couldn't help but think, this is awesome. I couldn't have imagined doing this 6-7 years ago. That is three operating systems running in virtual machines. Windows 2003, Windows XP, and of course Windows Vista. All running hosted on a Windows Vista Machine - my laptop. 2+ Ghz and 4 GB RAM on dual 7200 RPM 200GB Drives. Awesome to be able to work with such an environment....(read more)

I Love Excel...

2008-06-26T16:17:46Z

...and I hate it. Excel has a model, that seems to be broken all the time, and appears that there are a zillion ways to do things that are not a preferred way. The most common situation seems that Excel either breaks, crashes hard, eats up on the memory, or some other monstrous thing happens to cause a day to go south. But the reason I love Excel, and maybe it is the pack rat collector mentality I have sometimes is - you can put stuff in it. It isn't just putting stuff in it, but arranging,...(read more)

DI, IoC, and Loose Coupling

2008-06-25T14:28:42Z

Recently a situation were I needed to pull out the dependency injection and inversion of control skills came up again. The need for loose coupling in so many projects is vital to these patterns. I was going to start writing an article, but then realized there are some really amazing ones out there. They point out the reason for Separation of Concerns (SoC), Loose Coupling of UI Components, Controller Independence (free from proprietary UI code). With that said, here's some...(read more)