Agile Development and .NET

As soon as I wrote the title for this blog I knew it would be wrong. It just crossed my mind that it should be agile development and Visual Studio. All the features I love about agile development is really easy to apply in VS. So I'm going to talk about helper applications that I like and all the things you can accomplish.

The first thing I like about agile development is the self documenting code. This is accomplished by use of discriptive function and veriable names. Good comments that are not misleading. Short functions and methods.

All that sounds like a tall measure but it's really not that big. Just consider how easy it is to refactor. I like to refactor as I use some source control system to make my small and well named classes. I also add comments at the end of the code. I use long names for my fuctions.

I wrote a function and I named it PopulateShippingInfomationFields(). This was done after I used the refactor function to remove the code to a function. I also removed the parameter that was passed to it and placed it in the method. So the addition of time to the project was about 5 minutes.

Ok so I created this function and took 5 minutes. The 5 minute part is pushing it. I admired it for a time , I took a swig of Coke and thought about the correct name. This 5 minutes bought me hours later. All the code that I wrote gets redone and changed at some point and later I feel I may need to look for this function and I can find it and it does only one thing. It was also made easy with Visual Studio.

Test Driven Development is also something made easy with Visual studio and a little plug in called. TestDriven.NET is my plug in of choice and my nUnit just fires up in my Visual Studio. I like this I don't have to stop coding to test.

I can make a test project in the same project like eCommerceWebSiteUnitTests. This will get checked into my source control with my main project. I again have a name for this project so I know what it is. It can reference the pieces I need and I can refer back to it months later and make my changes in my code. Test Driven Development is easier with smaller chunks of code. Does this code spit out the bits and pieces I need to fill the shipping information on this page? does this return a valid name. Good stuff there.

I think Agile came from the java world were the tools aren't nice enough so you can be lazy and not factor. Our tools are nice and our GUI is good and we can simply refactor and do something wonderful.

And the Winner for my Ebook Reader is

iRex iLiad: All the pieces
Originally uploaded by centrax

I've been doing reviews and investigating ebook readers for a while now. Ok most of Febuary. I believe that the ebook reader will be to reading what MP3 Players are to music. We all have something that plays MP3's and we all know how we use it. We don't buy CD's just digital music from Amazon.com or other MP3 vendors.Ebook Readers will be doing the same for the things we read.

With things like Feedbooks.com which takes blogs and Rss feeds and turns them into PDF's for you to download as well as regular books. Amazon.com to buy digital media for books and other book vendors. You can read what you want. When you want it.

The iLiad has one advantge over the other eBook readers I checked out. That was the fact that you can take notes on the screen and merge them with your books. You can highlight and write on the screen. The iLiad is open source and has alot of 3rd party applications. It also has the largest screen. Accepts Compact Flash (CF cards) as well as MMC (sd cards).The model I want has wifi.

The makers of the iLiad, iRex, has released a new model for 2009. The new model is called the Digital Reader 1000. It boosts a 10 inch screen instead of the 8.1 inch of the iLiad. It also doesn't require a Travel hub to connect to a PC, AC power or EtherNet .The new models suspends and the iLiad does not but has a 15 hour of on time battery life more or less. Long boot time due to the lack of suspend modes.

As I sit here now I think I can live with the chinks in the armour.

The Travel Hub power for external connectivity and power means I buy an extra travel hub and power connector. Carry them in the bag with the laptop or what ever. That will allow me to power anywhere and connect. Plus I'm saving space because I nolonger need my moleskin.

Screen size I don't think I'll have a problem I have a much smaller and more normal book formfactor.

CF cards are all over the place. 2 gigs or 36 gigs it's still alot of books.

New Gear

Every payday visions of laptops dance in my head like sugarplums in the minds of children at Christmas. My visions include cool FlyBooks and U810s as well as 17 inch screen monsters. I see big hard drives and storage out the ass. I see Blu-Ray drives and discs.

There was a time I was pretty happy with the computers I had. My old Travelmate and my newish Averatec 17 inch laptop. They filled my needs.

I had a perfect laptop to code on. The Averatec was a great machine for that. It had the screen space I love. It had a fast 64bit processor. I had upgraded the ROM to 4Gigs even though the OS didn't handle more then 3. I also upgraded the hard drive to 350 Gigs. Simply a great machine.

My Travelmate is my machine I love to carry. I can show my photos on it. I can have my PDFs for my goofy Role-Playing games. I could show my maps and create with it. This little machine is a great carry lighter then my 17 inch and less unwieldy.

With all I have going what would make me want more. I experience the lost of both of my machines functioning like I want them to. My systemboard on my Averatec is shot. I broke the hinge on my Travelmate.

Board Games to SilverLight.

I've been playing with silverlight and I've come up with the idea that I can make a board game a web game with Silverlight and C#.NET

I love to play games and the new crop of board games out there seem like they may be really cool to do. I wonder if I can pull this off.

Introduction

I'm now a believer in posting what a blog is should be about and give ppl warning before they start reading. I believe this will form a kind of anchor to my writing and will keep me on topic.

This blog is about my computer programing and hardware hacks and other cool tech stuff that I need to jot down. I will not be talking too much about work projects or techinology here. but since work does guide my learning path. I will talk about the stuff I learn and how that's coming along.

Currently I write software in C# and I use the .NET Framework to create web pages and windows applications. I also know about CSS and HTML which can be a rare thing in a windows developer.

I have 3 hardware certifcations. I can do laptop and desktop repairs. so this blog is for me.