Entries for Scott

Good Unit Testing/TDD books [Good Unit Testing/TDD books]

Scott — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:50:12 GMT

I'd like to learn more about test-driven development and unit testing in general. What books can you recommend? I prefer ones that are more narrative and less reference, teaching me the why instead of just the how. I also don't like reading books in front of the computer (or on the computer, for that matter).

Thanks in advance.

edit: Is this one good? http://www.manning.com/osherove/ It's pretty recent and I read something he wrote on MSDN and he made sense.

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Documenting requirements [Documenting requirements]

Scott — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:44:01 GMT

Big picture question.

You have a legacy application that has outdated requirement documentation and non-existent design documentation. You need to make fairly significant changes to this application. What do you do?

A) Go through the entire application and recreate both requirements and design documents.

B) Make new requirements and design documents including only requirements/design that are affected by the changes you need to make.

C) Other (explain in your reply)

We have lots of cases like this and it would be next to impossible to do what I feel is the correct answer (A) because of workload and time constraints, even though it would solve a lot of problems in the future and make formal testing much easier.

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Weird threading problem? [Weird threading problem?]

Scott — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:29:49 GMT

I've got a WPF app that does some major multi-threading in its worker classes. My problem is that as soon as all of the worker threads complete, the app shuts down. No errors, no exceptions, just shuts down the app and throws me back into the IDE.

After confirming that the threading is indeed working as intended with some debug.print statements, I am at a loss as to why this is happening.

Any ideas on further debugging steps?

The basic structure is this:

interface bound to "runner" object

runner holds collection of "sample" objects and spawns a thread for each sample

each sample holds as collection of "combinations" and spawns a thread for each combination

I'm using events to track when threads finish and then when everything is finished, I update the interface. Immediately after this step, the application shuts down.

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RSS [RSS]

Scott — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:26:35 GMT

The RSS is borked. All of the articles link back to the RSS feed.

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WPF dataset binding [WPF dataset binding]

Scott — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 17:58:02 GMT

A question for the WPF gurus.

I have a datagrid bound to a datatable's defaultview. My interface shows new rows with default values, and properly passes any changes made in the interface back to the datatable. What it's not doing is passing any changes made in the dataset back to the interface without me manually calling Items.Refresh on the datagrid.

Any ideas? I have the datatable loading in default values on the ColumnChanged event because some defaults depend on another column.

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.NET thoughts [.NET thoughts]

Scott — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 13:56:02 GMT

Having used .NET professionally for about two years now, I'm beginning to wonder if Microsoft has lost sight of the initial goals of the platform and are now just throwing in everything bu the kitchen sink.

Do you think there are too many libraries in the Framework? Are you confused by the multitude of options for something as straightforward as data access (ADO.NET, LINQ to SQL, Entities, roll your own)?

Or do you welcome the addition of every new thing, as more options make you more productive? Are you glad that you no longer have to write much "boilerplate" code for common tasks?

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How to sell WPF [How to sell WPF]

Scott — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 15:20:20 GMT

Just had a small meeting with some other developers in my department demonstrating what WPF can do (binding, commands, control templates, data templates, layout managers).

They didn't seem too impressed and failed to see any gain over WinForms.

Our company is just starting to move over to .NET from VB6. Our main program is a VB6 MDI app that hosts "generic" forms with ActiveX controls on them. Basically this means that we just point a menu item to the new OCX instead of recompiling the main EXE. We also have a neat ClickOnce-like deployment system for it.

For .NET we're using COM interop to place WinForms controls on ActiveX controls which are loaded by the MDI app. Since WPF doesn't have COM interop, I've been placing a WPF control on a WinForms control on an ActiveX control.

Unfortunately we have a huge existing codebase of ActiveX controls so updated the main MDI app to be .NET isn't possible quite yet.

Any tips on how I can sell the others on using WPF over WinForms before we get too many WinForms controls?

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Media Center development [Media Center development]

Scott — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 19:29:35 GMT

I did a quick search but couldn't find any info. How do you develop a plugin for 7MC? I just built my HTPC and am curious if I can.

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design question [design question]

Scott — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:59:21 GMT

So I have this program that I'm making with the MVVM pattern.

My viewmodel object has a collection of data repositories that it applies logic to.

Some new requirements have come up that will require me to either a) rewrite a significant portion of the app or b) possibly split a repository into multiple pieces.

It makes the most sense for me to split the data inside the repository object, rather than do the work in the view model, since the split isn't for interface reasons.

My question is how do I get the new smaller repositories into the view model object? Should I do an event from the repository that has the view model adding the new repositories back in? Or should I keep a reference to the view model object in the repository object and add them there? Or something else?

The second solution has too much coupling for my taste...but the first seems kind of hackish, and I like my apps to have some polish to them.

Any suggestions?

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Does this IE8 Accelerator exist? [Does this IE8 Accelerator exist?]

Scott — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 18:01:09 GMT

I'd like an accelerator that will take the text highlighted on the page and open it as a link in a new tab.

For example, there's a URL on a webpage that is in plain text instead of an <a> tag. Rather than highlight it, ctrl-c, ctrl-T, ctrl-V, enter, I'd like to highlight it, right-click, click open in new tab.

Does this exist? Is it easy to make my own accelerator?

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LINQ + Lamda [LINQ + Lamda]

Scott — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 15:41:07 GMT

So I have a DataTable that I'd like to get the max value of a column from. The monkey wrench is that the column to be looked at changes depending on another column's value. Is there anyway I can do this in one LINQ query?

Something like this, but evaluating the function for each row instead of returning the function.

Dim maxVol = (From r in myTable Select (Function(aRow) (if(aRow.ColumnToCheck = "Y", r.Volume, r.OtherVolume)).Max

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Win 7 Launch Events [Win 7 Launch Events]

Scott — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:20:27 GMT

Didn't see a thread on this already...

http://www.microsoft.com/business/thenewefficiency/

Looks like they're doing a half-day launch for Win7/Server 2008 R2 and giving away copies of Win7 Ultimate.

I know at the VS2008/Server 2008 launch, they gave away Vista Ultimate but it was 32-bit. Does anyone know if it will be 64-bit this time? We're not developing on Win7 so the presentations won't be much help for me, but it would be nice to get another copy of Win7.

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Style question [Style question]

Scott — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:14:57 GMT

Let's say you have a property that you only want read-only acess from the outside.

Do you define it as read-only and then access the private member within the class, or do you define it with a private set and access it through the property at all times?

For example:

[code language="vb"]Private mThing as String
Public Readonly Property Thing as String
Get
return mThing
End Get
End Property[/code]

[code language="vb"]Private mThing as String
Public Property Thing as String
Get
return mThing
End Get
Private Set (value as String)
mThing = value
End Set
End Property[/code]

in reply to Style question

Family Pack confirmed [Family Pack confirmed]

Scott — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 16:51:04 GMT

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Bott/?p=1212

So apparently the family pack is true. 1 license for 3 PCs, similar to the Office 2007 H&S version, suggested retail $150.

But it's a "limited time offer". Why can't Microsoft understand the fact that lots of people have more than one PC in the home, and lots of them want to upgrade them all at once? Hopefully the demand for the Family Pack will cause MS to continue offering it.

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Media Center [Media Center]

Scott — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:50:31 GMT

I don't know if any of you can help, but I figured I'd ask anyway.

So I'm planning out an HTPC build. It will be used to watch and record TV (NTSC/ATSC), watch movies (DVD and Blu-Ray), and listen to music.

I've got the computer itself all spec'ed out, but I'm wondering which connector will give me the best results. My TV has a VGA input, which lets the computer run at the screen's native resolution (1366x768). HDMI would only give me 720p. Should I plan on using VGA or HDMI?

edit: after doing some more research, it seems that blu-ray works over VGA for now, but the discs could have a downsample feature enabled when using a non-hdcp connection. Has anyone run into this?

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ASP.NET beginner resources [ASP.NET beginner resources]

Scott — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:47:48 GMT

I've done tons of windows programming but very little web programming. The most I've done is HTML forms with some PHP.

What's a good resource to get started with ASP.NET?

I usually prefer books that don't require me to be in front of the computer, if that helps.

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MVVM [MVVM]

Scott — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 19:27:16 GMT

Anyone using this pattern? I think I understand the idea behind it, but I think that in most projects it's overkill to separate the ViewModel from the View.

I can definitely see the benefit from a unit testing standpoint though. It also doesn't seem to mesh well with Datasets, which I'm forced to use because of our Oracle backend. The project isn't complex enough to benefit from me spending time coding custom business objects.

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Win 7 Pricing [Win 7 Pricing]

Scott — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:23:43 GMT

Apparently there's a leaked memo from Best Buy that shows promo presale upgrade pricing at $50 for Home Premium and $100 for Professional. The promo will last from June 26th through July 11th through the website only.

It also says that customers buying a PC from June 26th until the release date are guaranteed a free copy of Windows 7.

Those prices are very reasonable, and I imagine they'll stay pretty low even after the promo. My guesses are $80 for Home Premium and $130-$150 for Pro.

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WPF binding question [WPF binding question]

Scott — Fri, 22 May 2009 19:56:49 GMT

After searching all around the web, I'm not sure this is even possible in WPF, but I figured someone here could give me a concrete answer.

I have a datatable wrapped in an ObjectDataProvider and set to the datacontext of my window. Binding to ItemControls works fine and if I then have some other controls bound to the current item and everything is golden.

But since this particular table will only ever have one row, I want to bind to the current item without having an ItemControl. Is this possible? In WinForms this was accomplished through the use of a BindingSource item. Is there a WPF equivalent?

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Windows 7 Sleep Issue [Windows 7 Sleep Issue]

Scott — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:33:48 GMT

Just wondering if anyone else here has had this issue.

Almost every time my computer goes to sleep, I come back to it after a few hours and it's beeping continuously. It's not a motherboard alarm; it's a PC speaker type beep. Sleep worked fine on Vista and Win7 Beta, so I'm curious what might have changed in the RC.

Here's my system, latest drivers installed:

Gigabyte 965P-DS3 (rev. 1.0), latest BIOS installed
Core 2 Duo E6600
6GB (2x2GB, 2x1GB) DDR2800 RAM
ASUS Ati HD3850 512MB PCI-Express
Ati Theater 550-based TV card (PCI-E)
Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty (PCI)
Netgear WMP311v3 (PCI)
2x500GB WD SATA II
1x80GB WD SATA I
SATA DVD-ROM, SATA DVD-RW
1.44MB floppy drive

sidenote: C9 is really fast today. What happened?

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Linux [Linux]

Scott — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 02:23:15 GMT

So, every so often I get the itch to try Linux out. Last time was about a year ago with Debian. I put it on VPC and got really frustrated by not being able to get the network working.

Saturday I go out and download Kubuntu and put it on a spare hard drive. Install was very easy and everything seemed to be set up on the first boot. Best out-of-box experience for Linux at least of the ones I've tried. Then the problems started.

-my wireless card wasn't detected. I attempted to install ndiswrapper and the xp driver for my wireless card, but something must have gone wrong because it refused to recognize the ndiswrapper command.
-my sound card wasn't detected. I went out and found drivers, compiled them and installed them. Yay we have sound! Next reboot, sound won't work with an error about initializing the device. No sound :(
-I couldn't play mp3s, wmas, wmvs, or mpgs, even though the application that was installed (Amarok) claims to be able to play all of those
-this is nitpicking, but I couldn't double-click on the system menu of a window to close it.
-I had to really dig to find a 64-bit version of Flash, since the 64-bit version of Linux apparently has no 32-bit emulation?
-OpenOffice.org looks like it was designed in 1995. ClarisWorks anyone?

I tried. I really did. But I ended up back here on Vista because it just works. No fiddling about with finding the correct commands or having all of the libraries needed to compile some source code. No spending hours on Google looking for drivers for a device that should be supported out of the box.

Anyone else want to share their experiences?

in reply to Linux

Spam [Spam]

Scott — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 16:06:43 GMT

The spam here is getting ridiculous. I'd say that 2/3 new threads the past week are spam. Isn't there anything you can do to stop this (some sort of Captcha on new threads?)

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I downgraded to Vista [I downgraded to Vista]

Scott — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 16:13:40 GMT

and I'm happy.

The new taskbar didn't agree with me, as it added a click for switching windows between apps with multiple windows open. It also refused to reinitialize my wireless connection when coming out of sleep without a manual connection reset. Libraries were neat but I found myself still storing my documents in the same folder, so I never really took advantage of them. The new WMP has no one-click way of viewing all of my songs at once (at least that I could find, since they took the "Songs" entry out of the list).

The straw that broke the camel's back was when I found that ATI's beta drivers have no OpenGL support, so I couldn't play some of my games.

I dropped back to Vista over the weekend and I have yet to find something that I miss from Windows 7. I've even found that the speed increase (real or perceived) over Vista was just due to the fresh install vs a year-old install. Vista SP1 is just as fast as 7 for what I'm using it for (web browsing, email, light development, gaming).

Has anyone else here done something similar? What Windows 7 features are "must haves" for you?

in reply to I downgraded to Vista

WPF Binding question [WPF Binding question]

Scott — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 20:21:00 GMT

Okay, so I have the DataContext for my form set to an ADO DataSet. It consists of a master table with a few child tables. I have a DataGrid (from MS's toolkit) bound to one of the tables and it's working great.

The problem I'm having comes from the fact that a couple of these child tables can only have one row per effective date, so I'd like to display them with Textboxes instead of a one row DataGrid.

I've tried all of the binding expressions I can think of, but nothing gets the values displayed. Any ideas? Here's an example of one of my TextBoxes:

<StackPanel Orientation="Horizontal">
                        <TextBlock Name="lblDupMaxR" Style="{StaticResource SmallText}">Max R:</TextBlock>
                        <TextBox Name="txtDupMaxR" Style="{StaticResource TextBox}" Text="{Binding Source=QCDataSet.DUPLICATEVIEW.Rows[0], Path=MAXR_VALUE, Mode=TwoWay}"/>
                    </StackPanel>

in reply to WPF Binding question

Parallel applications [Parallel applications]

Scott — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 15:13:07 GMT

With all of the buzz about parallel computing, I'm curious if anyone here works in a field that could really take advantage of it.

Personally, I'm writing glorified data entry apps, and I don't see anything in the business process that could be parallelized, except for some asynchronous data retrieval/updating.

For certain fields, like 3D graphics or media encoding/decoding, it definitely makes sense. But is there anything in there for the lowly line of business apps?

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