thinking-out-loud

A Retrospective on PDC 2008

Last week I was off boondoggling at PDC 2008.  Most of the sessions I attended were really informative, intriguing, or at least entertaining.  Here are the highlights...

1.  Pre-conference session on Agile Perspectives:  this was a good refresher for me on agile and lean practices and some discussion from Mary and John Poppendieck along with the Microsoft P&P team.  Nothing earth-shattering here.  And, I still get the feeling that much of Microsoft doesn't yet practice Agile methods, though it seem that more and more product teams - on the order of a few thousand people, are.  That's good news.

2. Day One - Big news from Ray Ozzie is Windows Azure :  the "Windows in the cloud" platform for hosting services, web based applications, and a variety of Microsoft provided things for connecting up apps and services that aren't hosted in the cloud.  I went to several sessions on the Azure architecture and saw how the physical machines are managed, how messages flow through the network, how apps an services are administered.  This has to be the most impacting thing from PDC this year.  Attendees got to sign up for development accounts so you can build and host your own services or use ".NET Services" in the could to communicate between your apps and partner services.

3. Visual Studio Team System 2010:  There are some great new diagrams in the Arch and Dev team editions - most of the useful UML 2.x diagrams like Class, Sequence, Use Case, Activity, and a couple of others.  Also, an Architecture Explorer mode gives the ability to drill into assemblies, namespaces, and classes and then surf around their dependency links and drill in for more detail.  This is very cool for unraveling those "big ball of mud" architectures, as Peter Provost put it.

4. Parallel Programming in .NET 4.0 with Daniel Moth:  .NET 4.0 is (going to be) enhanced with a set of classes wrapping the ThreadPool to give us simple task creation and synchronization and optimal execution using one thread per core in a multi-core or multi-proc environment.  Having been frustrated for a while the the ThreadPool class, this is a very nice addition.  And they use a provider model for scheduling if you want to get down in the details. 

5. Most cool to me, and apparently to many session attendees by it's #1 session ranking, was The Future of C# by Anders Hijlsberg: I went to the replay of this session and it was packed.  C#4.0 brings together the CLR and DLR with a new keyword dynamic to give us dynamic typing, which is super useful for COM-interop and other fun stuff.

My best experience, and the thing that really made the trip to LA & PDC worthwhile, was not a session at all, but the networking opportunities.  And of all the relationships we developed and strengthened, the culminating event was getting invited to a relatively exclusive breakfast with the Visual Studio Team System product team leads.  We talked about the future of the product, how they are planning to package it, what areas they need most feedback on, and partnering opportunities.  And, the marketing team was gracious enough to grant a full Team Suite license to Improving to give away at our upcoming AgileDotNet Conference.  Most of the other session info you can get online at www.MicrosoftPDC.com, but opportunities like that are hard to come by.

This is a post for my class

on c# agile dev using visual studio.net 2008. Nothing to see here. Move along.

One other way to make files available at runtime

Todd mentions ways to make files available to tests or at runtime in VS. If you happen to be using MS Test, you have one more option that I don't believe was mentioned, the DeploymentItemAttribute. From the MSDN page:

This attribute can be specified on a test class. There can be multiple instances of this attribute to specify more than one item. The item path can be absolute or relative. Relative paths are relative to the RelativePathRoot setting found in the .testrunconfig file.

The following examples demonstrate different usage of the DeploymentItemAttribute:

• [DeploymentItem("file1.xml")]    Deploys an item named file1.xml located at the RelativeRootPath. The file is deployed to the deployment root directory.

• [DeploymentItem("file2.xml", "DataFiles")]    Deploys an item named file2.xml located at the RelativeRootPath. The file is deployed to the DataFiles subdirectory of the deployment root directory.

• [DeploymentItem("C:\\MyDataFiles\\")]    Deploys all items and directories found within the MyDataFiles directory. This does not create the MyDataFiles directory underneath the deployment directory. All files and directories within MyDataFiles will be deployed to the deployment root directory. To copy the entire MyDataFiles directory structure, you must specify MyDataFiles as an output directory.

Of course, the truth of the matter is that I would rather use MBUnit :)

Making .NET project files available at run-time

One of my clients asked me this morning how to get files into the build output directory so they are available for tests or as resources during run-time.  There are a few answers to this question.

 

1.  You could add a post-build even in your project file to copy the specific file(s) to the output directory.  There is even a variable to help specify the OutDir.  This is the bruit-force method and I don't recommend it.

 

2. An easier way is to right-click on the specific file and select Properties from the context menu.  Then, in the Copy to Output Directory option, select Copy if newer.  This is the built in method that provides what my client thought he wanted.

 

3. Finally, in ASP.NET it's possible to embed files into an assembly and reference them during run-time.  This is what the client really wanted because it's more secure and easier to ensure all resources are available as an assembly is copied around to various execution environments.  In short, you have to mark the file as an embedded resource, add a WebResource attribute to your code, and then use a special function to open the file.  Here's a post explaining the use of the WebResourceAttribute in .NET and another post giving a little better code example of WebResourceAttribute.

Advanced WCF Development

I've recently had the opportunity to join a client's team building an ESB solution using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) with requirements for security, logging, load distribution across a managed group of hosts, and more.  As you can see from my list of books here on my site, I spent some free time over the holidays reading up on WCF.  It seems that everything published about WCF so far just covers how to write and host services.

The best organized book I found that presents all the key concepts and somewhat covers extensibility through behaviors is Pro WCF by Chris Peiris and Dennis Mulder.  I've also reviewed Programming WCF Services by Juval Lowy, which has a somewhat shotgun approach development with WCF, great for coding, but doesn't really cover WCF extensibility. 

The best references I've found on extending WCF are Mark Gabarra's blog and this great, detailed MSDN article on WCF extensions by Aaron Skonnard, which gives full examples of extending WCF in a variety of ways, including behaviors.  I'm currently prototyping a WCF service with extensions at a variety of points and will post more as I make progress.

Visual Studio Regions are like icebergs.

You never know what lies beneath. Two great hotkeys in Visual Studio are [Ctrl-M-O] and [Ctrl-M-P]. The "O" one collapses your current definitions down to outlines. The "P" one expands all outlined definitions. The great thing about that is that you can quickly get a feel for

a) the properties, events, and methods of the class and b) the complexity of the class. When you use regions, you lose both capabilities.

Here is an example of collapsed definitions without regions:

 

And here is an example with some common regions:

 

 

No sir. I don't like 'em.

Database Unit Testing with VSTS

For those of you using VSTS for Database Professionals or Team Suite, you have the ability to create unit tests for your database stored procs, functions, views, and constraints.  Sachin Rekhi has posted a nice little whitepaper on how to get started with Database Unit Testing. 

I find writing DB unit tests much like writing them in C# except for one thing that threw me a curve ball.  Besides the main test code, database tests have a 'pre-test' and 'post-test' code sections.  But, unlike the [TestInitialize] and [TestCleanup] designated methods in .NET testing that are specified once but run the same for every test method in the test class, 'pre-test' and 'post-test' SQL scripts are specific for each test script.  So, if you need to initialize some data in the database, you'll need to copy the 'pre-test' script for each individual test.  Likewise, you'll need a copy of the 'post-test' script for every one, too.  It seems like there should be an area to factor out common setup and cleanup SQL code for database testing, too.

Concurrency in .NET

Last year around this time I posted about the comming need for multi-threaded applicaiton architecture.  Just recently Caleb sent me an aritcle by Sam Gentile on Parallel Computer in .NET that communicates the need/opportunity better. 

On the ASP.NET side of things, IIS is already multi-threaded so you get a lot of concurrency benefits automatically.  But in high-volume request environments, you may want to free up your threads when doing I/O.  Jeff Prosise has an article on Asynchronous Pages, HTTP Handlers, and Modules that raises awareness of what's possible there.

In WinForms, I've had several people ask me why background threads can't update controls on a form.  Craig Neuwirt of Improving covered this topic at the Dallas C# SIG meeting a few months ago and showed off his Facility in Castle to handle if invoke required logic transparently through inversion of control.  Craig's source code demonstrating the difference in complexity between handling the delegation explicity vs using Castle is available here labeled Containing Complexity, mismarked as May 2006 instead of 2007.

TFS 2008 Feature List

Caleb and I have been working with VSTS and TFS quite a bit lately.  I have much to post about problems and solutions we've encountered (soon).  But until then, here's list from Brian Harry, a VSTS Product Group Manager at MS, about the list of features in TFS 2008.  I'm especially intersted in the continuous integration feature since most of our customers are using Agile processes and interested in CI.  I also like the idea of halting check-ins until the CI build is fixed. 

Dallas C# SIG August Meeting

Thursday, 2007.08.02, 6PM: Ruby vs C# 3.0

by Adam Keys

2007.08.02 - Vol 1, Issue 8

In This Issue

• Shazam! A Ruby vs. C# 3.0 Smackdown
• Download News
• Upcoming Events and Noteworthy Items
• User Group Business

Quick Links

• The Real Adam: Adam Keys' Online home
• The Ruby Language
• The SIG Site
• Improving Enterprises, Inc.
• Dynamic Language Runtime
• Jon Lam's Blog
• IronRuby Source Code

Not Subscribed? Sign Up Now!

Dear Jef,

Make sure to reserve time this Thursday evening and bring a friend or three. (Really, let's pack the house!). We're going to dive into Ruby and the new C# 3.0 language features at the same time. We have some great giveaways, including Windows Vista Ultimate, a beautiful Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Pro Keyboard and Mouse, and several books. We look forward to seeing you there.

The Dallas C# SIG meeting is Thursday, 2007.08.02 at 6pm at the Microsoft Offices. Microsoft's address is 7000 State Highway 161, Irving, 75039 - (469) 775- 5000. Jef's cell phone is 214.728.0650 in case you have any trouble finding the place. We hope to see you there!
Please register at the (big D) C# SIG site so that we can get an accurate head count.

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 beta 2. The new REST support in included here instead of the Biztalk Services SDK now.
Visual Studio 2008

Shazam! A Ruby vs. C# 3.0 Smackdown

About the presentation: When Ruby developers talk about using the language and libraries like Rails, they often use the terms like "joy." Microsoft has released the Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR), which is a set of libraries that provide a standard, shared, dynamic type system, a standard hosting model, and fast dynamic code generation. This DLR will make it easier for .NET developers to experience this "joy" first-hand. Microsoft has also released IronPython and [recently a beta of] IronRuby. In honor of these releases, the C# SIG is delighted to welcome Adam Keys, leader of the Dallas Ruby Brigade, a local user group for Ruby enthusiasts. Adam is going to give an overview of Ruby and specifically show how existing Ruby features map to the new C# 2.0 and 3.0 features. In true smackdown style (and assuming we can get the dual presentation going!), Jef is going to try to keep up in C# using Orcas Beta 2 and .Net 3.5.
The new features are:
C# 2.0

• lexical closures via anonymous methods
• covariant, contravariant delegate signatures
• separate accessibility for property get, set
• Coalesce operator ??
• partial classes
• static classes
• custom iterators (ala python generators)

C# 3.0

• Linq
• Anonymous types
• type inference for local variables, implicitly typed arrays
• [Strongly typed] lambda expressions
• automatic properties
• extension methods

Adam's Bio: Adam is a software developer from Dallas, TX. He's been working on a book about Web Services and Ruby that he hopes to finish before the galaxy collapses on itself. He also writes on his weblog, The Real Adam on topics ranging from celebrity rumors to Ruby and microformats. When not writing bios in the third person, Adam volunteers for dog rescue and as a feral cat caretaker. In general, Adam also likes to crack jokes and make those around him laugh. Its a curse.

Download News

There are a bunch of new .NET, VS, and Silverlight downloads that are worth looking into:
Microsoft recently released

• VSTS 2008 Team Foundation Installation Guide
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Standard Edition
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Team Suite (VPC)
• Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 Team Foundation Server (VPC)
• MSDN Library for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
• Visual Basic LINQ Hands On Labs for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

Silverlight

• Silverlight 1.0 SDK RC
• Silverlight tools for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2 http://w ww.okcodecamp.com)

Upcoming Events and Noteworthy Items

For people in TX and OK, there are several events coming up that are worth going to:

• Oklahoma City CodeCamp on July 28^th - (
• Houston TechFest (Aug 25^th - http:/ /www.houstontechfest.com)
• Tulsa TechFest (October 19-20 - http://w ww.tulsatechfest.com)

Check them out. They are cheap or free and a great opportunity to learn.

Thanks to Chris Koenig, his Chicago counterpart, Dave Bost, and a few other people like Christopher Reed out of Lubbock, we've been busy getting the Dallas C# SIG hooked up with book publishers.
O'Reilly will provide review copies assuming someone is willing to step up and write a book review. If you have any O'Reilly books on your wish list, please let us know, and we'll order a copy. When you finish the write up, we'll post it on the C# SIG site to share with everyone else.

Read on...

User Group Business

Chris Koenig, our local DPE Developer Evangelist and facilities sponsor for our meetings, needs some additional information to make things work for him internally with security, building management, and so on.
Starting in July, we're going to need an RSVP listing for the user group prior to the event sent to Chris so that he can forward it on to the Security/Reception officers. This new addition is part of an arrangement they have made with Security/Reception to continue hosting meetings in the Las Colinas office while minimizing the DPE team's costs.
Therefore, it is very important that you register prior to the meeting. Additionally, we need to track the following items for the group:

1. Number of Attendees
2. Number of First Time Attendees
3. Number of Members in the Group

This helps Microsoft in general and Chris in particular understand how the C# SIG fits into the community outreach program, and helps them determine how much support to provide to us relative to other groups, including how many points we get to use toward free giveaways from Microsoft, etc. I appreciate your help and support in this effort.

We look forward to seeing you at this and future meetings. In future versions of the newsletter, we'll make sure to include more and more links to relevant microsoft e-learning, and local events like the upcoming Vista launch. Please (please please) confirm your email address so that we can get an accurate count of interest.
Also, don't forget to invite a friend!

Sincerely, the Dallas C# SIG Team

Jef and Todd

Dallas C# SIG