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Adventures in .Net Addins...
So I've begun the task of building an addin for VS.Net 2003. I plan on entering it into Roy Osherove's Coolest Addin contest:
(which can be found here).
I've using a minor technical expertise I acquired a while ago to do this (watch here for more info... I'm not telling you what it is yet... although to see it now you'd have to say... “big deal“).
It's been fun getting back into the add-in development trail. I was very interested in this years ago when I was the VB technical guy at Zac Catalogs (don't bother looking they're long since defunct). We were...
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Gotdotnet Workspaces Rant...
The other day I went onto gotdotnet... I was actually searching for the DAB v3 (Data Access Block) to see where the project was at (and I was considering using it over the v2 release.
One of the items that returned from the search was something that I find somewhat cool. It's a project that is trying to add SQL to the DataSet... Now I've already had the DataSet conversation here (should you use it? Should you avoid it? etc.) The fact that someone was adding SQL to it sounds awesome! I have this cool idea of creating a miniature database...
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If coding were dangerous...
Today, I finally caught up with my Rory reading... actually I have been putting off reading Rory's post on Carpentry Vs. Coding. I was thinking that it would be a comparison of how the programming field is like the construction industry. To my surprise (I guess I should be used to Rory going off in a different direction altogether from what I expect) it was a post about how Rory is better for choosing programming (for good reason) over carpentry.
In some of his descriptions he mentions something that I think we have lost in the programming arena (now this is where...
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Quiet
Ok, when I said “kinder and gentler” on Friday I didn't necessarily mean “quiet.”
I've been a bit busy lately (the weekend was busy as was Monday...) My desk moved over the weekend (I'm finally acclimated).
I'll try to get back to my daily posting soon... (it's not like you're lives are incomplete without a posting from me... at least I hope not)
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A kinder and Gentler Jay...
I just deleted the “Open Source” posts, I had written a couple weeks ago (not sure when I wrote them now).
Neither post came out exactly like I wanted, and the appeal of the dark path of flaming was too hard to resist. What caused my change of heart was I was thinking back to some of Scoble's comments a while back... As a result I've decided to try to make a conscious effort not to bash...
It's hard because I really had a rough experience on the whole *nix side of the field (still am at times).
So for the record what...
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testing secure pages with jsUnit
I just started using the jsUnit testing framework. While the docs are pretty good, I ran into a few problems. The biggest problem is that what do you do if you want to test javascript running on a page that is in a secure area of your site (I don't mean https I mean logged in), and you are testing field logic (stuff on the page). I have a couple really large forms (lots of fields), so it was a little difficult for me at first. here's how I dealt with these problems. (BTW, I'm not using TDD methodology, yet... I'm trying to drink the KoolAid,...
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A question about refactoring
I have a quick post about something that I did yesterday. I'm converting a group of pages over from ASP to ASP.Net. I was refactoring my code by moving some elements from my pages to the base page (my base page is located in another project in the solution). I found that I was copying and pasting a lot of code just to get started converting a page.
Much of this code couldn't be moved due to a web user control I had on the form (it provides the navigation for this section of the site). As I analyzed the problem (I had...
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Design Tool dreams... Revisited
Ok, yesterday, I wrote about my dream modeling tool. I've had no suggestions/responses, but I may have an idea that may do what I want. I need to investigate the Visio object model and see if it is possible to use Visio as the modeling tool (and then either use a Visio or a Vs.Net add-in to interpret the model into code).
I'll post my results (any hints or help would be much appreciated).
BTW, I know I wasn't totally clear, so let me take another stab at an explanation. I have some common types of classes that I use.
For example, I create...
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Design Tools that I want...
Ok, I think I'm dreaming here (but maybe someone will tell me that this exists).
Last week, I was reading Chris Sells post on killing code... It reminded me of an idea I've had (that recently has solidified). I want a modeling tool (like Visio) that lets me draw/diagram a process (or object model, etc.) and let's me define the template code... so when I tell it to produce some code for me in VB the generated code will resemble my VB code. With some comments to tell me what still needs done...
I, also, don't want to have to subscribe to a particular methodology... So it would be nice if I...
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Animal Kingom...
Saturday my family and I went to Disney's Animal Kingdom park (here in Florida). I love Disney parks, and had heard to avoid this one (as a waste of time). I've also been hearing that Disney is trying to fix the park, so I figured that we would give it a shot (we bought a 4 day park hopper pass back in February).
Well, the Disney advertising is right! It is “Not-A-Zoo!” It is also “Not-An-Amusement-Park.” I'm not really sure what they are going for?!! We saw lots of Birds... After looking at a map of the park, I was able...
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Remote Scripting with ASP.Net... Not!
Ok, I just recently saw an article over on www.codeproject.com. I actually have a better method (although it needs some developing). Remote Scripting is a way that you can use Javascript to contact another page on the web server and “remotely call” a routine on that page. My method involves using the XML libraries that are built into both IE and Mozilla.
Unfortunately, after chatting with my friend Rob Teixeira, I decided against fully explaining the method.
I was going to blog and tell you how to do it and then I was going to tell you not to do it... ever!...
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shout outs...
I want to do a couple shout outs this morning...
The nameless MVP speaks, Rob Teixeira - the MVP that I work with. He's finally started a blog (yesterday, it appears)http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/devprime/
I also want to say hey to my buddy Dana (d.code)http://dotnetjunkies.com/WebLog/dcode/ (Dana you better get typing... you've had your blog for a lot longer than Rob and he's already got 2 posts... you gotta take the blogging pill... it's all or nothing baby! <grin>) [A guick addition here] Dana, you kow what I think of a single post blog, right?
And Erik... errrr... uhm... never mind... (those of you in Internet land...
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Securely Transfer Session between classic Asp and ASP.Net
[Sorry for the re-edit, a co-worker pointed out a small problem in my grammar]In my day job (at a nameless fortune 500 company). I work on a top secret app that let's the executives of the company monitor different aspects of the company globally.
It's the type of thing that our security department worries about... Suffice to say we have multiple locks on the door... (it wouldn't be easy to hack into...) The site (yes, unfortunately it is a web site.. and not an Intranet site) is primarily ASP (with a tiny bit of COM)
That said, I recently added a section of...
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Clarity...
[Made a small change... Protégé was (still) mispelled... oh for a spell checker in .Text]It's about 7:10 Am my time (east coast).... (Warning this post may seem to be a little disjointed) I'm going to have to get ready and head out, but I want to post something that I've been thinking about. Yesterday, I re-listened to the Bob Reselman interview on Dot Net Rocks 2 times (while coding at work). I've also been kind of following the Rory, Roy, and Ted thing (I'm not going to link... it's a big mess, and the point of my post is not...
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15 Minutes of Fame...
Thanks Rory and Don for giving me my 15 minutes of fame. (Actually I'm also on the Scoble experimental blog thingy as well -- via Rory). I made a post on his blog Friday about the .Net Rocks show, and he notices my entry about “misleading the college graduating masses.”
Next thing I know my 3week old blog sees a flurry of activity that I wasn't quite ready for yet... I am just trying to experiemnt with this... re-exercising my writing talents.
Since I figure that I have one more decent day of fame, what should I do (I'm sure that Rory and...
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jkMacro Enhancement...
I really like templating engines. I admit it. What I mean is I really like code generation engines that are easy enough for me to use them to create automated code that is based on standard code that I use. For instance, when I create a property for a class, about 99% of the time that code is nearly identical. Now I know VS.Net 2005 will have some cool features that we can use (but 2005 is a long way off).
I've used a number of things to do this: CodeSmith, QuickCode .NET , and CodeTemplate (from the Code Project). (BTW,...
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Guilty...
I'm struggling with what I want to blog. Primarily this is a Development blog. I know that I have promised no religious discussions in my blog (and would normally refrain), but the experience I had (in church) tonight was too intense for me not to share with my friends and loved ones. I'm not sure whether this will get picked up and broadcast all over the place (I have marked the entry personal), so hopefully it will stay here.
So needless to say if you're looking for a development discussion... skip this entry. (Read the comments for the real article)
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Latest Dot Net Rocks episode...
I just finished listening to the latest episode with Bob Reselman, and I must say that it was awesome... be sure to listen to it (They'll probably put it up Monday).
Normally I wouldn't shamelessly plug something like this, but the discussion is really more of a social one (and not a technical one)... AND, it's a very important one because it talks about what's wrong with our industry (so it applies to all programmers). It also explores some of the whole offshoring phenomenon we're all talking about.
There are some really cool philosphical discussions as well! Be sure to tune in on Monday (if you missed it today)
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Attn: College Students! Skip .Net (Use Open Source Tools instead)
I have a friend who receives Michael's Minute from Lindows.com. He is a .Net developer (for about 1-2 years) who at one point was very interested in the whole *nix world. I think he now watches this stuff just to remember how the other half lives.
In the latest article Michael (the CEO of Lindows) bemoans the fact that essentially Microsoft is forcing him to change his product's name. My friend emailed the article to me and a couple other friends, but introduced the article with these (very funny) comments:
The Microsoft machine crushes yet another spec-of-dust competitor. Lindowsis changing its name, not because of any court...
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What's the matter with the DataSet
Since I have heard others use their blogs to get answers to questions. I'm going to try getting an answer.
For the record, I'm a fairly experienced VB programmer (I have about 10 years experience). For a time I was in the “VB.NOT” crowd (I hated that VB.Net made me “reclimb” the mountain).
I think I have a really good understanding of the ADO.Net data model. I work with a couple of guys who have a little more .Net experience (1 of which is actually a Microsoft MVP). We've had some problems around here where people have thrown a DataTable or...
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Quick Post (A Couple Items)
Re: Windows XP SP2 (release candidate)First of all, I want report on my experience with the XP SP2 that MS is warning us that this update is going to significantly change the way our (and our clients) machines work (and that it may create problems for us programmers). I installed this on my home PC yesterday. My main reason was that I want to install this update onto my parents machine before they go back to Ohio (they “snowbird” here in Florida). They are not always the most patched since they only purchase a modem (since they are retired and have limited resources), since...