DonXML Blog

With all the fuss over Edit and Continue still engrained in our minds, I’d like to take this time to point out a really cool article by Fabio Claudio Ferracchiati in the September Issue of VSMag.  The two sharp things that I pull from this article where, the ability to control tracing functionality via the app config file, and the ability to redirect debugging and trace information to a listener application.  Really good tools for those extremely complex apps (especially multithreaded apps)

One of the things MS is returning to VB with the Whidbey release is Edit and Continue Debugging feature. I for one do not see why this is such a great thing, and I was a VB 3-6 programmer. I never used this feature, and don’t encourage its use. I talked to a couple developers last night about this, and they were all in favor of it. They were trying to say that it saves them time coding and debugging, but if it takes you that long to build and step thru code to get to the area of code you are trying to debug, maybe the problem is your architecture, not the debugging tools. I break my apps into logical and physical components, and create test harnesses for each component. This way I get true unit testing, and only have to concentrate on debugging one component at a time. Once I get the component working correctly, I rarely have to step thru it while debugging another component. It makes my life so much easier, and eliminates the crazy spaghetti code that can occur if you try to put everything in one project. If I have to go too deep into a component, I trying to see if I really need it all in one component. Sometimes I do, but more than likely, I didn’t, I was just lazy, and didn’t split it out. Without Edit and Continue, it forces me to evaluate if I really need that code in the same project. Just my opinion.

I’d like to add to the group of blog entries on Women Speakers at tech conferences, and along with the others mentioned, I’d like to add Becky Dias to the list. She helped Chris Sells with the XMLDevCon, did some impromptu presentations, and participated in the speaker panel. I was really impressed, and during the conference I was thinking that I’d like for my two daughters to see Becky do a presentation or two. She would be a great role model for girls that are interested in IT.

During drinks and hanging out with the other .Net bloggers in NYC, the strangest of topics came up, JCL. Anyone under 30 probably has no idea what JCL is/was (not my quote), but it stands for Job Control Language, and it is used on IBM Mainframes to control batch job processing. There were only two of us there that had any idea of what it was, the rest were baffled. JCL had to be one of the funkiest “languages” I’ve ever learned (and one of the first). Any language that uses reverse logic should buried and forgotten. JCL if statement equivalent has no associated else, and the statements within the if only run when test is NOT true. How wacked is that?

If you ever need to create a batch processing subsystem, I’d highly recommend checking out the Async Invocation App Block.  If you are willing to adjust your architecture to match its design (requires SQL Server and adding a specific interface to your batch components) you can easily add it to your system.  Otherwise, you can do as I did and modify it to meet your architecture.  I had to remove the SQL Server sections, and replace it with business objects and an Oracle backend.  My only compliant is the lack of a business layer.  The data access layer us used directly by the thread processing, but considering all the other good things it is well worth using.  It also makes us of the Exception Management Block.

Just a reminder, if you live in the NYC area, we are all getting together at the NYC.Net User Group Meeting @VSLive.  Tim, Rob, Samer and I will all be there, and will be going out for dinner afterwards, and everyone is invited to hang out as long as you want.

Finally got some time to delve deeper into Rory’s web site, and came across this hysterical quote in the The Neopoleon Guide to XML For Non-Tech Types section.  If you read all the way to the bottom (trust me it is worth it), he has the quote to end all quotes:

XMLDevCon was great, but one of the unexpected highlights of the conference was Rory Blyth’s blog entries, and his skewed perception of life.  Rory has really out done himself with his latest idea, RSS for Charity.  What it is?  A very unique use for Amazon’s Web Service (presented at the XMLDevCon by Jeff Barr) that can generate some money for charity.  You definitely got to stop by Rory’s site and check it out.  Expect to see this button all over the web: