The World According to Marc

  • Keep The Linux Outside

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    Every once and a while I'm reminded why I respect Red Hat. I'm not a Linux fan but these guys are least “get it”.

    As reported by ActiveWin today, Red Hat CEO Matthew Szulik said recently that “Linux needs to mature further before home users will get a positive experience from the operating system“ and that home users “should choose Windows instead”.

    It sure is refreshing to hear someone from the Linux side of the fence finally admit that my Grandmother isn't going to get anything out of having a Linux box at home.

  • Novell, Oh My....

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    Novell goes out and purchases SuSE Linux.

    On the upside for Microsoft, maybe Novell can do for SuSE what it did for WordPerfect. ;-)

  • Single User Source Control

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    Eric Sink has written up a few reasons for using source code control in a “team of one”. But something he wrote bothered me. He stated more than once that “for a solo developer, source control actually isn't all that compelling”. But I think it is just as compelling as for a team of 1 as it is for 100. It is just easier to implement.

    I've been working on a commercial software package for the last 8 years. I've also been the only full-time developer in the company over that same period. The product (shameless plug) is quite large are covers a vast number of business processes. And if it wasn't for good source code control, I would never have been able to do my job.

    Julia Lerman pointed out to Eric, “source control is usually explained as a way of keeping developers from stepping on each others' toes”.  But the truth is that your own toes are much closer to each other than your neighboring developer's. I've done more damage to my own code than anyone else ever could. The simple fact is that as the only developer on the project, I have that much more going on in my head. This leads to a lot more mental errors over the life of a project. And source control protects me from myself as much as it does from others.

    To be clear, I don't disagree with Eric's reasons for single user source control (he nailed them all I think). I just feel they substantially more compelling that he (and many others) seem to. As I see it, if you are working on commercial software and not using source code control then you are taking a very unnecessary risk.

  • SourceGear Vault - Single User Edition

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    SourceGear has released a single user version of their Vault product for $49. This makes Vault an absolutely fantastic solution for solo developers. At a few hundred bucks for Vault, I would have stuck with CVS for my personal projects. But for $49? Hell, even this cheap bastard can swing that.

    I've been singing the praises of SourceGear for a while now and it looks like I'll keep doing so.

    UPDATE: It doesn't seem to have hit their website fully, but I've hear that will be fixed shortly.

  • New Resource Kit from Microsoft

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    Still not enough free stuff for you tonight? How about one more?

    Microsoft released a free Visual Basic .NET Resource kit. And even if you are not a VB developer, it is worth a look. Among it's contents are free (yes, as in beer) copies of several big name .NET components:

    • ComponentOne Studio Enterprise
      A comprehensive collection of more than 30 high-quality WinForms and ASP.NET Web controls including grid components, reporting components, charting components, data components, user-interface components, and e-commerce components.
    • Dundas Chart For Windows Forms, Professional Edition
      Developed for rich-client .NET applications, this fully-managed charting control gives you all the features of a premium charting control. This functionality combined with incredible design-time support allows for the fast and easy creation of sensational looking charts that have the exact look and feel that you require.
    • Infragistics UltraWebNavigator and UltraWinTree Controls
      UltraWinTree delivers an advanced .NET tree control that surpasses the look and functionality of the Microsoft Visual Studio .NET TreeView control. UltraWebNavigator is the first tool to provide a simple, easy-to-use designer to create menu and tree hierarchies, making it possible for Web masters and non-programmers to build eye-popping navigation systems and outlines visually, without writing code.
    • Sax Software Corp
      Sax.net Communications makes it easy to add scalable serial communications to all your .NET applications.

    When people ask why I develop for Windows, I always point to things like this. Microsoft real does bend over backwards to ensure developing applications for their platform is both easy and affordable.

  • Office System Developer Kit 2003

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    For those of you interested in developing solutions for/with Office 2003, Microsoft is offering a free Developer Kit (shipping charges still apply).

    "Microsoft® Office System Developer Kit 2003 contains a vast collection of SDKs, white papers, code samples, demonstrations, case studies, and other useful resources to help developers immediately realize efficiency creating business productivity solutions. It is a valuable asset for both new and experienced Microsoft Office System Developers."

    Surf over to www.officedevkit.com to pick one up.

     

  • Sexiest Mug In The Office

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    I'm the proud new owner of this tasteful .NET Rocks! mug. Very cool. :-)

    Seriously, if you like the .NET Rocks! program then go show your support by picking up some merchandise. You can get a "make-your-coworkers-jealous" item and help keep these guys on the air at the same time.

     

     

     

  • Vault 2.0

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    Eric Sink announced what is to be included in Vault 2.0 today. Some pretty interesting and useful stuff in there.

    One of my favorites is the inclusion of lightweight tags for those of us who label like madmen and don’t need the full power of the previous version’s label solution. Vault 1.x labels are actually “pinned branches”. It is a very cool concept (unpin a label and, poof, you have a full-fledged branch) but it was often overkill. So now we have the lightweight tag called a “Label” and a pinned-branch called a “Snapshot” (and the standard “Branch” of course).

    Eric and his crew just keep reinforcing my decision to buy their product. All things considered, they have the best product on the market right now.

    Here is a more complete list of the changes:

    • SourceGear DiffMerge: New diff and merge applications replaces the diff and merge windows which were previously built-in to Vault.
    • Show Differences allows several choices of how to compare the working file:
    • To its corresponding repository file
    • To a labeled version of the file
    • To another file on the local disk
    • To another repository file
    • External merge app: Users who want to configure a different application for external merge can now do so.
    • Repository level security: Allows a repository to be completely hidden from a user or group of users.
    • Web client: Allows basic browsing of the contents and history of a repository using any web browser.
    • Needs Merge: Files in a Needs Merge status are more obvious.  They are shown in red in the pending changeset.  At checkin time, a warning dialog reminds the user of the need to resolve the merge.
    • Obliterate: Much, much faster.  (This improvement will also be released in version 1.2.3)
    • Shadow folders: Automatically maintain a synchronized copy of the contents of a repository folder.
    • Lightweight labels: SourceSafe-style labels (aka "tags"):
    • Very lightweight
    • Supported by the VSS Import Tool
    • Includes VSS-style "label promotion" feature
    • Snapshots: Vault 1.x labels are still supported, and are now known as "snapshots".
    • Login Profiles: Login faster by saving commonly used username/password information in profiles.
    • Prompt for overwrite: During a Get Latest Version, specify that you want to be prompted before overwriting any edited file.
    • Unknown files: By default, don't overwrite files with Unknown status.
    • Proxy authentication: Support authentication for proxy servers which require it.
    • Copy from pending changeset: The pending changeset panel allows copying the list of change items to the clipboard.
    • Ctrl-A: For consistency with other Windows applications, Ctrl-A now maps to Select All.
    • Non-Windows platforms: Using Mono, run the Vault command-line client under various Unix-ish platforms, including Linux, Solaris, and MacOS X.
    • Command-line client: Lots of improvements to the Vault command-line client, including wildcards.
    • Merge Branches Wizard: A new Merge Branches feature replaces the Merge Branch into Trunk feature.
    • Merge changes between branch and trunk in either direction.
    • Merge changes from any folder to any other repository folder, even if neither is a branch of the other.
    • Specify exactly which changes you want to merge from the origin folder to the target.
    • Option to automatically merge individual files or leave them in Needs Merge status for manual examination using the SourceGear DiffMerge app.
    • Failed login: Better error message avoids password-guessing attack.
    • Failed connection to SQL Server: Better error message helps with resolution of common configuration problem.
    • Checkin dialog: When invoked from a context menu on a folder, the checkin dialog only lists the pending items which appear under that folder.