sfeldman.NET

Just a few weeks ago I wrote a small application that would allow a designer to work on markup and CSS and when those are saved, changes automatically uploaded to an FTP and local browser that is usually sitting on the second monitor is refreshed. That was a fun side little app to do.

A while ago I had a conversation with a gentleman who resisted .NET development on the client side reasoning it that in case .NET framework doesn’t exist, installer won’t fail. WiX 3.6 Beta is out and it solved the “problem”. Reminds me of situation when “business code needs to be efficient to take less memory” situation. We’ve all seen that code die slowly and painfully

Asserting arguments is essentially a healthy practice. What I don’t like, is the fact that since day one ArgumentNullException used a string for argument name, and now with .NET 4.5 almost knocking on the door, there’s still only string option.

In my last post I have described the move from NAnt to PSake that is based on PowerShell. One missing piece for making the whole experience smooth was Visual Studio support for PowerShell syntax and some Intellisense. Gladly, I have run into PowerGUIVsx, that does just that: syntax highlighting, intellisense, and even debugging. Sweet!

My exploration of automation and CI has started around somewhere in 2007. Back then it was more of a guess and trial, trying to figure out what I don’t know and should learn. Automated build scripts was the first thing I needed to learn. Back then, NAnt seamed to be the best candidate, and quite frankly, it was the first thing that looked solid to me, therefore making it my default. Ironically, I had my first build script working with Visual Source Safe.

There’s another kid on the .NET obfuscation block – totally free and plays nicely with command line - Eazfuscator.NET. It also has a NuGet package available for download, though it’s not up-to-date.

I am catching up on NuGet and learning a few good things. A project should be in buildable state once you pull it from the repository. This is always my goal with the projects I work on. Therefore, one of the requirements that I always set was to have “autonomous” project – everything included within the project itself (libraries, tools, etc.). Some exceptions would be things that don’t make sense to commit and rather have them installed on all machines (OS, Server apps, SDKs, etc.).

Windows Phone, Windows Phone 7, Windows Phone 7.5. And still no change. Consumer is not attracted. I hear a lot about cool features and awesome innovations on various .NET podcasts. A lot is written in MSDN magazine and different .NET developer blogs. Yet consumer is not interested. Or maybe is not even aware of all the mighty potential that can be his or her just by trading the iconical iPhone for Windows logo. Heck, let the trends show what consumer is interested in: