Architecture, Paterns and Practices

Dear ALT.Net Attendees:

Chip Lemmon — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 14:12:44 GMT

This is an open letter to the attendees of the upcoming ALT.Net gathering in Austin TX.

Dear Friends,

Sadly I will not be able to join you at ALT.Net due to some poor planning on my part. I regret missing out on the opportunity to surround myself with some of the brightest minds in our industry. If I were to attend ALT.Net though, my goal would have been to represent the "marginal developer". The developer who gets it, but doesn't practice it in the work place due to circumstances beyond his/her control. Or the developer who wants to get it, knows he should get it, but just doesn't.

My biggest fear is that the top 1% of the class is getting together and they will come up with things that will leave the "marginal" developer behind. Please remember to check your egos and agendas at the door and do what is best for the community. There are countless developers out there that look to you guys to blaze the trails. So long as your final message is not condescending or too abstract you will set the pace for others to follow.

To be clear about this what I mean is that there is a tendency to feel as though we are all unworthy to call ourselves developers right now if we are not an Agilest. Even if that is not the intent, it is the perception. And we all know that perception is reality. Please don't let that happen from the ALT.Net effort. You guys are on to something here.

If there is one thing I have learned from ALT.Net already, it is that a namespace is not something to take lightly. From the countless posts about what ALT.Net really is one might say that our industry is jam packed with anal retentive literalists. Let's move past the term ALT.Net already. Just don't change the namespace to ShoveItDownMyThroatLikeAgile.Net ;) Oh, just kidding, lighten up!

Oh and my final word on the ALT.Net thing. It makes me laugh when people argue that this is a movement against the Microsoft tool set. It is especially comical when non .Net or anti-Microsoft developers comment on how bad and evil Microsoft is. And how the horrible empire is following its own vision and not ours. Shut up already with this crap. Bottom line is that this is not a Utopian society. Microsoft is trying to make a buck on its efforts. And here is a dirty little secret... So are all of us. So use their tools, or use somebody else's but don't throw your hate around anymore, because it is just old.

Yes a lot of us do things for free to better our profession. But if we were all honest we do this because it puts bread on our table and not for the betterment of man kind. So great, there are languages out there that are grass roots, that don't come from an "evil empire". If that's your thing, go ahead and use it. But just stop the Microsoft bashing non-sense. I don't love MS but I don't hate them either. I think I have a practical perspective on what they are and how they help me do what I need to do for a living. In the end they are a business like any other. So enough already!

Well I guess that was a bit more than a final word, but I had to get that rant off my chest. It has really been killing me.

So ALT.Netters, have fun, keep it real and bring home some good ideas!

--chaz

NJUX Meeting TONIGHT!

Chip Lemmon — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 13:31:00 GMT

NJUX Meeting

Chip Lemmon — Mon, 12 Mar 2007 16:13:00 GMT

HEY JERSEY (especially New York City commuters)!

I've talked and talked about it. Well here it is and it will be in an unlikely location!

WHAT: New Jersey User eXperience Group kick off meeting

WHERE: GasLight Brewery,

15 S Orange Avenue
South Orange, NJ 07079

WHEN: Thursday March 22nd @ 6:30 PM

WHY: This will be the organizing meeting for NJUX. We will determine our mission statement & goals and set up a regular meeting schedule, determine speakers(topics) and final location city/town.

I picked the GasLight in South Orange because SO is far enough up the train line that I think we can draw more attendees. I also think that SO is a bit more accessible by car than Berkeley Heights (my original meeting site). But based on group feedback we will make a final decision.

So come on out and make this thing happen! Many of the usual NJ suspects may be there depending on availability.

Oh and against the advice of my good friend Don, in lieu of swag I will purchase the first round for each attendee (offer expires at 7PM sharp!).

http://www.gaslightbrewery.com/

Please post this on your blogs!

--chaz

Bad Tutorials

Chip Lemmon — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 01:43:00 GMT

As many of us do from time to time, Mike Nicholes had a rant on his blog. Most rants are just useless noise that makes the author feel better. But in Mike's case, he really hit the nail on the head! Nothing is truer than Mike's statement;

“I don't like the hours I used to waste spewing out Typed Datasets and binding them to Web Forms and then thinking that I was doing Enterprise development because Microsoft documentation had tutorials online that used the word "Enterprise". “

Hey all you enterprise folks out there, you've heard the saying; “people don't know what they don't know“. So if the one comfortable/trusted source of information(i.e. MSDN) says its so, who are we to disagree? Well, I guess WE (the enterprise folks) are... After all we seem to know what the others are missing. That is why I started my Entry Level Enterprise Development “ELEDev” effort. It is to train the folks out there that want to know what they don't know. It is to right the wrongs of demos, tutorials and samples gone astray.

Admittedly I've seen a whole lot more on the web (blogs) about architecture and enterprise development than I did a year ago. This is a great step, but let's not lose ourselves in the purity of the methodology. Let's remember that we write what we do on our blogs to educate, assist and sometime entertain our readers. Therefore, it may be necessary to explain the simple and the mundane stuff adnausium. But your efforts will go a long way toward helping folks get the hang of the “right” way to develop Enterprise applications.

Please consider presenting an introductory Enterprise Level topic at your next Code Camp!

--chaz

What's in a directory structure?

Chip Lemmon — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 00:32:00 GMT

Untitled Page What's in a directory structure? Well a lot. I tend to create a directory and source control structure that reflects my architecture. It is just another way of allowing the domain to blend into every aspect of your development.

So here it is plain and simple...

The top folder "CodeCampSourceControl" is the root for the version controlled projects both on the hard disk and in the source control system.

The two subsequent folders "Projects" and "Solutions" are rather self explanitory. Within the Projects folder, I create a folder that pairs up to my default namespace. Within the "NewJersey.CodeCamp" folder I have created a Database, DAL, Lob, UI, and UT project. The Database folder contains my SQL Scripts etc. I like to use source control rather than the database deltas to manage SQL versioning. The Data Access Layer (DAL) is the coding I use to bang against the database. In fact my DAL code actually interacts with the Enterprise Library's Data Access Application Block. My Line of Business (LOB) encapsulates ALL of my business logic. The LOB can contain other more granular projects.

The User Interface (UI) project contains only the code required to make the presenation layer work. I am a fan of the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern. The concept of this pattern can be hard to grasp particularly for old school Visual Basic developers. It took me a long time to recognize when I was crossing layer boundaries and say managing data state in the UI logic. A definite no-no. The method I use to keep my boundaries as clean as possible is to modify all data in the business object, fire an event and have the UI react to the event.

Finally the Unit Test (UT) project is simply an isolated layer of code dedicated to executing N-Unit against the other application layers.

So there you have it... a simple explanation of a simple directory structure methodology. Although this topic is somewhat elementary for many of you, this is the first in a series of efforts I am calling "Entry Level Enterprise Development" or ELEDev. ELEDev attempts to address Enterprise Level Development for those who have not been exposed to it.

--chaz

NJ Code Camp II... Success!

Chip Lemmon — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 22:23:00 GMT

Well as I've come to expect after a Code Camp I am recharged and psyched about programming again. Like NJ Code Camp I, I met a lot of great people and made some new friends.

I have to say that I'm a bit shocked that there was more controversy in my “Down with Datasets!” session than my session on “Living in an Out-Sourced World”. I appreciate the honest and open dialog in both sessions. I received some great challenges to my stance on using custom objects over datasets. I really got out of this session exactly what I had hoped to and that was some real good discussion on overall architecture and design principals. Even if John and Kevin left me bruised from the pro-dataset camp. It was still great fun.

I was truly amazed at how my “Living in an Out-Sourced World” presentation went. First of all I was nervous about presenting such a risky topic. Secondly I wasn't sure that many people would attend something a bit off topic. Yet I felt that Out-Sourcing and Off-Shoring were such important topics for the developer community that I had to take the chance. And what do you know? People came. And people participated. The big shocker though was how the attendees were very academic about Out-Sourcing and Off-Shoring. I'd say 99% of the attendees felt that Out-Sourcing/ Off-Shoring was an integral part of the way business is conducted today. They also seemed to observe that there was a fair balance of pros and cons to the practice. We even got into discussing globalization, intellectual property concerns and innovation. I'd say this session exceeded my expectations by 200%. And I sincerely thank each and every attendee of this session as I really just moderated as you all provided the content.

I was fortunate enough to attend Dan Krhla's session on VB2005 for VB6 Developers. I am already fairly well versed in VS 2005 VB & C# and I still walked away with some great tips! And thank you John Baird for an excellent presentation on N-Unit. Unfortunately I only caught about half of it before I had to leave the room, but what I saw was great. John's enthusiasm about Test Driven Development and Agile Software Development got me excited about it too.

Lastly, thanks to Peter Laudati, Scott Watermasysk, and Don Demcsak for putting NJ Code Camp II together. I can hardly wait for NJ Code Camp III! Please remember to subscribe to the RSS feed at the NJ Code Camp site for updates! And if you missed NJ Code Camp II, you missed a lot. Be sure to attend the next one.

--chaz

Calling all Jersey Geeks

Chip Lemmon — Mon, 08 May 2006 23:56:00 GMT

Help! I so desperately want to present at NJ Code Camp II on June 3rd. But what? I am kicking around a couple of ideas and want to know what would get you to my session? Here are some ideas I've been kicking around...

1. One or more Application Blocks in the Enterprise Library - Code demo
    Just a display of how to incorporate these in your code.

2. Fun with Serialization - Code demo
    Show multiple ways to serialize and deserialize your objects to/from disk on a fat client.

3-A. Down with Datasets! - Code and debate
    I only use datasets as a transport mechanism. Like a REAL programmer I use custom objects to manage my data in memory. What's better is I bind UI components to my custom objects! Come tell me why I am wrong or share your enthusiasm for my extremist point of view.

3-B. Construct This (a follow up to 3A) - Code demo
        A demonstration on multiple ways to “hydrate“ objects by overloading constructors.

4. Source Control and Project Folder Organization - Best Practices Talk
    As boring as this topic may seem, I've seen great debate and dispare. My way may not be the only way, but it works!

Tell me if you like any of these or shoot me an idea of your own. All code demos will be provided in {GASP} VB.Net. I'm looking forward to your feedback!!!!

--chaz

North NJ .Net User Group Meeting (N3UG) Tonight

Chip Lemmon — Tue, 13 Dec 2005 11:33:00 GMT

Don't foget the N3UG meeting tonight at SetFocus in Parisppany.

Peter Laudetti is the new Developer Evangelist for Microsoft's .NET Team. He does an excellent presentation on Enterprise Libraries and will be our presenter tomorrow night.

Given it is the holiday season, there will be pizza preceeding the meeting (starting around 5:30) and a casual gathering at the Chevy's around the corner following the meeting....

--chaz

Why Not Use the Enterprise Library

Chip Lemmon — Thu, 20 Oct 2005 09:23:00 GMT

Scott Kuhl notes an article written by Brian Noyes on using typed datasets in VS 2005 via the Dataset Designer. Now kudos to Brian for really running through all the right arguments for datasets vs. custom business objects. I am a bit of a custom object berserker and wouldn't allow the dataset to creep into my other layers. But again Brian at least provides commentary on this.

Brian starts out by discussing that you can use this to create your own data access layer. My question is why wouldn't you just use the Data Access Application Block from the Enterprise Library? Why spin your own? As Brian points out this can be a very error prone endeavor, so why re-invent this complicated wheel?

--chaz

Entry Level Enterprise

Chip Lemmon — Wed, 19 Oct 2005 14:20:00 GMT

I don't know if the term “Entry Level Enterprise“ has been used before. If it has I apologize to the originator and I respectfully yield credit to the individual(s) who used it before me.

I will be using Entry Level Enterprise a lot. To me it is a key component of seeing IT in the US survive. It is about helping our brethren of all coding persuasions to identify, understand and utilize tools and methodologies for developing Enterprise Level solutions. Some very simple examples are Test Driven Development, Patterns and Practices, and Domain Driven Design.

I'm not sure that I will be adding anything new to these and other spaces. My goal is to help IT professionals to understand these concepts in consumable pieces. And to help them identify when to or not to use them. It's not sexy or ground breaking, but it is important. I will certainly have my own personal favorite methodologies, but I will not pick superlatives in an attempt not to lose my message or audience. Anything less would undermine what I am trying to do.

And my message is; that Joe Shmoe developer can and should engage in these techniques and methodologies and not be overwhelmed. I want to give them a zero entry point into the space. I think there are a lot of folks that just need to be pointed in the right direction and I'd like to be one of many people to be pointing.

So the true reason for this post is to see if I am on to something. Does the idea have merit? Am I repeating something somebody else has already tried? Is the idea crap? Talk back to me, I really want your opinion on this one before I try to start any kind of crusade.

--chaz