Being Scott Densmore : Technology

My New Home - CodePlex

scottdensmore — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 19:01:42 GMT

For the last nine months I have been working in a group working on a project doing WinFX (.NET 3.0) with CAB. (No, the reports are wrong, I was not living under a rock). I can definitely say that it has been fun working with XAML. Turning a ListBox into a totally new thing with a few lines of code is wicked cool. Now it is time for the next evolution in my career.

To be honest, when I was looking at the next stage of my career 9 months ago, I contacted Jim about the CodePlex project. At that time, he was just getting traction and did not have a spot for me. Little did I know that after I accepted the offer with my current job space would open up. I know what you are thinking because I am thinking the same thing… “Why oh why did I not take the CodePlex pill?”. I saved it for a rainy day. [I live in Seattle.] I start October 24th!.

Now playing: Tool - Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)

Architecture Testing Guide Released

scottdensmore — Wed, 31 Aug 2005 18:53:21 GMT

The patterns & practices Architecture Testing Guide is designed to help project stakeholders, software designers, developers, and testers understand the process of testing software architecture before the code is implemented. The paper describes an approach and methodology for testing the design of a system, and describes the user-specific viewpoints that you must consider during the testing process. The Architecture Testing Guide walks through the process of testing a system from each viewpoint, and provides instructions, examples, and best practices along the way. A draft version of the paper is for download here.

You can download it from GDN.

VB6 Upgrade Guide

scottdensmore — Sun, 14 Aug 2005 06:05:10 GMT

Another one from patterns & practices! Eugenio Pace can tell you all about the VB6 to VB.NET upgrade guide. If you need a painless way to get yourself to .NET, this is for you!

Now playing: Rusted Root - Drum Trip

NUnit Converter V0.5

scottdensmore — Tue, 02 Aug 2005 00:40:24 GMT

NUnit convert V0.5 is out. We have been using it heavily to convert our tests to VSTS (which rocks!). BTW, don’t be scared we are going to try and ship the NUnit tests for EntLib, but they will be skewed for VSTS .

Go get V0.5 here.

Big thanks to Jim!

Now playing: Rage Against the Machine - Settle for Nothing

WS-I Basic Security Profile Sample Application Preview

scottdensmore — Thu, 30 Jun 2005 01:50:21 GMT

Go get it today…

WS-I Basic Security Profile Sample Application Preview

One of the most requested deliverables we have heard since Enterprise Library has been released, is an end-to-end sample that shows the blocks in action. The great news is that we now have this, in the form of the WS-I Basic Security Profile Sample Application. In addition to showing the use of the Enterprise Library blocks, the sample app also demonstrates how to build secure and interoperable web services based on the WS-I group's basic and security profiles. The current release of the sample application uses .NET 1.1 and WSE 2.0; an early preview for .NET 2.0 and WSE 3.0 is due for release this week at the WS-I Sample App Community Site.

Composite UI Application Block Training

scottdensmore — Sat, 25 Jun 2005 22:38:50 GMT

The Composite UI Application Block is a cool new Application Block coming in the Whidbey time frame. We are now sitting in the war room with the guys because we want to keep the consistency and quality high for you guys by making sure things work together and that the teams learn from each other. Eugenio Pace, product manager, has a link for this here.

A How-to for Geeks with Kids

scottdensmore — Tue, 17 May 2005 19:53:03 GMT

Gary has a hilarious post about is life as a geek with kids. I know this all to well.

Now playing: Dirty Vegas - Lost Not Found

Application Blocks on .NET Compact Framework

scottdensmore — Fri, 13 May 2005 19:39:00 GMT

Straight from Sandy :

For any of you patterns & practices fans that have always wanted application blocks for devices, the p&p team worked with OpenNETCF to release a community version for the .NET Compact Framework.

For the blocks, you can go to: http://wow.opennetcf.Borg/appblocks/ and let us know what you think.

This is way cool! Go check it out.

First Community drop of the Composite UI Application Block

scottdensmore — Wed, 11 May 2005 16:03:39 GMT

Congrats to the team for this Milestone. Go to the workspace and check out the Smart Client offerings. Major cool.

Wojtek is Blogging!

scottdensmore — Tue, 03 May 2005 02:08:12 GMT

You don’t know Wojtek? Go read his blog. This guy is super smart (and quite amusing ).

Now playing: Fuel - Hemorrhage (In My Hands)

Packaging Design and Architecture Guidance for Visual Studio

scottdensmore — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:36:53 GMT

Now that I have your attention … Tom is going to be giving a new webcast on a new “deliverable” from our group. I highly recommend you go check it out. Sign up for the webcast here.

Now playing: Queens of the Stone Age - Gonna Leave You

Little Know Component Model Gotcha with IDictionaryService

scottdensmore — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 17:27:00 GMT

I don’t know how many people in the world this gotcha will affect but I found it very interesting after a conversation with one of the devs internally so I thought I would share the information with those of you out there in the wild.

When you host your own components in a designer or IServiceContainer, the docs for the IDictionaryService state the following :

.NET Framework Class Library

IDictionaryService Interface

Provides a basic, component site-specific, key-value pair dictionary through a service that a designer can use to store user-defined data.

For a list of all members of this type, see IDictionaryService Members.

Now the documentation states that the service is for a designer, but in reality, the service has to be per ISite. This problem will not bite you in Everett (.NET 1.1), but in .NET 2.0, the caching is much more aggressive and it will have a type mismatch, especially when you are using the Property Grid.

All that being said, I am telling you this because when Enterprise Library is released and you compile it under .NET 2.0, when you use the designer… it will give you headaches and this is the reason why.

Now playing: Porno for Pyros - Pets

API Studies

scottdensmore — Thu, 09 Dec 2004 15:16:00 GMT

Last night I went and heard a talk from Steven Clarke on API usability. I always heard knew about this, but after hearing Steven talk last night, man I am starting to get my head around how different developers approach an API.

Now if there was one take away from this talk that really hit home with me : write your sample code first ; decide how you want your user to use the API before writing the API. Now that seems like a test-first promo to me .

[Update]
Apperantly I lost the ability to spell in this talk.

What do we do here?

scottdensmore — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 18:33:00 GMT

Sandy, a fellow Titans fan, has a great post about what we do here at patterns and practices (although a little long winded ) .

How to Scroll in a Command Window

scottdensmore — Thu, 02 Dec 2004 17:21:00 GMT

As Brian Button pointed out earlier, I am keyboard junkie. I found myself today needing to scroll through my console window after running some unit tests that had failed. Now my first thought would be page up / page down... nope didn't work. Confused, I started google'n around to find the answer. I was not successful in finding an answer so I walked over to Peter's office and begged for help (google really likes Peter). After two tries the answer appeared.

<Alt> <Space> <e> <l>. Now what this does is take you to the system menu then to edit and scroll (not that I think that scrolling has anything to do with edit). Works like a charm. To get back to regular editing use the <Esc> button.

Now why I am on the topic, what I really want is a keyboard with a little pointing device in the middle like a laptop... anyone know if this exists?