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This site aims to connect all the dots of my online activities - from tools, books blogs and twitter accounts, to upcoming conferences, engagements and user group talks.

from 5whys.com
Twitter: @RoyOsherove
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Monday
Feb242003

About Syndirella

Sadly, I learned that NewsGator now costs money :) On one hand, this is a good thing for the creator, and it's agood product( my favorite aggregator), on the other hand i can't see myself paying 30 bucks for an aggregator when i can get one that is almost as good for free. So i tried, and am currently writing this post from within Syndirella. and what can i say. it rocks!

<SuckingUp>

Scott is doing a great job keeping both this site and Synderella great products. I do see great thing and a great community building up here, and i love it. It's my own little Conference on my computer. Iget to listen and respond to people i respect and appreciate (mainly listen though..) and learn a lot just by browsing.

</SuckingUp>

Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

Monday
Feb242003

.NetWeblog Update -Woohoo!

Hello Everyone,

OK, just pushed a new (and I hope improved) version of the Blog Application to the live server. I guess I am going to call this Beta 2.5 since I did not get all of the features I wanted to in this build, but one of the most important features, PingBacks/Trackbacks did make it, so I wanted to make sure these features where now available to everyone.

[via Email from Scott]

Woohoo! This site is quickly becoming my little blogging heaven. Just wanted to say "Great job" to you, and keep up the good work.

Update:

Although i have put a short description in the Description box, the RSS feed shows me the whole post, not the description..

Sunday
Feb232003

Nunit Addin bliss

So i decided to take my first steps as a Test-First programmer today. I downloaded NUnit 2.0, and after that - NUnit Addin, and after 5 minutes of "readme", i was ready to go.

I opened up the current project i am working on, added the reference, enabled the Nunit Addin, and after 7 minutes more i had my first test class ready and running, passing all the tests. now THIS is productive. Simply right clicking on the Code section and selecting "Run Test" is my little point of bliss for today.

Way to go. Keep on the great work.

I hope to contribute someday to either of these projects, only first i'll need to dive in to the whole IDE extensibilty features, which ,i admit, is far on my study wish list currently.

Sunday
Feb232003

More bug tracking software

Chris wrote:

Bug Tracking Alex is looking for bug tracking software. I have never used this (use a spreadsheet - the shame!) but fogbugz is supposed to be good..

You can find an exhaustive list of Bug Tracking applications here:

http://www.aptest.com/resources.html#bug

...

[via heLP .NET]

I know of anohter windows based simple bug tracking solution:

AdminLog Freeware for SQL server - very nice and easy - works with SQL server. however, security and permissions are not implemented, yet its just what our small dev team (4 people) needed...


 

Sunday
Feb232003

Code monkeys are people too

"Computer programming is taught in courses. The excellent books:

The Pragmatic Programmer[8], Code Complete[3], Rapid Development[2], and

Extreme Programming Explained[4] all teach computer programming and the

larger issues of being a good programmer."

[from :  How to be a Programmer: A Short,
Comprehensive, and Personal Summary
Robert L. Read <read@hire.com>]

Finally, I feel as part of a group, having read all the aforementioned books. I must admit that Code Complete and Rapid Development were a bit on the cumbersome and dull side, however, they all have been a big help in maturing as a code moneky programmer and seeing the big picture.

Sunday
Feb232003

The big picture

The Code Explorer

The CodeSMART Code Explorer is a navigational and management tool that integrates features from both the standard Solution Explorer and the standard Class View. For a solution and its projects, it displays a single hierarchical list with all the contained items, from files and folders down to functions and variables.

[via CodeSmart.NET Screenshots page]

again, coolness.

Sunday
Feb232003

CodeSmart.NET productivity Addin announced

AxTools are coming out with CodeSmart.NET. I have been an avid user of their CodeSmart for VB, which ,in my opinion, is one of the most productive and comprehensve addins on the market for VB (And ive used most if not all of those that matter). This release is  ,to me, just a natural step forward. What they are adding (which surprisingly, VS.NET doe NOT have!) among other things is "auto-text" which expands your keystrokes to code fragments (ie: typing 'sc' pastes in a preformatted 'select case' clause and so on..). this is an amazing feature, which MSFT have yet grasped for some reason. anyway, i heartedly recommend checking it out I know i will), even if i do think that someof the features presented by CodeSmart.NET maybe a little shadowed by the fact that some of them are possible by doing Macros. Here'spart of  the email i got from them with some info and screenshots page.

----------------------------------------------------

Dear Roy,

We are pleased to announce that we have just released CodeSMART 2003 for VS .NET. Packed with many features and valuable tools, it currently represents the most advanced collection of utilities for Visual Basic .NET and C# developers.

============================================================================

=

1. 'CodeSMART 2003 for VS .NET' Features

2. 'CodeSMART 2003 for VS .NET' Price List ============================================================================

=

1. 'CodeSMART 2003 for VS .NET' Features

=====================================

1. Advanced Code Builders (implement complex code constructs like interfaces,

custom exception and formatter classes, C# event definition code, object

construction and destruction code)

2. AutoText (MsWord-like AutoText alias-based automated code replacement for

VB .NET and C#)

3. Code Explorer (enhanced project management and navigation tool. See the code

behind your components in a Solution Explorer-like view, with custom tree

sorting)

4. Code Formatter (smart format code documents, perform blank lines management

and long lines wrapping, split methods definition line by arguments)

5. Code Outlining (create and collapse regions and zone, outline definition

blocks)

6. Code Snippets Databases (team-enabled code repository for VB .NET and C#,

search capabilities, drag & drop from code support)

7. Code Statistics (get statistic information on VB .NET or C# code at any

scope within your applications)

8. Custom Code (for example insert and remove tracing instructions on the

fly)

9. Designer Tools (Tab Order Designer, change the name and the text properties

of your controls on the fly, control identification support)

10. Exception Handling (exception handling engine based on custom templates,

automatically insert and remove exception handling code)

11. Extended Clipboard (10 supplementary copy-and-paste buffers, persistent

between sessions)

12. Extended Find and Replace (powerful search and replace engine, single and

multiline support with wildcards and regular expression, comprehensive

results lists)

13. Find References (identify all the places were a certain type is used)

15. Review Strings (easily view and modify all string constants used in

code)

16. Save and Backup (save the modified components at specific time intervals

using the AutoSave feature, create backup copies every time you save a

component with AutoBackup)

17. Simple Code Builders (Class Builder, Property Builder, Method Builder,

Switch Assignment Values)

18. Sort Procedures (rearrange the code in a more logical and intelligible

manner by scope, type and signature)

19. Spelling Checker (check comments, strings and control text properties

for spelling errors)

20. Standard Comments (insert descriptive and inline comments)

21. Workbench (create persistent shortcuts and focus only on a limited number

of components and code elements, restore your working environment between

sessions)

22. XML Comments (benefit of XML comments support for VB .NET and add

consistency with the XML comment templates available for VB .NET and C#)

A comprehensive screenshots page with extensive descriptions is available at the http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_screenshots.htm address. Also, a 14-day limited trial version of 'CodeSMART 2003 for VS .NET' is available for download from http://www.axtools.com/products/cs2k3net_download.htm.

For more details on this product, please do not hesitate to visit our home site at http://www.axtools.com

 

--------------CUT--------------------

Saturday
Feb222003

AppSettings Coolness

Say you want to store a setting in an XML config file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>
<configuration>
<appSettings>
<add key="WebServiceUrl" value="http://mypublicserver/smartclientservice.asmx?wsdl" />
</appSettings>
</configuration>

To access the setting from within your app use the ConfigurationSettings class:

_service.Url = ConfigurationSettings.AppSettings["WebServiceUrl"].ToString();
[via StronglyTyped]

heh! That is pure coolness (as geeky as i might seem..)

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