Willy-Peter Schaub's Cave of Chamomile Simplicity

New Data Access Quick Reference Poster

We have posted a new data access “best practices” poster on www.drp.co.za. Your comments are welcome. Note that we will release an enterprise library counterpart in due course.

http://www.drp.co.za/default.asp?id=technologies/content_technologies_NetSpecific

Domain Specific (DSL) Tools BETA 1 – Part 1 (Installation)

These tools are a suite of tools for creating, editing, visualizing, and using domain specific data for automating the enterprise software process in a journey to realizing software factories.

When you install the BETA-1, ensure that you have installed the November VS.NET BETA-1 … December or later CTP releases will currently not work … and include C++ even if you are not planning to use the language … otherwise the Wizard which has a dependency on C++ will fail. Other than these peculiarities and undocumented “features” the community technology preview is easy to install. The installation not only installs the engine room, but also a set of examples and walkthroughs, which we are busy digesting and which we will report on in the course of next week.

See http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/Workshop/DSLTools for further information on this suite of tools.

Enterprise Library – 9 out of 10 so far!

We are currently running internal readiness sessions digesting the Enterprise Library, which is proving to be a very interesting experience. Some of us like to code “interesting plumbing”, while others … like I … have been there and have received numerous t-shirts, only to realize that what some see as interesting, is time consuming and often frustrating plumbing.

Last we looked at the Enterprise Library configuration application block, which in my opinion scores a 8 our of 10. If it would use the file system “file/directory changed event”, instead of the polling, it would probably receive a 9 out of 10. This library is comprehensive, easy to use, years ahead of the previous Configuration Application Block, allows applications to read and write configuration information and thanks to the configuration utility is a snap to use effectively.

Today we looked at the Logging and Instrumentation Application Block, which scores a straight 9 out of 10. It would have saved us weeks, if not months of work, if we had this once again comprehensive library at our disposal. It is easy to use, allows developers to

incorporate standard logging and instrumentation functionality in their applications, allows runtime re-configuration and with the exception of the first call is visually efficient. We still have to load the library with multi-threaded stress, both in synchronous and asynchronous mode to verify the visual performance. Once again it puts the previous Logging Application Block and especially the Enterprise Instrumentation Framework (EIF) to shame with its simplicity and functionality.

We even found something new when trying to figure out how the tracing library was able to handle statics in a multi threaded environment … have a look at the [ThreadStaticAttribute] which indicates that the value of a static field is unique for each thread. We believe that we will find many more “cool” concepts in the Enterprise Library and are looking forward to next week, when we are researching the EL Data Access application block, which allows developers to incorporate standard database functionality in their applications.

New Horizon .NET Enterprise Solutions Reviews

"This is one of the most practical and comprehensive books I have encountered – on a subject that is often too shrouded in theory." ... has given us all a boost in terms of the book we published late last year, in an attempt to share our experience and best practices.

We would appreciate if you could email us your reviews and comments on the book as well, so that we can consider all input if and when we commence with the next volume. You can find details on the book on www.drp.co.za and can email your comments to drpauthors@bbd.co.za.

Thanks for your input.

VS.NET 2005 - Looking at the December CTP Release

We are in the process of evaluating VS.NET 2005 and Team System, with the aim of releasing a couple of whitepapers documenting our pains and successing while evaluating the technology in conjunction with a solution that is scheduled for production Q2'2005.

If you have managed to install and implement Team System December CPT successfully we would appreciate your input. Any other input or portability, upgrade or new features will also be greatly appreciated.