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.
Do yourself a favour and investigate this exciting new technology.