Sunday, May 11, 2008
Happily Married
This blog has been really quiet as of late, as you probably noticed by the lack of updates in your favorite RSS reader. The reason is because I got married this past weekend and have not had time to update over the past month. I will make up for it next month but for now I am going to go and enjoy my honeymoon.

IMG_1524.JPG

Fun | Personal
Sunday, May 11, 2008 4:18:22 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [7]  | 
Saturday, April 19, 2008
3 Geeks in an Elevator
I've been in a bit of a blogging slump. I blame taxes, NHL playoffs and an upcoming wedding for the slump. Bil recently posted a meme about being trapped in an elevator with 2 other geeks. The jist of it is if you were trapped in an elevator with 2 other geeks, who would you be trapped with and why.*

I would choose to be trapped with:

  •  Reginald Braithwaite because I like reading his essays and I believe I could have a meaningful conversation about various software development topics with him.
  • John McCarthy I would like to talk programming languages and AI with him.


* I've actually been trapped in an elevator before for 2 hours with a friend and it sucks big time. I try and take the stairs now.

Programming
Saturday, April 19, 2008 5:16:39 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [1]  | 
Tuesday, April 01, 2008
A Reason To Switch to Rails

Via Marc-Andre Cournoyer on Twitter, a reason for ASP.NET developers to switch to Rails: http://www.railsjedi.com/posts/15-Acts-as-ASP-NET-a-Ruby-on-Rails-Plugin-

Sadly, I bet I could sell Ruby and Rails to local businesses easier by showing them this page.

P.S. I am the altnet purse fight blog author. No one ever suspects the quiet guy.

Fun | Programming
Tuesday, April 01, 2008 9:11:50 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Friday, March 28, 2008
Problems Installing Visual Studio 2008?
Last night I tried installing Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Framework. I kept getting the error: "Error: Installation failed for component Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0a. MSI returned error code 1603".

Not very informative. I eventually ended up getting it installed by temporarily uninstalling IIS. Hope this helps someone else out who is having the same problem.

Programming | Technical
Friday, March 28, 2008 5:25:21 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Wednesday, March 05, 2008
Boo OSX

Sweetness!

booishMac.png


Programming | Technical
Wednesday, March 05, 2008 5:51:55 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Friday, February 08, 2008
Quick and Dirty Test Data Builders With Rhino Mocks

Today I was creating a test data builder for a unit test. I am fairly new to test data builders, on the last project I was on I relied on the ObjectMother pattern which became fairly tedious over time. Both the ObjectMother pattern and the Test Data Builder are Test Helper patterns:

"We define a helper class to hold any Test Utility Methods we want to reuse in several tests." 

If your objects aren't immutable and all you really care about is getting sensible test data without having to repeat yourself, you can use the Rhino Mocks GenerateStub feature to provide sensible test data and deal with invariant test data:

 

[TestFixture]
public class InvoiceTests
{
    [Test]
    public void ShouldCreateInvoiceWithNoPostalCode()
    {
        Invoice invoiceWithNoPostalCode =
                new InvoiceBuilder()
                .WithRecipient(new RecipientBuilder()
                    .WithAddress(new AddressBuilder()
                        .WithNoPostalCode()
                        .Build())
                    .Build())
                .Build();
 
        Assert.AreEqual(string.Empty,
            invoiceWithNoPostalCode.Recipient.Address.PostalCode);
    }
 
 
}
 
public class InvoiceBuilder
{
    private Invoice invoice;
 
    public InvoiceBuilder()
    {
        invoice = MockRepository.GenerateStub<Invoice>();
    }
 
    public InvoiceBuilder WithRecipient(Recipient recipient)
    {
        invoice.Recipient = recipient;
        return this;
    }
 
    public Invoice Build()
    {
        return invoice;
    }
}
 
public class RecipientBuilder
{
    private Recipient recipient;
 
    public RecipientBuilder()
    {
        recipient = MockRepository.GenerateStub<Recipient>();
    }
 
    public RecipientBuilder WithAddress(Address address)
    {
        recipient.Address = address;
        return this;
    }
 
    public Recipient Build()
    {
        return recipient;
    }
}
 
public class AddressBuilder
{
    private Address address;
 
    public AddressBuilder()
    {
        address = MockRepository.GenerateStub<Address>();
    }
 
    public AddressBuilder WithNoPostalCode()
    {
        address.PostalCode = string.Empty;
        return this;
    }
 
    public Address Build()
    {
        return address;
    }
}

Once again be warned that this does not work for immutable objects, I don't recommend making value objects mutable just to implement this pattern so i'm not sure if it actually provides any real value. Maybe if it is combined with a mutable entity and a custom builder for a value object that preserves that value object's immutability. 

If anyone that reads this blog has a way to make Test Data Builders easier I would be glad to hear it.

 

[Currently Listening To: Young Galaxy- Young Galaxy - Wailing Wall]

Programming | Technical
Friday, February 08, 2008 6:56:17 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [3]  | 
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Donald Belcham Birthday Tribute

Justice asked a bunch of us to write a treasured memory that we have of Donald Belcham as a birthday tribute to Don. I am in a bit of a blogging slump so I figured I would oblige his request.

My memory is from DevTeach Vancouver last year. It all started at the Party with Palermo. Donald started the night off having a great conversation with a bunch of us about the merits of TDD and how it relates to life, the universe and everything.

Then someone told him that the booze was free.

Donald proceeded to order the finest scotch available in the bar. For those that don't know him Scotch to Donald is like Beer to Bender. Donald was ok but then Jeffery Palermo announced that booze would only be free for the next 5 minutes.

I was standing at the bar when the announcement was made and I heard Donald yell "LETS DO SHOTS!!!". Luckily Donald kept it classy and suggested that everyone do Prairie Fires (tequila and Tabasco). Knowing the dangers that Prairie Fires can bring, I tried to convince Donald that he should do something less harsh like Whiskey.

After 10 Prairie Fires everyone was amazed that Donald had proceeded to keep them down and we went for more drinks at The Earls on Robson Street. After 10 minutes I look over at down who is slumped over and hiccupping. 10 more minutes pass and Donald's cheeks are full with a finger holding in the gray liquid that eventually shot out into D'Arcy Lussier's hot chocolate (that whole sentence just sounded wrong).

DSCF1702

The next day Donald was scheduled to present and he lays out a great metaphor which to me, is pure Donald Belcham:

"A development shop without Cruise Control and NAnt is like having too many prairie fires here at DevTeach. Everything looks ok on the outside but sooner or later things are going to blow up."

PHENOMINAL!

If this blows your mind, make sure to check out Donald at this year's DevTeach Toronto. He will be presenting not one, count em 4 different presentations all likely to be fuelled by prairie fires and scotch.

Personal
Tuesday, February 05, 2008 8:20:52 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [0]  | 
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
Personal Look Back at 2007

I like reading other people's posts on the year that was 2007 so I thought I would try it myself.

During 2007 I had a lot of fun in software development

- I managed to somehow do 3 speaking engagments, 2 at the Calgary and Edmonton Code Camps and one at DevTeach. Although I had fun presenting, i'm not sure if the spotlight is for me. Helping the community has always been one of my main goals but I got into software development because I like coding. I could care less if I get my way paid to various conferences based on my speaking ability I would rather be recognized for my coding ability.

- I completed all of my goals that I had for becoming a better developer. This surprised me as I thought I was way behind on them.

- I contributed to a couple OSS projects. In 2008 my main goal will be to give away even more code. Take it, its yours.

- I found something new that I am going to use to motivate myself to get my skills another level, I'll probably write about it sometime in the future but now is to soon.

 

Non-Technical Stuff

- Last year started out very poorly for me. I lost my last remaining Grandfather a year ago today, he was my hero and things haven't been the same without him.

- I was finally able to move into a new condo that I bought with my fiance. No more paying rent for me. Despite having a flood and still waiting on our floor to be replaced I am happy with the new place.

- I got to help my fiance Catherine celebrate a special birthday this year.

- My dog somehow got published in a book and featured on Entertainment Tonight (blog post dog mention quota met).

Whats in store for 2008

- I am getting married in May of 2008. At least if we can get organized in time.

- More OSS coding than last year.

- Many more things that I have yet to find out about.

Personal
Tuesday, January 08, 2008 3:31:19 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)  #    Comments [2]  | 

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