Friday, April 24, 2009

Fake - The future of .NET build tools?

Tired of XML based build systems?
Thought so. That's why I spent a few minutes hacking togheter the basis for my own build system. I call it Fake. And looks like this:
let clean = task "Clean" (fun () ->
    Console.WriteLine("Cleaning."))

[<Default>]
let build =
    task "Build the lot" (clean => fun () ->
        Console.WriteLine("Building.."))

let loadTestData =
    task "Load some test data" (fun () ->
        Console.WriteLine("Loading test data..."))

let test =
    task "Test it" ([build; loadTestData] => fun () ->
        Console.WriteLine("Running Tests...."))
Then simply
x:\..\>fake test
Cleaning.
Building..
Loading test data...
Running Tests....
x:\..\>
Is this idea worthwhile? Tell me in the comments.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Team Foundation vs Subversion and Bazaar - Round 1: Update my workspace.

I usually work with Subversion or Bazaar but currently I'm on a project using Team Foundation Server. Today I got the silly idea of updating my workspace using the command line interface. Assuming that you are standing in the directory you want to update this task can be accomplished as follows:
SubversionTeam Foundation
svn uptf get .\* /version:T /recursive
Now one of theese is sane, the other is complelty insane. I won't tell you wich is wich.

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

RED - Re Evolutionary Development

Something is happening in devloperland, if you put your ear to the tubes of the blogosphere you can hear a faint message. The Software Craftmanship movement is gathering momentum with a simple message, and one of the high priests of XP has abdicated.

There's a new focus comming and it cuts right through all excuses, the message is simple.
YOU are responsible.

No one else is going to give you the mandate to work in a fashion you know you really ought to, no one else is going to educate your peers for you, and no one else is going to fix your broken process. Yes I know it's horrible. The business demands the impossible and your cow orkers are all a bunch of imbicils. That's exactly why it's your problem. You're the only sane, educated, competent, levelheaded person around, it's your responsibility to do something about the madness.

We need to stop trying to blame everyone else for our problems, we need to stop discussing what's wrong with "other people" and actually start taking action. Every single day, strive to improve, learn and share!

I'll dub this "Re Evolutionary Development" or RED for short and as all good philosophies it needs a set of principles the first one simply is:

RED Principle #1

Each day ask yourself.
  • What did I learn?
  • What did I share?