Ever since I've begun using NHibernate the number one thing that's caused me a lot of headaches is learning how to properly map my domain objects. Even the most basic mappings I wrote had bugs simple because I overlooked trivial items. This made me realize that I could save a lot of time and hassle if I unit tested by data access layer.

Continue reading "Unit Testing Domain Persistence With NDbUnit, NHibernate and SQLite"

I'm starting to get comfortable with NHibernate but I've been cowboy coding it without any testing framework to let me know if my mappings are really doing what I think they are doing. I'm starting to get tired of manually interacting with my applications to see if things work so I've begun the course...

Continue reading "When 1 Does Not Equal 1, A Debugging Tale"

I've never made any New Years resolutions before. This year I'm going to break that trend simply to create a checklist of tasks to keep me on track. I easily get distracted, but having to check things off a list is a sure way for me to stay focused. Not wanting to over do it, I made goals that are easily...

Continue reading "My Developer Resolutions For 2009"

I'm writing an automated database build for a project I'm working on and wanted to avoid having to write batch scripts with paths that are tightly coupled to the build environment. I managed to write out the NAnt targets exactly the way that I wanted: <? xml version ="1.0" ? > < project...

Continue reading "Wrestling with NAnt, MySQL and Input Scripts"

Lot of web developement code is spent concatenating path snippets and I always hated having to deal with slashes. I wanted a function that was consistent with its return type, and very loose in its parameter requirements. I ended up with the following: Test First: using bddunit.core; using CBC.Radio3...

Continue reading "Handy Web Path Concatenation Code"

Over the past few months I've realized that I'm a stubborn mule when it comes to certain aspects of web development. After some internal reflection I've come up with my top 5 things I strongly feel that I won't compromise on in the web development process. These items are just for the presentation layer...

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One of the things I love about my job is the ability to see myself grow as a developer. I'm glad I can laugh at my old code because if I can't then I'm definitely not improving my skillset. Here's some code from around 3 years ago: using System; using System.Web; using System.Configuration; using System...

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I'm creating an automated build process and one of the items in the build is to build an external resource which is a java script library. The javascript is contained in multiple files and I want to concatenate them into one script. I found a very useful tool called JS Builder which has a command line...

Continue reading "JS Builder Exceptions with Multiline JS Strings"

After attending Nothing But .Net Bootcamp I noticed none of the classes that were written in the course had a Manager suffix. I've sort had a eureka moment and have a good idea on why this is. JP heavily emphasized the Single Responsibility Principle throughout the course. If a class is only has a single...

Continue reading "Manager Suffixes Are A Code Smell"

After a big of pleading I got the privilege of being able to attend Jean-Paul Boodhoo's Nothing But Dot Net Bootcamp!

JP is quite well known in the .Net circuit for his passion for development and his pragmatic approach to software design. Typical posts about his course underline that you'll be giving up your home life for a week. Since I'm a bachelor, it wasn't a big deal for me, but I did feel a bit bad for the guys that had wives and kids at home. Our typical day was no shorter than 14 hours, and one lasted 20 hours. This was for a grand total of 80 hours of training in a 5 day span! The crazy part was that the material was flying at you so fast you didn't even get a chance to be tired.

What I wasn't prepared for was how inspirational JP can be. Not just as a developer but as a person. Not only did he feed us enough developer fundamentals, he also provided management tips, and inspirational stories and references. He shed a new light on what it means to be a developer. I greatly appreciated these tangents, and it has made me think a bit more about what I am trying to accomplish in this world.

The other great takeaway from the course was the great people that attended it. There was a total of 15 of us from all backgrounds and skill levels. Not only were there great programmers, there were some great personalities too. I'll be making sure I keep in touch with all the local developers, and plan on a 6 month re-union with them in the future. I have to give a shout out to Ted, and Peter from AndOrNot for keeping things entertaining.

This is getting long enough, and I know that trying to write everything that I experienced in the course is next to impossible. I'll probably be referencing skills I learned in the course for quite a while.

If you stumbled upon this post because you are thinking of attending his course, I highly recommend that you do! Even if I had to front my own money for the course I would. It's the best investment you can do for your career.

Continue reading "I Survived JP's Nothing but Dot Net Boot camp!"