Hows that for a long title? 

So there is a new version of Visual Studio (in CTP at time of writing) called Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals - its aimed at people who might associate themselves with the title Database Professional.  I gotta say, it looks like a really good solution to some problems.

I attended a cabana session at Tech.Ed (Tech.James?) this year hosted by Greg Low on data generation in the product, and during the presentation it came up that it would be nice to have custom generator for Australian-specific data... so I thought I'd take a stab at it.

Below is a screencap of the kind of random data my generator will spit out.  Handy for columns where a check constraint may be forcing a given format for the data.  The format of the phone numbers is configurable by a property and the rows are conistant for a location so that if we generate a Vic address it will have a valid Vic phone number etc.



The good news is its really easy to do.  Even at this early stage the product has some pretty reasonable doco on what to do to write your own generators.

So my custom generator is available for download by clicking on this link

To install it on your copy of vsdbpro:

1. Copy the DLL from that zip into the following path on your PC: 
   [Program Files]\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\Common7\IDE\PrivateAssemblies\
2. Edit the config file at:
   [Program Files]\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\DBPro\Microsoft.VisualStudio.TeamSystem.Data.Extensions.xml with a suitable XML editor and add the following line:
   <type>deepdark.net.PersonalDetails, AustralianDetails, Version=1.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=341d0bd35c6f7d28</type>
   
3. Restart Visual Studio, you should see a new generator called Personal Details in the list.
   

The source code is hardly going to start a revolutiuon, but I can make it available if there is any interest - just let me know.

This is a little creepy...

Just as Pluto gets demoted from being a planet, at work we decomission a server whose name is Pluto.

This alone means we should never use Earth as a machine name for a server.

Just a quick note...

Adobe Acrobat reader is slow... FoxIt Reader is Fast. 

Nothing in it for me, just sharing the good vibes :)  Thank you FoxIt

So I've been battling against using the Solution task in NAnt to automate the build of a large VB.Net solution that includes heaps of libraries and a web service and all sorts

I was hoping to have it done like this:

    <solution configuration="Debug"
              solutionfile="LargeProject.sln" >
      <webmap>
        <map url="http://localhost/Project/ProjectWebService/ProjectWS.vbproj"
             path="C:\Inetpub\wwwroot\Project\ProjectWebService\ProjectWS.vbproj"/>
      </webmap>
    </solution>

...but was getting lots of errors like:
error BC30002: Type 'Xml.XmlDocument' is not defined.

It turns out the source of this is all the odds and ends that VB.Net automatically includes in your project - I was only vaguely aware of them, and it seems like there is no option on the Solution task for it.

After some googling and general messing around, I added an Exec task to the build as thus:

     <exec program="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\Common7\IDE\devenv.exe">
           <arg line="EPOnline2.0.sln /build Debug"/>
     </exec>

The down side is there is no nice output from devenv.exe like you get from the Solution & VBC tasks, but my build succeeds and that makes me happy

After blog mint [?]:  I didn't read the devenv.exe /? help close enough!  If you include /Out at the end of the command line (i.e. after /build Debug in the above example) you do get the pretty output.

This is more along the lines of the CI threads that have been occupying my thoughts of late.

I'm really impressed at the kind of technical documentation I can get from NDoc + the VBCommenter power toy, even more when it is generated and copied to my fileserver nightly as part of an NAnt script!

The next project for me on the NDoc front is to coax is to produce user documentation (rather than technical documentation) from the same sources with no extra work from me

Has anyone done this before?  Is it another case of when you are holding a hammer everything looks like a nail?

There's not much to tell since my last (vague, sleep deprived, rambling) post on continuous integartion as a development technique in .NET...

But what I have found useful is using Draco and NAnt on a VB6 project!

The problem I was looking to solve is reporting in Microsoft Visual Source Safe.  Draco.NET supports VSS, so I made an NAnt build script with one target containing no tasks and I have Draco build it every night. 

The plus is Draco includes in its post-build email the details of what checkins have happened since the last build and by who... Instant daily check-in report emailed to your door

I've alluded to this before - when all you have is a hammer everything looks like a nail.  I was thinking about XML then, but after chatting with an old mate the other day it became clear that it applies to Flash as well...

So a couple of profound rules: - I'm putting the Flash community on notice

1. Don't play music.  I was already listening to something, thanks.  ...and I liked my music better.

2. If you absolutely must redesign the common UI metaphors like Buttons and Check-boxes they must work as well as the ones I am use to.  Dont make me have to 'Learn' how to use my computer again.

3. I'm not a mouse in a wheel and no I am not having fun following & clicking a beeping whatcha-mahoozit just to get what I came to the site for.  Yes, I came for a reason and yes that stuff is standing between me and what I want to see.  And No that dosen't mean you are not still very tallented at making beeping whatcha-mahoozits.

But on a more serious note, there are two issues still outstanding with the Flash community that can be an obstruction to less savvy users:  The Back button is useless and I can't bookmark where I am at.

So imagine I am training someone very new to computers about the web... it's going to go something like this:
yes, this is a web page... you can go Back (think bread-crums analogy) and you can save your spot (bookmarks in a book analogy)... oh except for this page - this is what we call a *Flash* page... no, not flash as in... oh forget it....

The point:  No one should have to care what technology the content is written in.  Not beginners and certainly not me.

What's the silver lining?  When the signal-to-noise ratio in any space takes an injection of background cosmic radiation the real cream of the crop just shines through.  Well implemented Flash is sublime.  The rest, well its just the rest.

I've decided to try the Visual Studio IDE enhancements from Developer Express after hearing some rave reviews.  One nice thing I noticed is that the installer detects the presance of VS2003 and VS2005 and installs into both IDEs if need be.  I like the philosophy of not having to buy the thing again whenever a new Visual Studio is released.

More specifically, these tools are Refactor! and CodeRush.

One way to describe CodeRush is as a template based code generator on a small scale.  It can insert comon language constructs with a shortcut key combination.  For example if you select a block of text and press t, the selection will be put inside a generic Try... Catch... Finally block.

First impression was that this thing was getting under my feet.  I know how line completion in Intellisense works and I like it.  In fact I preempt it.  Now things have changed aargh!  I might have to back-off the speed at which this kicks in, or maybe its a new trick for an old dog?

Refactor! is a different animal.  It provides Refactorings to your code inside the IDE with previews of the changes that look unreal.  All kinds of useful stuff like in one click you can extract an interface from a class's public definition.  Sweet!

Now all I have to do is learn to type properly, or just buy a better keyboard

I don't know what it is, but today I got this in my junk mail:


Dear Sir/Madam,

We have logged your IP-address on more than 30 illegal Websites.

Important:
Please answer our questions!
The list of questions are attached.


Yours faithfully,
Steven Allison


*** Federal Bureau of Investigation -FBI-
*** 935 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW, Room 3220
*** Washington, DC 20535
*** phone: (202) 283-4108


I'm insulted.  If you are going to prank me into running your spyware, please put some effort into it.  Not to mention the small matter of jurisdiction...

There's this thing called the Turing Test.  In a nut shell it is can a computer be so clever that you don't realize that it's a computer you are communicating with.   The test must then assume some  benchmark level of human intelegence.  Could a drop in the benchmark of human intelegence be measured by how lame the lure has to be before someone bites?

And a quick post-script to any law enforcement agencies out there:  If you ever get so lazy that you start to question suspects by email...  *rolls eyes*

I saw this post the other day on the IE team's blog while looking at some IE7 stuff...

I was unaware that the SV1 token gets added to your browser User Agent string after XP SP2.  I don't think in this case it matters if SP2 is more secure than RTM XP, I still don't want someone to know my patch level.  Call me paranoid...

As fortune would have it, fiddler has an answer!  Thanks

Oh, with regard to IE7 - apart from all the user experience enhancements like tabs (thanks for coming to the party IE) etc the killer I reckon is in protected mode registry virtualization - I think we will see more of this in future!

So it's been a little while between updates on the blog, sorry about that!

I've been on a bit of an OS roller coaster ride of late.  I tried the latest LonghornI mean Vista beta (beta 2) on a couple of machines.  I didn't do a lot of homework because I have this bad habit with operating systems - I just grab the bootable disc and dive in the deep end.  I did this with Linux in '98 and it took me 6 years to kick the habit!   

The two machines were:

1. Dell Inspiron 1100 laptop, P4 2Ghz, 1Gb RAM, integrated Intel graphics, 80Gb HDD
2. Home-brew PC, P4 Dual Core 3Ghz, 2Gb RAM, 512Mb 6800 graphics, 1.2Tb storage

First thing's first - they both run fine.  The install was painless, the new features and UI are discoverable and I am well impressed with the direction Vista is taking. 

My problem is that the laptop needs to run Visual Studio 2003 to maintain some Web Services projects.  These require Front Page extentions on the local IIS to do debugging when I am on a train or otherwise not close to a server.  So after a week of new-OS glow and fighting uphill against IIS 7.0 (which does not and will not support FPE) I am presently formatting the HDD and putting XP SP2 back.  *sigh*

The desktop box runs a treat with the "Glass" enabled and all.  I am looking forward to running the final release on it. 

As an aside both these machines are running the Office 12 beta too!  They have taken things back to real core usability in this release and I think it's a very good thing.  There are some cool new features, sure- but the killer for me is in its usability improvements. 


After blog mint [?]:  I love Linux to bits and it has come along leaps and bounds in that time - I'm just a Windows guy at the moment.  2003 Server played a bit part in that.  I harbour no ill will to the penguin, it's just not me right now.  that's all.