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