With Visual Studio 2010 out, it's high time to learn WPF programming!

In the last entry, I gave an overview of the large software update I delivered to a client, an update that should've been done incrementally over a period of several months. From database schema changes, to swapping out a reporting engine, to switching from ANSI to Unicode, I really bit off more than I could chew at once. But it's now working well and I'm once again sleeping at night!

This portion of the story deals with the database changes that were made, both the structure and the character set.

I recently gave a client a major update to their custom application. Actually, "major" doesn't even do it justice. It was more like "mega major" and I don't think I'll take the approach I did ever again. But I wanted to move their code to the latest compilers and to support the latest operating systems. I also needed to change some low-level database constructs. Why all this? Because I'm a best-practices sort of guy.

Here's what I had to start:

• Delphi 2006 development environment
• ElevateDB database (ANSI)
• Rave Reports
• Other third-party libraries and custom components

If you need to find out what the application data path is for your Windows application, you can call a Windows API function to find out: SHGetSpecialFolderPath.

"One advantage to using Linux is that there is a plethora of powerful commands available on the command-line; however, many users prefer not to use the CLI or are intimidated by it.

Here's an excerpt from an excellent blog entry from "Coding Horror."

Microsoft Visual Studio is the .NET development tool of choice for a vast majority of programmers world-wide. It has all the tools and resources to build the latest .NET applications and web sites you need.

"In many industries, a senior level position is based mostly on the length of time that person has been working and maybe a standardized test or two.

There are people who live and breath Microsoft and preach Microsoft and poo-poo any open source project. Then there's another group of people that believe Microsoft is the anti-Christ and loudly proclaim they have been freed by converting their entire desktop to Linux and all things open source.

If you hang around any of the object-oriented mailing lists, chat groups, or Usenet newgroups, you'll notice that the name "Demeter" keeps popping up every few months or so on a regular basis. Usually it is in the form of a question asking "What is Demeter?" or "What is the Law of Demeter? Other times it is used in passing as an obscure reference (which usually prompts the earlier questions just stated).

YouArentGonnaNeedIt is an ExtremeProgramming practice which states: "Always implement things when you actually need them, never when you just foresee that you need them."

Techniques for Successful Evolutionary/Agile Database Development

Test-driven development (TDD) is an evolutionary approach to development which combines refactoring and test-first development where you write a test before you write just enough production code to fulfill that test.

Rico Mariani blogs at MSDN.

Anders Hejlsberg, the lead C# architect, talks with Bruce Eckel and Bill Venners about why C# instance methods are non-virtual by default and why programmers must explicitly indicate an override.

September, 2003

A set of blog entries by a C# programmer named, Eric Gunnerson. Here's an excerpt to serve as an introduction:

Some people have remarked that all of these are judgement calls, and really more a matter of aesthetics than actual sins....

"After multiple monitors were introduced:

• Productivity in lines of code per day increased 10%.
• Defect levels decreased by 26%."

--Written November, 2003

"This is really a no-brainer for any developer who values his or her time. Now more than ever, since:

1. Most mainstream, inexpensive video cards tend to come with two VGA ports (aka "dual head") standard.

The difinitive list of ports given out by IANA, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority. Ports managed by this organization include "Well Known Ports" 0 through 1023 (such as SMTP port 25, and HTTP p

Webcasts, written transcripts, and PowerPoint slides of recent speeches by Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect.

IntelliSense is a technology that is inevitable. If Microsoft hadn’t done it, somebody else would have. Human beings have never been inclined to refrain from pursuing certain technologies because they may have unfortunate repercussions.