ALT.NET Canada kicked off last night and was great fun. Bil has some initial coverage here complete with video. Mo Khan discusses his take on the fishbowl topic, "Why are fundamentals important?" I wanted to take a few paragraphs and give my two cents on the topic. The fishbowl last night got too hung up on the particulars. The point that I personally wanted to make was that fundamentals are more important than APIs/technologies because fundamentals give you a framework within which to understand any API or technology. That's not to say that specific technologies aren't important. You won't get too far in the .NET world not knowing the BCL. :) I'm not a crotchety old programmer who is going to insist that you learn everything that I know about software "because I had to walk 2 km to school every day through blowing snow uphill - both ways!" I don't expect you to (and wouldn't want you to) spend years writing C++ code to understand just how bloody hard it is to get pointers right or manage memory. (Do I need a *& or an &* here? And is that one * or two **? If you don't know what I'm talking about be thankful. Waste of brain cycles.) As far as what I consider fundamental... OO and design patterns, definitely. But also high level knowledge of CPUs, memory, disk, and network. The fundamental building blocks upon which all software and hardware is created. (Working at a high level of abstraction is fantastic and much more productive, but even when working at such a high level, you need to understand - to pick an arbitrary example - that durable transactions require disk I/O and that disk I/O is an eternity in processor cycles.) You should also be familiar with Big-O notation, data structures, and algorithms. You should understand the services provided by a managed runtime (.NET, Java, etc.). Are you a bad programmer because you don't know how to implement a red-black tree from memory? Absolutely not. (I don't personally remember either!) But you're a good programmer for knowing that there are more data structures out there than an array. You have the fundamental knowledge to try solving problems in a myriad different ways. Programming languages, runtimes, and APIs come and go. If you only understand those, you have a steep learning curve to climb every time technology changes - and it does. The fundamentals will always serve you well regardless of the technologies involved.
I'm doing some WCF work for a client, specifically around WS-Security. I stumbled upon the System.ServiceModel.MessageSecurityVersion class today. Its static properties alone should explain why developers are craving simpler technologies like REST...
This is a friendly public service announcement that seats are still available for my Object-Relational Mapping with NHibernate course. The three-day course is being offered in Calgary running from Tuesday, August 26, 2008 to Thursday, August 28, 2008. You can find the full course announcement here with instructions on how to register. If you are a company or group of individuals, please contact me directly at jkovacs@post.harvard.edu about a group discount. I am currently planning future public offerings of the course and would like your feedback on where, when, how much, ... I would appreciate it if you could take a few minutes to complete a short survey. As a thank you for your time, I will randomly pick one respondent to receive a copy of JetBrains ReSharper 4.0 Personal Edition. (N.B. The survey is limited to the first 100 respondents.)
The survey is now closed. The winner of the JetBrains ReSharper license has been contacted. Thank you to everyone who participated.
I had the pleasure of appearing on .NET Rocks #362. I talked to Carl and Richard about dependency inversion, dependency injection, and inversion of control. A lot of what we talked about I also wrote about in my MSDN article, Loosen Up: Tame Your Software Dependencies for More Flexible Apps. Here's the summary of the show, which I had absolutely no input into whatsoever: James Kovacs talks about the Castle Windsor project, and gives the clearest definitions of Inversion of Control (IOC) containers, Dependency Injection, and the reasons why we need to think about these techniques. Critical listening for all .NET developers. I believe that I owe them both a beer next time I see them for such flattering remarks. 
Given the number of developers using Subversion, I'm surprised that no one on my blogroll has mentioned the new Subversion clients released in the last few weeks. Subversion, TortoiseSVN, and VisualSVN have all synchronized their version numbers on v1.5. I'll talk about TortoiseSVN and Subversion changes. VisualSVN has some minor enhancements that basically expose the features introduced by Subversion 1.5. I'll leave you to investigate them yourself. TortoiseSVN Let's talk TortoiseSVN... You can get the new client from here. N.B. If you're running 64-bit Windows (XP, Vista, or Server 2003/2008), make sure you grab the 64-bit installer. Shell extensions run directly inside Windows Explorer, which on 64-bit Windows is a 64-bit process. So you don't get any WoW (Windows-on-Windows) goodness that allows 32-bit executables to run on 64-bit Windows. New Overlays The most noticeable change is the new overlay icons. 
Unversioned and ignored files now have their own overlays, which I find especially useful. The problem in the past was that Windows only has 12 overlay slots available. These slots could be easily exhausted if you had multiple shell extensions installed, such as TortoiseSVN and TortoiseCVS. Tortoise clients now have a common overlay handler, which somewhat mitigates this problem. 
Delete Unversioned Files Over time, working copies tend to get crufty - at least mine do. I end up having extra unversioned files and directories - from tools, builds, half-implemented refactorings that you think better of - littering your working copy. Every once in awhile, I would just grab a clean working copy and delete the old. I then went to the trouble of creating PowerShell script to clean up my working copy. Now TortoiseSVN 1.5 includes this feature. Simply SHIFT-right click in your working copy and select "Delete unversioned items" from the context menu. N.B. This option only appears if you hold down SHIFT. 
Other Improvements The repository browser has also been completely reworked. It now shows a two pane view similar to Windows Explorer. 
The revision graph has also been rewritten and is much easier to use. 
Client-side caching has been improved, making TortoiseSVN more responsive. Merging has improved. Changelists have been added. Lots of new features. You can read the release notes for more information. Subversion Subversion has made a lot improvements, which can be found in the release notes. If you're just running TortoiseSVN, you don't need to install the Subversion binaries. TortoiseSVN includes the SVN libraries. You only need the Subversion client and/or server if: - You want to use Subversion from the command line via svn.exe and/or svnadmin.exe either directly or in scripts.
- You are running a server using svnserve (svn://) or Apache (http:// or https://).
You can download the Windows client and/or server from a few different places, each with advantages and disadvantages: - CollabNet - On the positive side, the MSI installer is quick to get you up and running. It adds svn.exe to your path and, if you install the server, you can select between svnserve.exe (svn://) and Apache (http:// or https://) easily. On the downside, you have to register on the CollabNet site and the downloaded binaries do not include support for Berkley DB, only FSFS. FSFS is the default for new repositories, but if you've got some older repositories around, they're probably BDB. The CollabNet binaries complain bitterly about BDB repositories: "svnadmin: Failed to load module for FS type 'bdb'". Honestly I would recommend staying away from this package.
- Tigris - Scroll down to svn-win32-1.5.0.zip and grab that. It includes both FSFS and BDB support, but you're on your own configuring svnserve.exe. It's not that hard and I document the steps here. This package is great if you just want to run svnserve.exe to access your repositories via svn://. If you want to run Apache to enable access your repositories over http:// and https://, you're on your own to download and configure Apache. If you want to do that, then I recommend...
- VisualSVN Server - Although VisualSVN (the Visual Studio add-in) is a commercial product, VisualSVN Server is completely free. This is the easiest way to get a Subversion server up and running with Apache. You can go from a clean Windows box to a working Subversion server in under 10 minutes. As an added bonus, it includes a MMC management console.
Upgrading the Repository Format (optional) Although Subversion 1.5 can work with older repository formats, some of the new features, such as merge tracking, require you to upgrade your repository to the latest format. (See "Compatbility Concerns" in the release notes for full information regarding required client, server, and repository versions for various features.) Subversion will not upgrade your repository automatically. If you want to use the new features requiring a repository upgrade, you must run the following command: svnadmin upgrade <PATH_TO_REPO>
where <PATH_TO_REPO> is the physical path and not a URL.
If you need to upgrade a lot of repositories and you've got PowerShell installed, you can do the following (assuming your repository root is c:\SrcRepos): cd \SrcRepos
dir -name | foreach { svnadmin upgrade $_ }
Cyrus SASL and NTLM
TortoiseSVN and svnserve now include Cyrus SASL (Simple Authentication and Security Layer) support, which allows you to use a variety of authentication/encryption mechanisms, most importantly for Windows users - NTLM and Kerberos. Subversion clients and servers prior to 1.5 only support ANONYMOUS and CRAM-MD5. You'll need to be running v1.5 on both sides of the wire to use the other protocols. The ZIP package from Tigris includes NTLM, but not Kerberos. If you want to use Kerberos, you'll have to download saslGSSAPI.dll and add it to your sasl-plugins directory.
WARNING: I spent the better part of an afternoon trying to get svnserve.exe authenticating against the local Security Account Metabase (SAM) without success. (i.e. Using local Windows accounts to authenticate Subversion users.) The documentation is sparse to non-existent. I was able to get SASL to read its configuration and load the NTLM plug-in, but I could never successfully authenticate. Even with the correct username/password, it just prompted me again. It could be a problem with SASL defaulting to NTLMv1, which Vista disables by default for security reasons. If I figure out how to make this work, I'll post a solution...
 What better way to celebrate Canada Day than to announce that registration is now open for the ALT.NET Canada Open Spaces? The event is happening in Calgary, Alberta on August 15 to 17, 2008 at the University of Calgary's MacEwan Conference Centre.
ALT.NET is not about being alternative, but about considering alternatives and choosing the best approach for your project - be that a product from Redmond, open source software, or a commercial third-party library. The conference brings together bright minds in our industry to discuss more effective ways to develop software and solve real business problems. We're honoured to have Steven "Doc" List facilitating the Open Space. (Doc facilitated both the Austin and Seattle ALT.NET Open Space events.) If you're not familiar with the Open Spaces concept, you can read about How Open Spaces Works. It's not your typical conference. Prepare to be surprised. The event is being organized by Kyle "Living in the Bahamas is Tough" Baley, James "That's Godfather to You" Kovacs, Dave "Goats are Cool" Woods, Donald "Where's My Scotch" Belcham, Terry "Best Hair in Canada" Thibodeau, Bil "Microsoft Vice President" Simser, Greg "Three D's Ain't Enough" Young, and Justice "Metrosexual Developers are Hot" Gray. Space is limited! REGISTER NOW and join the conversation!  
* No beavers or moose were harmed in the production of this blog post. (The egos of organizers are another matter entirely.)
Many people have asked over the past few months whether I will be offering a public course on NHibernate. The answer is now "Yes!" and it will be debuting in Calgary in August. If you're interested in OR/M with NHibernate and can't come to Calgary, then maybe the course can come to you! Email me for more information on bringing the course to your city. I also offer this course privately if your company prefers that format. Once again, email me for more information. If you're interested, you can register for the Calgary course here (credit card). Please email me directly if you wish to pay via purchase order. Object-Relational Mapping with NHibernate | Location | The Westin Calgary
320 4th Avenue SW
Calgary, AB T2P 2S6
(map) | | Dates | Tuesday, August 26, 2008 to Thursday, August 28, 2008 | OverviewObject-relational Mapping with NHibernate is an intensive 3-day course designed to introduce students to the core concepts of object-relational mapping (OR/M), such as querying and persisting objects to a relational database and mapping objects, collections, and inheritance relationships. The course will cover querying with the Hibernate Query Language (HQL) and the Criteria API. Students will learn how NHibernate encapsulates data access using the identity map and unit of work patterns, lazy loading, persistence by reachability, and automatic dirty checking. Advanced topics will be covered as student interest and time permit, including how and when to use the NHibernate's 2nd level cache, building a persistence layer using the repository pattern, batching operations with multicriteria and multiqueries, and querying with LINQ to NHibernate. Topics - Introduction to O/RM
- Configuring NHibernate
- Mapping Basics
- Mapping primary keys
- PK Types - Native, Identity, Guid, GuidComb, Sequence, HiLo
- Composite Keys and why you shouldn't use them
- Mapping Fields and Properties
- Querying Basics
- ISession.Load/Get
- hibernate.show_sql
- Mapping Components
- Schema generation
- Using SchemaExport to create/update your database schema
- Adding additional mapping attributes
- The CUD in CRUD
- Persistence by reachability
- ITransaction
- Mapping Relationships and Collections
- One-to-one, one-to-many, and many-to-many
- Handling cascades
- Understanding Inverse=true
- Lazy loading
- Avoiding the N+1 SELECT problem
- Mapping Inheritance hierarchies
- Concrete table inheritance (table per concrete class with complete columns)
- Single table inheritance (uses descriminator column and all possible columns)
- Class table inheritance (aka table per class with diff of columns)
- Advanced Querying
- Querying with Hibernate Query Language (HQL)
- Querying with the Criteria API
- Projections
- Optional Advanced Topics
- Multicriteria and multiqueries
- Future queries
- Advanced querying with native SQL
- NHibernate with sprocs
- LINQ to NHibernate
- Implementing a query govenor
- Abstracting the persistence layer with unit of work
- Optimizing database access with the level 2 cache
Requirements - Familiarity with C# and .NET Framework
- Laptop with Visual Studio 2005 or 2008 and SQL Server 2005 Developer or Express installed
Included in the cost is: - 3-days of intensive training on NHibernate
- Screencasts recorded during the course for easy review
- NHibernate in Action by Kuate, et al. (ebook)
- ReSharper 4.0 Personal License
- All code examples created throughout the course
A build automation tool... now with less XML... psake is a build automation tool written in PowerShell. It avoids the angle-bracket tax associated with executable XML by leveraging the PowerShell syntax in your build scripts. psake has a syntax inspired by rake (aka make in Ruby) and bake (aka make in Boo), but is easier to script because it leverages your existent command-line knowledge. psake is pronounced sake - as in Japanese rice wine. It does NOT rhyme with make, bake, or rake. psake is a proof-of-concept still in the early stages of development. It consists of a single file, psake.ps1, which contains all the logic for creating a graph of dependent tasks and executing them in the correct order. You can download it from Google Code using Subversion or TortoiseSVN: svn checkout http://psake.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ psake-read-only Here is a simple psake build script: properties {
$testMessage = 'Executed Test!'
$compileMessage = 'Executed Compile!'
$cleanMessage = 'Executed Clean!'
} task default -depends Test task Test -depends Compile, Clean {
Write-Host $testMessage
} task Compile -depends Clean {
Write-Host $compileMessage
} task Clean {
Write-Host $cleanMessage
} The properties and task script blocks can contain any valid PowerShell commands. To execute the script, simply type: psake <script.ps1> [task(s)] (This assumes that psake.ps1 is in your PowerShell path.) If you don't specify a task or list of tasks (separated by spaces), it will look for a task named "default". You can display the command line syntax by typing: psake -help psake [buildFile] [tasks] [-framework ver] [-debug]
where buildFile is the name of the build file, (default: default.ps1)
tasks is a list of tasks to execute from the build file,
ver is the .NET Framework version to target - 1.0, 1.1, 2.0, 3.0, or 3.5
3.5 is the default
debug dumps information the tasks.
psake -help
Displays this message. Remember that psake is syntactic sugar around PowerShell. So anything you can do in PowerShell, you can do in psake. That means that you can run MSBuild, NAnt, or other scripts. There is no need to completely replace your current build system. You can use psake to automate and extend it! psake automatically adds the appropriate version of .NET Framework to its path. So you can access MSBuild, csc.exe, vbc.exe, or any other tools installed in $env:windir\Microsoft.NET\Framework\$version\ without the fully qualified path. task default -depends DisplayNotice
task DisplayNotice {
msbuild /version
} As I mentioned earlier, psake is a proof-of-concept. You're likely to find some rough edges. I am releasing to the community under a MIT License. I would love to get your feedback and ideas for improving it. If you are interested in contributing, please contact me. Go forth and free yourselves from the shackles of executable XML! Take a sip of psake and enjoy!
Thanks to everyone for coming out to see Achieving Persistence Ignorance with NHibernate at the Calgary .NET User Group this past Wednesday. You can download the slidedeck and code here. The following are some good resources on NHibernate and the importance of persistence ignorance. I also mentioned during the presentation the trick of modifying Configuration before constructing your SessionFactory to turn immutable entities into mutable ones for testing or data loading. You can find the details in my blog post: Lastly I will be putting up a registration page for Object-Relational Mapping with NHibernate course in the next few days. If you're interested or have any questions, don't hesitate to email me.
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