The dynamic programmer
Tools

Mac OSX windows managers, BetterSnapTool and Slate.

Because a good set of tools should help you to be more productive.

Prototype and Script.aculo.us presentation

A great presentation from Thomas Fuchs creator of Script.aculo.us at infoq.com. A preview of the new 2.0 version of the Script.aculo.us library on Thomas Fuchs blog. Enjoy!

Gherkin editor, small bug fix

Fixing code completion and syntax highlight for files.

Converting my iPad into a portable office.

I recently got the Logitech keyboard folio for my trusty iPad 2; couldn't be happier.

Newsify, my new choice on RSS reader for the iPad.

A great client for Google reader with great visualizations and sharing options.

Using the iPad as a development tool.

Although the iPad is far from the perfect content creation tool, with a few chosen apps you can turn it into a more than decent development tool.

The rise of web (and browser) based IDE.

Run them in you computer or hosted, integrate with your source control provider and extend them with plug-ins as needed.

Support Light Table to make it a reality.

Light Table is at the moment a concept for a different way to work with code.

Being productive with MVC 3.

On how using MVC 3, NuGet, MvcScaffold, EF code first, Git and AppHarbor make me have fun again using the Microsoft stack.

Playing with NSubstitute, a new mocking framework for .Net

I heard about NSubstitute on episode 26 of Talking Shop down under. It sounded like an interesting framework with some interesting ideas, so I took it for a spin.

WebMatrix, razor, Webpages and friendly urls.

I remember the time when WebMatrix was this tiny little web editor done in .net that the crazy guys like me used to edit their first asp.net pages (without code behind and moving away from classic asp).

Node.js web development with Express

I have been researching node.js and the ecosystem around it. Yes, node has an ecosystem, a very vibrant one if I may say. Today I tried a simple web framework that resembles Ruby's Sinatra by the name of Express.

My BDD Session at Toronto Code Camp - slides, code and retrospective.

Yesterday I presented at Toronto code camp a session on BDD + User Stories and what frameworks to use in the .net work to support the practice.

Gherkin editor, syntax highlighting and auto complete to write your stories.

Last Friday I was showing some of the guys at the office how to write user stories with the Gherkin language to been able to use them in either Cucumber or Specflow as executable specifications.

Clone a project on Codeplex to your own Codeplex repo with Mercurial.

If you use Github (Git) or Bitbucket (Mercurial) you are familiar with the ability to fork a project into your own repository in those sites.

Digging SpecFlow, misspelling Gerkhin files

I'm a proponent of dynamic languages and I love Ruby and Cucumber but I have to admit that this is cool. I was writing a set of specifications with SpecFlow today and suddenly I saw this error in Visual Studio.

Mercurial integration with Visual Studio

I recently posted about how to integrate Git with Visual Studio. Of course Git is not the only DVCS out there. Mercurial is another source control system similar to Git that is having more and more relevance.

Git integration with Visual Studio

I started to use Git seriously 5 months ago when I sign up for my Github account on September 1st 2009. Before that I was a very happy subversion user. One of the things that I really like about Git is the speed.

Using SpecFlow + WatiN or BDD for web applications without leaving the CLR.

Last week I wrote about using cucumber to test your web applications outside in. In the post I showed a simple example (actually comes with cucumber) to open a browser, go to a site and perform some actions.

Test driven outside in, starting with Cucumber and RubyMine.

On my new project I want to start using end to end testing. The idea is to write an specification run it against an outer interface. Gui, Web service, etc. It fails. So you start implementing the feature using TDD until the Spec pass.

The simplicity and speed of Git and DVCS in general.

Since I started using Git a few months ago, and particularly GitHub since last September, my life have been good in DVCS land.I used to be a Subversion user and I was happy*, maybe because I didn't know anything better.

My new an improved tooling for builds and project management.

I try to be pragmatic in my approach to development and one of the things that change the most are the tools I use to deliver software. There are several reasons why I change tools so often.

Using MongoDB from C#

The NoSql movement is gaining more and more momentum. A year or two ago I took a look at CouchDb but this time I wanted to try MongoDB.

Horn, First Impressions

Some time ago I heard about the intent of putting together a package manager for .net ala gems or pear. I wasn't aware that this project was actually under way. The name of the project, Horn.

Yellow sticky notes for your watched variables in the new VS 2010.

One new feature in the code editor is the ability to put sticky notes in the code while debugging. This sticky notes are actually attached to a given variable and you can see the actual value of it in the note (similar to using the watch window).

Record steps to reproduce a problem on windows 7.

I needed to do some screen captures for a future post I'm writing. This is usually not a problem but in this laptop I don't have an screen capture utility installed.

A Resharper template for use with Migrator.net

I have been playing at home for the last few days with different migrations strategies for db development. The one that I like the most so far is Migrator.Net. Here are the things I really like.

Adding LinqPad to my toolbox.

Tonight I added LinqPad to my toolbox. I did try this before but I guess I wasn't very inspired because I didn't stick with it. Let me tell you, that was a mistake. I have been playing with it for an hour or so and I'm loving it.

What is ProngHorn and why I'm doing it?

Pronghorn is still a work in progress and the architecture+design is changing very fast. At this moment the main focus is on the ViewEngine because...

Integrate Subversion with VS for free on Windows 7

In a previous article I mentioned how to integrate VS 2008 with Subversion for free using a few settings and a script. .When I run the script in Windows 7 all the menu items were grayed out.

VS 2010, Generate method from usage.

One of the main reasons I got ReSharper originally was for it's ability to do micro code generation. This is a functionality that I found very useful when doing test first development.

The Renaissance in development; Ted Neward at Oredev 2008

You can get all the videos (110)

Bullet points post.

Common List E-book (free online) Apparently you can also download it from the Apress website's book page but the link was down for maintenance when I tried.

Lightweight Test Framework, attaching to a new window after window.open

In a previous post I mention about a fix to been able to open a new window both in IE and Firefox using the Lightweight Test Framework.

Microsoft Lightweight Automation Framework- Writing your tests in a different web

This is a quick post. In the samples for the framework the test are written in the same system to test.

Lightweight Test Framework, fixing how to handle window.open

As I mentioned in a previous post I have been playing with the Microsoft Lightweight Test Automation Framework. The Lightweight framework handle alert and confirms without any problem, both in IE and Firefox out of the box.

Microsoft Lightweight Test Automation Framework- Fixing window.open errors

I have been playing with the Microsoft Lightweight Test Automation Framework, that's a mouthful for the Microsoft's Web testing framework.

The Herding Code - NHibernate performance podcast

Today I have the pleasure to listen to a really good episode of The Herding Code. The episode title was NHibernate performance. In the episode Ayende, David Penton and Ben Scheirman talked about NHibernate and the performance of the tool ...

RubyMine, an IDE for Ruby, Rails and so much more.

Ok, first let me be really clear, I'm not a JetBrains fan boy. Yes, I use ReSharper and yes, I also use TeamCity at home as my Continuous Integration server for some of my projects.

Validator moves to it's own package

Today I move the code of LaTrompa.Validation into it's own package, with no external dependencies (besides the framework of course). I added a class to validate XmlNodes.

Gurtle, access your Google code issue tracker from inside TortoiseSVN

In my previous post I mentioned how to integrate Visual Studio with Subversion for free and without having to install fancy plug-ins.

Integrate Visual Studio with TortoiseSVN for free.

Now there is another choice and is a set of configuration options to access TortoiseSVN from inside Visual Studio. The set of configurations provide a tools menus, context menu, and menu bar.

CruiseControl.NET Build Station or how to run CC.net in a development machine without IIS

I just saw this project in Codeplex; CruiseControl.Net build station sounds interesting and very useful if you happen to work in a machine without IIS.

Check.That validation framework reworked

I just finished a complete re write of my validation framework. This re write was due to feedback received from some of my co workers so I owe to them my thanks.

XGENO.ORG new lightweight ORM Mapper.

You can find this new ORM framework at http-//code.msdn.microsoft.com/XGENOORM. Starting with it is fairly easy. Just add a reference on your project to the very small (32K) dll (only one!) and you can start playing with it.

Catharsis, a complete framework for developing Web apps using MVC and NHibernate 2.0

Once in a while I like to browse around Codeplex to see what's new and if I found anything interesting. Today I found this Gem of a project called Catharsis. To be able to use it you will need VS 2008 with SP1.

My actual minimum requirements for a project

My previous post got me thinking, what are the things I will considered as minimum requirements for me to work in a project even when I have serious constrains on time?

Los Techies is having a very interesting series on Kanban

Derick Bailey is doing a very good series on Kanban. So far he posted about- The board, queues, order points, pipelines, handling bugs and emergency fixes. You can find all the posts under the Kanban tag. ...

Microsoft Code Analysis Tool (CAT) identify vulnerabilities on your code.

CAT is a Visual Studio Add-in that analyze your code and all the references in your project looking for vulnerabilities to common attacks.

Sharp Architecture project template in a machine without ASP.NET MVC Beta installed

In my machine at work I can't install ASP.NET MVC (it installs but fails to install the project templates, I don't know why and I haven't had time to look into it).

SVN Notifier, or keeping up to date with your source control system

SVN Notifier is a nice little tool that sits on your Tray and let you know when a folder under source control on your system goes out of date. It's useful is you are working on several projects with several developers or you follow the trunk...

Scout plug in for Resharper to navigate your code.

This is a plug-in for Resharper that allows you to use Reflector and and the .Net framework source code to navigate your code. You can download it from the Google code project page.

Big Visible Cruise patch to specify projects in the configuration file

Download the patch to add projects via the configuration file to Big Visible Cruise.

ELMAH error handler for asp.net applications

This looks very interesting. (from their site) ELMAH (Error Logging Modules and Handlers) is an application-wide error logging facility that is completely pluggable. It can be dynamically added to a running ASP.NET web application, or...

Ta-Da List and Chrome, or how to do good products.

I have looking for a simple to use, fast, ubiquous to do list for a long time. I used several different solutions. Web and desktop application. So far none of them really worked for me. Some of them are too simple, others too complex. ...

Watir to run my smoke and regression tests

I have been looking for a tool to drive my web sites smoke and regression test for quite a while, between the tools I used I want to mention Sahi and Selenium, really good tools.

More tools to format C# code into HTML

After I wrote my last post I remembered that some time ago I did intall an Add-In for Visual Studio called CopySource-AsHTML. So I decided that it was time to try it. I love it almost inmidiatly. The reason I like it better than the previous too...

Do you need to format the code for your blog?

C# format is an online tool to format your C#, VB, HTML, XML, T-SQL or MSH code into valid HTML 4.01 complaint code to put online.

Release of new versions of very cool software - NHibernate and Json.NET.

In the last few days two of my favorite pieces of software released new versions.

NArrange or keeping your code in order. (How to run it for only one file)

There is a feature of Refactor that I really like and is the posibility to re-order the code (grouping fields, properties, private and public methods together) and order them alfabetically. I'm a Resharper user and I was looking for some add-in ...

Some interesting looking CodePlex projects

Here is a list of some projects that look interesting. Extension Methods Extravaganza- A collection of some extension methods. You can find extension to the object the ICollection, IEnumerable, IList, String and StringBuilder. I specially ...

PartCover.Net and CC.Net Part 2 - Making it pretty.

In my previous post I show how to integrate PartCover reports into CC.Net and promise to look into make the reports look a bit nicer and try to integrate the Coverage metrics into the statistics reports. So I dust off my xslt ...

Integrate PartCover.Net and Cruise Control.Net

A few months ago I mentioned that I was using PartCover.Net to measure test coverage in my projects. I have been really busy but I decided that this week I was going to integrate the reports with CC.Net. Cruise Control ships with NCover support o...

Nant build scripts template for Visual Studio

I was creating for the 10th time today a nant build file from Visual Studio when I came to the realization that I needed to automate the process a bit more. So I created an item template to include build files. You just need to copy this zip file...

ASP.Net Development server in a custom port

During Scott's Hanselmann presentation on Dynamic Data at the TVBUG he show a little trick that I didn't know about and I want to show it here.It always annoy me that every time you click run in a web application using VS it runs using ...

Testing your asp.net pages with NunitAsp (and no web controls)

Testing is fundamental to get your code into shape and to be sure that what you are doing is behaving as expected. New methodologies like Test Driven Design (TDD) point to that goal.

PartCover the Code Coverage tool for me

A free tool to do code coverage with a nice GUI for the developers to use, that can be run on the command prompt, that generates nice xml based reports (to integrate with your CC server) and best of all for me) that works fine with Static methods...

Free virtual machine software.

Virtualbox is a free open source virtual machine software. I have been using it to run, Ubuntu, Fedora, BDS and a virtual XP machine with all the new stuff for testing and I love it

PSPad, editors and other tools that I can't leave without.

I usually use PSPad as my fire up and hack something together editor. I also use it to do a lot of maintenance, I have been even using it to do some c# editing here and there and relying more and more in Nant to do the builds, it even has a plug-in to synchronize with subversion if you want.

The Ruby (and Rails) IDE that I miss

I keep searching for the right IDE for my Ruby and Ruby on Rails adventures. I keep changing and playing around with the ones I had and lately I keep using NetBeans 6.0. Yesterday I decide to try again and after looking at The usual suspects, I found Eclipse for Rails...

NAnt 0.86 beta 1 with support for 3.5 is available

I went today to the Nant site to check some documentation and I saw that the beta 1 of the new version is available, this version supports the .NET 3.5 framework, Mono 3.5, Silverlight 2.0 and Moonlight 2.0

Fixing IIS 5.0 to work with the MVC

I just found this post with detailed instruction on how to make the MVC framework work in IIS. The instructions are very basic and you shouldn't have any problems making it work, but you may not know how to modify the extension handling in IIS 5.