Good2Know: Pair Programming and its benefits

Jeff Langr and Tim Ottinger have written an article where they share the benefits they have seen in their experience with pair programming.  They also have put together a slide deck on rules that pertain to this practice.

If you are new to pair programming, or have not heard about it, is the practice where two developers sit at one workstation.  One assumes the role of the driver by writing the code, and the other assumes the role of navigator (or observer) and resviews the code as it is written.  The roles switched frequently so there is no set role for each developer.  More info can be found

 

Safe elements to use in HTML5 and CSS3

The other day I ran into the html5please.us which is a site that offers expert advice on which features to use and not to use when developing apps. The site breaks its advice down into three categories: use, use with caution, and avoid.  Scroll all the way to the bottom of the main page and you’ll find the list of contributors.  Divya Manian, Web opener for Opera Software; Paul Irish, developer programs engineer on the Google Chrome team; Tim Branyen, a software engineer at Bocoup; Connor Montgomery, a Web developer and computer science student at St. Louis University; and a host of others. This slide show takes a look at the HTML5 and CSS3 elements that HTML5 Please says are completely safe for developers to use.

Good2Know: The Art of Mocking

In object-oriented programming, mock objects are simulated objects that mimic the behavior of real objects in controlled ways. A programmer typically creates a mock object to test the behavior of some other object, in much the same way that a car designer uses a crash test dummy to simulate the dynamic behavior of a human in vehicle impacts. This is something that you will run into if you embark in the journey that TDD is. This article The Art of Mocking gives you a very simple and high overview of this technique. There are a number of frameworks out there that will help you with the creation of objects and their consumption.

Good2Read: Remaining Work is Key for Agile

I recently read an article in the Visual Studio Magazine regarding the importance of remaining work when assessing progress.  Aaron Bjork talks about why remaining work is the most important measurement on your Agile projects.  He discusses about the tension between focusing on finished instead of remaining work and what that does to the project.  Overall a really good read.

Enjoy!

Good2Read: Hack-Proofing Your ASP.NET Applications

Adam Tuliper has a great article in the December issue of the MSDN magazine where he covers the simple steps one can take to prevent our sites to be hacked.  A good book on this subject is Writing Secure Code 2nd Edition which addresses how to secure our application by writing secure code (hence the title).

Enjoy!

Good2Read: Responsive Web Design

The  MSDN Magazine November 2011 Issue has a really good article in the HTM5 section called  Responsive Web Design.  The concept that your design should not try to anticipate the devices in which is goingt be viewed but rather it should “…use flexible and fluid layouts that adapt to almost any screen.”  This is based on an article back in 2010 with the same title by Ethan Marcotte.

Enjoy!

Good2Read: Assessing Quality

J.D. Hildebrand has a really good article this month in the SD Times eMagazine titled Assessing quality where he discusses the fact that in order to be able to accurately assess quality we have to define it accurately first.  I like his point that you have to assess quality of intention and quality of execution and how in software development we tend to put a lot of emphasis on the latter and neglect the former.

Enjoy!

Good2Read: The Model-View-Presenter-ViewModel Design Pattern for WPF

This article in the December issue of the MSDN Magazine caught my attention.  Bill Kratochvil presents the advantages of developing extensible enterprise apps with what he calls the MVPVM pattern.  He stresses the importance of architectural patterns chosen and the direct correlation they have on code-reuse and resource allocation.  “The patterns you use will determine whether you paint yourself into a corner or keep your back to the open opportunities the future might bring.”  The article is a very good read if at all to get the reader thinking about revisiting the proven design patterns available today.

Good2Read: ASP.NET MVC Filters

Ben Grover has a great article in the July issue of the MSDN Magazine on ASP.NET Action Filters.

In a nutshel, action filters are attributes you apply to controller actions to modify the way the action is executed.  This can have a number of applications, outputaching, authorization and error handling.  In this article Ben focuses on a custom filter to handle performance counting.

Enjoy!

Good2Read: Make Agile Work for You in TFS 2010

The June issue of the MSDN Magazine has a great article about the benefits and basics of implementing Agile with TFS.  TFS integrates with SharePoint providing a great way to not only track your project but provide transparency on the progress of the project.  Chris Adams does a great job at selling Agile with the great features TFS 2010 provides.

Enjoy!