devSolo

Post-CodeStock Vacation

Nathan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:06:03 +0000

As soon as I woke up from the post-codestock awesomeness at Alan Stevens’ house, I left to go on vacation with my family. We are chilling out at a hotel in Gatlinburg, TN and the WiFi finally started working. Since I’m off of work for the whole week for 4th of July shutdown inventory…. I’m gonna post as much as I can this week on the things I demo’ed for my presentation. I cannot put into words how wonderfull this CodeStock weekend has been. I met so many wonderful people and am looking soooo forward to seeing everybody again at DevLink.

Thanks everybody that learned things from my presentation Friday afternoon.
Thanks everybody that stuck it out and stayed through the whole thing even if you didn’t learn anything.
If you left early, no hard fealings, my presentation was pretty crappy, and if you feal like you could do better then I very much encourage you to do so.

I apologize to everybody that came to my presentation because I had Agile in the title and ended up focusing on the engineering side of things. Now that I’ve given the presentation I know what I need to fix and what I need to focus on. I learned more from being a speaker at CodeStock than I would ever have learned from just attending sessions. Thanks for putting up with me. And thanks especially to Michael Neel for the opportunity to present (He didn’t realize it was my first time presenting, and I assure you that he wouldn’t have let me if he knew…). And thank you Alan Stevens for making me believe that the best way I can get better in my abilities is to do my best, and not be afraid of coding in public. Not that I wanted to suck with gusto, but now I know what I need to do to not suck anymore.

And the after party tought me the importance not confusing “if you are gonna suck, do it with gusto” and “coding in public” and calling it “sucking in public”… not exactly what i meant

These are not the only people I want to thank for this opportunity, just the top of the list. The rest of the list will come as soon as my family lets go of my ear as they pull me out the door to go eat.

Software Links from my Agile Without The Team – CodeStock 2009 – Presentation

Nathan — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 08:15:41 +0000

TortoiseSVN – Windows Explorer Shell Extension for communicating with your Subversion repositories.
http://tortoisesvn.net/downloads

VisualSVN Server – Subversion Server
http://www.visualsvn.com/server/download/

AnkhSVN – Visual Studio 2005/2008 Source Control Plugin
http://ankhsvn.open.collab.net

TeamCity – Continuous Integration / Build Management Server
http://www.jetbrains.com/teamcity/download/index.html

Migrating Visual SourceSafe to Subversion

Nathan — Sun, 31 May 2009 21:12:43 +0000

I’ve been using Subversion(SVN) at work for any new projects that I start. The rest of my applications are all stored in Visual SourceSafe(VSS). I recently had to start adding some functionality to a couple of the VSS stored projects but I really wanted them to get migrated to subversion. So after doing some non-stack overflow searches (the stack overflow searches were very very pessimistic and “i give up”ish, I found a utility to do it for me… I found it at http://www.poweradmin.com/sourcecode/vssmigrate.aspx. (Note: The following is not an official historical record, merely a rough summarization). Quite a few people have added to this utility over the past year including: Jim Watters, Ricardo Stuven, Matt Palmerlee, Karl Zeift. And then Tim Erickson ported it to C# with his additions. Erik Lane worked on it and Erik and Tim put it on CodePlex where i96danma and jim0301 committed updates to it. Ok with the history out of the way, this tool is everything you probably need to migrate a VSS repository to SVN.

Before May 23, VssMigrate would re-create the check in history from VSS into SVN. But because of the way VSS works, which is one file per commit, the final SVN repository ended up not quite a perfect representation of the commit history. You might have committed 10 files in one batch, but VSS checks them in one at a time. In SVN we want that whole batch of 10 files to show as 1 commit and therefore rev up the repository only once. jim0301 updated VssMigrate to handle this situation perfectly. So now you can fully migrate with a very nice history. Even nicer than VSS held natively. Thank you jim0301.

Another nice thing about VssMigrate is it will remove all of the VSS bindings (all the hidden files for vss) and only migrate the real sources for your app.

I am going to go out on a limb and “assume” you are a developer and comfortable with source code. I can’t quite put my finger on any particular reasons why but I think it a safe assumption here. So go grab the latest source code from the trunk here. Click download on change set 16890 or above (16890 is the tip at the time of this post). or you could use the following command from a command prompt (with svn in your path):

svn co https://vssmigrate.svn.codeplex.com/svn/trunk vssmigrate

When you load the solution you will probably get a warning:

The referenced component ‘log4net’ could not be found.

Warning 5 Resolved file has a bad image, no metadata, or is otherwise inaccessible. “Could not load file or assembly ‘Path\lib\log4net\log4net.dll’ or one of its dependencies. The module was expected to contain an assembly manifest.

You can replace this one with a version from it’s home or direct link. Just overwrite the log4net.dll in /vssmigrate/src/lib/log4net/

To save you the trouble I have a copy of the source code with the re-referenced log4net file.

If you are on a 64-bit machine. Make sure to change the build configuration to x86 because there is no 64 bit library for the Visual Source Safe Interop and when you execute your app it will throw an exception that’s quite cryptic. To do this in Visual Studio do: Build –> Configuration Manager… –> Active Solution Platform = x86. Or on the Standard Toolbar change the “Any CPU” drop down list box to “x86”.

Now that you have it compiled we’ll start the walkthrough:

Step 1: Edit The Application Configuration

This should be broken up into two edits, pre-compile and post-compile. Edit the app.config in the solution pre-compile, and the VssMigrate.exe.config post-compile in the /bin directory for each migration. I would suggest setting the settings that won’t change i.e. user names and passwords and repository locations in the app.config so you don’t have to change them in the exe.config after every recompile.

VssMigrate.exe.config

xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <appSettings>
    
    <add key="VSSWIN32" value="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VSS\win32\" />
    
    <add key="VSSDIR" value="\\server\path\" />
    
    <add key="VSSPROJ" value="$/Products/Gadget" />
    
    <add key="VSSUSER" value="vssuser" />
    
    <add key="VSSPASSWORD" value="" />
    
    <add key="SVNUSER" value="svnuser" />
    
    <add key="SVNPASSWORD" value="svnpw" />
    
    <add key="SVNURL" value="http://server:3690/svn/" />
    
    <add key="SVNPROJ" value="Products/Gadget/trunk" />
    
    <add key="SVNREVPROPSPATH" value="\\server\SVNRepos\Products\db\revprops" />
    
    <add key="WORKDIR" value="c:\Temp\VssMigrate" />
  
      
            When set to false, the program will only show what files and/or revisions will be generated
            When set to true, the program will perform the migration
      -->
      <add key="PerformImport" value="False" />
  
      
            the revisions from the check-in history based on the dates, authors and comments as a key.
        -->
      <add key="DiscoverRevisions" value="True" />
      
      
        The window of time (in seconds) for multiple check-ins that may be considered a single revision
        The key for the merge / revision is the "time,author,comment."  Once all keys have been identified
        the merge will move all files from a later revision into an earlier revision thereby
        changing the time to the earlier revision.  This happens iteratively.
        
        Ignored if DiscoverRevisions is false
        
        Additional notes:
        End of lines and tabs are removed from comments and they are trimmed to determine the keys for merging / revisions
      -->
      <add key="MergeRevisionWindow" value="120" />
  
      
            Full Spec is passed into the regex's 
            e.g. inclusion => (\$/$)|(\$/Sub1(/Sub1A(/Sub1A2(/Sub1A2a)?)?)?$)|(\$/Sub1/Sub1A/Sub1A2/Sub1A2a.*)
            Only one or none of the exclusion/inclusion regex pairs may be set
            The regex's are case-insensitive
            Reminder: escape the $/ to \$/
        -->
      <add key="VssFolderExclusionRegex" value=""/>
      <add key="VssFolderInclusionRegex" value="" />
  
      
      <add key="VssFileExclusionRegex" value=""/>
      <add key="VssFileInclusionRegex" value=""/>
  appSettings>
configuration>

—–

Here are the lines that will should be changed Pre-Compile.

Line 5: Local VSS Client Install Directory

   4: 
   5: <add key="VSSWIN32" value="C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VSS\win32\" />

This needs to be set to the local install of the VSS client. Look for your ssapi.dll file.

Line 7: VSS Repository Location

   6: 
   7: <add key="VSSDIR" value="\\server\path\" />

Set the value equal to your VSS repositories where the srcsafe.ini file is.

Lines 11 and 13: VSS User and Password


<add key="VSSUSER" value="vssuser" />

<add key="VSSPASSWORD" value="Password" />

Lines 15 and 17: SVN User and Password


<add key="SVNUSER" value="svnuser" />

<add key="SVNPASSWORD" value="svnpw" />

Line 19: SVN Root URL

   18: 
   19: <add key="SVNURL" value="http://server:3690/svn/" />

Line 25: tmp folder for migration

   24: 
   25: <add key="WORKDIR" value="c:\Temp\VssMigrate" />

Make sure this folder exists.

Those 8 settings will probably not change unless you are working with multiple subversion or vss repositories with at multiple locations and with multiple user accounts.

Next the following 3 settings will change per project. You will execute VssMigrate.exe for each project after making these changes.

Line 9: VSS Project Root

   8: 
   9: <add key="VSSPROJ" value="$/Products/Gadget" />

$/ is the root for all your projects. If you want to migrate all your projects you should do this one project at a time.

Line 21: SVN Project Trunk

   20: 
   21: <add key="SVNPROJ" value="Products/Gadget/trunk" />

You may not have a SVN Repository created for you project yet. If not, go ahead and create one and then come back. If you are unsure how… maybe you shouldn’t be trying to import into SVN… but here is my walkthrough to get started.

Line 23: Physical location of SVN Repositories (used to update user and commit time)

   22: 
   23: <add key="SVNREVPROPSPATH" value="\\server\SVNRepos\Products\db\revprops" />

Now your application configuration is all set.

Step 2: More app.config: Discover Revision “Sets” instead of single file commits.

Lines 36 and 49


      the revisions from the check-in history based on the dates, authors and comments as a key.
  -->
   <add key="DiscoverRevisions" value="True" />
   
   
  The window of time (in seconds) for multiple check-ins that may be considered a single revision
  The key for the merge / revision is the "time,author,comment."  Once all keys have been identified
  the merge will move all files from a later revision into an earlier revision thereby
  changing the time to the earlier revision.  This happens iteratively.
  
  Ignored if DiscoverRevisions is false
  
  Additional notes:
  End of lines and tabs are removed from comments and they are trimmed to determine the keys for merging / revisions
   -->
   <add key="MergeRevisionWindow" value="120" />

You will probably want to leave DiscoverRevisions = True. The MergeRevisionWindow is the time range that the VSS Commits will be grouped together to form 1 SVN commit. I have found 120 seconds to be a good number.

Step 3: Choose a practice import, or a real import.

Line 31: Show What Will Be Imported? Or Actually Perform The Import?


When set to false, the program will only show what files and/or revisions will be generated
When set to true, the program will perform the migration
-->
<add key="PerformImport" value="False" />

When set to False, a xml file will be created to show you what files will be imported. This is especially useful if you set DiscoverRevisions = True. This way you can verify what files will be imported with each commit.

Step 4: Execute VssMigrate.exe.

Now to put it all together. After you’ve edited your App.Config and/or VssMigrate.exe.config you are ready to do either a test migration or the actual thing. If you set PerformImport=False in the config, you will get

Step 5: Verify your revisions_merged.xml

the revisions_merged.xml will look similar to (this is a sample import I did):

notice how the commits are grouped by time… very nice.

<revisions count="42">
    <revision time="10/18/2006 4:51:46 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel1.Dsr" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel1.dsx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel2.Dsr" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel2.dsx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.Dsr" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/clsMastRec.cls" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmAbout.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmAbout.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmAdminMain.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmAdminPWord.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDelBox.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDspPartials.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDspPartials.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="1" />Ex
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmPartial.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmPartial.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmPrint.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmPrint.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmSetInuse.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmUpdateMsg.frm" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmUpdateMsg.frx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/modUpdateDatabase.bas" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/Partial.Dsr" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/Partial.dsx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/resmod.bas" version="1" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/14/2006 10:36:22 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/14/2006 1:05:08 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="3" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/14/2006 3:43:20 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="4" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/15/2006 10:06:00 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="5" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/15/2006 10:11:16 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="6" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 9:39:32 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="7" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 10:40:04 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="8" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 10:49:48 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="9" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 10:52:30 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="10" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 10:54:22 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="11" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/18/2006 11:45:46 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="12" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 9:17:36 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="13" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 9:40:28 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="14" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="3" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 9:56:46 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="15" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="4" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 10:03:42 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="16" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="5" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 10:05:48 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="17" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="6" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 10:37:26 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="18" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 10:40:46 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="19" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 12:54:58 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="20" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="7" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 1:07:04 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="21" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/19/2006 3:32:44 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/20/2006 3:26:42 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="3" />
    revision>
    <revision time="12/26/2006 2:25:14 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="22" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="8" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/modUpdateDatabase.bas" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/11/2007 7:55:16 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmAbout.frm" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/12/2007 9:19:36 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="9" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/12/2007 11:33:00 AM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/modUpdateDatabase.bas" version="3" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/29/2007 1:51:22 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmHistory.frm" version="23" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="10" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/29/2007 2:01:18 PM" author="Kadena" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="4" />
    revision>
    <revision time="8/25/2008 2:04:24 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel1.Dsr" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel1.dsx" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel2.Dsr" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel2.dsx" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.Dsr" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="2" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/5/2009 3:54:48 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel3.Dsr" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel3.dsx" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.Dsr" version="3" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="3" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="3" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/5/2009 4:43:00 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="TZT Line Added">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="4" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="5" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frm" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="11" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="4" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/6/2009 3:47:02 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frm" version="3" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/modUpdateDatabase.bas" version="4" />
    revision>
    <revision time="1/6/2009 3:50:40 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.Dsr" version="4" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="5" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="6" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frm" version="4" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="12" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="5" />
    revision>
    <revision time="4/16/2009 11:56:16 AM" author="Nkelley" comment="Fixed boxlabel4 table issue">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.Dsr" version="5" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/BoxLabel4.dsx" version="6" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="6" />
    revision>
    <revision time="4/16/2009 12:03:30 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="7" />
    revision>
    <revision time="4/23/2009 11:04:50 AM" author="Nkelley" comment="Fixed problem where line 4 box labels would only print what was in the line 3 mysql table">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="13" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="8" />
    revision>
    <revision time="5/4/2009 10:07:06 AM" author="Nkelley" comment="Added Control-N for Auto Add New Serial Number">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="7" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="14" />
    revision>
    <revision time="5/4/2009 10:10:04 AM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="9" />
    revision>
    <revision time="5/21/2009 2:40:32 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/clsLine.cls" version="1" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/clsLineSettings.cls" version="1" />
    revision>
    <revision time="5/21/2009 4:50:42 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/Globals.bas" version="1" />
    revision>
    <revision time="5/21/2009 5:14:38 PM" author="Nkelley" comment="Refactored Code and added functionality to print to either a regular printer or a label printer">
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/clsLine.cls" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/clsLineSettings.cls" version="2" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmDetail.frm" version="8" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMain.frm" version="5" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/frmMDI.frm" version="15" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/modUpdateDatabase.bas" version="5" />
        <file name="$/ProdReporting/ProdReporting.vbp" version="10" />
    revision>
revisions>

Step 6: Edit VssMigrate.exe.config to do real import.

See Step 3… set PerformImport = True

Step 7: Execute VssMigrate.exe again

Step 8: Verify your Subversion Repository

Since I Use TortoiseSVN I checked out the project into a folder and then viewed the log:

Notice how Rev 43 Includes 7 Modified files… Woot!

VSS does not do this… the latest version of VssMigrate is what causes the Subversion Repository to include the *real* VSS Commit… Thank you guys!

Sometimes you find me not wearing the monkey suit.

Nathan — Sun, 31 May 2009 17:54:06 +0000

HowTo: Getting Started With Source Control With Subversion

Nathan — Sat, 23 May 2009 23:33:03 +0000

So you want to start using Source Control with all your projects. Great idea!

Here is a step by step howto for getting Subversion (Specifically VisualSVN 1.7.2) up and running on your computer.

Installing VisualSVN 1.7.2

Step 0: Obtain VisualSVN

You can find VisualSVN here: http://www.visualsvn.com/server/download/

Download it, and start the installer. There are screenshots for each step of the installer but really only two screens (Steps 3 and 6) have any options.

Step 1: Welcome Screen

Click Next

Step 2: EULA

Read the agrement (yeah right, like you are going to do that)
Click the “I accept the terms” check box
Click Next

Step 3: File Locations, Port, and Authentication Mode

Your biggest choice on this page is whether you want to use http or https for communication with the svn server. You will also have to pick the authentication mode. I usually go with Subversion authentication. That way if you have a Continuous Integration Server that builds and version labels your code automatically (topics for future post) then you can simply create a user in VisualSVN instead of having to mess with Windows auth.
Pick your settings and click Next

Step 4: Last Chance for changes

If you are happy with your settings and not having second thoughts then go ahead and click Install

Step 5: Twiddle your thumbs

This installation goes by pretty quick so just be patient and then you will arrive at:

Step 6: Installation Complete

Hooray! you now have a place to keep all your source code all safe and sound. And you can also have a lot more confidence that you can make a change and not do so irrevocably.

Setting up your first Repository

Step 1: Pretty VisualSVN Server Manager

Welcome to your Server Manager

Step 2: Add your first Repository

Right Click [Create New Repository] or [New]->[Repository…]

Enter your project name. Don’t name it “MyRepository” or “MyCode”. Some people recommend one repository per company, and some recommend one repository per project. I personally prefer the middle ground and group related projects together in the same repository. Basically anything that I would want to backup or restore as a group. We’ll refer to our example project as ProjectName.
Unless you know what you are doing, and/or already have a repository structure in mind, I’d suggest checking the box and just going with the defaults. You end up with three folders: Trunk, Branches, and Tags.

Trunk: This is where the main development version of your program will go
Tags: This is where you will create a snapshot for particular versions of your code. i.e. V1 release, V1.1 release, etc… so you can come back at any time and have an exact match of your code to a customer thats having issues with a particular version.
Branches: This is where you can make a copy of your main trunk and modify that copy without affecting the trunk. I’ll talk about branching in a later post.

click OK and you have yourself a repository.

Step 3: Create a User

Now you’ll want to make yourself a user account.
Right Click Users
Select [Create User…] or [New]->[User…]

Give yourself a name
Enter a Password
Hit OK

That’s it for creating a user.

Step 4: Security (Optional)

Right Click your repository: ProjectName
click [All Tasks]->[Manage Security…]

Notice how “Everyone” already has Read / Write Permissions. This is what makes this step optional. You may want to add yourself though.
Click [Add…]

Select the user you want to add
click OK

That’s It… your user is now added with Read / Write Permissions to your repository. If you were concerned with having Everyone still in the group, you can delete it.

Success…

Hopefully you’ve made it to this point without any problems. You now have a subversion server up and running and ready to hold your code.

You can verify that it’s working by right clicking your repository and choosing [Copy URL to Clipboard] and pasting it into your browser

You’ll have to provide the credentials that you created earlier.

Now you should see your repository. There’s not much you can do with it from your browser. My next post will show you 2 more tools to work with your new repository. One plug-in for Visual Studio, and a plug-in for Windows Explorer.

WordPress SEO Friendly Permalinks

Nathan — Sat, 23 May 2009 20:19:59 +0000

As long as I’ve had this WordPress blog, I’ve cringed every time I look at my URLs and see ugly query strings in every link.

i.e. http://devSolo.com/?p=245

Where does that link go to? Who knows? I much prefer to see the link in a SEO Friendly (and very human readable):

http://devsolo.com/index.php/2009/05/what-should-the-guy-that-comes-after-me-know/

Yes, it’s longer, and not search engine friendly, but it is human readable. It’s not search engine friendly because I didn’t use any useful keywords to start the title. I’ll have to pay more attention to that in future articles.

Anyway, I played around with dasBlog and BlogEngine.Net and they both generated the SEO Friendly URLs by default. So I considered switching to BlogEngine. For some reason I assumed that if WordPress didn’t do it by default, it must not be able to. That’s what I get for assuming. So if you are using WordPress and would like much friendlier URLs then just change the following Setting:

1) From your management page: Select [Settings]

2) then [Permalinks]

3) then pick your prefered style.

4) Profit…

What should “the guy that comes after me” know?

Nathan — Tue, 05 May 2009 04:06:27 +0000

After reading the book Clean Code by Robert Martin, I am increasingly paranoid about which room is talking about me. This comic was his introduction to the introduction of the book.

I certainly hope that any programmers that look at my code would sound like the code review on the left. But of course that’s a fantasy. I’m actually finding it a challenge balancing my goals.

Make sure your code can be understood by the “guy that comes after me.”
Get work done!

But here is my dilemma… In using 3LA’s to make me a more productive programmer, am I making it harder for the “guy that comes after me" to follow my code?

I think this all depends on who “the guy that comes after me” is. This guy will most probably only know VB. And he won’t know a unit test from a integration test. In fact, he probably will think a test is what big companies have a dedicated department to do. “Did you test your code?” “Yes, I clicked every button, and even made sure the program crashes gracefully.”

And what about Dependency Injection… and I’m not talking about StructureMap, NInject, Windsor, or Unity. I mean Poor Mans Dependency Injection. DI as a pattern, not an application. "um, whats a pattern?”.

/facepalm, *ouch* ok I /facepalmed extra hard and knocked myself off my soapbox. (be nice)

Ok, 5 things that I would want the “guy that comes after me” to know.

Source Control
Unit Testing
Dependency Injection (a.k.a. Loosely coupled code)
Build Scripts
Object Oriented Programming w/ Interfaces (shouldn’t this be assumed)

I’ll expand on these points in later posts.

Art and Refactoring (and #pairwithus)

Nathan — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 18:32:09 +0000

All developers must watch this video and see awesomeness in action! These guys rock. It caused me to think about the developers that would watch it and not understand it. Those practitioners of Mouse Driven Development. And I started making jokes at their expense while using the #pairwithus twitter tag. Very very bad of me. Sorry guys. I should have went to bed.

PairWith.Us Trailer April 2009 from pairwith.us on Vimeo.

Just remember the comments were directed at “developers” that wouldn’t understand what they were seeing. Of course with my Expressivly Challenged Disorder, clarity is not something that comes out of me at 1am. I tend to talk in reverse sometimes.

devsolo: if ur a dev and http://vimeo.com/4110814 #pairwithus dont make you hang your head and say no no no, go away&do your mouse driven development
devsolo: #pairwithus http://vimeo.com/4110814 is like one huge insider joke
devsolo: seriously i consider #pairwithus a work of art and very well done… along the lines of the vieled rebekkah http://is.gd/rZMm (expand)
devsolo: mumble mumble mumblemumble mumble mumble mumble mumblemumble finger moving up and down over lips http://vimeo.com/4110814 #pairwithusmumble
devsolo: 90% of devs will view #pairwithus http://vimeo.com/4110814 and then their hand will go swoosh over their heads and they say duhhhhhhhhhhhhh
devsolo: i guess what i mean is http://vimeo.com/4110814 causes me to laugh and then cry wondering if i should have just cried instead #pairwithus

Nerd in training! She just doesn’t know it.

Nathan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:42:24 +0000

Star Trek? What's Star Trek?

She dresses herself every day. I’m going to have to buy some Star Trek movies/episodes for her to start watching. I tried to teach her to do the Vulcan Salute tonight but her fingers just couldn’t do it yet. I’ll have to buy her some rubber bands tommorow.