As a .NET developer, creating modern web apps using Node on the backend can seem daunting. The amount of tooling and setup required before you can write a “modern” application has resulted in the development community to display “Javascript Fatigue”; a general wariness related to the exploding amount of tooling, libraries, frameworks and best practices that are introduced on a seemingly daily basis. Contrast this with building an app in .NET using Visual Studio where the developer simply selects a project template to build off of and they’re ready to go. [Read more…]
Universal Windows Platform – The Undiscovered Country for Windows Desktop Apps
July 5, 2016 by Leave a Comment
It is unfortunate, but I think Dr. McCoy from Star Trek: The Original Series said it best: ‘Windows 10 Mobile is dead, Jim“…. and just to pile on with one more.
Buried underneath the red shirt like death of Windows 10 Mobile lies the amazing Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
The developer capabilities of the Universal Windows Platform have been documented in many a location.
UWP provides:
- Full developer parity at the API and framework level across all flavors of Windows 10, Xbox One, HoloLens, and Windows 10 Mobile devices.
- A simplified install model via APPX bundles.
- A per-app separation of registry and file systems.
- XAML controls ‘just work’ across all Windows 10 / UWP devices.
- Targeting the UWP API set ensures that your app works across Windows 10 / UWP devices.
In my experience, there is nothing weirder than seeing your Windows 10 / UWP app just work on an Xbox One, in a virtual projected rectangle via a HoloLens, and via mouse and keyboard on a standard Windows 10 PC.
Apple WWDC – The Worth of Being There
May 20, 2016 by Leave a Comment
In this era of travel budget crackdowns and higher than normal oversight into technology budgets, the iOS software engineer can get lost in the shuffle when it comes to training time and opportunities to talk with other members of the iOS development community.
Due to the rise of the popularity of Apple’s iOS platform, Apple WWDC (Worldwide Developer Conference) has become the central rallying point for iOS developers. It seems that the entire iOS community gathers in San Francisco over the week of WWDC. Many developers go to San Francisco over the week of WWDC even if they don’t have a ticket to the conference.
C# vs. Swift – Iron Man vs. Captain America
May 11, 2016 by 2 Comments
In Captain America: Civil War we get to see the ultimate battle between Iron Man and Captain America.
It is a battle of simple gutty defense vs. smart weapons and flashy offense, humility vs. brashness, down in the dirt vs. up in the clouds.
To totally geek it up, the same kind of battle exists in the languages that software engineers use today and I believe this is especially true in the battle of C# vs. Swift.
Don’t worry, this really isn’t a versus type write up. If anything I seek to point out each language’s unique strengths, then show how software engineers can get into the right superhero mindset to really use those strengths, and be aware of the weaknesses, to create great solutions.
My Trek Through MinneBar 11
April 29, 2016 by Leave a Comment
On April 23, 2016 I attended my first minnebar conference: minnebar 11
I am amazed that content of this quality was presented by community members for free. It was totally worth being inside and roaming the maze-like halls of Best Buy Corporate Headquarters on one of the few sunny Saturdays we get up here in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. The exposure to new technical topics was great, but more importantly experiencing the energy of the people who are active in the Minnesota tech community was the real core of the experience.
Firebase – A Real Time Document Database
March 1, 2016 by 1 Comment
There are a plethora of document databases to choose from nowadays. The entire nature of storing data is changing, so how we work with data needs to change as well. Single page applications on the web need to be responsive, not just in layout but in communication as well. Users have come to expect a higher quality of data representation, and the landscape is quickly evolving.
C# / .NET Mobile Development: Performance, Languages and a Sample Catalog
February 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment
In last week’s post I described why it is time for native app developers to double back and take a look at C# / .NET based code for their native app platform needs in iOS, Android, and Windows 10.
There are three topics that require an even deeper look, however: app performance, other language considerations and samples of the catalog that we used in our solutions. These topics are covered in more detail below.
Common Pitfalls with IDisposable and the Using Statement
March 13, 2014 by 4 Comments
Memory management with .NET is generally simpler than it is in languages like C++ where the developer has to explicitly handle memory usage. Microsoft added a garbage collector to the .NET framework to clean up objects and memory usage from managed code when it was no longer needed. However, since the garbage collector does not deal with resource allocation due to unmanaged code, such as COM object interaction or calls to external unmanaged assemblies, the IDisposable pattern was introduced to provide developers a way to ensure that those unmanaged resources were properly handled. Any class that deals with unmanaged code is supposed to implement the IDisposable interface and provide a Dispose() method that explicitly cleans up the memory usage from any unmanaged code. Probably the most common way that developers dispose of these objects is through the using statement.
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Integration Testing Best Practices
February 12, 2014 by 1 Comment
We’ve already covered the best practice of Automated Unit Testing. Unit testing has many benefits, but there are times when you need to be able to test how multiple units of code work together. This is when you need Integration Tests.
Source Control Best Practices
January 13, 2014 by 1 Comment
One of the most powerful tools we have as software developers is not a coding pattern, method, framework, or even really code at all. Like a bank keeps its most valuable assets in a safe, so do we as developers seek to protect our most valuable assets, the code we create.
Source control (referred to variously as source control management, version control, revision control, and probably a half dozen other terms as well) describes a system we use to store our code, manage changes to that code, and share our code with others. Our choice of a source control system is one of the single most important decisions we can make, and will radically affect how productive we are able to be.
In this article we will examine the rationale behind source control, and get a rundown of the different types of source control systems available, including examples of each still in widespread use today. After that we will discuss how to structure a solution to get the most out of our source control system, with an emphasis on .NET solutions. Lastly we will learn how to integrate a source control system with the software development lifecycle.
Super Development 