One of my goals this year, is to earn my MCSD for .NET, however training in the Central IL area is very spotty, and damn near impossible to get.  I recently signed up for 2710: Analyzing Requirements and Defining Microsoft .NET Solution Architectures through Levi, Ray, & Shoup (LRS), and I was just informed today that my class had been cancelled due to the lack of interest.  What am I? Am I not interested?

This just reminds me of when a co-worker went through LRS earlier this year for some training, and he got a one-on-one training course only because they forgot to cancel the class.  Lucky him, I guess...but still, why do they need to cancel classes when you have at least 1 interested person trying to further educate themselves.  If you started a public school, and only had 1 kid, would you turn them away because you're class wasn't large enough? No, because that kid would not get the education he or she needs.  Why is this any different?

I'm really not pleased with LRS right now about this, and as such I may have to go to Peoria or Chicago to actually get my training...at least in Chicago they assure you're class won't get cancelled.  Which, unfortunately means that its going to cost me/my company more $$ to send me off to training.  Oh well, its all for the good of me, right?  LRS doesn't think so.

My team at work is starting to look into using the Extreme Programming (XP) model, and as such I've started to do some reading up on it...and determined that its driven highly on TDD. This is something, unfortunately, I've had no experience with.  So - I downloaded NUnit and started working with it, and (like always) I was trying to find the most streamlined way of running my tests.

The NUnit GUI wasn't bad, it does what it needs to do...however I wanted something integrated into VS.NET.  Sure enough, my praryers were answered when "NUnit Testing Integrated in Visual Studio" came out on TheServerSide.NET. So - I downloaded TestRunner, and started giving it a whirl.  Its a bit cumbersome to figure out how to make it work...its not too intuitive, as the buttons don't have any tool tips, but the FAQ does give you a description of what each does.

Anyway, I suggest using this tool, its very cool and allows you to not leave the IDE at all.

Through my normal routine of reading/responding to Microsoft newsgroups, a question came up about "100% Managed Code" phrases that companies use.  Specifically, the user was asking about a PDF component advertising it as such, and was just wondering if it was possible that they were using the Adobe APIs still.  Well, my response basically stated that since they're advertising it as "100% Managed Code", that it probably doesn't use Interop, and has built on the described api.

This has basically made me start thinking about the term "100% Managed Code", and why companies use this.  As I can see, this may be a nice selling point to business managers and what not, but it really doesn't play into a developers mindframe when they're checking out components (unless there is a defined restriction set forth by their company).  I for one have been seeing "100% Managed Code" for several years now, and always disregard what they're saying, only because I don't care.  So what, its "100% Managed Code", does it work?  If you say yes, and I don't need to purchase anything further I'm sold.

So, why is this a big deal?  Well, I feel that some companies may misuse and overuse the phrase "100% managed code" just because its hip, cool, and "the" thing right now.  Okay, okay...so does that mean I can advertise all my free server controls as "100% managed code"?  Well, sure...I mean, I use C# to build them, they need the .NET framework to run, why not.  Well - DUH - of course my controls are "100% managed code"...otherwise you really wouldn't be able to use them...which is the main reason its implicitly dubbed "100% managed code".

However, the biggest gripe I have, is with those companies that release a new component or tool, and just to add hype, they state "100% managed code" and, lets not forget "Built on the .NET framework!"  Wow, thats amazing...or is it?  In this day in age, you're seeing a lot more applications being built on the .NET framework more and more, but why are companies still overusing and misusing this phrase? I think its a increasing trend that has absolutely no affect on how I look at 3rd party components when determining if they'll work for what I need them.

So whats my point?  Think about your descriptions of components/tools, and how is it going to appeal to the common developer.  Are we going to be amazed that it works - probably. Do we care that its written entirely on the .NET framework, not as long as my previous statement holds true.  Remember that about 95% of the time, its developers that are given the task of finding a tool/component that solves a certain problem, not a business manager - so why do we need the hype?

WebDeploy has been updated. Please visit here for more information.

WebDeploy has hit v0.8 with some new features that have been requested since the last version, as well as some fixes to bugs that existed previously.  The user interface hasn't changed much, so no pictures are to come.  But alas, everyone's always interested in what has been changed, fixed or added... so, drumroll please...

• Added support for visual studio projects as a source.
• Added button to change the name of a file in the files to copy dialog.
• Added ability to exclude folders.
• Fixed error when copying over files when Read Only attribute is set.
• Fixed settings bitmap to be transparent.
• Fixed problem updating ftp profiles.
• Modified to only allow one instance to be running at a time.
• Modified storage of previously used source & destination locations.

Like always, WebDeploy is freeware, and the source code is not available. If you have any further suggestions/comments/ideas/problems, please do not hesitate to contact me or post them on this blog post.

If you wish to download WebDeploy, click here. You will need the .NET framework 1.1.4322 to run WebDeploy.

Well, I'm sitting here, struggling...struggling to find out how to get the active build configuration from a visual studio project file.  I've been studying the XML file, and there is absolutely no where that denotes what the active build config is.  I've also looked in the project.user file as well as the solution file, still...no luck. Would anyone like to share how you determine the active build configuration?

In response to Adam Kinney's post on Ego-Building Google Searches:

• NNTP NewsGator Plugin
• Empty Datagrid
• WebDeploy

Are using my pet projects cheating?