Practical Software Masochism? has hit a new bottom:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb129230.aspx

Some errors are not likely to happen. I mean, why on earth would someone try to create multiple partial class declarations in the same file?

http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ProjectName=sourceanalysis

SA1201: ElementsMustAppearInTheCorrectOrder

When implementing an interface, it is sometimes desirable to group all members of the interface next to one another. This will sometimes require violating this rule, if the interface contains elements of different types. This problem can be solved through the use of partial classes.

1. Add the partial attribute to the class, if the class is not already partial.

2. Add a second partial class with the same name. It is possible to place this in the same file, just below the original class, or within a second file.

3. Move the interface inheritance and all members of the interface implementation to the second part of the class.

Well, I guess I have to use multiple files then. But I?m not sure how that could possibly

?increase the readability and maintainability of the file and encourage code reuse.?

Look at this video with Scott Hanselman and Chris Sells.

Keep in mind also that this is about Microsoft and not some company where software isn?t the heart and soul of most things they do.

Then, think again.

If I ever want the title of this blog to mean something, I have to link to this (via Jeff Atwood and Ward Bell).

Now, for me, although I admire Tom DeMarco for his once clear vision about running software projects, Software Engineering was never much about project management, but more about the behavior and methods that distinguish a well-trained, proudly professional team of for-profit software developers from a cohort of hobbyists or programmers-by-chance.

This is where I see the danger of Tom DeMarco?s essay ? it may be used by the cheaters to justify hasty methodologies and it is a slap in the face of Clean Code and similar schools of thought.

It?s a fairly audacious thing to say

The more important goal is transformation, creating software that changes the world or that transforms a company or how it does business.

right after forsaking any method of confirming it.

I wonder how the developers of ?Notepad? live with that.

The presentations of the Norwegian Developers Conference are online.

No, they?re not all in Norwegian.

In fact, the magnificent line-up of speakers rivals that of other conferences. Waiting for TechEd content to become freely available may be less reasonable.

Now that we have prices, it is clear that RC1 is probably the thing and not a lot if anything is going to change for RTM.

So, I guess I have to live with the small and big nuisances, everybody else does not seem to have.

Nobody seems to have an ASUS P5B-E and encounter the extremely loud audio click during startup and ?shutdown? or notice that it doesn?t appear to be able to completely shutdown the motherboard and power supply.

There is all the fuzz about how it is faster and uses less memory than its predecessor, that more apps and devices are working and that XP Mode and RAIL are the greatest things since sliced bread.

Really? The greatest thing is that the next Windows version can now run a legacy app in an entire virtual machine on the old platform? And ?integration? is something like a shortcut that opens a window over a Remote Desktop? C?mon!

I really thought that application virtualization was aimed at a much, much tighter integration and that Microsoft actually had the smarts to pull this off within its own new Windows operating system, instead of coming up with a duct-taped Virtual PC.

Is the new system architecture really both that different and at the same time so non-extensible that an application cannot be more seamlessly virtualized? And do I really have to go and manage the XP Mode VPC like another machine, that is Microsoft Updates, Firewall, Virus Scan?

And what do I get for this? Just a shortcut in the start menu. And I had so high hopes for the Compatibility property page.

Well, for one thing, it is great that I can run 32bit-only applications for out-of-support USB devices on a 64-bit host. But there is no automatic startup, no automatic attach of USB devices and no real integration, with themes, with common registry settings, notifications or seamless access to the host file system, e.g. the user documents folder.

Why don?t I get what ?Windows-on-Windows? really stands for? And all those nice ?shims?? How?s that gonna integrate?

And for us poor chaps in the EU there isn?t even an upgrade path. As far as I know, Virtual PC doesn?t provide ?Convert PC to virtual machine? in the same way that VMware does.

Windows 7 may be the best Windows Microsoft has made to date. But it is a far cry from the perfection the hype suggests.

It simply works better than Windows Vista because Microsoft and more of the other software and hardware vendors had sufficient time to get their act together for the adaption (or workaround) of the security features, multi-core machines, and even 64-bit.

But the stuff that is really broken in Windows Vista and Server 2008, say the out-of-their-freaking-mind ?Event Viewer?, that didn?t change for ?7? in any way.

For someone simple like me, Microsoft?s announcement regarding the sunset of System.Data.OracleClient is sobering news.

While it seems to fit into the company?s recent activities regarding monopoly abuse claims, it is a harsh turn against loyal users for a couple of reasons:

Obviously, I?m exaggerating.

The pragmatic developer is barely holding it?s laughing that I was using Microsoft?s API in the first place. Everything will be manageable and will Just Work. The implementation from Oracle will be alright and more than sufficient for the insanely simple stuff that was possible with the anyway limited OracleClient, so support will not be needed.

And I should be so happy I have more choices now.

Get out of that metal shop and head over to download.microsoft.com!

Download details: Managing Shims in an Enterprise

Another take on something I?d like to call ?virtualization? for the purpose of application compatibility. Together with Windows XP Mode, it looks like there is some tough tackling of the issue by the folks in Redmond.

Somehow it must be possible to bring this all together seamlessly.

Note to self:

http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=%22Directory+Object+Picker%22

�

Represents the "Select User" dialog shown when "Browse" is clicked to specify users for services, COM+ applications or access control lists. It offers all functionality to let the user browse Active Directory for certain objects.

�

There is already a wrapper on CodePlex (adui), see search results.

Just after the OutOfMemory monster raised it's head, was slayed and is now believed to have vanished in the test lab, Tess posted a link to a great graphical address space analysis tool that can actually visualize the cut that mscomctl.ocx and it's followers tear through my virtual memory blanket.

However, I wish there would be a better and standard way to integrate such great graphical tools with the debugger. A single picture says more than thousand lines of obscure command line responses.