Being part of an Architect Team...

So, being part of an architect team isn't as glamourus as one may think - building a foundation has to be solid from the get go. Many steps are put into place to help with this process.

First you have deal with functional requirements then technical requirements... Oh! and don't forget the reviews in between. Then finally the implementation and unit testing. The worst of all is the dreadful and gawd awful code review session that can drag on for days. In some cases you say to your self, "How in the heck did I let that slip through???". Finally-Finally, you get to go through the implementation and release it for everyone to use.

So you ask: How awful is this process? Imagine you have to write a program that will take 3 months to write but you spend 6 weeks up front figuring out what you're going to write, 4 weeks actually writing and another 2 weeks fixing you're code to fit within the guidelines of your company's common practices... That flip side would be to write and re-write the program until you hit the target of requirements and hope that when it's released to production it works.

Granted, I would much rather code for the whole 3 months but releasing a product to production and having it work with little or no hiccups the first time makes the whole process well worth it!

So I guess being part of the Architect Team isn't that bad after all...

New VFP like features in VS.NET 2005

Last night I attended OC C# meeting to see Kevin McNeish of Oakleaf Enterprise where he spoke about ADO.NET 2.0. But he also introduced some very kewl features in VS.NET 2005... Well, I should say very cool for .NET because I've been used to seeing these features in Visual FoxPro.

So what kind of features am I talking about???

The first feature is the ability to view data the way data is meant to be seen. Being a long time database developer using 4GL Languages like dBase, FoxBase, FoxPro, Visual FoxPro, as well as SQL Server I'm used to seeing data in a grid. Call it what you will. Call it a browse window, data display view or whatever - it pretty much turns out to be a grid. When I first started using .NET it was pain-staking to have to view a DataSet in the debugger. VS.NET 2005 allows you to view the data in a grid format.

The second feature, which I was terribly tickled to learn about, is the ability to instantiate an object in the Immediate Window. Now for us Foxheads this is something that has been around back from the days of VFP 3.0 (1995) and stemming back to the command dot in dBase prior to OOP arriving in xBase Languages. And for those that never had the pleasure of programming in VFP you'll have to learn something completely new. This will set unit testing to a whole new level.

Oh ya, and ADO.NET 2.0 is pretty cool, too!

Back Online... Once again!

Well it's been a few months since I last posted. I started with http://www.autobytel.com in June of 2005 as a Senior Software Development Engineer/Architect and so far enjoying it!

I do miss the folks at Word & Brown where I was working with the CalChoice Team directly with Paul, Mike and Howard - pretty kewl group of guys to work with (I gave them all raving reviews on my exit interview). I also worked along side but not directly with Robert and Robbie (or better known as the "Bob Show").

Actually, Robert and Robbie introduced me to the Enterprise Library (formerly MS Application Blocks) which became a big, no HUGE part of why I was hired at Autobytel, Inc. As much we struggled over framework decisions the overwhelming choice of using Enterprise Library became an invaluable resource for me.

I know everyone's got plenty of work to do (including myself) so I'll leave everyone get back to work - but before I leave you on this post I just wanted to say that no matter how smart or knowledgable you may think you are about development looking at other's ideas (including the Enterprise Library) is always a great idea.

Much T'anks to Robert and Robbie for their persistance on choosing the framework!!!