Just my opinion...

For a while I’ve been meaning to collect the list of tools that I typically install on any development workstation.  Instead of keeping that list to myself, I’m making it available to anyone who wishes to use them as well.  I’ll keep the list pretty short but a short list of tools a developer uses can be quite large.  If you want a better list of tools, I suggest you occasionally visit Scott Hanselman’s blog and tool list.

The tools I typically use will always be available on my tools page.

I’m not sure how often I’ll need to post “place holder” posts like this one but I’m sure it’ll happen again.  I’m still blogging, I just haven’t had the time nor the inclination over the holidays and a recent busy time at work.

This is my first post using Windows Live Writer.  It is much nicer than using the WordPress online interface.

I will post something better soon…  Stay tuned.

If you do a search on “to GAC or not to GAC” you’ll get mixed messages with a bias towards “not to GAC”.  I couldn’t disagree more strongly with those who urge you not to use the GAC “unless you work for Microsoft, and then only if you’re working on the .NET Framework” (quote not linked to save the writer the embarrassment).  No need to sugar-coat this one…  The folks making those recommendations clearly know very little about development on the .NET platform.  The only generosity I can muster for these people is perhaps they’ve never worked in an organization with more than 2 developers and have never had to write a shared assembly.  Perhaps we can blame Microsoft for having promoted the term “xcopy deployment”.  Perhaps they never lived the Win16 to Win32s to Win32 to COM transitions. Perhaps these people are the village idiot.

Some background first…

What is the GAC?

GAC stands for the Global Assembly Cache.  Without going into excruciating minutiae, the GAC is simply a repository of shared assemblies, managed by the operating system, and used by the Common Language Runtime (CLR) to resolve references to shared code.

How does the CLR resolve assembly references?

For a full description of how the CLR resolves references, look at the MSDN article “How the Runtime Locates Assemblies”.  The basic steps are these:

1. Determine the correct version of the required assembly.
2. Has this assembly already been bound and cached?
3. If the assembly is not already bound, look in the GAC.
4. If the assembly isn’t in the GAC, check the PATH.

Actually, “check the PATH” is grotesquely over-simplified.  The actual process is called “probing”, for full details on that process look at the MSDN article “Step 4: Locating the Assembly through Codebases or Probing”.

So for all of the pundits out there that think that just dropping your assembly into the application directory is all there is to it, I’d suggest a little reading.  As you can see, the application directory is actually checked AFTER the GAC. Unless an assembly reference has already been “bound”, the GAC is the first place the CLR will look to attempt to resolve the reference.

“to GAC”?

If we’re talking about an assembly that is shared by more than one application in your application suite then the answer is a resounding yes.  Will you ever need to maintain two versions of the same assembly in the deployed environment?  If so, another resounding yes.  Will your application implement a dynamic loading mechanism via a configuration file to load a “snap-in”?  If not yes, it’s certainly a possibly.  After all, if I’m going to specify a code base via a configuration file and call System.Reflection.Assembly.Load or System.AppDomain.Load myself, then I’d like to have the option of specifying a fully qualified assembly name.  Then again, I may want to circumvent the “standard” binding order from above so that I can implement a sort of “drop-in” deployment and implement the code to look in the application directory first.  Either way, the option of using the GAC is still totally valid contrary to prevailing net wisdom.

“not to GAC”?

There are obviously situations where you don’t want the added deployment overhead of using the GAC.  Using the GAC isn’t free after all, you need to setup your development environment to place your new assemblies in the GAC, remove the last compiled version (if you’re so inclined), etc.  I never said that there was no price to pay.  Are you deploying a “resource assembly” that is only applicable to one application?  Then don’t put that in the GAC, there’s no compelling reason to do so.  Is the assembly your deploying shared at all?  If not, then don’t put it in the GAC.  Again, no compelling reason to do so.

If you don’t want to use the GAC based on some bizarre “principle”, then use Linux or some other platform.  (Yes, one developer once told me he wouldn’t use the GAC out of principle. Huh??)  After all, I love Linux and other platforms as much as the next guy.  Stop proclaiming that the “GAC is evil” (Again, direct quote from a developer) unless you know what you’re talking about.

The point I’m trying to make is that “to GAC or not to GAC” is a more informed decision than many of the absolutist “not to GAC” stances you’re going to read out there.

Nine-ball is rotation pool, the balls are pocketed in numbered order.  The only ball that means anything, that wins it, is the 9.  Now, the player can shoot eight trick shots in a row, blow the 9, and lose.  On the other hand, the player can get the 9 in on the break, if the balls spread right, and win.  Which is to say, that luck plays a part in nine-ball.  But for some players, luck itself is an art.

Uncredited voiceover by Martin Scorsese for the movie “The Color Of Money“

I haven’t been posting much lately because my dad was sick and unfortunately passed away on October 15th.

Losing your dad is pretty horrible no matter how it happens but, at least,  I got to have “the conversation” with him that many folks aren’t afforded an opportunity to have.  Dad had been sick for quite some time and knew that the prognosis wasn’t good.  He was stoic and matter-of-fact about it until the end.

When my very calm and self-controlled brother, Chris, called me to say I should drive back home, I knew the situation was very serious.  When I got to Dad’s hospital room he was still able to communicate although slowly.  I was able to ask him if he remembered the conversation he and I had when I told him I was proud to be his son and why.  He said he did.  From that point forward I felt a level of acceptance of what was coming that I never thought would be there when this time came.  The content of that conversation will remain private between Dad and me but here’s just one reason why I was so proud he was my dad.

If you haven’t told your parents how you feel lately, go do it now.  I promise you, there will be a moment later on where you will find great peace that you did.

To the many friends that helped my family through this time and expressed warm wishes, I thank you and Dad thanks you.

One of my favorite comedians is Dana Gould.  I’ve always found him particularly funny with an ability to capture an idea almost poetically.  Recently he’s done some political commentary and has appeared on “Real Time with Bill Mahr“.  In a bit he did for the show, he covered some health care town halls.  He made an observation that I’ve been trying to put into words for a while.  When asked about an under-class in the United States he remarked that what he saw was a permanent “anger-class”.  Most of the members of the anger-class are what he then referred to as “conservative fundamentalists” who believed that President Ronald Reagan was a political diety and that everything that fell out of President Reagan’s mouth was their gospel.  Anytime our country deviates from this gospel they go ape-shit.  (To be clear, I don’t mean these people.)  Since Reagan’s utopia doesn’t coincide with reality, our country continues to move away from the Reagan years, so the anger-class is destined to just get more pissed off.  Most will probably carry that anger until the end of their lives.

Since the election of President Obama the anger-class has been in an snot-bubble-crying fit of rage.  Their current gripe is that he’s tyring to reform health care.  Most of them go on and on about how specifics of this plan are affronts to freedom and liberty.  Worse is that profit would be removed from the health care system.  This is how the right has beaten health care reform as well – the argument that everything should be for profit.  I disagree but my voice is pretty small.

The observation I’ve made is that the anger-class is orders of magnitude more upset since this last election than any other post-election reaction I know of.  I didn’t like President Clinton but after he was elected, I calmed down and got back to my life in like an hour.  I really didn’t like President George W. Bush but I went on with my life…  Twice.  The anger-class is still chest pounding and foot stomping all over the country nearly 9 months after he took office.  Not just that typical political commentary and disagreement but a vitriolic language normally reserved for personal hatred.  It appears that it’s getting worse not better.  I desperately hope that I’m wrong but given the mentality of some of the grass-roots base of the now decimated “right” I fear an attempt on the president’s life at some point in his term.  Again, I want to be wrong but folks the anger-class is accelerating the rhetoric and whipping that still disappointed base into a frenzy.

I wish there was something that could be said to calm them down.  I now find myself in the position of having lots of friends who I know for a fact are reasonable folks but are in the anger-class now.  How they got sucked into it is beyond me.  I overhear their conversations and read their articles and I know that I can’t engage them in conversation on an intellectual level about the topics because what I’m hearing is anger and rage.  I’ve attempted to engage a couple of them once or twice only to get shouted down.

I’m not sure why I felt compelled to write this down…  Maybe I’m hoping some of my conservative friends will see it and understand why I won’t talk with them about anything more substantive than the weather lately.

And honestly, I don’t know why they’re so worried.  Democrats have control of the House and the Senate with a Democratic President and they still can’t pass anything.  The Democrats are pussies.  Until the anger-class realizes this, I’m providing them the following quick link.

I know I have a readership of almost 2 people and that they waited eagerly to hear my prolific wisdom, so I must apologize for my lack of regular posting.  It’s pretty clear I maintain this blog for me and me only.  I didn’t do it for a following – most of what I write is for an audience of one…  Me.

If you do actually read my blog let me tell you what’s new.  I’m still turning the functional programming crank and trying to learn the discipline.  I’ve also picked up several new topics to understand as well with Power Shell, Oslo, M, and Python (actually IronPython).  Unity and Enterprise Library 4.1 have moved back up the must learn list as well.  I’ve also been playing with the Visual Studio 2008 SDK.

At work we’re also trying to establish our build environment and I spent a bit of time writing a “best practices” sort of document for arranging the code repository, directory structure, operating system environment set up, and organization of Visual Studio solutions and projects to fit into it all.  I’ve considered generalizing that document and posting it here as I’m a little tired of creating project specific implementations of it.  This effort forced me to hand off the DSL project to a co-worker, so he got to have all the Oslo and M-grammar fun.

I’ve learned a lot of pretty cool new things and would love to sit down and write something meaningful on each and every topic.  Unfortunately, it seems all I have time for is a post explaining why I haven’t.  If you’ll hang with me, I promise I’ll fix that situation as soon as I can. 

A good friend of mine, Greg, appeared as a guest speaker on a local radio talk show this week.  Greg is a bit more conservative than I am and does not share my appreciation for President Obama but…  He worked in a plug for Haskell!!!  How strong is that?

Oh, and since I’m talking about Greg being a geek that can speak – I’m giving him this plug.  Look at what he wrote for his daughter.  Makes me proud to be a geek sometimes when I get to call guys like that friends.

It’s incredibly embarrassing to me that I have to make the following admission:  I had no idea what Microsoft “Oslo” was all about.  Oh, I’d heard of it but didn’t look at the scope and objectives.

I’m a true believer in using DSLs as a method of accelerating the software development process.  Well, that’s the objective of Oslo.  I’ve now downloaded the Microsoft “Oslo” May 2009 CTP and am starting to play with it.

I might be slow but, at least, I’m clueless.

I’ve always loved living in the United States.  When I was young, my Dad would tell me the reason he loved this country was that we actually have the ideal that “all men are created equal“.  He also told me it was only an ideal because the men who originally wrote those words meant white, male, land-owners.  So the founding fathers didn’t have a perfect notion of equality.  We the people later started correcting the concept with the abolition of slavery, making sure everyone had the right to vote, etc.  We the people, given enough time, work toward a better place for us all.  We haven’t gotten there yet but this is still a very young country and some of our issues can be explained by our immaturity.

I know many people have issues with President Obama but one thing we the people can all be proud of is this.  We’re the only nation to elect a minority to its highest office.  We’re getting closer to our declaration that “all men are created equal“.

Later my love for the United States included the fact that we don’t fight religious wars.  I’ve now had discussions with friends and listened to pundits and experts talk about the current war in Iraq and the rhetoric leading up to the war.  I’d love to say that the war in Iraq isn’t a US religious war but as I look back over the chronology and recent news about how religion was used to promote the war to former President Bush, I can’t help seeing the war in Iraq as such.

There are plenty of criticisms of the war in Iraq.  The war in Iraq is really a spin-off of the War on Terrorism.  An extension or the War on Terrorism is the Patriot Act.  Patriot Act is a particularly distasteful name to me given that this law flies in the face of our core beliefs of civil liberties.  Perhaps you feel differently, I provided a link to a description of it and from there you can go get the full text of the law.  Read it all, I did.  It sucks.  If President Obama doesn’t make moves to repeal it I will not support him for a second term – and I supported him for President in 2008.

Our War on Terrorism  is also at the core of all the torture issues as well.  As a nation, we’ve allowed ourselves to become torturers.  Now, I’ve listened to all the arguments about “imminent danger”, you know – there’s a ticking time-bomb that can take out a city and it’s ok to torture this one guy to save many lives.  Problem is, that situation never existed in any of the cases.  Actually, that situation only existed on cable TV and in the movies.  Over and over I’ve heard the argument that “torture ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’ have  made us a safer people”.  The argument no one can ever make is that torture has made us a better people. 

Is feeling safer really enough for us to resort to torture?  I hope not because it’s one of the same arguments made against the Second Amendment.  As Benjamin Franklin said:

“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.”

(Often attributed to Thomas Jefferson but look here.)

I do love living in the United States (being allowed to write this blog article without regard to retribution is just one good reason) but I don’t think I’ll ever be “patriotic”.  A few pretty smart people agree with me on the topic of patriotism as well.  A few I find particularly resonant are:

It is lamentable, that to be a good patriot one must become the enemy of the rest of mankind. ~Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary

You’ll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race. ~George Bernard Shaw

Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons. ~Bertrand Russell

My kind of loyalty was loyalty to one’s country, not to its institutions or its office-holders. ~Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, 1889

Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that goes by the name of patriotism – how passionately I hate them! ~Albert Einstein

The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border? ~Pablo Casals

Remember that today is a celebration of freedom.  Not patriotism.

Have a great 4th of July.