NDepend

Recently, I heard about a great tool called NDepend. I had been reading a lot about it on many of the different blogs that I read, but never thought much about it. Well, yesterday I finally had a chance to play with it and I found some pretty amazing stuff. This is by far the best tool I've ever had the chance to use for really getting to the meat of any software application. Yes it does several things that I have seen before like, analyzes logic for bottlenecks, uses reflection to show meta data and IL information, but it goes WAY beyond that.

You can point NDepend at any DLL or EXE and it will treat it as a database. You can then run queries against it to find out all kinds of information, such as:

Code coverage

Comment percentage

Cyclomatic complexity within methods

Methods that have more than N number of lines

Methods that have more than N number of parameters

This is only the BEGINNING. You can create custom searches to retrieve information that will find uses of bad coding practices you do not want in your code base. You can event get automated NDepend reports with each build. This is great for monitoring less experienced developers to ensure proper coding practices.

There are visuals that convey critical information about the ENTIRE code base instantaneously. I highly recommend this application to anybody who is working on someone else's code, or to help learn better coding practices as a whole.

Download NDpend

Snippet Compiler

This week I found a great little tool for .NET developers who are always trying new things. If you are tired of creating projects just to test some new code or concepts, then this little application is for you. Snippet Compiler will allow you to compile and execute code without having to open Visual Studio or creating a new project. This should drastically help to reduce the number of ConsoleApplication1...n folders in your development directory.

This application is great for developers who are stuck working on older machines (My personal laptop falls into this category). It is fully functional, complete with intellisense, compiler errors and warnings and external referencing. It is currently in alpha, so you will have to deal with some differences in behavior, such as proper highlighting for reference types and no auto indentation. These minor discrepancies aside, all functionality seems to be pretty well tested. This little tool is going to save me space on my hard-drive as-well-as tons of worthless clutter. I highly recommend Snippet Compiler to help when learning new framework technologies. Hats off to Jeff Key!!

Download it here.

Simply BMW

Simplicity...

This is the topic of today's post. I was having lunch with a buddy of mine recently when he informed me that he recently purchased a new BMW 135. He asked if I wanted to go for a quick spin after lunch so I happily accepted. On the way out to the car something hit me that I never really thought of before. Maybe, I just took it for granted or never had too much of a vested interest. I realized that BMW while they make a nice car, the body style never really changes all that much. While I'm sure their have been many technical advances, they have never really strayed from the overall design template for the car. When I got in the car it was more of the same. Simple, intelligent and creative design coupled with elegant functionality and attention to detail. I immediately thought about a paper I recently read from 37Signals. This paper discussed that staying competitive in an aggressive market doesn't have to mean adding new functionality. BMW understands this very well. I know with the new GINA concept that has surfaced recently that last statement maybe considered B.S. but overall this is true.

I have come to the realization that when I write software, I need to be more time simplifying the problem and less time over complicating it. This can be very difficult when you do not always have the time to think of a simple and elegant solution. I think the best way to come to a quick solution comes with experience, however, I think putting yourself in the right state of mind can help to strengthen your understanding of how to approach a problem.

I am now in search of the best method for achieving this type of "coding-zen" if you will. Simplification, with attention to delivering the required functionality as close to perfection as possible. An elegant balance between technical intelligence and creative wisdom. If anyone would like to help, please leave a comment.

Thanks!

Seven Lessons From A Leader

I recently read an article talking about Eliot Spitzer called Eliot Spitzer's Seven Deadly Sins. The article spoke about the seven lessons to be learned from his recent 14 month run as governor of New York. I don't particularly care about the Spitzer scandal, at all, but I found these seven lessons interesting and worth mentioning.

1. You've got to deliver consistently. You're only as good as your most recent accomplishment.

Truer words have never been spoken. This is the old, "What have you done for me lately?" mentality. No one is exempt from this.

2. No matter how attractive a new assignment or promotion seems, make sure it's one for which you're really suited.

Basically, just be realistic about you expectations. Just because somebody offers you the job doesn't mean you should take it. Remember lesson 1? You will be expected to produce consistently. If you are in over your head you will most likely not be able to consistently deliver.

3. You can't expect to get things done if you only have adversaries, not allies.

Getting things done can be hard enough, don't create more problems for yourself. Focus on your obligations and do what's right.

4. You can't tell people one thing and do the complete opposite. When it comes to light that you're not being straight with people, they feel foolish for having trusted you and it's nearly impossible to regain their trust.

Generally speaking, lying is not a good thing, but at work it is a very bad thing. Lying always causes irreparable damage to trust in any relationship. You do not want your boss not to trust you! So best thing to do is.... DON'T LIE!

5. No one is above the law; no one is untouchable, and no matter how smart you are, it doesn't matter.

In the software world this mentality is very common. People think that because they are sooooo smart, or because they are the only person who know how a system works, that they are irreplaceable. WRONG!!! I can't tell you how many times I've seen this and every time it just ends badly.

6. Be realistic about what's going on, and if you can't see it yourself, seek out a person who can.

This one pretty much says it all.

7. Know when a situation is beyond repair—or at least beyond your ability to repair it—and either bring in the right people to help you fix it, or move on, if appropriate.

Sometimes there comes a point where the ends no longer justify the means. This is when a good leader will step in and cut his/her loses. A great leader will have seen this coming and been able to anticipate when to get help.

Great leaders are hard to come by these days and I am certainly no expert, but if I can learn from somebody else's mistakes then that makes me wiser than I was yesterday. One step closer.

Dark Room Rocks!

This is my first blog post and I must start by introducing myself. My name is Daniel Ryan Jones and I am a software developer located in New Jersey. I have been working in Microsoft technology for the past 3+ years and this is where I will write on some of my findings as I find new ideas, tips and tricks.

For my first post, I must give Kudos to Andrew Van Slaars for finding this post on LifeHacker. Dark Room is a text editor for people with A.D.D. I am not going to lie Andrew is a friend of mine and I am supporting him, but with good reason. This application is one of the best text editing tools I've had the chance to work with. I don't know about you, but I am VERY easily distracted. A childhood spent in front of the television has diminished my attention span so this type of application helps to limit my distractions. Dark Room runs in front of all other applications on your desktop, hiding any distractions that may come up. This is great for people like me! Don't worry you can toggle between full-screen and window mode and you can even set the opacity to show though to your desktop if you feel restricted by this type of behavior. So if you are suffering from sensory overload while trying to be creative give this application a shot!