Good thoughts, except I don't accept your argument that mature code is a mess. If developers refactor while coding, mature feature-full code can be almost as elegant as the original code.
I do like that you mention differing syntactical preferences between developers. We have 3 people on our core team and we all have *very* different ideas about what code is elegant, in terms of: newlines, tabs/spaces, curly braces, etc. We do, however, have common ideas about what parts of our codebase are elegant / easy to work with, and what parts are a "mess." We all have the same sense of code smell.
The key thing is to make sure developers "refactor ruthlessly." If you keep your code clean and maintainable, you won't find yourself in the situation where you're considering completely rewriting it.
Also, if you have a good test suite, it makes it easier to refactor (or do big rewrites) as you'll be able to easily see what you broke. In theory, you'll know you're done when all of your tests pass again.
As a Windows.NET developer and sysadmin, I had been looking at cross-platform.NET development and mono was becoming popular. I had heard horror stories of how bad Vista was going to be and I was determined to become comfortable with linux before the release of Vista. I spotted some news about a new version of a linux distro that I hadn't heard of before, which was apparently supposed to be great.
1 burnt CD and about 1 year later, I'm still on Ubuntu.
I've tried lots and lots of linux distros in the past, but none of them ever stuck. It definately wasn't the command line that turned me off, as I've always been as much of a command line ninja as any Windows user can be. Things "just worked" with Ubuntu. Plus the added bonus of being able to develop apps in C# across platforms... I felt comfortable in Ubuntu very soon after installing it. Same web browser / office suite / IM client that I was used to... even the same programming language (though I've since moved to Ruby for most scripts/tasks).
It's hard to say why, but I love it. Since I started using Ubuntu a year ago, I've converted all of my home desktops/servers to Ubuntu & I've setup almost a dozen Ubuntu servers at my office... all running vmware full of smaller Ubuntu installs:P
It's almost as if... every other time I tried learning a distro, it was a task. I really had to put effort into it. Like exercising. Ubuntu is more like eating candy.
I agree with the parent - the *important* thing is that the hardware is compatible with linux.
I would install Ubuntu on the system, but a new Ubuntu install takes a fraction of the time good old Windows installs take - so what's the problem?
Who doesn't reformat new systems anyway?
Unless you *want* AOL and all of that other spamware on what's supposed to be your "new & clean" machine.
If you do buy the system that comes with Windows, atleast you're getting a free Windows license/key for when you want to dual boot to play games... or maybe just for testing software on Windows. If, on the other hand, you want to feel good about not supporting Windows - now you have that option.
The only thing that bothers me is... this motivation to buy the Dell with Windows will throw off Dell's success of the new Ubuntu systems. When most linux users are buying the cheaper Dell that comes with a free version of Windows & free hardware upgrades... what does Dell say when they see no one's buying the Ubuntu system?
IMHO, a Windows XP box that needs to run windows update and update some software is much nicer than having to totally re-install Windows.
I used Norton Ghost for years - now I use Acronis TrueImage (the home version is only $50 and it's 1000x times better than Ghost - the recovery CD is awesome).
I always have somewhat recent images of base Windows systems that I use often, as well as base linux systems.
Typically, I:
* recover old Windows image (6mo - 1yr)
* run Windows update
* create a new/updated Windows image from the system
* continue to configure the system... (and use the new image to recover other boxes, if I'm updating a few)
I usually keep pretty clean installs with very minimal software so that the image isn't "useless" (requiring lots of software updates). After restoring a base Windows install (which takes as little as 1 minute), I start installing required applications from my folder-o-apps.
Currently, I have 3 images that I use often for Windows machines. One base system, one with Office/Outlook pre-installed, one with Visual Studio pre-installed (because it takes forever to install).
I recently went around with a usb-drive and the Acronis TrueImage recovery cd and updated 10 development servers, and it took no time at all. I copied all of their VM's to a network drive... overwrote all of their systems... copied the VMs back. done.
SharpDevelop uses Windows.Forms 1.1 *or* Windows.Forms 2.0. I'm still running SharpDevelop for 1.1 to keep my desktop applications compatible with.NET 1.1 (and now, apparently, mono 1.2). Your comment only applies to those developing for the.NET 2.0 platform. Many development houses (my own included) still use 1.1 for most of their code, for compatibility and stability.
At work, I have 2 old boxes under my desk running ubuntu w/ apache+mono/xsp/mod_mono. The sole purpose of these boxes is a testing/staging ground for my ASP.NET code. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has had issues porting mono ASP.NET to windows ASP.NET, running on IIS, but I haven't. Everything that I've written on mono/xsp runs great in IIS.
I'm still in the process of getting our whole web application *fully* running on mono (we have a couple libraries that reference MS Application Blocks), just because I'd like to know if I can make the app mono-compatible. We'll still run on IIS until I see evidence of mod_mono handling really heavy loads... but it's really good to know that we could port the application to linux boxes sometime in the future.
For now, mono is best for development purposed (for me). But I also use it for all of my linux programming. A few months ago, I moved all of my personal machines from Windows to linux (ubuntu) and it's been really easy for me because I can still do all of my C# programming! I've never had any problems with mono.
"Short version: after messing with it for a couple hours, I went and downloaded Ubuntu."
Funny, I did the same thing!
I'm a developer / system administrator and I am *not* happy about Vista being just over the horizon. Since I've been out in the working world, I've only worked for Microsoft-based companies and it would be an understatement to say that my *nix skills had gotten rusty. I really don't like the idea of being 'forced' into Vista upgrades sometime in the future, so I decided to see how well I could do in linux, instead.
The answer? I loved the experience so much that I put Ubuntu on all of my home/family machines:)
I've been really pleasantly suprised! I'm a very demanding user who's very attached to his Windows programs, but I haven't run into many issues with Ubuntu, and I haven't even used Wine for anything yet.
I opened up my email inbox to see if there's anything in there that I couldn't live without.
The last few emails look something like...
Welcome to thinkfree Your YouOS Registration Confirmation Status Alert: Domain Change Notification Amazon.com recommends Columbo - The Complete Fifth Season and more eCheck Payment Complete...
Even with a decent spam filter, there really isn't much about email that I care about. The problem is how often email is used to identify who you are. How would I reset passwords? Yes - *even if* I forgot the secret answer I created a few years ago.
Really, my inbox is only confirmation emails (Welcome to X) and notices (eCheck Payment Complete). Lots of people use services like MySpace to keep in touch with friends and message them through that. I keep in touch with almost all of my friends and family via IM. If email wasn't required for identify verification, I probably wouldn't have it.
Keep in mind that I'm talking about my personal email. Without email at work, we would simply need another messaging and calendaring system to replace it... so... we would need our email back. IM is great at work, but it's not persistent enough for many things. It's good for "I can't access X server, can you help me?" and not so good for things like "this client needs X done next friday."
I still have the remnants of a drawing on a white board at work that includes:
a fishing boat lots of hooks in the water, some with fish on the line people using a radio in the boat a radio tower people with fish and radios in a building
Somehow, i used all of this to help co-workers understand the architecture of a project that i've been working on. Afterwards, they sort of understood the meanings of Hook and Proxy to developers... among other things.
Unfortunately, now they all think they understand development better and, every time i say something they don't understand, they say "that's like a hook, right!?"
Our office was having a group IM conversation when, all of a sudden, I saw our admin password show up in the conversation (to everyone in the office). I turned around to see my IT colleague as his face started to glow red. He had been logging onto one of our servers when the IM window stole foucs.
I would expect that if passwords are required to be changed on a regular basis, then that would be more reason to write them down (if they're secure they're probably harder to remember)
Yes, but the key here is *where* your users write down their passwords.
If I find peoples' passwords on post-its, etc, I snatch them and they go in the shredder. I realize, however, that some users really struggle to remember their passwords (and we require relatively secure/complex ones), so I offer my own suggestions to users as to where they can save their passwords.
My favorite piece of software for this, with a basically non-existent learning curve, is Steganos LockNote. It's basically a self-encrypting, password secure text file. Copy the.exe to your user's desktop and have they set the password and voila - it's like Notepad but password secure. (Unlike Notepad, the text and the text editor are wrapped up in one, but it seems just like Notepad to your end user.) I have users store their passwords in these, if they can't remember them.
Ofcourse, if they forget the password to log on and they can't get to the file, they're screwed:P But it is a great app for everyone, especially employees with no real IT knowledge/training. For more advanced users, I recommend KeePass.
I miss having purple hair, but as first boss out of college explained: "I don't care what you look like, your coworkers don't care what you look like, but some of my collabarators will care when they come to visit. I need them more than I need you."
I don't think your boss should make you lose your purple hair. Purple hair can add character and I don't think it necessarily affects how professional you look and act.
My hair is black with primary red and orange and yellow... I have a number of piercings... and I'm totally comfortable working as a Developer and Assistant IT Manager in a corporate environment. The generic corporate suits that I work with actually compliment my bright hair and how I dress on a regular basis.
My CIO cares a *Lot* about our company image, but that doesn't have to translate into no purple hair and no piercings. It just means that I have to wear a suit or blazer/tie and look good and professional all the time, incase clients or vendors or whoever come in.
Dressing well might not make people better coders or system administrators or IT managers, but first impressions mean a lot and you might not have an opportunity to talk to clients when they come into the office. The level of professionalism they see may determine whether or not they bring your company their business.
So, to the slackers: just suck it up and look *professional*
I've tried lots of distros over the years, but the only ones that have stuck have been the occasional Red Hat / Fedora installation on my dual-booting lappy or Gentoo on my Xbox (cause it's actually an easy install - http://gentoox.shallax.com/).
Now, I try to dip into linux every once in awhile because I have to for business. If we switch our servers (eg., Exchange --> linux-based mail server) over to linux, then I need to be able to administrate the linux boxes and be comfortable in a linux environment.
I have to say, though... most of what draws me to linux is curiosity and the cost benefits. Some people may think Windows is evil or some such, but atleast the average user can [in Windows]: > download an app. > double-click the exe/msi. > "I Agree" > "Next"... > "Finish" And you're done with shortcuts added and all.
Meanwhile, I spent all of my lunch breaks this week trying to get my Atheros wireless card working with WPA-PSK (forget about WPA2!) under Red Hat. The average user (or even the average IT user) isn't going to switch over to linux until you can double click to install something. Why should something that takes less than a minute under Windows take so long in linux? Sure, you can edit the source, but in the business world, time=$, and sysadmins don't have the time to go digging thru C code to figure out why "make" isn't working.
Anyhow, as a developer, I'll switch when Mono is more stable and it becomes easier to write linux desktop applications in C#.
To keep a premium account with them for free, you need to get atleast 3000 expert points a month... it's always a good excuse to spend time answering people's questions, which usually involves coding - i always write/test the code for people so I A) practice coding B) can get the source later if i need it for a project.
They have forums for abunchof languages... depending on the forum, the questions may generally be too easy for you, but most questions are posted by IT professionals like yourself, so they can be fun to figure out and answer.
Besides that... I read a lot of books and I refactor old projects using new methods or I test design patterns or... I do a lot of.NET coding so I couldn't live without my MSDN firefox search engine (also made one for the codeproject, which has some GREAT articles).
Has anyone developed integrated software systems with/for VOIP?
My company's IT dept. has been looking for resources/advice re: developing in-house software integrated into VOIP systems... eg., click a link in your web or desktop application to initiate a call.
Can anyone offer advice / links to good resources?
Slashdot Mirror
Good thoughts, except I don't accept your argument that mature code is a mess. If developers refactor while coding, mature feature-full code can be almost as elegant as the original code.
I do like that you mention differing syntactical preferences between developers. We have 3 people on our core team and we all have *very* different ideas about what code is elegant, in terms of: newlines, tabs/spaces, curly braces, etc. We do, however, have common ideas about what parts of our codebase are elegant / easy to work with, and what parts are a "mess." We all have the same sense of code smell.
The key thing is to make sure developers "refactor ruthlessly." If you keep your code clean and maintainable, you won't find yourself in the situation where you're considering completely rewriting it.
Also, if you have a good test suite, it makes it easier to refactor (or do big rewrites) as you'll be able to easily see what you broke. In theory, you'll know you're done when all of your tests pass again.
For me, the timing was perfect.
.NET developer and sysadmin, I had been looking at cross-platform .NET development and mono was becoming popular.
... I felt comfortable in Ubuntu very soon after installing it. Same web browser / office suite / IM client that I was used to ... even the same programming language (though I've since moved to Ruby for most scripts/tasks).
... all running vmware full of smaller Ubuntu installs :P
... every other time I tried learning a distro, it was a task. I really had to put effort into it. Like exercising.
As a Windows
I had heard horror stories of how bad Vista was going to be and I was determined to become comfortable with linux before the release of Vista.
I spotted some news about a new version of a linux distro that I hadn't heard of before, which was apparently supposed to be great.
1 burnt CD and about 1 year later, I'm still on Ubuntu.
I've tried lots and lots of linux distros in the past, but none of them ever stuck. It definately wasn't the command line that turned me off, as I've always been as much of a command line ninja as any Windows user can be. Things "just worked" with Ubuntu. Plus the added bonus of being able to develop apps in C# across platforms
It's hard to say why, but I love it. Since I started using Ubuntu a year ago, I've converted all of my home desktops/servers to Ubuntu & I've setup almost a dozen Ubuntu servers at my office
It's almost as if
Ubuntu is more like eating candy.
I agree with the parent - the *important* thing is that the hardware is compatible with linux.
... or maybe just for testing software on Windows.
... this motivation to buy the Dell with Windows will throw off Dell's success of the new Ubuntu systems. When most linux users are buying the cheaper Dell that comes with a free version of Windows & free hardware upgrades ... what does Dell say when they see no one's buying the Ubuntu system?
I would install Ubuntu on the system, but a new Ubuntu install takes a fraction of the time good old Windows installs take - so what's the problem?
Who doesn't reformat new systems anyway?
Unless you *want* AOL and all of that other spamware on what's supposed to be your "new & clean" machine.
If you do buy the system that comes with Windows, atleast you're getting a free Windows license/key for when you want to dual boot to play games
If, on the other hand, you want to feel good about not supporting Windows - now you have that option.
The only thing that bothers me is
IMHO, a Windows XP box that needs to run windows update and update some software is much nicer than having to totally re-install Windows.
... (and use the new image to recover other boxes, if I'm updating a few)
... overwrote all of their systems ... copied the VMs back. done.
I used Norton Ghost for years - now I use Acronis TrueImage (the home version is only $50 and it's 1000x times better than Ghost - the recovery CD is awesome).
I always have somewhat recent images of base Windows systems that I use often, as well as base linux systems.
Typically, I:
* recover old Windows image (6mo - 1yr)
* run Windows update
* create a new/updated Windows image from the system
* continue to configure the system
I usually keep pretty clean installs with very minimal software so that the image isn't "useless" (requiring lots of software updates). After restoring a base Windows install (which takes as little as 1 minute), I start installing required applications from my folder-o-apps.
Currently, I have 3 images that I use often for Windows machines. One base system, one with Office/Outlook pre-installed, one with Visual Studio pre-installed (because it takes forever to install).
I recently went around with a usb-drive and the Acronis TrueImage recovery cd and updated 10 development servers, and it took no time at all. I copied all of their VM's to a network drive
SharpDevelop uses Windows.Forms 1.1 *or* Windows.Forms 2.0. I'm still running SharpDevelop for 1.1 to keep my desktop applications compatible with .NET 1.1 (and now, apparently, mono 1.2). Your comment only applies to those developing for the .NET 2.0 platform. Many development houses (my own included) still use 1.1 for most of their code, for compatibility and stability.
Yes, absolutely!
... but it's really good to know that we could port the application to linux boxes sometime in the future.
At work, I have 2 old boxes under my desk running ubuntu w/ apache+mono/xsp/mod_mono. The sole purpose of these boxes is a testing/staging ground for my ASP.NET code. I'm sure someone, somewhere, has had issues porting mono ASP.NET to windows ASP.NET, running on IIS, but I haven't. Everything that I've written on mono/xsp runs great in IIS.
I'm still in the process of getting our whole web application *fully* running on mono (we have a couple libraries that reference MS Application Blocks), just because I'd like to know if I can make the app mono-compatible. We'll still run on IIS until I see evidence of mod_mono handling really heavy loads
For now, mono is best for development purposed (for me). But I also use it for all of my linux programming. A few months ago, I moved all of my personal machines from Windows to linux (ubuntu) and it's been really easy for me because I can still do all of my C# programming! I've never had any problems with mono.
"Short version: after messing with it for a couple hours, I went and downloaded Ubuntu."
:)
Funny, I did the same thing!
I'm a developer / system administrator and I am *not* happy about Vista being just over the horizon. Since I've been out in the working world, I've only worked for Microsoft-based companies and it would be an understatement to say that my *nix skills had gotten rusty. I really don't like the idea of being 'forced' into Vista upgrades sometime in the future, so I decided to see how well I could do in linux, instead.
The answer? I loved the experience so much that I put Ubuntu on all of my home/family machines
I've been really pleasantly suprised! I'm a very demanding user who's very attached to his Windows programs, but I haven't run into many issues with Ubuntu, and I haven't even used Wine for anything yet.
I opened up my email inbox to see if there's anything in there that I couldn't live without.
...
...
... so ... we would need our email back. IM is great at work, but it's not persistent enough for many things. It's good for "I can't access X server, can you help me?" and not so good for things like "this client needs X done next friday."
The last few emails look something like
Welcome to thinkfree
Your YouOS Registration Confirmation
Status Alert: Domain Change Notification
Amazon.com recommends Columbo - The Complete Fifth Season and more
eCheck Payment Complete
Even with a decent spam filter, there really isn't much about email that I care about. The problem is how often email is used to identify who you are. How would I reset passwords? Yes - *even if* I forgot the secret answer I created a few years ago.
Really, my inbox is only confirmation emails (Welcome to X) and notices (eCheck Payment Complete). Lots of people use services like MySpace to keep in touch with friends and message them through that. I keep in touch with almost all of my friends and family via IM. If email wasn't required for identify verification, I probably wouldn't have it.
Keep in mind that I'm talking about my personal email. Without email at work, we would simply need another messaging and calendaring system to replace it
I still have the remnants of a drawing on a white board at work that includes:
... among other things.
a fishing boat
lots of hooks in the water, some with fish on the line
people using a radio in the boat
a radio tower
people with fish and radios in a building
Somehow, i used all of this to help co-workers understand the architecture of a project that i've been working on. Afterwards, they sort of understood the meanings of Hook and Proxy to developers
Unfortunately, now they all think they understand development better and, every time i say something they don't understand, they say "that's like a hook, right!?"
Our office was having a group IM conversation when, all of a sudden, I saw our admin password show up in the conversation (to everyone in the office). I turned around to see my IT colleague as his face started to glow red. He had been logging onto one of our servers when the IM window stole foucs.
Yes, but the key here is *where* your users write down their passwords.
If I find peoples' passwords on post-its, etc, I snatch them and they go in the shredder. I realize, however, that some users really struggle to remember their passwords (and we require relatively secure/complex ones), so I offer my own suggestions to users as to where they can save their passwords.
My favorite piece of software for this, with a basically non-existent learning curve, is Steganos LockNote. It's basically a self-encrypting, password secure text file. Copy the
Ofcourse, if they forget the password to log on and they can't get to the file, they're screwed
My hair is black with primary red and orange and yellow
My CIO cares a *Lot* about our company image, but that doesn't have to translate into no purple hair and no piercings. It just means that I have to wear a suit or blazer/tie and look good and professional all the time, incase clients or vendors or whoever come in.
Dressing well might not make people better coders or system administrators or IT managers, but first impressions mean a lot and you might not have an opportunity to talk to clients when they come into the office. The level of professionalism they see may determine whether or not they bring your company their business.
So, to the slackers: just suck it up and look *professional*
Hopefully you can keep the purple hair.
I've tried lots of distros over the years, but the only ones that have stuck have been the occasional Red Hat / Fedora installation on my dual-booting lappy or Gentoo on my Xbox (cause it's actually an easy install - http://gentoox.shallax.com/).
... most of what draws me to linux is curiosity and the cost benefits. Some people may think Windows is evil or some such, but atleast the average user can [in Windows]: ...
Now, I try to dip into linux every once in awhile because I have to for business. If we switch our servers (eg., Exchange --> linux-based mail server) over to linux, then I need to be able to administrate the linux boxes and be comfortable in a linux environment.
I have to say, though
> download an app.
> double-click the exe/msi.
> "I Agree"
> "Next"
> "Finish"
And you're done with shortcuts added and all.
Meanwhile, I spent all of my lunch breaks this week trying to get my Atheros wireless card working with WPA-PSK (forget about WPA2!) under Red Hat. The average user (or even the average IT user) isn't going to switch over to linux until you can double click to install something. Why should something that takes less than a minute under Windows take so long in linux? Sure, you can edit the source, but in the business world, time=$, and sysadmins don't have the time to go digging thru C code to figure out why "make" isn't working.
Anyhow, as a developer, I'll switch when Mono is more stable and it becomes easier to write linux desktop applications in C#.
I spend atleast one lunch break a week answering questions in the programming forum or some subforum at experts-exchange.
... it's always a good excuse to spend time answering people's questions, which usually involves coding - i always write/test the code for people so I A) practice coding B) can get the source later if i need it for a project.
... depending on the forum, the questions may generally be too easy for you, but most questions are posted by IT professionals like yourself, so they can be fun to figure out and answer.
... I read a lot of books and I refactor old projects using new methods or I test design patterns or ... I do a lot of .NET coding so I couldn't live without my MSDN firefox search engine (also made one for the codeproject, which has some GREAT articles).
To keep a premium account with them for free, you need to get atleast 3000 expert points a month
They have forums for abunchof languages
Besides that
Has anyone developed integrated software systems with/for VOIP?
... eg., click a link in your web or desktop application to initiate a call.
My company's IT dept. has been looking for resources/advice re: developing in-house software integrated into VOIP systems
Can anyone offer advice / links to good resources?