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Herding Code 72: Questioning Uncle Bob, Clojure Magic, Mercurial Support at Codeplex, Thoughts About the iPad and Handerpants

This week on Herding Code, the gang discusses Uncle Bob’s self-titled blatherings about DI, IoC and Mocking, Clojure and polyglot programming, managed javascript, and recent support for Mercurial at Codeplex. The show finishes up with another K Scott Lightning Round with questions about the iPad and non-technical blog recommendations.

  • Uncle Bob recently published two articles which are a little down on DI, IoC and Mocking. Was he merely trying to get a rise out of the community or was he sending a subtle message about poor use of our tools?
  • K Scott attended Craig Andera’s Clojure Presentation at a recent DC Alt.NET meet up. This sparks a discussion about Clojure Magic – functional programming, transactional memory, concurrency and multi-threaded programming.
  • The guys talk about the polyglot programmer, Scala running on the JVM and Java interop. Scott K shares his interest in getting a Clojure, Scala and F# guy in the same room and Kevin gives his thoughts about the language explosion.
  • Scott K leads a conversation about managed javascript, node.js, and IronJS.
  • The group offers their opinions on Codeplex support for Mercurial and address questions like “Why not Git?” and “Does this make Codeplex more appealing?”
  • Lightning Round Question #1: Who’s going to buy an iPad?
  • Lightning Round Question #2: What non-technical blogs do you read?

Show Links:

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 72: Questioning Uncle Bob, Clojure Magic, Mercurial Support at Codeplex, Thoughts About the iPad and Handerpants

[audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0072-Bob-Clojure-Mercurial-iPad-Handerpants.mp3]
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Herding Code 71: James Avery and Rob Conery on NoSQL and a bunch of other stuff

This week on Herding Code, James Avery and Rob Conery join the cast in a lively discussion about NoSQL, TekPub, the new DotNetKicks and the technical debate du jour, ASP.NET Web Forms vs ASP.NET MVC.

  • Kevin asks Rob and James to share their views on NoSQL and the use of object and document databases.  James challenges the idea that all data must reside in a relational databases. Are ORMs so last year?   What’s going to be happening in 2020?
  • Rob claims he wouldn’t accept a ride to the bar in an 18-wheeler.  Whatever!
  • Jon asks what we’re saving with object databases – don’t ORMs abstract the database away?  So what’s the point?
  • James pimps TekPub
  • Rob talks it bit about domain-driven design and how we marry relational tables to object-oriented system. K Scott fails to see how the choice of a UI pattern is influenced by the type of database one is using. Rob explains.
  • Jon asks about maintainability and supportability issues and what’s your boss going to think if you suggest moving away from your current relation database solution. James gives examples on why non-relational solutions are easy to maintain and support.  Rob talks about quick ramp up time, scalability and performance like he’s given the speech 1000 times before.
  • The guys pleasantly discuss MSDN.and VB.and ASP.NET Web Forms.
  • K Scott shares his opinion on the future of MVC, Web Forms, Silverlight and Sharepoint as they will exist both inside and outside of the firewall.  Scott K, James and Rob also offer their opinions (shocking) and Jon’s chance to interject is taken away when the luminous “Page Lifecycle” crashes down upon him. 
  • James and Rob dig a little deeper into object and document databases and normalized database nightmares are exchanged.
  • Kevin asks how versioning works in an object database, the guys speak of Json and Bison, and serialization and deserialization.  James speculates that object databases will ultimately be more popular than document databases.
  • Rob addresses the idea that he’s condescending and rude.  The group talks about opinions and share their views on recent technical debates – ASP.NET MVC vs Web Forms, VB vs C#, ORMs vs Stored Procedures, and Jets vs Sharks. Can’t we all just get along?
  • Rob and James pimps TekPub again.
  • K Scott kicks off a flash lightning round – one question about VB6.
  • Rob answers Twitter question from @elijahmanor about TekPub’s technology stack and elaborates about video options.
  • James pimps DotNetKicks.

Show Links:

    Download / Listen:

    Herding Code 71: James Avery and Rob Conery on NoSQL and a bunch of other stuff

    [audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0071-James-Avery-and-Rob-Conery-on-NoSQL-and-a-bunch-of-other-stuff.mp3]

    Length: 1:18:38

    Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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    Herding Code 70: Sean Chambers on Migrations in .NET

    This week on Herding Code, we talk to Sean Chambers about migrations in .NET with Fluent Migrator.

    • Sean talks about how Fluent Migrator originated from Migrator.NET
    • Sean discusses how the benefits of a semantic model in Fluent Migrator
    • K Scott and Sean discuss how you’d start using Fluent Migrator in a project
    • Sean talks about some useful features, like InsertData\
    • Jon asks about support for different databases
    • Scott K asks about the benefits of a migration framework over a simple directory of T-SQL scripts
    • We take a question from Aaron Lerch (@aaronlerch) on Twitter about how Fluent Migrator would work with Fluent NHibernate
    • Kevin asks about Schema Update
    • Kevin and Sean talk about possible inefficiencies with objects being added, changed, and removed in successive migrations
    • K Scott asks about extensibility hooks
    • Scott K asks about stored procedures, functions, user defined types, etc.
    • Jon asks about how Fluent Migrator relates to other .NET migration frameworks
    • We take a question from Aaron Jensen (@aaronjensen) on Twitter about the benefits of a migration framework since T-SQL is already a DSL
    • Lightning round: K Scott starts the lightning round by asking what refactoring operations everyone uses most
    • Lightning round: What’s your favorite VM software? (spoiler: VirtualBox wins by a wide margin)
    • Lightning round: What’s your favorite movie that involves an android?

    Show Links:

    Download / Listen:

    Herding Code 70 – Sean Chambers on Migrations in .NET

    [audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0070-Sean-Chambers-on-Migrations-in-dotNET.mp3]
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    Herding Code 69: Scott Bellware on HTML Specialists

    This week on Herding Code, Scott Bellware returns to talk about . 

    • Scott talks about the frustrations in working with “HTML Specialists”
    • Scott discusses the team issues caused by specialists in a software team who aren’t in touch with the entire product development cycle
    • The problem with handoffs: loss of workability
    • Eventually, things turn to the technology issue involved in working with HTML and CSS
    • Are HTML tables necessarily evil
    • Scott and Scott K discuss whether CSS purity is a premature optimization
    • Jon and Scott discuss whether clean markup can be deferred until the end of a project
    • Scott talks about the lunacy of delivering design work as “final”
    • Scott talks about how optimization fights with workability
    • Scott enumerates some of examples of websites which might not benefit from accessibility
    • Jon posits that tables might not be easier than CSS design, it’s just what we learned first
    • Scott K talks about how CSS floats drive him nuts
    • Scott talks about how crazy CSS is when viewed as a programming language
    • K Scott talks about some technological workarounds like lesscss
    • Scott talks about how he doesn’t see Silverlight as an improvement, because it brings along a lot of other challenges
    • Scott talks about how working in teams and in “small batches” solves the problems with handoffs
    • Scott talks about the joy of a January 1st project date

    Show Links:

    Download / Listen:

    Herding Code 69 – Scott Bellware on HTML Specialists

    [audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0069-Scott-Bellware-on-HTML-Specialists.mp3]
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    Herding Code 68: New Year Shenanigans

    In this episode of Herding Code, the gang talks about what happened last year and what they think will happen in the years to come.  Oh, and K Scott brings us the first lightning round of 2010!

    • How will the guys manage the show in 2010?  Google Docs and listener requests?
    • Are you bitter because today’s coder has little appreciation for how rough devs had it 10 years ago?
    • Phone wars. Big, smart ones. Will Android dethrone the iPhone?
    • Place your bets!  Biggest box office hit in 2010: Ironman 2 or The A-Team Movie?
    • You don’t see the Fail Whale quite as often, but it’s still fun to listen to the guys continue to complain about Twitter and its clients.
    • Next ten years – will C# continue to rule the .NET roost?
    • Ever ask WolframAlpha “Who uses this site?”
    • What secret project is John Lam working on?  Will IronRuby live on?
    • You love maps, right? K Scott does too.   Who knew?
    • Ever wonder if the iSlate will take over the (Kindle) world?
    • Are you planning to improve your skill set in 2010? How?
    • Really? Jon’s default search engine is Bing! How’s about that Infinite Scroll!

    Download / Listen:

    Herding Code 68 – New Year Shenanigans

    [audio://herdingcode.com/wp-content/uploads/HerdingCode-0068-New-Year-Shenanigans.mp3]

    Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!