Inside PH: C# 3.0 and Linq

Jonathan — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 06:01:09 -0700

This morning I started working on a new library for a new feature we'll be rolling out in the not too distant future. It is the first production code that we're developing at PH using Visual Studio 2008, which brings us C# 3.0 and Linq.

Just one morning into it, it already feels like a vast improvement. It took all of ten minutes to get the DLinq classes generated in Visual Studio; it would have taken under five if it hadn't been my first time doing it and working it out as I went. Then they were ready to use, which was also trivial. No more writing SQL or stored procedures or calling methods on a data reader to get the data out: just instantiate the DataContext (which represents the database), write the query, and it's done.

I have also been enjoying the new Lambda expression syntax and type inferencing, which has saved me a few keystrokes already and makes the code somewhat more readable (provided you recognize the new syntax, of course). Once I know that this all fits into our build process smoothly, I'll probably begin moving some other projects over the Visual Studio 2008 so we can also use the new C# 3.0 features in those. Note that we won't be re-writing things just for the sake of using C# 3.0 features in them; that's probably just a reliable way to introduce new bugs, and I'd advise against that generally unless you've got really good reasons to do it.

Don't forget that PH is currently running a series on C# 3.0; the final part, on Linq, comes out this week! I plan to follow it up with an article on DLinq; I've been holding back on that until I'd got some more practical experience using it, though.

Inside PH: Now we're using Subversion

Jonathan — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 05:04:05 -0700

I'm now working as lead developer at Programmer's Heaven. Every so often, I'll be bringing you a little look inside, sharing some of the tools and techniques that we use to build and run the site.

Last week I completed migrating the Programmer's Heaven source tree to the Subversion version control system. Before I arrived, we were using a commercial offering, which I won't name here. I tried to give it plenty of chances to work well, and was patient when I heard a new version was coming out. However, the new version introduced new problems more than resolving the old ones, and I could never track down a pattern to the most serious issue, which led to broken builds a couple of times. It was frustrating knowing there were better tools out there; I had worked with Subversion on numerous projects before and knew that it was simple and Just Worked most of the time. It has its quirks, but nothing as close to annoying as what we were using.

Anyway, after months of suggesting we change to another version control system, they decided to make me lead developer, which basically meant that the migration was my problem if it went horribly wrong. Thankfully, after plenty of groundwork in the weeks leading up to it, I had the actual migration itself done and got our automated build scripts fixed up in the space of a day. I also took the opportunity for some re-organization of the repository so there's less top-level folders now - we'd spawned quite a few.

A good version control system is essential if you have multiple developers working on the same code base (and multiple means two and up - Tore and I could never have coped with us both hacking on the site without some form of version control over the last year). It's also useful when there's just one person involved too, especially if you are working on it over multiple computers. Being able to review any change that you did in the past or roll back to an earlier version of the code can get you out of all kinds of tricky situations. I speak from experience.

Anyway, that's your first peak at one of the things we're using here. I'll be brining you some more over the coming weeks and months. Questions welcome.

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Inside PH: C# 3.0 and Linq

Inside PH: Now we're using Subversion