Will Resume Regular Programming Shortly

I’m still alive my friends, just had stuff catch up with me a bit. I’ll be resuming regularly scheduled programming shortly, so hang tight!

October 21, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Check out this hand-drawn awesomeness to end your week. On with the links…

Manual Testing Code Coverage – Yeah! from Jeff Levinson
Jeff has a nice post showing how you’ll be able to enable and collect code coverage statistics in Dev11 for manual testing efforts. Code coverage for manual testing was promised many moons ago for MTM 2010 but it didn’t make it in the product, but you’ll be good to go in the next release.

Inside the C++/CX Design from Visual C++ Team Blog
Jim Springfield from the Visual C++ team has some details into the new language extensions in C++ called C++/CX. C++/CX was designed to support the new Windows 8 API model, and you’ll be able to start playing with it in the Dev11 Preview that was released at BUILD.

Coded UI Tests for jqueryui from Mathew Aniyan
If you’ve found yourself developing a bit with jquery, you’ll want to check this post on how to develop Coded UI Tests for web applications that have jqueryui widgets. Lots of details and code can be found at the link.

TFS Integration Tools – Can I Migrate All Work Items from One Team Project Collection to Another? from Willy-Peter Schaub
When it comes to TFS migrations, by far the most common scenario I encountered was the need to move work items from one TFS server to another or one TFS project to another. It’s common when teams collapse (or expand) their TFS installation and move from older versions of TFS to TFS 2010. In this post, Willy summarizes the different scenarios for migrating work from one TFS to another, and more specifically one TFS Project Collection to another. There’s also a bit about the limitations in this process, so you’ll want to give this a read if you’re planning a migration and need to understand your options better.

October 20, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

This is the touchscreen of the future? Don’t think so, but it’s still neat. On with the links…

Multi-line Test Steps Available in Microsoft Test Manager, Among Other Things… from Brian Harry
Brian has a big announcement that a client patch is now available called the “Visual Studio 2010 SP1 TFS Compatibility GDR”. It just rolls off the tongue. There are number of bug fixes in this release, several that are detailed at the link, but the big news is that Microsoft Test Manager now supports multi-line test steps. I’d like to give the team a huge round of applause, but it’s my humble opinion that MTM should have never shipped without it. Still, better late than never and thanks to the DevDiv team for another out-of-band release that not only fixes bugs but also adds value.

Roslyn CTP Now Available from S. Somasegar
Soma has just announced the release of the Microsoft “Roslyn” CTP, which allows C# and VB compilers to be used as a service. Both of the compilers will have a complete rewrite for Dev11 with the C# compiler being written in C#, and the VB compiler being written in VB (as opposed to C++ for both). The result is that Roslyn compilers become services that can be consumed, opening an entire world for developers to provide tools analyzing code and compiler outputs. For more info, check out…

Roslyn Syntax Visualizers from The Visual Studio Blog
The Visual Studio Blog provides a getting started post to help you dive into Roslyn by taking a look at a couple of samples to develop Roslyn extensions. The samples included are a Syntax Debugger and Syntax Visualizer, and this post contains lots of info on both.

The Roslyn Preview Is Now Available from Eric Lippert
Eric also has a post announcing Roslyn and have some additional details about the scope of Roslyn and in what state you should expect to find the CTP. Also included are a number of links out to Roslyn related community pages, forums, and a Roslyn CTP Twitter feed. Dive in!

Windows 8 Development – First Impressions from Dan Hanan
I enjoyed Dan’s impressions on Windows 8 development and his explanation of contracts and his list of bugs he’s run into. Lots of code and details are at the link.

October 19, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Underwater. Again. On with the links…

DemoMates for Visual Studio 11 ALM Demos from Brian Keller
Brian has the skinny on a number of DemoMates for the Visual Studio 11 ALM Demos that are part of the Visual Studio 11 ALM Virtual Machine. DemoMates are Silverlight-based renderings of a software demo that can be used to easily learn a demo or demonstrate it to an audience. Very cool stuff.

Introduction to Branching by Quality [Branching-Merging Techniques] from Tarun Arora
Tarun has a great exploration into the “Branch by Quality” branch pattern, where branching is done based on the phase of development for a specific set of code. It’s the most common branching story out there and one that I typically recommend because it jives with my “Scrummerfall” preference. Understanding branching patterns is critical to implementing a proper ALM solution, and unless you’re a branching wizard, you should give this a read.

Using NuGet and TFS Build 2010 from Richard Fennell
Richard has an interesting look at using NuGet in a TFS build and a couple of errors (and their solutions) that arose in a specific example he encountered.

Two Useful Extensions for Presenters Using VS2010 from Mark Pearl
If you’re in the habit of presenting and using Visual Studio 2010 during your presentations, you should check out the Presentation Zoom VS extension and the ZoomEditorMargin VS extension. Both are described in Mark’s post with screens and details at the link.

October 18, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Sorry about yesterday, things got away from me. This link showing quantum levitation should make it up to you. If it doesn’t, you can contact management for a refund. On with the links…

Visual Studio Architecture Tooling Guidance – How Important is the Guidance Extension? from Willy-Peter Schaub
The Visual Studio 2010 Architecture Tooling Guidance is one of the most popular and, as a result, it should be no surprise that the Visual Studio ALM Rangers have big plans for the next set of the guidance that is part of their Visual Studio 11 Readiness efforts. In this post, the “epics” that are part of the next set of guidance are defined as well as their priorities.

(External) Visual Studio ALM Ranger Champions 2011.2 are Known! Cowabunga! from Willy-Peter Schaub
Willy also recognizes the external (that means, the ones that don’t work for MSFT) Visual Studio ALM Rangers champions, Michael Fourie, Martin Hinshelwood, and Robert MacLean! All three have been long-time contributors to the Visual Studio ALM community and this recognition is well deserved. Congrats!

How to Change Test Scribe Template and Test Scribe – Developer Guide from Shai Raiten
Shai posted on how to change the Test Scribe template and ended up writing a developer’s guide to answer some of the questions he received via email. If you are looking to utilize Test Scribe and customize it’s output, you’ll want to read both posts. He provides a complete reference for both the images and strings Test Scribe uses, as well as an explanation of the command list.

Effective Stand-Ups from Robert May
I really liked this post on effective stand-up meetings and some of the dysfunctions teams doing stand-ups tend to face. I’m not a big fan of the gimmicks surrounding stand-ups and Scrum, as those are in place just to overcome most managers inability to conduct a meeting, but believe that daily, ultra-quick status meetings are indispensible for teams looking to regain control of their project. Even if you’re an old hand at Scrum, you’ll find something in this post worth your while.

October 14, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Friday! Today isn’t quite as VS and TFS heavy, but there’s a little bit peppered in. On with the links…

Agile is for Your Whole Business from Joel Semeniuk
I really liked this post from Joel on Agile software development and its application to your entire business. I’m actually a partner in a health and fitness business and have been thinking quite a bit about how to apply Agile concepts to what we do.

Test Case Management (TCM) Reporting - Frequently Asked Questions - Part 1 from Visual Studio Team Test
This is a great post answering a few frequently asked questions about Test Case management and reporting with Microsoft Test Manager and Visual Studio 2010. Using reports and data effectively seems intuitive, but its been my experience that most teams are very ineffective at not only gathering effective quantifiers to manage their team but then using that data once they have it.

Anatomy of a Good Bug Report from Tim Heuer
Tim shows us the anatomy of a good bug report by describing what she be in it, which fields should be required, and what a good bug report looks like. I worked for a company many moons ago that rewrote it’s “bug template” multiple times to overcome issues where people weren’t entering good data in bugs. In reality, the biggest impediment to creating and using bug reports wasn’t the specifics of its contents but rather the discipline of the team to enter effective data and then use it. So standardize on something (like Tim’s recommendations) and then actually use the damn thing.

Using the HTML 5 File API to Read the file Contents from The Problem Solver
It’s post like this that make me want to drop everything and focus entirely on HTML 5. Here, we get a look at reading file contents using the HTML 5 FileReader API.

How We Review Code from Lee Winder
Code Reviews are probably the least understood, and therefore least effectively quality control tool that teams use. How a code review is of extreme importance, and can take code reviews from being a complete waste of time to being the most important part of your development process. To understand the different types of code reviews and how they can be used, check out this great post describing different review strategies.

October 13, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Dennis Ritchie, the man responsible for developing the C programming language, has died. The computing world has lost someone whose contributions are every bit, even if not more so, substantial as Steve Jobs. On with the links…

What is New in VS TFS 2011 Part 2 and Part 3 from Tarun Arora
Tarun continues his excellent series on the new goodness in Team Foundation Server 11 by showing off the features that pertain to Testers, Business Analysts, Project Managers, and TFS Administrators. A lot of ground is covered, and if you’ve ignored TFS 11 up until this point, this series is a good place to get started catching up.

Building with VS11 and Team Foundation Service Preview from Bryan Group
I’ve linked to a bit on this subject before, but Bryan’s post on TFS Build and Team Foundation Service is the most complete I’ve seen yet. He shows how to set up TFS Build with TF Service and also walks through queuing and monitoring your builds.

Why Does My MS Project Run So Slow When Connected to TFS from Donovan Brown
Donovan has a quick tip to help out MS Project performance when you’re using MS Project with TFS Work Items.

The Three Things We Need at Work from Chad Moore
I really liked this post from Chad Moore on the three key factors to creating a productive and profitable workspace. Chad is in game development, but the factors he highlights (autonomy, mastery, and contribution) are universal to all teams. This is definitely worth a quick read.

October 12, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Do you like video games? If so, this is what awesome looks like. On with the links…

Using the TFS API to Display Results of a Hierarchical Work Item Query from Colin Dembovsky
If you’re querying data with the TFS API, you’ve probably figured out that RunQuery() won’t work for a tree or direct links query. To overcome this, Colin has put together some code that will allow you to query hierarchical work items and has lots of details and screens at the link (downloadable code too).

How Windows 8’s Memory Management Modifications Make for a Better User Experience from Ars Technica
Ars brings us a great read explaining the memory management story in Windows 8 and how it claims to be even more efficient than Windows 7. I’m a big Ars fan and think you should be to, so set a bookmark.

Windows 8 and the Up and Coming Hardware Revolution from Keith Elder
I really liked Keith’s post on how Windows 8 will juggle the traditional PC and the tablet interface, and his thoughts on the perfect computer. He also links to a really cool BUILD presentation titled 8 Traits of Great Metro Style Apps. It’s worth your time if you’re trying to get your head around where Microsoft thinks the future is going, at least where interfaces are concerned.

Things I Wish I Knew Earlier from Zachary Hoefler
This is a terrific post with some nuggets on Zach’s experience at an internship and what he wished people had told him up front. I’ve been at it a lot longer than Zach, but I can vouch that there is incredible wisdom in what he says and that every programmer should give it a read. There’s greatness in the comments too.

October 11, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Space nerds simply have to watch this video of the three-year Martian trek by the Opportunity rover. Amazing. On with the links…

Visual Studio 11 Developer Preview: Search Everywhere from The Visual Studio Blog
The search story in Visual Studio has gotten much better in Dev11, and the Visual Studio Blog has all the details.

What is New in VS TFS 2011 Part 1 from Tarun Arora
Tarun has an incredible post, the first in a series, showing off the new features and capabilities of Team Foundation Server 11. This post provides a broad look at the focus of TFS 11 and then dives into a number of specific features, including the new Team Explorer, Code Review capabilities, version control improvements, and much more.

Building Windows Phone Apps with a 64-bit Build Agent from TFS Build from Paul King
Developers have run into a host of issues trying to use TFS to manage builds for Windows Phone applications. In this post, Paul walks you through getting everything set up by showing you how to resolve one issue where you need to specify which version of MSBuild to run during the build process.

Announcing Wrox's Professional C++, 2nd Edition from the Visual C++ Team Blog
Mar Gregoire announces the release of his book, Professional C++, Second Edition, which includes bits on the latest C++ standard, C++11. You can get a copy on the Kindle (or other digital book readers) as well. Odds are, this one will make it to my shelf.

October 10, 2011 – Learn TFS Daily

Vintage Soviet cars are charming. On with the links…

Database Changes Between TFS 2010 and TFS 2011 from Tarun Arora
Tarun has put together an incredible post outlining the database changes that were made between TFS 2010 and TFS 2011 and which feature those changes pertain to. It’s a neat peek behind-the-scenes as to the scope of the changes and how you can access that data.

How Do I: Use the web.config Transforms in Visual Studio 2010 from Chris Koenig
Chris Koenig, our local Microsoft Developer Evangelist here in Dallas, has a succinct video showing off how to use the web.config transform feature in Visual Studio 2010. Web.config transforms help deal with the classic problem of having different web.config files and settings for different environments. These transforms are essential to teams with ALM needs that involve different environments depending on the maturity of a specific feature or release.

Visual WIP Beta 2 is Now Out! from Hakan Forss
A second beta of Visual WIP, a Kanban visualization tool for Team Foundation Server that gives visibility to your Work in Progress, has been released. This project has definitely shaped up over its lifetime and there are lots of new features in this release as well as a number of bug fixes. Details and screens can be found at the link.

5 Things You Might Not Know About Visual Studio from Gustavo Samour
Visual Studio is massive and very complex, so it follows that your experience using Visual Studio may be drastically different from others. Consequently, you might be missing out on a number of useful tools and features. This post outlines five things you might not know about Visual Studio, but should know. Also check the comments for a few additional nuggets that might be useful.