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.