Adam Caudill's Blog » Software

Happy 20th birthday Visual Basic!

Adam Caudill — Sat, 21 May 2011 05:50:19 +0000

Today I saw a post on Facebook by a friend of mine, Anthony Green, about writing his first blog post as a Microsoft employee (he has a personal blog as well, unfortunately he’s not written anything since 2008) – when I saw the title, I couldn’t believe it was 20 years already – seems just yesterday that I wrote about its 15th birthday:

Happy 20th Birthday Visual Basic!

My, what a journey it’s been. Almost fifteen years ago I randomly bought a copy of “Visual Basic 5: Deluxe Learning Edition” – I was just 15 at the time and wanted a new hobby, and writing software seemed like it would be fun. In those early days, I had no idea what career I would choose, and really didn’t intend for software development to become the dominant force in my life – I just wanted a better, more productive way to spend my time during the summer.

In the years that have went by, I became passionate about the field, and all it encompasses (possible obsessed, if you believe my wife) – it’s been the driving force in my life. Today, I manage a team of 6 developers, and have a fun start-up with some friends (that someday won’t cost me money every month) – and all because I bought that book. Overall, I have a lot to thank VB for, it really did get me started in this field.

Today though, my language of choice has moved on to newer options – I prefer bleeding technologies when I can use them – but VB will always have a place in my heart, and I’ll always follow its progress as it continues to transform and adapt to an ever-changing world. As the most popular .NET language (contrary to what many of the C# developers think), it plays a vital role in the development of the framework and the ecosystem.

In the conversations I’ve had with Anthony about the future of the language, I greatly look forward to writing about its 25th birthday; I expect those will be exciting times for the language and the entire .NET ecosystem.

bbPress & WordPress 3.1 (Registration Issues)

Adam Caudill — Sun, 06 Mar 2011 08:39:49 +0000

While building a new website for a small ISV, I was asked to integrate a forum – should be simple I thought, I’ll just use WordPress as a CMS and bbPress. Simple? Not quite.

To make things easier, I used Platform Pro by Pagelines (a great platform IMHO) and so used their “deep integration” instructions (while they are intended for Platform Pro users, the steps are virtually identical for all other setups). While the setup went quite smoothly, it wasn’t until it came time to test user registrations that the issue came up: when a new user tried to register they would receive an error stating that “email is required,” even if they had entered a valid email address. This effectively made it impossible for users to register, and thus made the forum useless.

After a bit of research, it looks like there is a conflict between newer versions of WordPress (3.0+) and bbPress 1.0.2 (I’m not sure if older versions have the same issue, but I would assume so). The fix for this is actually quite simple: install a plugin. The plugin itself is quite simple – containing only around a half-dozen executable lines of code, and works around the issue with a simple hack.

Unfortunately, the plugin description is rather vague and required a fair bit of research to identify as the fix, and the official documentation makes no reference to the issue or that this plugin can be used as a workaround.

Overall, a simple workaround but a major issue if you don’t notice that it’s broke (as is quite easy to do).

Android & Windows 7 64bit

Adam Caudill — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 05:13:56 +0000

Setting up the Android SDK on Windows 7 64bit, with a 64bit JDK / JRE is a bit less straightforward than one would expect, thankfully though the solution is quite simple. There are two settings that need to be adjusted to make this work – otherwise you’ll get an error indicating that Java can’t be found.

Step 1: Modify your PATH to include the bin folder of the JRE. Mine looks like this:

C:\Program Files\Java\jre6\bin

Step 2: Set the ANDROID_SWT variable (you’ll probably need to add it) to the \tools\lib\x86_64 folder of the Android SDK. Mine looks like this:

C:\Android\SDK\tools\lib\x86_64

With these two changes, everything seems to work as expected. Why this is required on 64bit but not 32bit I’m not sure, but this does seem to solve the problem.

bbPress: Is the end near?

Adam Caudill — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 21:39:03 +0000

I’ve been a fan of bbPress for quite some time; I’ve even contributed code to the project. For those that aren’t familiar with it, bbPress is an open-source forum system written in PHP. It’s fast, lightweight, easy to install and even easier to use. It also scales, quite well.

bbPress was originally written to power the support forums WordPress.org, which get quite a bit of traffic. Later, it was released as a separate project. While it doesn’t have nearly the feature set found in more popular systems such as vBulletin or phpBB; it makes up for it in simplicity. It’s designed to be conversation-centered, where the clear focus is on what people are saying, not the bells and whistles provided by the software.

I’ve used it for a couple sites and couldn’t be more pleased; though now I fear the end may be near.

Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com (and ListPress.com) has committed to supporting the project; though primarily in context to its role in the WordPress world. bbPress as a separate product has so much potential, though it seems Automattic has little interest in this; instead the interest seems to be in making bbPress just another add-on for WordPress.

At one point there was a lot of excitement and interest surrounding bbPress, though for a project like this to succeed you need input from the community, you need an open and fast paced development process. Unfortunately for bbPress, it had no such process. There were people who had the skill, time, and interest to lead the project and make it a success; but they were pushed away and the project was allowed to stagnate.

Today, there is some activity going on, and I’m glad to see that it won’t fade away completely; though I see little chance that it will live up to what it could have been. I have a lot of respect for Matt and Automattic; they’re very successful and build great products; but they could have done so much more.

bbPress will go on I’m sure; though I believe only as a shadow of what it could have been. Though maybe Matt will prove me wrong, I certainly hope so.

Start-up Tools: Open Atrium

Adam Caudill — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:19:31 +0000

When it comes to small business project management, Basecamp by 37signals has been the king of the hill for some time. Now though, there is an exciting new player in the field: Open Atrium. It’s a Drupal based open source project management system somewhat like Basecamp, though with many more features.

Open Atrium is new on the scene, with beta 1 being released just 4 days ago – though it’s already rather polished and seems to work well. While there are some hiccups with the installer and a disappointing lack of documentation, it’s still very easy to install and takes only a few minutes to get running.

It has all the major features that you would expect, plus a few extras such as a twitter-like shoutbox system. Here are the highlights:

Blogging
Calendar
Dashboard
Document Storage
Task Management

Being open source and self-hosted adds some nice benefits; unlimited customization, full control of your data, and my favorite: can be installed on a non-public web server. Having you project management system sit behind a VPN is a great way to avoid data leaks and embarrassments.

I’m still debating which is best, Basecamp or Open Atrium – but if you want to save some money, Open Atrium is worth looking into.

Start-up Tools & Services

Adam Caudill — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:18:23 +0000

Over the next few weeks (and months) I’ll be posting a series of articles on the tools and services that start-ups can use to make their business both more efficient and more profitable. This is aimed at ISVs (both micro and close to micro) though most of this should apply to any technology startup.

When you are starting a business, there are many important considerations with anything you use, here are the keys points I’ll be looking at:

Expense – This is probably the top requirement. Budgets tend to be quite limited, and there are always too many demands on what budget is available.
Effectiveness – It has to work; when running an ISV you simply don’t have time to waste. There is software to build and a business to run – there’s no time to waste on things that don’t work.
Power – Just because you’re running a small business, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on the power and features available to significantly larger business.
Flexibility – ISVs have a great benefit over larger businesses; agility. The very nature of smaller businesses give them a great ability to adapt to change – and the tools and services they use should be just as flexible.

There are many great resources out there – the challenge is digging through the clutter.

Posts so far:

Programmers are Expensive

Adam Caudill — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:49:14 +0000

I normally don’t write posts just to point out an article by another author, but the latest by Jeff Atwood is a must read:

Hardware is Cheap, Programmers are Expensive

I point this out because this is something I’ve been fighting recently. It’s easier for management to tell the development team to fix a performance issue than to request money for the new hardware that’s needed.

In the long run it would be much cheaper to just throw more hardware at it – though that requires higher level approval. Whereas assigning a couple developers doesn’t require going nearly as high.

I Love My Job

Adam Caudill — Sat, 10 Feb 2007 06:08:12 +0000

I love what I do, and I work with a great team. While it’s still far from perfect; I can say that I do love my job. For the last couple weeks though, I’ve had to remind myself of this several times. I’m sure we’ve all done it, in this industry it’s hard to avoid. You read an email or receive a phone call and repeat the mantra “I love my job, I love my job, I love my job.”

Unreasonable clients, managers that just don’t understand; there are so many reasons, so many triggers. While reciting this mantra often invokes laughter from those nearby, some thought should be given anytime it’s used. More often than not, used as a joke, but a joke masking true problems.

Some issues are unavoidable, some no amount a planning or preparation will help with; for those I can offer no advice. For those, even a perfect environment won’t help. It’s the others I care about, those issues that shouldn’t be, the deadlines that should never have been set, and those whose sole cause is lack of planning or forethought. Those are the ones that tire me; those are the ones I hate.

When I run into one of these situations, it makes me wish this was closer to reality than a dream of how we want things to be. However, why shouldn’t it be reality? Why do we allow this to happen time and time again?

Wait, read that last sentence again. Why do we allow, why do we allow? Yes, as developers we allow this to happen, and often encourage it. Late nights, working weekends, 90-hour weeks. Those could all be prevented, and could be reduced significantly should we stand up. If we do not take a stand, we encourage those that push us too far by doing just what they ask. Why should they stop if they can get a single developer to do the work of two?

A Solution?

So, what are we to do? Taking a page from Rob, here is my modest proposal. A few simple rules for both developers and managers to keep in mind. While rules such as these can never be enforced, keeping these things in mind could make life more pleasant for everybody.

Managers…

shall keep requests for after hours work to a minimum. While there are “crunch times” on occasion, these should be minimal.
shall seek input from at least one developer before estimating a project. An estimate should not be created without consulting those that will be working on it, as they should have the most realistic idea of how long it will take to implement.
shall not ask developers to implement a hack or kludgey solution to meet an unreasonable deadline or request; especially if it will compromise stability or maintainability.
shall understand that developers are often passionate about their work, and the quality of the software they produce. Asking a professional to implement a solution based on a bad design, or inferior technologies will often be viewed as an insult, especially when this is done to meet an unreasonable goal.
shall shield developers from unnecessary distractions and meetings. Distractions can destroy productivity.
shall not ask developers to do the job of a Support technician. Tasks such as installing or configuring third-party software should not be given to a developer.
shall filter all requests and put policies in place to ensure that requests do not go directly to a developer.
shall give developers the freedom and opportunity to test different development methodologies when the schedule allows.

Developers…

shall make every reasonable effort to complete a task, including working long hours (so long as the hours and frequency are reasonable).
shall not complain about boring or undesirable tasks.
shall alert management when an issue arises that may impact a deadline, as soon as possible.
shall build the best software they are able to.
shall provide accurate estimates when asked.
shall be available as much as possible should an emergency arise.
shall not over-build, or over architect just for the sake of doing so.
shall try to understand the pressures and forces at play when communicating with management.
shall make an effort to improve development methods and processes.

If you agree with this last, take it to your manager and talk about it; if not, build your own and talk about it. Either way, the idea is to talk about the issues and try to find ways to get everybody on the same page. If we make no effort to improve things, then we are just as much a part of the problem as anyone else.

If you don’t like things, complain; but complaining to a friend or co-worker won’t help, you need to let management know that there are problems and that you have some ideas to fix them.

Burning ISOs in Vista

Adam Caudill — Thu, 18 Jan 2007 02:20:17 +0000

Today I had to do something I’ve not done since I switched to Vista: burn a ISO image. Normally I would just fire up Nero and be on my way; but my version of Nero is old, and I didn’t feel like fighting with it. So I decide to find something new.

I found a fair bit of discussion on the topic, and a few highly recommended (and free) choices:

ImgBurn – This is a well polished application, it exposes a fair bit of information about what’s going on, and some of the behind the scenes details. Novice tend to prefer knowing as little as possible, but for more advanced users, it looks like a winner.
CDBurnerXP Pro – This one received a several recommendations, though I’d have to advise against it. While it seems like a well built application, it’s obvious that it’s not been tested on Vista (the warning about running on Windows 95 or Windows NT doesn’t inspire confidence).
ISO Recorder – This is one that I didn’t get a chance to test, though it sounds quite promising.

Of those I tested, all had the same major flaw: none worked. ImgBurn came the closest, though failed to actually start writing. After a quick search I turned up the reason: my old Iomega CD-RW drive was so old, it doesn’t follow the standards newer drives implement.

So now I’m facing buying a new copy of Nero (as it’s always worked for me), when I stumbled upon a writeup for BurnCDCC. Even though I thought it would be a waste of time, I went ahead and tried it. After downloading the whopping 69KB file, I fired it up, and sure enough; it worked!

So if you’ll looking for a free way to burn ISOs, and have and old, hopeless drive; BurnCDCC just might help. Seems to be a great little program, and I have to appreciate the simplicity. Something nice about software that does one thing, and does it very well.

Microsoft Office 2007 Pro Available via MSDN

Adam Caudill — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 00:04:35 +0000

For those interested, and those that have an MSDN subscription, Office 2007 Professional is now available for download. The 411MB ISO contains the following applications:

Microsoft Office Access 2007
Microsoft Office Excel® 2007
Microsoft Office Outlook® 2007 with Business Contact Manager
Microsoft Office PowerPoint® 2007
Microsoft Office Publisher 2007
Microsoft Office Word 2007

Hopefully the Ultimate edition will be made available soon.

Update: Microsoft has announced that Windows Vista will be available on Nov. 17th.