Great Conversation with Chris Tavares about Microsoft Unity

I had a really great conversation recently with Chris Tavares, the lead developer of the Unity Application Block for Microsoft.  The chat was for my weekly article on InfoQ.  Please check it out.

Some information on Unity to get going:

• Introduction to Unity
• Downloading Unity
• Unity and Silverlight
• Using Unity and the ASP.NET MVC Preview 2

There are certainly a good number of Dependency Injection contains for .NET which have either been around for a long time or have sprung up recently.  I am planning a post covering them in a bit of detail for those interested in learning about DI containers or understanding what is available.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Unity, Dependency Injection

Checking out the new Ruby web framework called Waves

I recently had the pleasure to interview Dan Yoder, the creator of a new Ruby web framework called Waves.  Waves is a MVC framework, like that of Ruby on Rails but takes on some very unique ways of doing things and it piqued my interest.   I missed Waves when I wrote about 10 Alternative Ruby Web Frameworks recently and Dan pinged me to let me know about Waves.

Dan has leveraged existing technology were appropriate, such as:

• Markaby
• Erubis
• Sequel
• Mongrel
• Rack

It’s great to see web frameworks being created for Ruby, a perfect example that the success of Rails continues to drive innovation.

You can read my interview with Dan on InfoQ and checkout the Waves feature list on the Waves web site.

 

Technorati Tags: Waves,Ruby,Framework,InfoQ

Merb is looking great heading to version 1.0

Merb development is coming along at a really fast pace and the team has really thought out the architecture implemented in Merb 1.0.  I am personally excited to see these updates coming.  The new Merb-core gem is small and fast, allowing developers to create small applications without a large overhead, much like Camping, but with a richer, more complete framework.

My latest article is up on InfoQ talking about the latest Merb developments with Ezra Zygmuntowicz, Merb creator and founder of the Engine Yard.

As you read through the interview, understand an important point by Ezra:

Merb is a web application framework with many similarities to Rails.  The main difference is a focus on understandable, non-magic, fast code.

I think this is important for Merb as well as future Ruby frameworks, Ruby on Rails is the current killer application for Ruby.  Rails is the pioneer in Ruby web frameworks but it is not without faults.  Any pioneer knows there will be followers who imitate and duplicate their efforts to leverage their strengths and improve on their weaknesses.  In my opinion, Merb is a perfect example.  The Merb team decided what they did not like in Rails and created their own framework and avoided those problems, a perfect example of evolution in action.

I think we will see many Ruby frameworks looking to improve on Rails, improve on Merb and create better and better technology.  This is certainly exciting times in Ruby web development.

Technorati Tags: Ruby,Merb,Ruby on Rails,Engine Yard

The State of IronRuby with John Lam posted on InfoQ

I have been working for the past few weeks on an interview with John Lam, Program Manager on the Dynamic Language Runtime Team and the leader of the IronRuby project.  The interview is complete is is now up on InfoQ for all to read.

I think the interview gives some good insight to where the team is today with the implementation and where they need to be once they release IronRuby 1.0.  John was gracious in responding to my questions, even though he is extremely busy with this project.

It is an exciting time for Ruby developers whether you are on Linux, Mac or Windows and whether your company is committed to running applications on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) or you are a Microsoft shop committed to .NET.  Very soon you will be able to take a Ruby application and run it anywhere.

There are some announcements coming from MIX08 in March from Microsoft we will not want to miss which will shed some more light on where IronRuby is in relation to the DLR and Silverlight.

I have some announcements coming of my own which I consider exciting as well but a bit too early to talk about.

Technorati Tags: IronRuby,Silverlight,DLR,Microsoft,Ruby,InfoQ

Interview with Patrick Smacchia of NDepend is up on InfoQ

I had the opportunity to interview Patrick Smacchia, a Microsoft C# MVP and creator of NDepend, recently about his product NDepend and how NDepend can help with code analysis, code coverage, refactoring and many other metrics to help the developer.  The interview was for the developer-related web site InfoQ, where I often write.

Note: This is not intended to be a review, I may add one later.  One of the other .NET Editors at InfoQ is going to be publishing a complete review of NDepend 2.6, so I won’t duplicate the effort.  I just wanted to show some parts of the application and what the output looks like.

Startup Screen

I began working with NDepend a few weeks ago when I started talking to Patrick.  NDepend has a nice start screen, much like that in Visual Studio 2008.

Project Loaded

Once the project is loaded the developer has access to the CQL (query language) window and find out many useful metrics about the assemblies being analyzed.  The Class Browser window looks a lot like Reflector.

The NDepend Report

The report produced once the assemblies are loaded up is proportional to the size of the project.  The project I analyzed was small and produced a large report.  Below is just the first page of the report created with NDepend 2.6.

I am looking forward to giving NDepend a project to run through the paces with and learn how to use the product better.

Technorati Tags: InfoQ,NDepend

My David Heinemeier Hansson Rails 2.0 Interview up on InfoQ

I had the opportunity to interview David Heinemeier Hansson, Ruby on Rails creator,  recently for InfoQ and it went live today.  I was very impressed with David’s willingness to talk to me given the interview occurred right after the Rails 2.0 release.  I am sure I was not the only one pursuing him for an interview at the time.

You can check out the full interview, Talking Rails 2.0 with David Heinemeier Hansson, at InfoQ.

Technorati Tags: Ruby on Rails,DHH,David Heinemeier Hansson,InfoQ

My Latest Article is up on InfoQ : Catching up with the Castle Project

My latest article titled “Catching up with the Castle Project” is up on the InfoQ web site.  I had the opportunity to chat with Hamilton Verissimo of the Castle Project.

I have been using this framework on some test projects to try to learn the .NET side of an MVC framework.  The talk with Hamilton was loaded with incite, thank you Hamilton for giving me the time.

Technorati Tags: InfoQ, Castle Project

InfoQ – My Second Article Posted

Since signing on with InfoQ as a .NET editor I have had my second article posted.

I had the great opportunity to chat with Eric J. Smith of CodeSmith Tools, LLC to talk about their PLINQO templates that enhance Microsoft’s LINQ to SQL.  These templates are an add-on to CodeSmith, which is a great code generation tool.

Please check out the article.

Technorati Tags: InfoQ, PLINQO, CodeSmith

InfoQ – First Article is Published

I was contacted recently to write some articles or news releases for InfoQ in the .NET and Architecture areas.   I was honored to be asked to contribute to a site I find particularly useful.

I wrote about my thoughts on InfoQ in the past.  I find their content focused and always relevant.

My first article is up on InfoQ, titled Promesh.NET – an MVC Web Framework for .NET.  It is a conversation I had with Philippe Leybaert the creator of ProMesh.NET, an MVC framework to create web applications on .NET.  It talks about the recently released ProMesh.NET into open source on CodePlex.  Please check it out.

Technorati Tags: InfoQ, .NET, Promesh.NET, MVC