Should We Depend On Mono?
// June 28th, 2009 // No Comments » // Linux, Programming
Ok, firstly I’m going to say I’m a C# developer, so partially biased, although I do think my views are quite fair. I’m only a C# developer by profession (from Java). I only use Linux at home, C# is purely for web development.
Right with that out of the way now I can get to commenting on Richard Stallman’s opinions regarding Mono. We should systematically arrange to depend on the free C# implementations as little as possible. In other words, we should discourage people from writing programs in C#. Therefore, we should not include C# implementations in the default installation of GNU/Linux distributions, and we should distribute and recommend non-C# applications rather than comparable C# applications whenever possible.
For me there are many things wrong with this opinion. Ok, so the patents issue is a touchy one, but “encouraging” people not to use C# is just restricting the open source movement, innovation, and competitiveness. In terms of development, you couldn’t be putting a more negative signal out there.
Don’t Go Breaking My Build
// June 8th, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Programming, Work
I’ve written another article on the Huddle blog, this time detailing about how to stop the build breaking or at least informing people when it has been broken so it can be fixed quickly. There is a Jabber notification NAnt task we use. I’m working on putting together a NAnt.Util library (pulling together previous tasks I’ve written) that has a whole load of common build functionality. The Jabber stuff should be included in it.
I’ll hopefully be doing another article regarding farming out the build. As ours gets bigger, we need more workers to keep things quick. I’ve been taking a look at Team City and am contemplating moving us across from CruiseControl.Net.
Speeding Up The Build
// May 20th, 2009 // No Comments » // Programming, Work
I’ve written a blog on Huddle about Speeding Up The Build.
It covers a few changes that can be made to help keep your build nice and quick (anything over 60 seconds I would consider slow). Ours is currently at 100 seconds, so we’ve still got some work to do. It’s not bad though considering we have around 40 projects, over a thousand unit tests, css/jss compression, and run aspnet_compiler as a further check.
Garmin Edge 705 using Ubuntu
// April 28th, 2009 // 12 Comments » // Fitness, Linux
I recently bought a Garmin Edge 705, but came across the age old problem of using a device with Linux. Thankfully, Garmin have done quite well for themselves. and I’ve managed to use the device as I want within Ubuntu. Here’s a review of the device, and how I’ve got to using it.
The Build Process Using CruiseControl.Net & NAnt
// April 15th, 2009 // No Comments » // Programming, Work
CruiseControl.Net
What Is CruiseControl.Net?
- CruiseControl.Net is a free framework for continuous build integration.
- It runs as a Windows service on our build server, watching for changes to our source control system. When it detects a change (ie a developer commits some code) it triggers an action.
- It also comprised of a Web Dashboard, so that build reports (ie the outcome of an action) can be viewed in a browser.
- It’s configured using XML.
- CruiseControl.Net lives on our “Kermit” build server.
