Musing today whilst discussing various XAML coolness (I really love binding properties), I wonder how long it will be before it is possible to just include little bits of Ruby or Python script as a ValueConverter or other tiny algorithm. It’s entirely possible that WPF 4 already supports this and I’ve been too busy to notice. That starts sounding awfully like a Rails view written in XAML!
Dynamic script bits in XAML?
November 18th, 2009Clouds and Key-Value Databases
October 5th, 2009I was watching an interesting video on Computing Strategy in the Cloud Era, by Lew Moorman, CSO of Rackspace, speaking at the Glue conference.
In the Questions section at the end he talked about lock-in and mentioned the new generation databases such as SimpleDB as representing lock-in because they aren’t standardised.
I did some quick skimming and found an interesting debunking article on these key-value databases.
The enthusiastic response to these databases makes me wonder, apart from the obvious Google must be right attitude, if a sloppy view of the world as a soup of key-value pairs is actually an inherently comfortable way for many people to think about data? Is it appealing because this is a level of complexity we can think with more naturally?
GraphViz for UI Flow
September 18th, 2009I created this diagram (mainly by hand) for a client last year but don’t have permission to post a non-obfuscated version. As I’ve been talking recently on Stack Overflow about using GraphViz for casually tracking logic, I wanted a good sample. It is an accounting application and this shows how different buttons and menu options take you to other screens.
The image below was created by sizing a preview to fit at a non-readable text level and then taking a snapshot. The original PDF is 72KB and allows you to cleanly zoom in to see the flow.
Clicking the image will let you see a larger version but still obfuscated.
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OOFILE gets some Visual Studio 2008 Love
September 13th, 2009I needed some of the core cross-platform graphics bits from OOFILE working in Visual Studio 2008 so paid it some long-needed attention and started putting some projects along with the source. There is now a project to build the Sample Reports application, along with a couple of very minor source changes to make it compile with VS2008.
Shift Keys and Small Dogs
August 31st, 2009My punishment for lying down reading on the Powerbook 12″ – Charley jumped on my chest and managed to snag a claw on the left shift key, flipping it neatly off the keyboard.
I was very lucky in that no tabs were broken and found a great guide to fitting keys but thought a few points might help someone else squinting at the problem. Read the rest of this entry »
CRUD and REST idioms
August 25th, 2009Just reading a very interesting article on REST and CRUD idioms
I chipped in with a couple of points. I skimmed the article initially and it made me think a lot more about the web services we’re working with and the implications of PUT as an update – do we want to have an empty element as the way to specify that a PUT clears part of the content?
I found another good discussion whilst trying to clarify my own thinking and see if there is a consensus on how to do partial updates.
Git Started
August 12th, 2009I’ve recently started using git for a project with a local client who has Perforce in their office. The move to git was driven by a desire to have version control whilst away from my office’s file-system-based svn repository and by a minor disaster with the svn directories clashing with Perforce.
I am more impressed with git than I expected to be.
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Dad is Dead
August 4th, 2009My father, Pip Dent, died of cancer last Wednesday. The funeral will be down at Harvey this Thursday 6th August with refreshments being served afterwards at the Rotary meeting rooms (actually the local Masonic lodge).
I haven’t blogged about it so far because I didn’t know what to say. I spent a very sad day yesterday with my brother Alastair, who has flown over from the UK, talking to the minister and picking out photos for the service. Mum’s chemo for her leukemia has resulted in her being hospitalised for a few days although she’s responding well and will at least be at the funeral.
First day at WWDC09
June 9th, 2009If anyone is looking for me, I’m in the Hotel Palomar room 727.
I wimped out on queuing early and didn’t get down there until about 8.35. The queue was well around the block and stalled for a long time but we did get in the door about 10.05 and seated in an overflow room.
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