Hot off the app market. If you have Lync installed in your organization and have a Windows Phone 7 go ahead and swing over to the marketplace and search Lync 2010. The app is free and takes a few minutes to connect. http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/9ce93e51-5b35-e011-854c-00237de2db9e

Word on the street Lyn is also available for Android and iPhone.

I’ve been readying through the Clean Code book by Robert C. Martin. I am only a chapter or two into the book and I feel like my code is becoming much more manageable and easier to ready. Method length was probably my biggest offender. I also used to comment a lot in code but now I am writing more self describing methods and variables so I don’t need to comment as much.

I saw a squirrel this morning and it did the usual thing of running to the nearest tree. For whatever reason I thought it would be an interesting exercise to write some pseudo-code about an event they would handle; here it goes.

   1: protected void OnHumanSpotted(object sender, EventArgs e)

   2: {

   3:   List<Trees> localTrees = GetSurroundingTrees();

   4:  

   5:   Tree closestClimbableTree = GetSafestTreeToClimb(localTrees);

   6:  

   7:   if (closestClimbableTree != null)

   8:   {

   9:     Climb(closestClimbableTree);

  10:   }

  11:   else

  12:   {

  13:     FleeOnFoot();

  14:   }

  15: }

I like how you don’t need to know the implementation of any of the methods, the intent of the code is communicated through the method names. I am sure this could be improved even more by encapsulating the methods even more but it works for this simple example.

Cheers!

A good friend and co-worker of mine just released a book on Microsoft Data Protection Manager 2010. You can pick it up for a few dollars less at the publisher’s site: https://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-data-protection-manager-2010/book. I know Steve spent a lot of time on the book and had a lot of input from a number of DPM MVPs so there’s bound to be a lot of good stuff in this book with very little fluff. Once I take a look at it I’ll include a more thorough review.

I’ve been quite busy for a little over a month now, working on a considerations white paper for TFS deployment to SharePoint. The paper outlines different deployment methods and their pro/cons. If you are using TFS and do SharePoint deployment, the paper is perfect for you!

The fruit of my labor has finally released and the white paper is available for download. Swing over to RepliWeb’s site and register for the paper! http://www.repliweb.com/resources/lp/tfs2010_shp_whitepaper.php

Cheers!
Luke

"Potato Chips" is born out of my affection for technology and things that are simple. If you're here looking for potato chip reviews I might post a few but the main purpose of this blog is to provide simple, tasty morsels of information on .NET development and random how to's of encountered technologies.

My daily job is an internal applications developer for a small training company based in Maple Grove, MN. Because the company is small, it seems I am always trying to hit the moving target. Prototyping is a weekly activity so I hope to share some of my adventures here on the blog.

If you're wondering about the blog title Potato Chips, it serves as an analogy. I really like plain kettle style potato chips. The ingredients for my favorite chips are, potatoes, salt, and oil; simple but savory. I like to apply this definition to my development methodology. The other themes which come to mind are, Keep it simple stupid (KISS), and Ya aint gonna need it (YAGNI).