Herding Code

Latest Episodes:

Herding Code 136: Code52 with Paul Jenkins, Brendan Forster, and Andrew Tobin Mar 10, 2012

Show notes

Episode 136

In this episode, Jon and Scott K talk talk with the guys behind Code52, an effort to spin up a new open source project every week for a year.

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 136: Code52 with Paul Jenkins, Brendan Forster, and Andrew Tobin

Show Notes:

Jon starts by asking how this whole idea got started.
Brendan explains the timeline of a one week spin up cycle for a project.
Jon asks if the projects just die at the end of a week, and if people are continuing to work on past projects. Paul and Andrew talk about the continuing work on all projects, including MarkPad .
Jon says he thinks the concern of abandoned open source projects is overblown - collaboration is good, working
Jon asks about the projects they've done so far, and the guys run through the list.
Brendan explains how the different projects are selected.
Jon asks about how technologies are selected. Brendan says that it's all based on who shows up, and Andrew mentions the wide variety of technologies that have been covered so far.
Paul says that the "bite sized projects" have been a good way for developers who are new to open source to get started. Jon asks how new developers can get ramped up, and Brendan lists some of the onboarding resources. Andrew explains that it's hard to write much documentation when the projects are running for a week. Andrew mentions some of the Git documentation they've got written up.
Scott K says he's got a ton of personal projects that he doesn't have time for. Everyone talks about the benefit of getting a team on a project for a week.
Jon asks about some of the common frameworks that they use over and over. Paul talks about MahApps.
Scott K asks about non-CLR project, like some crazy project in obscure languages. Brendan says the main focus is on building something useful in a week, which usually leads towards common languages. Brendan says that projects in other languages really need a "champion" to show up and lead the project for a week - and the door's open.
Jon asks about the community reaction overall. The guys talk about the wide attention, as well as some negative reactions from onlookers who want to see other technologies represented.
Jon says he thinks there was some pent up need for energy in the .NET open source space, and asks if that was part of the reason for getting this started.
Jon asks Paul about the "Mah" name he's used for his open source projects.
There's a discussion of developing while hungry, including the Pretzel project name and the "Jon should make me a delicious cake" incident.
Andrew talks about the GTFO project - GitHub Tools For Outlook
Jon asks about the .NET developer community in Australia. Is it as huge as it seems?
Question from Twitter - @wolfbyte asks: "How do you balance the shifting of tools / ideas / processes against the goal of attracting people to open source development.
Another question from @wolfbyte: "Are you guys tired yet?" (Yes!)
Jon asks if there's thought as to how to scale things going forward to all the work doesn't fall on Paul/Brendan/Andrew for all projects. Is there a possibility to bring in guest leads for a week?
There's a discussion of HattersGonnaHat and the Konami code. Jon announces a new KDD movement: Konami Driven Development.
Some discussion of Windows 8 development (update: the 3/5 - 3/12 project is Windows 8).
Would it be possible to do more cross-platform work? Silverlight?
What will the future projects be? Jon campaigns (in vain) for his Diff/Merge 2000 project proposal.
Jon asks for more information about how they run all the behind-the-scenes communications and infrastructure. GitHub, App Harbor, JabbR - all are low friction and low / no cost.
Jon asks about the amount of work involved in accepting pull requests.
Brendan talks about the test coverage in code submissions. Paul says that having testing frameworks in place makes it a lot more likely that people will write the tests.
Brendan wraps with a call to look at Code52.org and get started. Jon pledges to fly to Australia in luggage class, then offends everyone by confusing Australia with New Zealand.

Show Links:

Code52 site (@code_52)
Code52 JabbR room
Andrew Tobin - blog, twitter
Brendan Forster - blog, twitter
Paul Jenkins - blog, twitter
Code52 projects to date:

MarkPad - A Markdown editor for
jibbr - A Jabbr bot designed for collaborative
Ideastrike - A collaborative idea voting site
Samurai - A tiled, turn-based player-vs-plaryer game with an MVC 4 backend and the beginning of Windows Phone and iOS front ends
Pretzel - A static site generator with Markdown and Liquid (and Razor on the way)
metro.css - A CSS bootstrap package to simplify building web applications with a Metro look
Carnac - A utility that displays keyboard shortcuts as you type them
GT4O - An addin for managing Github tasks inside Outlook.
i18n Packages for MVC4 - NuGet packages to simplify internationalization in ASP.NET MVC applications
MyFinances for Windows 8 - A Javascript-based application for WinRT

GitHub post - A New Coding Project Every Week at Code52
#HattersGonnaHat
Konami code
MahTweets
MahApps

Herding Code 135: Remco Mulder and Jeff Schumacher on Continuous Testing Feb 27, 2012

Show notes

Episode 135

In this episode, the guys talk with Remco Mulder (author of NCrunch) and Jeff Schumacher (author of Giles) about continuous testing in .NET.

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 135: Remco Mulder and Jeff Schumacher on Continuous Testing

Show Notes:

Scott K kicks things off with a horrible old school BASIC joke.
Remco explains how NCrunch got started because he was living under a rock.
Jeff explains how Giles got started by finding AutoTest and seeing it not maintained (in reality it was).
Remco talks about the number of test frameworks.
Jon asks Remco about adding MSTest support - Remco groans about how difficult MSTest was to integrate with NCrunch.
Jeff mentions that xUnit's test runner is complete for backward compatibility.
Jeff talks about Machine Specs and avoiding versioning hell with Impromptu Interface.
Jon asks about each library's approach to Continuous Testing and to explain it to a laymen.
Rem explains what Continuous Testing is in relation to NCrunch.
Scott comments on a "strange situation" of testing compiled code creates slow tests and asks about any shortcuts Rem or Jeff have taken.
Jon comments how NCruch & Giles gives immediate feedback as he's coding.
Jeff mentions that Giles has the ability to filter tests so that you only see what you want to see.
Remco explains how NCrunch attempts to determine impact to order how tests are run so the most pertinent tests run first.
Jon gives his quick history of the testing feedback cycle: separate project phase, then repository check-in step with continuous integration, local test runers, and now tests running as we write the code. Are we done? Where can we go from here?
Jeff comments about how Continuous Testing is like the red squiggly for code problems.
Scott asks about alternative language support for NCrunch and Giles.
Remco mentions that Salesforce.com has a Selenium "cluster" to continuously run UI tests.
Remco talks about Visual Studio integration for NCrunch.
Jeff talks about a branch that supports Mono.
Jon talks about Roslyn, and Scott K reminds us that Mono was doing compiler as a service long ago - 2008?
Remco jokes about clippy.
Jeff talks about Continuous testing and Pair Programming.
Jeff wanted to get to the point where he didn't think about the tooling but only the tests and the code.
Jeff talks about Visual Studio magazine and an article about Continuous Testing.
Jon comments how easy NCrunch is able to setup and get going.
Remco wants to make Continuous testing really really easy to get people to start using it.
Jeff recommends looking at all the different continuous testing options, mentioning Greg Young's Mighty Moose.

Show Links:

Jeff Schumacher - blog, twitter
Remco Mulder - blog, twitter
NCrunch
Giles
Mighty Moose from Greg Young
Continuous Testing: Think Different [Visual Studio Magazine online]
Project Roslyn

Show notes by Ben Dornis. Thanks!

Herding Code 134: Brad Wilson on ASP.NET 4 Beta and ASP.NET Web API Feb 17, 2012

Show notes

Episode 134

In this episode, Jon talks to Brad Wilson about the ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta release.

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 134: Brad Wilson on ASP.NET 4 Beta and ASP.NET Web API

Show Notes:

Brad starts with a rundown of what was in ASP.NET MVC 4 Developer Preview, including HTML5 Default Template features, Adaptive Rendering, Mobile Template, Display Modes, NuGet package based installation, and Task<T> based Async Controllers.
Jon asks about the ASP.NET Web API integration. Brad talks about the effort involved and why it's useful.
Jon asks for clarification as to what ASP.NET Web API offers over hand writing services using ASP.NET MVC.
Brad talks about Content Negotiation and why it's useful.
Jon asks about things that Web API has in common with MVC like filters and model binding.
Jon asks about the testability of Web API. Brad explains that it's much more lightweight and has a lot less use of statics, making it a lot more testable.
Brad talks about the hosting models for Web API, including both web and selfhost. He explains that it's pluggable, so you can write your own host, and explains the use of HTTP Message Handlers.
Jon asks about the relation of ASP.NET MVC 4 to .NET 4.5. Brad explains how parts were backported to allow for using .NET 4.5 features on .NET 4.
Jon asks about the query composition support, which gives support for OData query syntax. Brad explains how it's used, and distinguishes the query syntax from the rest of OData format.
Brad explains how ASP.NET Web API is the future of WCF Web API, and that the ASP.NET team and WCF teams have merged.
Brad talks about how Web API can be used outside of ASP.NET. Jon asks how to get Web API into another project type, and Brad talks about installing Web API via NuGet.
Jon asks for more information about how NuGet is used in the MVC installation system. Brad talks about how NuGet and VSIX can be integrated.
Jon asks about why NuGet Package Restore is useful.
Jon notes that creating new projects is slower due to NuGet installation. Brad says this may be improved, but even if it isn't he thinks that the tradeoff is more than worthwhile, since in the real world people aren't creating new projects every day.
Jon asks for a bit more information about the Display Mode Provider.
Brad talks about the installation options for ASP.NET MVC 4 Beta and how it relates to the .NET 4.5 developer previews.
Jon asks about Go Live license, Brad says it's there.
Jon asks about new features in xUnit.net. Brad talks about the last release and what's in the roadmap for the next release.
Brad mentions that he'll be speaking at NDC this summer and talks about the Wrox MVC 4 book.

Show Links:

Herding Code 133: Derick Bailey on Backbone.js Feb 03, 2012

Show notes

Episode 133

In this episode, the guys talk with Derick Bailey (consultant and founder of watchmecode.net, where he sells JavaScript themed screen casts) about Backbone.js, which is a popular JavaScript framework.

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 133: Derick Bailey on Backbone.js

Show Notes:

Derick starts off by explaining what Backbone is not: a JavaScript MVC framework.
Backbone provides a way to structure and organize your code, separating responsibilities in to easily recognizable pieces.
Derick points out that Jeremy Ashkenas, the creator of Backbone, said that Backbone is a library. The distinction Derick references is: "a framework calls your code, you call a library's code."
Kevin asks what are the main parts of Backbone. Derick mentions models and collections, views, routers, and some helpers: backbone.sync, backbone.events, and history.
Kevin asks for a clarification on what a single-page application is. Derick cites Gmail as the canonical example.
Kevin asks if Backbone is mainly used for single-page applications. Derick explains that it is very flexible and can be used as much or as little as necessary for any kind of application.
Jon asks if using Backbone is an all or nothing proposition or if bits and pieces can be brought in over time.
Kevin asks for a comparison to other similar JavaScript libraries/frameworks.
Jon asks if there are any template or boiler plate projects for getting started with Backbone.
K. Scott asks about Derick's Memento plugin, which allows you to store and restore your model's state.
Kevin asks Derick why he thinks Backbone has become so popular.
Jon asks about the process and requirements for creating Backbone plugins.
Jon asks about the debugging story when using Backbone.
Kevin asks about tools and approaches for testing Backbone.
Kevin asks if there are any sources for best practices for Backbone.
Twitter questions from @elijahmanor: "In what type of applications would you not recommend using Backbone?", "Do you plan to consolidate your blog posts into a Backbone book?", "Have you done any mobile development with Backbone?, "Do you use Require.js alongside Backbone?"
Kevin and Derick discuss server-side rendering of JavaScript with Backbone for the purpose of being easily findable by search engines.
Derick talks about the on-site training and training videos that he offers.

Show Links:

Herding Code 132: Phil Haack, Keith Dahlby and Paul Betts on Git for Windows developers Jan 20, 2012

Show notes

Episode 132

In this episode, they guys talk with Phil Haack and Paul Betts (both new GitHubbers) and Keith Dahlby (author of posh-git, a set of PowerShell scripts which provide Git/PowerShell integration) about using Git on Windows.

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 132: Phil Haack, Keith Dahlby and Paul Betts on Git for Windows developers

Show Notes:

Paul begins with talking about why he thinks Git is cool, starting with the ability to create a clean source history that's based on intent.
Phil says some people who aren't used to distributed version control get the wrong impression of rewriting history. The idea is that you're rewriting history as you work locally to build a clean commit. You don't generally rewrite history once you've pushed to the master repository.
Keith says he tells people that when you push, it's permanent. Until then, you can pretend you're perfect. It's just a save point - this reminds Jon of a quote from Dave Ward that this is like the ability to create save points anywhere in a video game.
Scott K says this is all great in theory, but he never sees people taking advantage of history rewriting. He goes on to say that he loves GitHub but hates Git because Git hates developers - rewriting history is way too hard.
Phil says that this makes more sense when you think of this in terms of replaying changes.
Phil says that he really started liking Git after reading the site Think Like (a) Git.
Paul says that he thinks this would be a lot easier to understand if you could see and work with things visually. Scott K says gitk kind of works but it's clunky. Keith talks about gitk a bit more.
Scott K talks about how he regularly ends up with a corrupted state and asks for recommendations. Paul says the solution is to use either git reset or git rebase and explains what they mean. Jon asks for more info, and Paul talks about git reset --hard.
Phil talks about the importance of following an established workflow to avoid problems or getting in a state you don't understand. He talks about the published workflow they use for the NuGet Gallery. Paul talks about how he and Phil are working on improving the interface to make it easy to follow working patterns.
K Scott talks about one confusion is that there are so many commands and parameters. Keith says that you can get by with a tiny subset, and can grow as needed.
Kevin asks if it's possible to get your repository into a corrupted state, or if users are just getting confused by a valid state. Paul talks about some finer points of how things are stored and wraps up by saying really the only way to lose work with Git is to mess up or delete uncommitted changes or files.
Twitter question from @LeeFlannery: "can you discuss how command line git for Win isn't so scary - stop waiting for integrated VS tooling to use git." Paul talks about how the MSysGit makes things unnecessarily confusing by making you think you need to use the Bash prompt.
Twitter question from @JavierLozano: "Why use powershell instead of bash for a console client? What are the gains?" Keith explains how posh-git gives you a Windows native experience (e.g. Windows style file paths). Phil talks about how the posh-git tab extensions give you an IntelliSense-ish experience with Git. Keith explains that posh-git does things like keeps track of which file have been added, so you can autocomplete files you're adding rather than have to type them out.
Scott K says that posh-git was slow when he tried to use it and asks if performance has been improved. Keith says that posh-git calls git status on every action to offer contextual tab expansions and explains how to disable that for faster performance.
Keith talks about installing posh-git using psget, and more advanced use by cloning the posh-git repo and customizing it. Jon asks why installing posh-git in command-line didn't work in the PowerShell ISE, and Keith explains that there are separate profiles for PowerShell command line, PowerShell ISE, and the NuGet Package Manager prompt in Visual Studio.
Question from John Sheehan: "What are some of the other things outside of tooling that are impediments to Windows users adopting Git." Paul lists several: line endings, SSH keys, the MSysGit install, and the git commit using vi in compatibility mode.
Keith says that MSysGit isn't Git for Windows, it's Git for Linux developers on Windows - it doesn't behave like Windows at all. Keith asks who runs MSysGit.
Phil says there are a lot of conceptual obstacles to adoption, and says that he thinks it's necessary to make it easier to do simple things without worrying about obscure and advanced options.
Jon talks about the frustrations in typing in the SSH passphrase and asks for suggestions. Paul talks about ssh-agent.
Jon asks for specifics about what Paul and Phil are working on. Paul say the idea is similar features to GitHub for Mac - not necessarily in design, but featureset.
Jon says that he likes how the TortoiseHg tooling shows the command-line version you could have typed when you perform operations in the GUI. Paul agrees that's useful, and Keith points out that it's available in Git Extensions.
Scott K says that he likes the built in Mercurial server and says it'd be nice if Git made it easier to run a Git repo on Windows. Paul says that it's really easy to set that using a fileshare. Scott K says he uses that, but it's not as discoverable as the Mercurial webserver. Keith talks about how setting up he's seen this set up using per-user shares.
Twitter question from @jeremydmiller "Are you concerned that folks spend so much time debating and tweaking their Git workflow that they'll forget to actually code?" Phil and Keith discuss two popular GitHub workflows: GitHub Flow and git-flow.
Twitter question from @kppullin "why must line endings be so painful!" Paul explains the source of the problem and how autocrlf tries to solve that, and there's a general about how problems occur.
Keith talks about using gitattributes to do things like telling Git to use C# differencing with .cs files.
Jon asks finding good, non-hostile documentation. Scott K says that all the books focus on happy path documentation rather than useful stuff. Some useful online resources are listed, including Think Like (a) Git, The Git Parable, and ProGit.org.
Keith jokingly asks if we can talk about why Git is better than Mercurial. Jon takes the bait, and hilarity ensues.
There's a long discussion about the usefulness of a clean history and the ability to accurately use "blame" to understand when a bug was introduced.
Things start to wrap up and K Scott asks for last thoughts. Paul mentions GitPad, which sets Notepad as your Git commit editor. Keith recommends Console2. Phil points out a neat hidden feature on GitHub - using T to get incremental search.

Show Links:

Phil Haack - @haacked
Keith Dahlby - @dahlbyk
Paul Betts - @xpaulbettsx
GitHub
Think Like (a) Git
posh-git
Phil's recent post about posh-git: Better Git with PowerShell
gitk
GitHub Flow
git-flow
Git Extensions
GitHub for Mac
The Git Parable
ProGit.org
ProGit chapter on gitattributes
GitPad
Console2

Herding Code 131: Chris Williams and Matthew Podwysocki on the Javascript community Jan 04, 2012

Show notes

Episode 131

In this episode, the guys talk to Chris Williams (organizer of jsConf) and Matthew Podwysocki about the Javascript community, fighting negativity in the programmer community, emerging Javascript trends, and the merits of spring beers.

Jon asks Chris to catch us up with what's happened since we last talked to him, just after jsConf.us 2010.
Chris starts with his jsConf.eu 2010 talk, including Promote.js and the reminder not to forget the roots of the Javascript community.
Chris doesn't speak at the jsConf.us conference, mostly because he organizes the US conference and doesn't want to present an appearance of unfairness.
Chris then moves on to his jsConf.eu 2011 talk, An End To Negativity.
Chris says that the negativity is rampant in the programming community, and it feeds on itself. There are far too many people who participate in community conversation just to cheer on the fights. Our profession has a unique opportunity to create and try new things, but the negativity in the community stifles that. We need to stop the negative "hating" in private conversations, not shouting matches in online forums.
If you disagree with a technology, put your energy to constructive use via open source contribution (fork and create) rather than writing scathing blog posts.
Scott K says that negative discussion's everywhere - all online discussion, politics, media. Rather than discuss ideas, people just call others idiots. Chris says you've got to start locally. His recommended solution involves beer.
Matt says it's easier to lob bombs from afar, and personal discussions solves that. Kevin says one on one discussions over beer aren't always possible, and Chris says even the offer is what's important.
Jon says that he's never tried to resolve issues one-on-one and come away convinced that the other person is just plain evil. Usually there's some unspoken history that explains why people think as they do. Chris applies that to prejudices against Javascript that were formed by bad experiences people may have had long ago.
Jon says he's noticed that Chris' speaking style is disarmingly humble. Chris says he really values humility in developers, and that the current rock star ninja terminology is too self promoting.
Jon says that the online discussion forums like Reddit and Hacker News are all about voting up or down, which encourages negativity. Chris talks about trite these arguments often are, such as focusing on features which aren't yet implemented in new technologies.
Scott K. says he's amazed at the overall positivity on StackOverflow. Chris says he thinks it's a matter of time before it creeps in. Jon says he thinks that he thinks the vote engineering and overall problem solving focus of StackOverflow is designed to produce overall positive results.
Jon reacts to Chris' Fork and Create call by saying that when he's releasing code publicly, it's a lot harder to criticize others. Chris says that people who are busy creating don't have time for trivial arguments, and Matt says that working publicly gives you a healthy dose of vulnerability.
Chris talks about the negativity he encounters in putting on conferences. At jsConf.us 2011 they raised over $3000 to contribute towards increasing gender diversity and it received no attention at all, while a negative incident at the conference got a lot of attention.
Jon says that in teaching his daughter some basic programming, he's reminded of the fun of creation that got him started in development. That's got to be our focus. Chris and Matt talk about how their parents spent time introducing them to computers, and would love to see parents introducing their kids to computers.
Scott K says that he's seen the community as a whole move from a focus on writing code to macho chest thumping.
Jon says he liked the part of Chris' keynote that welcomed Dart and CoffeeScript. Chris said that innovation and new languages are great since they move things forward. Chris points out that people bash on Flash, but forget that it was instrumental in the development of Javascript through things like JIT compilation.
Scott K wonders if we'd do better to just create new languages more often. Jon says that's tricky with Javascript since it runs on so many platforms, but Scott K says that he thinks there's more room for extending Javascript inside the language itself. Chris says both can be powerful, and mentions ClojureScript. He says that the velocity of change for Javascript is accelerating with more frequent browser releases and the things he's seeing in Windows 8. He says we need to embrace that change by being more willing to drop support for older browsers.
Christ talks about how TeamJS is raising money in the Mozilla Firefox Challenge (please join in!).
Jon reacts to Chris' keynote question, "What would you do if you knew you could not fail," noting that most of his personal failures come from not attempting things. Chris says that quote is inspirational to him, and agrees that we fail in 100% of things we do not attempt.
Twitter question from @elijahmanor - "Recently Chris tweeted that the trolls may be right. What did he mean by that?" Chris says that a reaction to hype around node.js, and there's a general discussion about node.js.
Jon asks Chris about his reactions overall to Microsoft getting involved with things like node.js and Javascript on Windows 8. Chris says that the community sometimes has an initial shock, but Microsoft-of-new is a different company that's doing a lot of great stuff. He says he's happy to see talks from Microsoft developers that aren't "Microsoft presentations."
Matt talks about a recent node.js talk focused on maximizing node.js hosting efficiency.
Jon asks Matt and Chris to give us a heads up on some emerging technologies in JavaScript land. Matt mentions emscripten, jsmad, and RiverTrail.
Jon asks if people (himself included) will eventually realize that Javascript isn't inherently too slow for these computationally intense applications. Scott K and Matt talk about how things like V8, JITing, and investment by big companies continue to make Javascript faster and faster.
Jon asks Chris what trends he's noticing, and he mentions dynjs, pdfjs, and jslinux. He mentions browser vendors moving towards extension systems based on Javascript. Jon talks about how he thinks Mozilla's XUL was so far ahead of the game, using HTML/CSS/Javascript as a development platform.
Matt brings up JSIL (a compiler that transforms .NET applications to Javascript). There's a discussion of Javascript as a VM for other languages. Matt mentions Microsoft's Volta initiative.
Chris and Scott K talk about putting other languages in the browser. Chris says that Javascript has been battle tested in a way that no other language has.
There's a discussion of the node.js work that Microsoft's been doing - not just getting it to run on Windows, but in making Windows / IIS hosting for node.js compelling.
Jon asks Chris and Matt for their current recommendations, and an argument over spring beers erupts.

Show links:

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 131 - Chris Williams and Matthew Podwysocki on the Javascript community

Herding Code 130: Dave Weaver on Loggr - a realtime analytics service built with MVC, MongoDB and SignalR Jan 02, 2012

Show notes

Episode 130

In this episode, Jon Galloway and Kevin Dente talk to Dave Weaver about Loggr, a complete logging, analytics and notification system that will easily bolt on to your application.

Dave runs Markkup, a consulting company and is building Loggr, SaaS application that provides real time logging and monitoring.
He was one of the founders of Chili!Soft, which was an implementation of Classic ASP that ran on Linux, Solaris, IBM software, and Windows.
Dave tells the story behind Chili!Soft, which is now Sun Java System Active Server Pages.
Dave goes into the main features/benefits of Loggr.
Jon asks about reports and queries provided by Loggr.
Dave mentions there is an HTML5 version of the dashboard that works well on a tablet as well as an iPhone app. There is also an Android app in the works.
Jon and Dave discuss the freemium model that Loggr employs.
The guys move to talking about the stack that Loggr is developed on.
It is built on ASP.NET MVC2.
It uses Backbone.js for the client side JavaScript.
MongoDB is used as the database.
SignalR is used for the client-server communication to provide live user monitoring.
Kevin asks about the decision to build a startup on the .NET platform.
The guys touch on the VB.NET vs C# debate.
Jon asks about the backup/redundancy story for MongoDB.
Dave talks about the HTML5 client vs the native iOS app vs the Android app.
Jon asks about the experience developing the iOS and Android apps.
There are agents for .NET, Java, ColdFusion, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript.
You can configure log4net to log to Loggr.
Dave mentions Loggr uses Rapleaf to display demographics for a user, such as age and gender.
Loggr also uses FullContact to display the social networks and avatars of a user.
Jon asks Dave for advice for anyone interested in starting a similar venture.
Jon asks about the Loggr road map.
Jon asks about the business and marketing side of Loggr.
Jon asks if any companies are leveraging the Loggr APIs to create other offerings.
Jon asks if there is any demand for customers to host Loggr internally.
Kevin asks if there have been any issues related to versions of the Loggr APIs.
Kevin asks about downtime and SLAs.
Jon asks about the process to get started with Loggr.

Show links:

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 130: Dave Weaver on Loggr - a realtime analytics service built with MVC MongoDB and SignalR

This week's show notes were typed up by @RossFuhrman - Thanks!!!

Herding Code 129: Rob Reynolds on Chocolatey and the Chuck Norris Frameworks Dec 13, 2011

Show notes

Episode 129

In this episode, Jon Galloway, Kevin Dente and guest host John Sheehan talk to Rob Reynolds about Chocolatey (a Machine Package Manager, somewhat like apt-get for Windows), as well as Rob's Chuck Norris frameworks for project setup, management, deployment, and more.

Rob talks about how Nu helped shape the direction of NuGet.
Chocolatey is a tool for installing system wide applications such as Notepad++ or Git.
Rob explains that it is built in PowerShell on top of NuGet.
The guys talk about the simple process to install Chocolatey and install an application.
Rob explains how Chocolatey was born.
John S. asks what the process is to create a new Chocolatey package.
The PowerShell command to install Chocolatey is: iex ((new-object net.webclient).DownloadString("http://bit.ly/psChocInstall"))
Jon G. asks what Chocolatey does behind the scenes when installing a package.
Jon G. asks how to use Chocolatey to uninstall software Chocolatey installed.
John S. asks if Chocolatey has been used in a way that wasn't expected.
The guys discuss the various ways of setting up a process to install multiple packages at once.
Rob explains the difference between Chocolatey and Ninite.
Kevin asks about the silent installs and how it works if the application doesn't support silent installs.
Kevin asks about the update story.
The guys discuss learning and understanding PowerShell.
Rob discusses the Chocolatey integration with Web Platform Installer.
John S. asks about the reason behind writing Chocolatey in PowerShell.
Kevin asks about Microsoft's package manager, CoApp and how it relates to and is different from Chocolatey.
John S. and Rob discuss how Chef, Puppet and Chocolatey could be used to spin up a new machine for a production deployment.
Kevin asks about the fact that Rob is the owner of most of the Chocolatey packages and how he keeps track of updates to all those packages.
Rob talks about the Chuck Norris framework and the following components of the framework:
WarmuP -allows you to define templates for entire projects and change them as technology changes and you learn new things.
UppercuT - is a conventional automated .NET build framework (templated NAnt). UppercuT is the insanely easy to use build framework.
RoundhousE - is an automated database deployment (change management) system that allows you to use your current idioms and gain much more.
DropkicK - is a fluent deployment framework that seeks to make deployments easier.
Jon asks if the company Rob and Dru worked for when they were working on these projects was receptive to their open source development.
Rob will be speaking on NuGet at CodeMash (it's sold out) in January.

Show links:

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 128: Rob Reynolds on Chocolatey and the Chuck Norris Frameworks

This week's show notes were typed up by @RossFuhrman - Thanks!!!

Herding Code 128: Corey Haines on Global Day of Coderetreat (December 3) Nov 26, 2011

Show notes

Episode 128

On this episode of Herding Code, Scott K, Jon, and Kevin talk to Corey Haines about the Global Day of Coderetreat event being held in 90+ cities on December 3.

Scott asks Corey to start by explaining his software journeyman thing, or as Scott calls it "couch surfing in return for coding." Corey describes how he transitioned from a traditional software developer job to training and speaking.
Scott describes his experiences at a Coderetreat in Seattle - a series of 45 minute pair programming exercises with Conway's Game of Life under a variety of constraints.
Corey explains how Coderetreat got started at CodeMash 2009 as a way to intentionally practice writing beautiful code outside of the pressure of day to day work.
Corey talks about how deleting your code at the end of every 45 minute session means you can concentrate on learning rather trying to complete anything.
Jon asks if people are working towards any kind of graphical output, and Corey says that the focus is really on the code, and learning how to respond to changes and constraints.
Twitter question from George Dinwiddie (@gdinwiddie) "What was the most interesting starting point for the Game of Life" Corey talks about people often start with traditional object oriented noun/verb approaches in the morning and move towards an outside-in mentality in the afternoons. He's seen some interesting work with functional languages such as Clojure and J.
Jon asks about the breakdown of programming languages that he sees people using.
There's a discussion of how setup and install can often eat up a lot of time at this kind of event, and Corey talks about how that's not such a problem here: people show up with working development environments, are working at the testing level, and can just pair with someone who
Jon asks what common patterns he sees people learn. Corey talks about some big changes in TDD focus and application design.
Scott and Corey talks about the benefit of pairing with a lot of people at differing skill levels.
Twitter question from Steven Proctor (@stevenproctor) "How often do you get to pair at these events" - Corey says that the facilitator role means you don't get to pair, so he's only been able to a couple times.
Kevin asks how new pairing is to attendees, and if there's any specific focus on learning how to pair better. Corey talks about some specific exercises which focus on paring techniques, including a Mute session (no talking, all communication through code) and Find The Loophole (in which the the coder purposefully tries to write the wrong algorithm while passing all tests).
Scott says he
Twitter question from from Maggie Longshore (@MaggieLongshore) "How he makes each code session unique so it doesn't get monotonous. Share some tips for facilitators."
Jon asks about the upcoming Global Day of Coderetreat on December 3. Corey explains what will be going on worldwide, and how he'll be exploiting a flight over the international date line to attend the full day sessions in both Sydney and Hawaii.
Jon asks about some of the guidelines for listed hosting a Coderetreat, including a good (non-pizza) lunch and no cost to attendees. Corey says that in some cases there's a deposit which is fully refunded provided you show up.
Jon asks Corey how people can find out about a Coderetreat near them, and if it's still possible to set up a Coderetreat if there isn't one in your area. Corey says yes, and points us to Coderetreat.org for all information about the Global Day of Coderetreat on December 3.
Jon asks Corey about his MercuryApp, a micro-journaling system with analytics that he and Sara Gray run.
The guys chide Corey for slacking off by setting his Global Day of Coderetreat so low, and he talks about his difficult decision to exclude astronauts this time around.

Show Links:

Coderetreat.org (Global Day of Coderetreat site)
Coderetreat.com (Information on the Coderetreat format)
Corey Haines (@coreyhaines)
Conway's Game of Life
J Programming Language
MercuryApp

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 128: Corey Haines on Global Day of Coderetreat

Herding Code 127: Setting up your Computer and Work Area Nov 22, 2011

Show notes

Episode 127

On this episode of Herding Code, the guys discuss computer and work area setup, from installation and file management to ergonomic work areas and animated GIF's.

Kevin and K Scott both just got MacBooks, they discuss what they are doing with them, such as using the emulator to test HTML5 apps for iPhone/iPad.
Jon asks, "When you get a new mac, you open it up and rainbows come out of it. Do you have to install anything? How does that setup process work?"
Kevin talks about development tooling such as HomeBrew and XCode. They discuss different tools and apps that they need to do development.
Jon asks about twitter apps. K Scott uses the browser; Kevin is using the official Twitter app which seems pretty good except when it won't launch the browser when clicking on the links in tweets.
When upgrading, do you go through fresh install or remove programs? Jon talks about using Ninite to install programs you use a lot such as 7Zip, Audacity, Chrome, FileZilla, Skype, etc, because it manages everything for you and you don't have to click through all the install dialogs.
Also talks about using the Microsoft Web Platform Installer to get all of the web development stuff.
They talk about the pros and cons of using Microsoft Office, and discuss using the Mac apps or Google docs or Office.Live.com.
Jon is using Mesh to share between computer and sky drive; what kind of file sharing? K Scott is using Dropbox, says Live Mesh is important because of the remote desktop feature of Mesh. They talk about different file sharing companies and features, and talk about iCloud.
Jon talks about the Windows Home Group feature, and how easy it is to share files, printers, media, etc., and talks about doing backups. Uses Space Sniffer to find big files.
Jon got an SSD, so he made the old drive his D drive and used the SSD as his primary drive. If the SSD failed (which it did), he could just boot off the D drive.
They discuss the placement of the files on the computer, whether to move to a second hard drive or partition, etc., and whether to use Libraries; they talk about searching for files in Windows. Some software apps disable the file indexer in Windows. When you install on an SSD, they disable some services like defrag, prefetch - it also disabled search.
K Scott asks what kind of SSD Jon is using that is failing. Jon says it's an OCZ Vertex 2, but he's not sure it's the drive versus the computer - gets blue screen on Windows, thinks it might be a hardware problem with his evil computer.
Jon asks if they use Hibernate or Sleep? How often do they reboot?
Kevin never uses hibernate. Jon will have a bunch of stuff running and will hibernate to save the battery on his laptop. Kevin thinks it burns slowly enough on Sleep, only hibernates when doing a full day of travel. Not worth it for a couple of hours.
With newer laptop (16gb of ram), hibernating is a big deal. Jon ended up setting hibernate file size and tweaking the hibernate settings.
MacBooks have pretty good battery life. The Air says it has almost 8 hours remaining; thinks that's a little high, but it's pretty good. Jon's ThinkPad W520 is big, but gets around 7 hours, doesn't have to worry about battery life; some optimizing settings make it difficult to use a projector.
They discuss how often they repave their machines and the effect of using beta versions of software, how they go about getting back to work after repaving. How do you save your settings and reapply them after repaving?
K Scott - windows get stuck off screen, can't get them back on the main screen. Kevin has a utility that can help with that; it's on his blog. Shows list of off-screen windows - can pick one and it will move it back to the main window.
Jon finds uninstall really works pretty well now, whereas before it was just a cruel joke.
K Scott talks about pulling pictures off of a Windows 6 phone. Doesn't attach as an external drive, it installs Windows Mobile Device Center. Nooooo!!!!!
Jon finished his office and moved into it. What about a standup desk? Found something simple from IKEA that could be used for part of the day. They talk about the idea of a standup desk.
What about doing your work on a treadmill with a laptop? (Idea from a Neal Stephenson book). What if you did that for 15 to 30 minutes a day? Several people on twitter responded with information about their setups doing this.
Simple way - found something for forty bucks on amazon that the laptop would rest in. Would just walk, not jog. Others have taken the control thing apart and put in a desk. Let us know if you've tried something like this.
They discuss ergo keyboards, and using Synergy or Input Director for sharing a keyboard and mouse across multiple computers.
K Scott has a problem with the keyboard on the Mac; bothers his hands, especially when using it for hours. They like Lenovo keyboards.
Jon - some keys don't map between Mac and Windows. Kevin uses a Microsoft ergo keyboard with the Mac, and out of habit still uses those keys, and it sometimes has a weird impact.
They talk about Vim and Mac Vim.
Jon switched from using a mouse to using a tablet. Mouse is what really hurts your wrist. Kevin moved his mouse to the left for years for the same reason. K Scott likes the TrackPoint pointing stick on the Lenovo. Kevin's never been a fan of the trackpad on the laptops, but the Mac trackpad is brilliant.
Talk about using different software to help readability, like Readable, which uses Google web fonts. Can customize it to meet your needs. Makes it easier to read web pages.
Jeff Atwood posted a blog entry about backlights behind the monitor like LED glowstrips. You can have a dark workspace and lower the contrast using backlights.
And now for something completely different . a lightning round.
- What's your favorite browser?
- What's your favorite Javascript library this week?
- Did Adobe really kill Flash? Does the lightning round really work? Does anyone expect the Spanish Inquisition? Why do people keep making websites that exclusively use Flash, especially restaurants? Is the future of video really animated gifs?

Show Links:

Homebrew (OSX)
Ninite (Windows)
Web Platform Installer (Windows)
Dropbox (Web)
Windows Live Mesh (Windows, Web)
Front And Center! (utility from Kevin that locates offscreen windows)
Ikea Utby Bar Table
REAMDE (book which mentions treadmill desk)
treadTray
Llewelyn Falco's Treadmill Desk
Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000
Mouseless Computing (blog post from Jon)
Synergy
InputDirector
Boot Camp mappings for Windows
VIM
Readability
Readable
Bias Lighting (Jeff Atwood)
Backbone.js
Raphael
Underscore.js
Flash to Focus on PC Browsing and Mobile Apps; Adobe to More Aggressively Contribute to HTML5
Animals Being Dicks (animated GIF's)
If We Don't, Remember Me (cinematic animated GIF's)

Download / Listen:

Herding Code 127: Setting up your Computer and Work Area

This week's show notes were typed up by @RobinDotNet - Thanks!!!

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