Things I Learned This Week

Team System

1. If you want to see history on a file across branches, this tool helps a lot. The default history dialogs in Team Explorer do not let you do this.
2. Any branching model besides Branch for Purpose (BFP) is almost not supported in TFS SCC. This is forgivable considering BFP is a very flexible and reasonable model. That said, let’s just be honest about it when talking to clients who are moving to TFS.
3. I cannot merge to my grandparent unless I use a baseless merge. W.T.F.? Seriously, that seems extreme.
4. There are big, money making applications in this world running on .NET 1.1. And they can build on TFS 2008. But it isn’t easy.
5. MSBee will help you pull off that 1.1 CLR build with Team Build. But you have to hold your mouth just right.
6. TFS Sidekicks is seriously handy. And free.

Agile

1. There are developers out there who have never even heard of Scrum.
2. There are developers out there who have never even heard of Unit Tests.
3. There are developers out there who have never even heard of TDD.
4. There are developers out there who have never even heard of Continuous Integration.
5. Getting integration in a heavily regulated and controlled environment is like squeezing nuts out a squirrel. They’re in there, but you have to squeeze hard. And long. And hope the squirrel gets tired.
6. When 2 people are tired and working late, that’s a really good time to pair. You will get more done with far fewer mistakes.

Meat Space

1. In 2008, so little care is afforded to the mentally ill that I actually saw a homeless man defecating in the street in San Francisco. So did 1000 other people, many of whom cruelly laughed or jeered. This makes me sadder than anything I have seen in a long, long time. We can do better than this, can’t we?
2. This whole “everyone in software development is from another country” thing has some teeth.
3. I’m not missing anything by not having cable TV at home.
4. You’d be surprised what can fit in the overhead bin.
5. My iPhone can keep me from getting lost, but it can’t keep me from from falling down on the sidewalk in Chinatown.