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I have set up a poll on the cli_dev yahoo group here:  http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cli_dev/surveys?id=2005679

I feel an obligation to follow up on this issue since I am the group owner on record with Yahoo.

Here is a message I sent to the group just in case you no longer track the list formerly known as “altnetconf”:

=================================================

Guys,
I am the yahoo owner of this list. I originally grabbed it so that
we’d have a place for discussion after the October AltNetConf. I
deferred to David Laribee and Scott Bellware when it came to leading
and fostering the Alt.Net community.
It appears now that there are other lists where the Alt.Net dialog is
occurring.
I have created a poll:
http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/cli_dev/surveys?id=2005679
Please let me know opinions. It seems that spammers are auto-creating
accounts, and the relevant discussion here is very sparse.
If the poll results in a “yes” answer, I’ll take down this list.

==================================================

I believe that it’s possible to shut down the list while keeping the history searchable, but that’s another decision to be made:  Keep the history or trash it?

Monorail’s SmartDispatchController is fantastic.  One small hurdle is testability right out of the box.  For instance, if I have a controller action:

public void Foo()

{

    Session["somekey"] = new object();

}

public new virtual IDictionary Session

{

    get { return base.Session; }

}

Now, for testing you can get at the Session property, but at runtime, there is no change.

 Managing Partner/CEO, Clear Measure, Inc.

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Kevin Hurwitz and I talk at length about pain-driven development.  For those who don’t know, Kevin is my lead architect and .Net Practice Manager at Headspring Systems, and we’ve worked together since mid-2006.  We both have the same mindset about PDD.  If we are motivated to put time into changing some aspect of the software, it has to be related to one or more areas of pain.  For instance, if the build is taking too long, we might look for ways to speed up the build.  If a particular interface has too many responsibilities, it may annoy us enough to break it up. 

Now, we do have a low threshold for pain.  We expect our software configuration management to be frictionless and go completely smoothly, including automatic database migrations; therefore, pain points that pop up are obvious, and we tend to kill the pain by fixing the source very quickly.

The point of this post is to think of pain reduction as ROI.  In business, we might spend money on software for some expected return on investment.  While working with the software, we also have returns on investment, but in the form of productivity.  Pain kills productivity.  Over time, we might learn to live with pain through parts of the process by taking a constant does of <insert painkiller here/>, but that only hides the pain.  It doesn’t cure it. 

Pain-driven development is a mindset where developers react intensely to pain and solve it so that it goes away once and for all.  PDD practitioners don’t just cover up the pain.  We eradicate it.  PDD leads to a completely frictionless software process that is a joy to experience.

Note:  I’m not advocating another XDD acronym, but I wanted to share our mindset.

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I spent the first part of my career on the side of the fence where I want to make it fast first.  In fact, I wanted to keep it fast all the way through.

I’m talking about software.  Performance optimization.  Speed. 

There was a time when every time I concatenated a string I weighed the theoretical pros and cons of using the plus operator vs StringBuilder vs. string.Format().  I even measured differences.  I’ve now come to the point where I realize that PDD (pain-driven development) is the real decision-maker.  It’s no longer worth my time to think about what concatenation method might be faster.  Compared to a single database call, the speed different is irrelevant.

Point:  A well-designed application can be tuned at any conceivable place after it’s working correctly.  An application that has “performance optimizations” coded into it from the start has less flexibility for the inevitable bottleneck that surfaces unexpectedly.

Point:  I will not guess at what part of my code will be a bottleneck unless I have past experience in the exact same scenario.  Rather, I will lead the team to create correct software that _appears_ to be fast enough throughout the project.  At an agreed-upon time we’ll profile (with the appropriate tools – yes, I mean _measure_) the application and find any bottlenecks that are not acceptable for production.  Then, with real data in hand, we’ll tune exactly the right parts of the application.  We will not guess before measuring.  After measuring, guessing is not necessary.

Point:  First make it right.  Then make it fast.

In general, out of process calls are performance bottlenecks, not in-process logic.  Either way, measuring tells the truth, not guessing.

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I think Microsoft is making a huge mistake by leaning so heavily on anonymous types as API parameters, particularly in the ASP.NET MVC Framework.  Not only does this make the APIs in the system ugly and error-prone, but it’s not intuitive, and there is no intellisense for it because the API is untyped (typed as object) in the case where an anonymous type is expected.  I think we should stick with named types and named methods wherever possible.  I currently don’t see a problem with lamda’s if they give an advantage over regular arguments. I’m very cautious about automatically using new, unproven language features before we fully understand how they will affect the usability and maintainability of code.  Note:  we have NO track record for the maintainability of these new language features, and they were developed specifically for LINQ, so using them outside of that context is suspect, in my opinion.

I do have a conservative disposition on this, but this is through learning from the past.  I still remeber OpenXML is SQL Server 2000: how so many developers automatically converted stored procedure interfaces to be a single XML string rather than individual arguments.  We need to fully understand the long-term strengths and weaknesses of features in order to maximize the value of usage or non-usage.

The time is upon us again.  Announcing Party with Palermo: MVP Summit 2008 edition on April 13th, 2008 from 7pm – 10pm in Seattle, WA. 

The last PwP at the MVP Summit in 2007 saw 235 wild and rowdy developers having a great time.

At this time, the registration website is not ready, but details will be coming soon.  Check back frequently, and subscribe to the party feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/partywithpalermo.

If you or your company is interested in sponsoring, please contact me at jeffrey [at]_ palermo d0t cc.

The purpose of this event is completely social and a fun way to kick off the week.  Anyone is invited, and the only cover charge is a single business card to keep our sponsors happy.