What I wanted built-in, part 2

I am a responsible coder. Everywhere I’ve worked, if they haven’t had source control, I have championed the install of it. Even when it wasn’t possible, I have still campaigned to get it, because we all need insurance.

However.

This sense of responsibility? Not so much when in my test lab, but still, I do check in and check out to provide myself sanity. And prevent myself from stepping on myself. I just don’t do it as often as I would, since I’m not worried about other people getting in there.

(Well, I am, but that’s what firewalls are for.)

So, in trying to connect to Team Foundation Server, I was reminded that I’m going to need to install two MORE packages just to chat with my own TFS install from SSMS.

First up, I have:

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Explorer
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=329


Then, I have to install:

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2010 MSSCCI Provider 32-bit
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bce06506-be38-47a1-9f29-d3937d3d88d6


Or, if I were on SQL 2012, I would need:

Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2012 MSSCCI Provider 32-bit
http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/b5b5053e-af34-4fa3-9098-aaa3f3f007cd

And this is just so I can connect.

I want this built in – why isn’t this software on a web share as a part of the server install, so I don’t have to go back out to the internet and get it?

How To Make A Video Game

I ran across this article recently, and liked it:

Learning how to write a 3D soft engine from scratch in C#, TypeScript or JavaScript

Teach Kids To Code C#

Pluralsight just released a training for kids to learn C#.

I'm a fan of things like this:

http://pluralsight.com/training/Courses/TableOfContents/teaching-kids-programming


Another one is ALICE:

http://www.alice.org/index.php

tiobe

Have you seen this?

It's an online index useful for gauging where a certain programming language is in its life cycle.

http://www.tiobe.com/index.php/content/paperinfo/tpci/index.html

faker.net

https://github.com/slashdotdash/faker-cs

This is a free library that can be used to connect to a C# infrastructure to generate fake but presentable data.

The thing I currently like about this is that, in my current environment, I need source code only. Already compiled programs are frowned upon, and so, source code based utilities that can be compiled on-site, so to speak, are the thing to have and to get.

One of my most favorite utilities of all time is decidedly NOT open source, but free, and so, again, in the current environment, I can't use it.

Free C# Intro . . .

Saw some free intro to C# training over here:

http://www.infiniteskills.com/training/learning-to-program-with-c-sharp.html

Get all the DB's programatically

To get all the DB's programatically on a local instance of SQL Server using SMO.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo;
using Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Common;
 
namespace ConsoleApplication1
{
    class Program
    {       
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Server s = new Server(".\\INSTANCENAME");
            foreach (Database d in s.Databases)
            {
                Console.WriteLine(d.Name.ToString());
            }
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Points of Interest

Don't forget to add the references via Project >> Add Reference... >> Browse tab

MSDN on c# binding

A whole boatload of C# binding information can be found over here, at MSDN:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms752039.aspx

MS-PL License

I recently found this new license type for writing software. As I read it, nothing says you can't just make your source code "email me for the source."

http://www.opensource.org/licenses/ms-pl.html

While I don't know that I want 10,000 hits requesting my source code for any of my projects, it could be a good way to do things. Alternately, if you have an email auto-responder through your web host, you could just setup one of those to auto-respond to any requests with a zip file of the code.

Changing what browser Visual Studio 2010 uses

You know what I love about the Internets? You can find a fix for daggone near anything that ails you.

For example, from the developer's website:

World of VS Default Browser Switcher

Currently it is a bit of a pain (as in “too many clicks” and sometimes non-visible options) to change the browser used by VS when you’re developing and testing your website.

http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/bb424812-f742-41ef-974a-cdac607df921/