That being said I do miss a few things that I was used to in C# and .NET. Here are the top 3:

1. Refactoring tools
2. Garbage collection
3. A good mocking framework for unit testing

While that speaks volumes about my nature, I wouldn’t want you to think I am quitter. I have more resolutions for this year.

• I will reduce my weight by 15 lbs. I weigh 185 lbs now, so by Dec 2011 I expect to be 170 lbs. I haven’t been 170 lbs since some time in 2002. Now I expect to be back at that weight by 2012.
• I will reduce my cholesterol to normal values. Now I am grossly over the normal values (total cholesterol = 300)
• I will greatly increase my knowledge on algorithms and data-structures. This is a vague one. But that’s OK. Any progress in this direction is good for me.
• I will study discrete mathematics. This is also quite vague but my intention is to be a little less clueless than I am now.

That is it friends. Just 4 things. Let us see how that goes.

That did not succeed. The following error message was spit out:

Microsoft (R) Visual Studio Version 9.0.30729.1.
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. All rights reserved.
—— Starting pre-build validation for project ‘MySetup’ ——
ERROR: Cannot find outputs of project output group ‘(unable to determine name)’.  Either the group, its configuration, or its project may have been removed from the solution.
ERROR: Cannot find outputs of project output group ‘(unable to determine name)’.  Either the group, its configuration, or its project may have been removed from the solution.
—— Pre-build validation for project ‘MySetup’ completed ——
—— Build started: Project: MySetup, Configuration: Debug ——
========== Build: 0 succeeded or up-to-date, 1 failed, 0 skipped ==========

I then decided to run it against the solution file devenv.exe MySolution.sln /Build

That did the trick. The setup files were created in MySolution/MySetup/Debug/ folder.

So I needed to integrate this into the build script. Using devenv.exe means this build machine needs to have Visual Studio installed on it. We already had it, so I was in luck. In some teams they might not allowed the build machine to have Visual Studio. 

I added the path to devenv.exe to the system path. Screen shot below should show you how to do that.

As a first attempt I added the following code to the AfterDropBuild target.

<Target Name="AfterDropBuild">   
    <Exec Command="devenv.exe $(SolutionRoot)/MySolution.sln /Build"/>
    <ItemGroup>
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/MySetup.msi" />
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/Setup.exe" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(SetupFiles)" DestinationFolder="C:\Temp\MSI" />
  </Target>

This attempt failed. The error message was not helpful. So I logged into the build machine and tried the same command from command prompt and nothing happened ! So changed the current directory to the location of the sln file and then ran the command again and it worked. So it seems that devenv needs only the name of the sln file (not the full path to it) and the current working directory needs to be the directory when the sln file resides.

So my second attempt:

<Target Name="AfterDropBuild">   
    <Exec Command="devenv.exe MySolution.sln /Build" WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionRoot)"/>
    <ItemGroup>
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/MySetup.msi" />
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/Setup.exe" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(SetupFiles)" DestinationFolder="C:\Temp\MSI" />
  </Target>

That worked ! Well not fully, but the Exec task worked but the Copy task failed. I found the reason for that was the files were getting created in the Debug folder and not the Release folder. In order to force a Release build I had to pass additional info to devenv. So I changed the script as shown below and I could see the bits were getting copied correctly.

<Target Name="AfterDropBuild">
    <Exec Command="devenv.exe MySolution.sln /Build &quot;Release|Any CPU&quot;" WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionRoot)"/>
    <ItemGroup>
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/MySetup.msi" />
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/Setup.exe" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(SetupFiles)" DestinationFolder="C:\Temp\MSI" />
  </Target>

Here is my final version for copying it to a remote drop location.

<Target Name="AfterDropBuild">   
    <Exec Command="devenv.exe MySolution.sln /Build &quot;Release|Any CPU&quot;" WorkingDirectory="$(SolutionRoot)"/>
    <ItemGroup>
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/MySetup.msi" />
      <SetupFiles Include="$(SolutionRoot)/MySetup/Release/Setup.exe" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(SetupFiles)" DestinationFolder="\\Build-Machine\Build_Drop_Folders\MyProjectMSI\$(BuildNumber)" />
    <Copy SourceFiles="@(SetupFiles)" DestinationFolder="\\Build-Machine\Build_Drop_Folders\MyProjectMSI\Latest_MSI" />
  </Target>

Note: Here $(SolutionRoot) is the path you have given while creating the build definition. You can see it by editing the build definition.

So why this year ?

I don’t know, but I think it would be a good thing to try. Like a new cuisine or a new hair style,  sometimes a change is nice to have – they add spice to life. So I am going to give new year resolutions a try this year.

So what is different this time ?

This time I am publicly disclosing the things I want to achieve, the projects I want to complete. I remember having read somewhere that it would be good idea to make our aspirations public. This would help motivate us to complete our projects.

As of now, I have 3 things in mind for 2010.

• I have decided to write a series of blog posts on the common software design patterns made popular by the GoF. Why design patterns? Frankly, I don’t have a very clear reason. I know it is not the hottest topic to blog about, but it is definitely a useful one. Especially for me. I have been reading about design patterns, and occasionally putting to practice, since some time in 2003 when Binil gave me The Design Patterns book. Since then, I have read a few more books on the topic. But I don’t claim to be master on the topic. Actually far from it, my understanding of many of the “advanced” patterns are still vague. Haven’t we all heard the age old adage – “the best way to learn something is to teach it.”. So I am going to write about them, which will help me understand them better and if someone is able to glean something from my posts, it will be a pleasant bonus. This would also be a good exercise in writing and keep the blog rolling.  
• Read some books. Not the kind of glancing over that I do nowadays. A thorough reading. Understanding the concepts and making it part of myself. This is pretty ambitious. As of now I have two candidates in my mind for this project. The first book is Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (I have had this book for 3 years now) and the second one is Domain Driven Design (been in my shelf for a little over 2 years). These are not easy books to read. But they are important books to have read for any computer programmer. As I mentioned before this is quite an ambitious target. 
• Visit some places. I have been in the US of A for about 3.5 years now. But I haven’t seen many of the good places here. Even in Washington state, there are so many good places to see. Now that I am married I have a travel companion too

I don’t know how much of this I can accomplish (as with all other things in the future). But I think it is worth a try.

Wish me luck.

using System.IO;
using System.Runtime.Serialization.Json;
using System.Text;

namespace Common
{
    public class JsonSerializer<T>
    {
        public static string Serialize(T objectToSerialize)
        {
            using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
                serializer.WriteObject(stream, objectToSerialize);
                stream.Position = 0;

                using (StreamReader reader = new StreamReader(stream))
                {
                    return reader.ReadToEnd();
                }
            }
        }

        public static T Deserialize(string jsonString)
        {
            using (MemoryStream stream = new MemoryStream(Encoding.Unicode.GetBytes(jsonString)))
            {
                DataContractJsonSerializer serializer = new DataContractJsonSerializer(typeof(T));
                return (T)serializer.ReadObject(stream);
            }
        }
    }
}

You can use this class like this

string serializedMsg = JsonSerializer<SimpleMessage>.Serialize(msg); 

SimpleMessage msg = JsonSerializer<SimpleMessage>.Deserialize(serializedMsg);

To give credit where it is due, I stole most of this code from here – http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/JSON-serialization-and-deserialization-in-Silverlight.aspx

using System;
using System.Windows.Messaging;

namespace Common
{
    public class RetryMessageSender
    {
        private readonly int maxRetryCount;
        private LocalMessageSender messageSender;
        private int retryCount = 1;

        public event EventHandler<SendCompletedEventArgs> SendCompleted;

        public RetryMessageSender(LocalMessageSender messageSender)
            : this(messageSender, 100 /*default value of max retries*/)
        {
        }

        public RetryMessageSender(LocalMessageSender messageSender, int maxRetries)
        {
            this.messageSender = messageSender;
            this.maxRetryCount = maxRetries;
            messageSender.SendCompleted += new System.EventHandler<SendCompletedEventArgs>(messageSender_SendCompleted);
        }

        public void SendMessage(string msg)
        {
            messageSender.SendAsync(msg);
        }

        void messageSender_SendCompleted(object sender, SendCompletedEventArgs e)
        {
            if (e.Error != null)
            {
                if (retryCount <= maxRetryCount)
                {
                    retryCount++;
                    SendMessage(e.Message);
                }
                else
                {
                    SendCompleted(sender, e);
                }
            }
            else
            {
                retryCount = 0;
                SendCompleted(sender, e);
            }
        }
    }
}

Now you can use this class like this:

RetryMessageSender msgSender = new RetryMessageSender(messageSender, 10);
msgSender.SendCompleted += new System.EventHandler<SendCompletedEventArgs>(msgSender_SendCompleted);
msgSender.SendMessage("hello");

In the SendCompleted event handler, you can check whether the message was sent successfully within the specified number of retries (10 in this case).

static void msgSender_SendCompleted(object sender, SendCompletedEventArgs e)
{
    if (e.Error != null)
    {
         throw new System.Exception("Unable to send message even after 10 retries");
    }
}

The complete list is here.

Read more of it from BBC website.

Monster’s security notice and advice can be found here.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has signed an agreement with Infosys Technologies Limited to create a new annual award that recognizes young scientists and system developers whose contemporary innovations are having a dramatic impact on the computing field. The award, to be known as the ACM-Infosys Foundation Award in the Computing Sciences, will seek candidates globally and will carry a prize of $150,000. The first recipient will be announced as part of the ACM Awards program in early 2008.

Read the full press release here.