Apr 17 2007
Three months in the Sub
I like to periodically shake-up the version control, re-align it with the way the project is going and clean up any clutter. As it was time to split one big project into several more-less separate tracks, I ran into an article announcing the release of version 1.0 of AnkhSVN, a free subversion plugin for Visual Studio. AnkhSVN had proper solution browser integration, and a ‘working copy explorer’, very much like the Eclipse synchronise screen. It looked very promising, so we decided to try it out.
I read a lot about Subversion, but never really had a reason to move from CVS – there was no new killer feature. We were generally satisfied with CVS, with just one problem. Integration with Visual Studio was virtually non existent. In January, several readers suggested trying out Subversion instead of CVS, and shortly after I took their advice. It turns out that the killer application, that made us move to Subversion, was the Visual Studio Plugin. Continue Reading »
The adoption of reflection into main-stream programming tools and languages over the last six or seven years gave developers almost telepathic powers, allowing us to instantly understand any object without having to read through 200 pages of boring manuals. Code insight, instellisense, class browser, or whatever the feature is called in your favourite IDE, started as a helpful utility but has now almost completely replaced API documentation. Most developers simply do not read supporting documents at all any more. 
