Voice of the DBA

Tag: software development

  • Morphing Microsoft

     

    Microsoft has come a long way, and still has far to go. Which way will they go?
    Microsoft has come a long way, and still has far to go. Which way will they go?

    Microsoft is trying to change from a software vendor to a devices and services company? They are trying, according to this piece from Mary Jo Foley. With a Developer and Platform Evangelism group that is trying to bridge the gap between internal Microsoft developers and those external professionals in the real world, it appears this group will try to provide more code, samples, and frameworks that others can use. Perhaps they will even give us strong architectural examples that stand up to the real world.

    Personally I’d like to see them disclose code that works in real situations. Give us the code behind MSDN or the Microsoft Store. Prove to us you have code that not only works, but it written to meet your standards and needs. If you want to start with something that’s not open to the Internet because of security concerns, how about showing us how one of the internal MS systems really works? Maybe the annual employee review app?

    If the code isn’t enterprise ready, or of the quality that should be used as an example, why not? I know there are the same pressures building systems at Microsoft that many of us face, but if that’s the case, I’d hope Microsoft would tackle some of those issues in their tooling and platforms. They could then show us not only how to do things, but prove it can be done as well.

    I do think there is some truth to the fact that in many of the applications we build, the platform developers use is not just be the OS and local APIs. There is a richness gained by including data from services, data that exists outside of the organization. Whether that’s on the open web or from business partners, we need architectures that help us build applications that can survive some workload burst, tolerate individual machine failures, and do so at a reasonable cost. That doesn’t necessarily mean cloud services to me, but it does me better software patterns, practices, and models for developers.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • The Control Poll

    Source Control provides lots of benefits.
    Source Control provides lots of benefits.

    I was reading about version control systems (VCS) recently, brushing up on some skills, and saw this quote in a thread:

    “There is no excuse for not using version control, even for a small project developed by single developer. Setting up local version control is beyond trivial, benefits huge. Any developer not knowing that cannot be considered good nor experienced.”

    That’s quite a pronouncement, and one that I believe is very true. No matter what type of development you engage in, I’d expect that you’d understand the benefits of using version control, and the dangers of not using it. It’s just like never backing up your system. I’d think that any developer that cares about their craft and is a professional has used version control. The really good ones will insist upon it.

    However I know that the decision to use a VCS is not always made by a developer. The company building the software might feel differently, and while I’ve always asked for a VCS, I have ended up with a series of folders on a share, named for dates, each containing a zip file of all our code at the end of that day. It was the bare minimum of version control I could live with, and fortunately we got by with just two people coordinating work. Any more than that and I’d insist on some type of VCS.

    This week, I wanted to ask how many of you voluntarily or involuntarily might be forced to do something similar.

    How many of you skip source control for certain apps?

    Even if you have source control for those large, multi-person teams, are there apps that you avoid putting into a VCS? What about your database code? I think it’s important that you keep all your code, whether for the front end application or database objects, in some type of Version Control system. If your boss won’t buy one, then check out Git or Subversion, both of which are open source and free.

    Let us know this week how you feel about source control and whether or not you decide the effort isn’t worthwhile for your projects.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.

  • Not My Google Reader Replacement

    Someone suggested Newsblur to me, and I went to their home page. Like many sites, it asks you to sign up, so I decided to give it a try.

    newsblur2

    The import from Google Reader caught my attention, so I clicked it. It asked for an authorization from Google, and then I got this page:

    newsblur

    I have to say. Not only do I now see anyway to understand the difference between $2 a month and $3 a month, but I also feel like this is a bait and switch, given the top banner. This could have been called out on the home page, though I suspect not as many people will click through.

    I’d gladly pay Google Reader $2 a month, but I know what I’m getting. Here I’m not sure, and I’m already annoyed.

    The search continues.

  • Better Coding, More Savings

    Learn to build better systems the first time with a little investment in your career.
    Learn to build better systems the first time with a little investment in your career.

    I’m sure most of us would like to think that we write fairly efficient code. However the reality for many of us might be that we don’t actually know. Many of us use the same patterns and practices that we’ve been using for a long time, rarely changing. When we learn a new technique or find a different way of coding that works better, we tend to then use that method over, and over, and over, and over again.

    I would guess that if many of us profiled our code, and examined the CPU and network bandwidth we consume, we might be surprised at what we find. CPU and network usage isn’t something we are often concerned about. We assume that we’ve bought a machine and we should be able to use as much of it as we can at any point in time. That’s not the best approach, but since we often have more hardware than we need for many processes, it works. It also explains why so many applications struggle as the load increases. They’re not coded efficiently.

    If you’re going to work in the cloud, you better learn to code more efficiently, mostly because it costs money. If you think about your design, you can reduce the amount of resources you use. In the cloud this translates to less cost. In the on-premises world, this means better performance and higher scale. It also means less complaints and phone calls.

    Scaling up an application can be hard, but much of the struggle comes from poorly coding your application in the beginning. Most of us have heard the saying that it takes less time to do it right the first time. That’s true in many situations, and it’s true for your application development. Learn to write more efficient code and use patterns that conserve resources. You’ll find your applications will run better, no matter what type of environment hosts them. If you’re not sure what patterns and practices work well, read an article or ask a question and find out what efficient techniques others use.

    Steve Jones

    The Voice of the DBA Podcasts

    We publish three versions of the podcast each day for you to enjoy.