Herding Code

Episode 81

This week on Herding Code, the guys discuss compare notes on how to teach software development topics. Is hands-on instruction key? How much should you simplify to focus on mechanics? How do you teach, and how do you like to learn?

• Jon talks about his impressions on the effectiveness of hands-on learning at Web Camp Toronto.
• K. Scott questions if people really learn at Code Camps, and Scott K. talks about hack-a-thons at Code Camps.
• We talk about open source contributions as development. Jon demonstrates that he's bad at doing math while he talks.
• Jon asks Scott K. about what works for him with his training classes with Pluralsight.
• We all talk about the MVC Music Store, and the gaps between marketing, introductory training, and advanced training.
• Jon and K. Scott talk about the difficulty in finding the correct focus and simplicity level in introductory training.
• Jon talks about the mistake he's made several times in not clarifying the level of content he's presenting.
• Kevin talks about how he expects to see unit tests in any samples, but Scott K. says that won't save you from public shame.
• Scott K. asks if we should be focusing on concepts and "why?" questions rather than products or frameworks.
• Jon and Scott K. talk about the fun of looking at the ASP.NET MVC source code.
• Kevin comments on the difference in complexity he sees in .NET code and Ruby source code. Scott K. talks about how Fubu MVC code is pretty easy to read, too.
• Jon asks about the difficulty of doing "real world" samples, and K. Scott asks whose real world we're talking about.
• K. Scott drops a surprise mini-lightning round on us with a question about the effectiveness of video as a learning tool.

Show Links:

• Web Camps
• MVC Music Store
• Robby Ingebretsen's talk at MIX10
• ASP.NET MVC source code
• FubuMVC
• Beatrix of the Netherlands

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Herding Code 81: Simplicity, balance, and focus in teaching software development

Episode 80

This week on Herding Code, the guys speak with Jeffrey van Gogh and Matt Podwysocki about the Reactive Extensions for Javascript.

• Matt talks about how he's been involved with RxJS.
• Jeffrey talks about how RxJS and Reactive Extensions came out of the the Volta project.
• Matt talks about how RxJS simplifies the callback model in Javascript.
• Jeffery adds on how this also has benefits to asynchronous operations.
• Jon asks about how this works with queries over events which will happen in the future.
• Mat talks about how this works with jQuery's bind and live events.
• Jon asks the standard question about querying over mouse move events. Matt and Jeffrey use the example to explain about how composable operations over events can be really powerful.
• Jon asks how Reactive Extensions relates to functional reactive programming, and to functional programming in general.
• Kevin asks about how RxJS interoperates with jQuery.
• We take questions from Twitter about jQuery integration and use of RxJS to manage script loading and script scoping.
• Kevin asks for some concrete usage examples.
• Kevin asks about the library size and the overall release status.
• Jon asks about Jeffrey's blog posts on using RxJS with Node.js and Script#.
• We talk about Matt's extensive blog post series on RxJS.
• We talk about recent RxJS presentations: Erik Meijer's talk at MIX10, Jeffrey's talk at JSConf, and Matt's at the Imagine Cup.
• Jon asks about what exactly is involved in adding RxJS support to different Javascript libraries.
• Scott K asks about the tradeoffs of bringing the CLR to the browser vs. bringing things like RxJS into the browser via Javascript.
• We talk about how Javascript development has gotten easier with development environment improvements, testing systems, etc.
• Matt talks about how it's often easier to do things in Javascript than in a statically typed language like C#.
• Scott K asks about how scope is handled in RxJS.
• Jon asks about how the code is licensed.
• Kevin asks about the naming conventions used in RxJS, supported browsers, release plans.
• Jon asks about Reactive Extensions for .NET, and we talk about how it's especially useful in Silverlight.
• Jeffery mentions that Reactive Extensions will be included in Windows Phone 7.
• We pretend to end the show, but the discussion keeps going and K Scott joins the party.

Show Links:

• Matt Podwysocki's Blog
• Jeffrey van Gogh, Reactive Extensions 
• Microsoft Live Labs Volta
• JSConf EU 2010
• Rey Bango's Blog, JSConf 2010 - Video Interviews with Top Javascript Developers
• YUI
• 280 North, Socratic Documentation Tool
• Node.js
• Script#
• Imagine Cup
• Erik Meijer
• Rhino
• John Resig, Sizzle
• WebSharp

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 80: RxJS with Jeffrey van Gogh and Matt Podwysocki

Episode 79

This week on Herding Code, the guys speak with Chris Williams, Rey Bango and Matt Podwysocki about this year's JSConf.

• Chris begins the show with a conference overview which will leave you chomping at the bit for JSConf 2011 registration to open. Hackers' Lounge. Multiple tracks. One killer speaker list. Hyper-caffeinated, hyper-intoxicated privates! Salmagundi. And lots of JavaScript!
• The guests discuss their favorite parts of the conference. Beyond the quality of the talks, Rey and Chris both comment about the invaluable conversations which were had out-of-session in the Hacker's Lounge and at the ScurvyConf. Quote of the Show: "I am a firm believer of drinking beer, and shooting the poop, and when you do that, magic happens." - Chris Williams
• Chris talks about the excitement around Tobias Schneirder's presentation on Gordon, an open source Flash runtime written in pure JavaScript.
• The guys talk about Alex Russell and Google Chrome Frame and how IE6 must Die.
• Chris praises Billy Hoffman's JavaScript's Evil Side presentation.
• K Scott and Chris talk about JavaScript outside of the browser and functional programming,
• Chris and Scott K talk about a seemingly new found interest in Server-side JS
• Jon asks about JS library duplication in competing platforms. Rey talks about what Resig has done with Sizzle and how each library has their own niche.
• Chris talks about the need to learn JavaScript and how we should be JavaScript developers, not just developers who use JavaScript libraries.
• Matt teases us by mentioning that he'll be talking about Reactive Extensions on next week's Herding Code episode.
• Jon asks which percentage of cool JavaScript stuff is just waiting on browser adoption.  Chris doesn't think too much and prompts Matt talks about progressive enhancements.
• Chris talks about the importance of security and how we shouldn't only be taught how to write good code but also how to break bad code.
• Kevin asks what is happening with JavaScript, the language itself.
• The show wraps with talk of diversity in computing, JSConf EU, JQuery Conference, JQuery UI 1.8 release, JavaScript conferences and craft beers in the D.C. area.

Show Links:

• JSConf 2010, JSConf EU 2010
• Chris Williams's Blog, @voodootikigod
• Rey Bango's Blog, jQuery, Ajaxian
• Matt Podwysocki's Blog
• Ken Henderson
• Dojo, Prototype, MooTools, YUI, ExtJs
• Brendan Eich
• Peter Higgins, Dojo, plugd
• Salmagundi
• Aaron Quint, Sammy.js, Making Bacon / Making Code
• Tobias Schneider, Gordon
• Greenhouse, Sproutcore, Ajaxian Post
• Alex Russell, Google Chrome Frame
• Douglas Crockford
• Scott Guthrie, IE9
• Narwhal, Tom Robinson, 280 North, Kevin Dangoor
• Ryan Dahl, Node
• V8
• nginx
• CouchDB
• Jaxer, Helma, Persevere
• Rhino
• SquirrelFish Extreme, Nitro
• Jeffrey van Gogh, Reactive Extensions
• CoffeeScript
• Jison
• Francisco Tolmasky, Socratic Documentation Tool
• Cappuccino, Objective-J
• Ross Boucher,
• John Resig, Sizzle
• NWMatcher, Acme (aka query.js)
• John-David Dalton 
• Sam Stephenson
• JavaScript and Web Standards Sitting in a Tree, Jenn Lukas
• Billy Hoffman
• ha.ckers.org, xssed.com
• JSConf 2010 - Video Interviews with Top Javascript Developers
• Makinde Adeagbo
• JSON Hijacking, Phil Haack
• HTML5
• ECMAScript5/Harmony
• @SaraJChipps
• JSConf Diversity in Computing Drive 
• JQuery Conference
• JQueryUI
• ChurchKey, Dogfish Head, Carpool, Rustico
• NoVALang
• nosqleast
• Tom Hughes-Croucher
• Scandinavian Web Developer Conference (SWDC)
• TXJS (Texas JavaScript Conference)

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 79: JSConf Recap with Chris Williams, Rey Bango and Matt Podwysocki

Episode 78

This week on Herding Code, Jon, Kevin, Scott K and Rob Conery discuss Ruby on Rails, using dynamic languages to write views, web security, advanced javascript techniques, recent Twitter news, Section 3.3.1 and the official release of Visual Studio 2010.

• The show begins with talk of Kevin's recent dabbling into Ruby on Rails. The guys talk about Ruby 2 vs Ruby 3, how MS developers love their IDEs and finally Rack.
• Jon mentions Jimmy Shimenti's demo of Visual Studio 2010 File > New > Ruby on Rails with IronRuby.
• The conversation segues into the benefits of trying out other platforms and how trying out other platforms doesn't necessarily mean one is jumping ship.
• Kevin shares why he has a hard time getting excited about IronRuby.
• Scott K introduces a recent Alt.NET Seattle Fishbowl Topic - Is C# is the best language for writing views or should dynamic languages be used instead?
• Rob Conery shares why he loves the Haml view engine and Kevin speaks to why he really likes Spark?
• The guys talk about html encoding and XSS vulnerabilities.
• The guys consider advanced techniques one can implement with jQuery and how really learning javascript can affect the way one writes C# code.
• Scott K briefs us on his recent Alt.Net open space presentation on Node.js.
• The guys passionately discuss the business of Twitter, hovercards, Twitter's @Anywhere API, the Library of Congress, and the importance of security and password management.
• The guys talks about why Apple Changed Section 3.3.1.
• The guys talk about the Visual Studio 2010 installation and developer experience.
• Rob pimps TekPub with background music .

Show Links:

• Rob's Blog
• TekPub
• Jetbrains RubyMine
• ReSharper
• Jimmy Schementi, IronRuby.Rack
• Ryan Riley (@panesofglass)
• How-to: Use Cucumber with .NET and C# under IronRuby
• RSpec
• NHaml, Hmal
• Spark View Engine
• ha.ckers.org xss cheat sheet, Anti-XSS Library
• @Anywhere Javascript API
• Hovercards
• Mongo
• Jaxer
• Bertrand Le Roy
• Mustache.js
• jQuery Gives Us a New Way to Zebra Stripe
• NoRM
• Andrew Theken
• James Avery
• Machine.Specifications (MSpec)
• Node.js
• Brad Wilson
• Simon Willison
• Merb
• Node.js, YUI 3 & Dom Manipulation. Oh My!
• Twitter CEO Ev Williams: Revenue Is A Feature
• Oops! Twitter Server Password is "Password"
• myOpenId, Infocard
• OpenID: Does The World Really Need Yet Another Username and Password?
• Why Apple Changed Section 3.3.1
• MonoTouch
• Louis De Jardin
• MEF
• Mozilla Labs: Bespin
• coderun
• Gary Bernhardt, String Calculator Kata 
• Code optimized web profile for Visual Studio 2010

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 78: Ruby on Rails, View Engines, Web Security, Section 3.3.1 and Visual Studio 2010 with Rob Conery

Episode 77

This week on Herding Code, Jon, Kevin and Scott K discuss MvcConf, C4MVC and MvcContrib with, open source and community extraordinaire, Eric Hexter. 

• Eric talks about his role as consultant and Director of Open Source at Headspring.
• The guys walk through Hexter's impressive resume.   Eric is the co-founder of MVCContrib, he established the Community for MVC (C4MVC) virtual user group and is currently coordinating MvcConf, the Virtual ASP.NET MVC Conference scheduled for July.  No wonder the most popular listener question for this week was "How is Hexter so awesome?"
• Eric takes us through the general theme of MvcConf  - "interactive" presentations around extensibility, testability and building maintainable, high-volume, enterprise applications with a focus on best practices like database migrations. 
• Eric issues a call for speakers. Who's interested?
• Jon asks about Portable Areas in MvcContrib and Eric digs into the embedded view engine and synchronous message bus.
• Kevin asks a question.
• The guys talk about Input Builders, Dynamic Scaffolding and Fluent Html Helpers.  Jon also asks about MvcContrib Grid's popularity.
• Scott K asks about extending ASP.NET MVC, "Are you fighting with the framework or at least fighting with the C# language?"  Have you gotten the feeling that Scott likes a good fight?  Scott considers how and why various frameworks are developed and Eric praises ASP.NET MVC for having all of the the right extension points in place. These leads to a group discussion about the ASP.NET MVC team releasing source drops and not working in a bubble.
• Eric and Jon talk about the MVCContrib TestHelpers and the importance of testing routes.  Hexter tells us about the UI Test Helpers built around WatiN and the benefit of strongly type views. Jon oohs and ahhs.
• Kevin asks another question.
• Scott K comments on SubControllers.  Eric tell us if SubControllers smell and shares the general argument against RenderAction.
• Jon talks about model validation via data annotations and how one might test.  Eric shares some of the patterns they have established (strongly-typed views, 1:1 mapping between view and viewmodel) and how he uses data annotations for data type validation and how complex validation is handled via a command processor's rules engine.
• The show wraps with Eric singing about a few of his favorite things - continuous integration and testing. He pimps the early access edition of ASP.NET MVC2 in Action and Tarantino Database Migrations and announces that the Virtual ALT.Net folks and he will be open sourcing their video recording management scripts.
• Final question, "How does Eric get so much done?"  "Automate, automate, automate!"  Of course!

Show Links:

• Eric Hexter's Blog
• Headspring Systems
• Community For MVC 
• MVC Conf
• MVCContrib
• Jeremy Skinner
• Austin .NET User Group
• Javier Lozano
• Brad Wilson on C4MVC
• LiveMeeting
• Viddler
• OpenRasta
• MonoRail
• FubuMVC
• Rob Conery, TekPub
• MVC Futures
• T4MVC
• MvcContrib Grid
• jqGrid
• jQuery DataTables
• Spark View Engine
• WatiN
• Steven Sanderson's Light Test Automation Framework
• Oxite
• Orchard
• Eilon Lipton
• MVC Turbine
• Jimmy Bogard C4MVC on UI Testing
• Castle Validators
• AutoMapper
• Fluent Validation
• ASP.NET MVC2 in Action
• Tarantino database migrations
• Virtual Alt.NET
  

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 77: Eric Hexter on MvcConf, C4MVC, and MvcContrib

Episode 76

This week on Herding Code, John Sheehan joins the cast for a conversation about his open source project, RestSharp. The gang dives into REST and .NET open source. Makes sense, right? And the show wraps with talk of OData and a MIX10-inspired Lightning Round.

• John talks about his exciting new evangelist job at Twilio. Twillo provides a web-service API for businesses to build scalable, reliable communication apps. Wait! The evangelist is going to tell you all about it.
• The guys quiz John about RestSharp. John talks about what RestSharp has to offer and the direction of the project. 
• The gangs talk about the oddities of .NET open source project development - forking, closing source, project naming, boredom and a plea for project takeover.
• Jon leads the group into dangerous territory and forces an OData discussion. Is OData good? Is it REST?  Hear what the guys have to say. 
• K Scott dazzles us with a power-packed Lightning Round.  Don't step away for a second or you'll miss it!  Just like lightning.
• John kicks off our first Official Pimp Your Stuff segment talking about ManagedAssembly - a community for .NET developers which is poised to be taken over.  Just ask.  Please.

Show Links:

• Twilio
• John's Blog
• RestSharp
• Hammock for REST
• TweetSharp
• Daniel Crenna
• OData
• Darrel Miller
• IE9 Testdrive
• jQuery Snippets
• ManagedAssembly
• James Avery
• SubSonic
• NerdDinner's OData Service
• NerdDinner JSON response Note: this is a json link so IE will show a file download prompt
• MIX10
  

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 76: John Sheehan on RestSharp

Episode 75

This week on Herding Code, Barry Dorrans educates, entertains, insults and scares us with his expert commentary on application security, threat modeling, analysis tools and common attacks.  You've been waiting for this show.  I just know it.  Listen in as Barry talks security, pimps his new book, and comments on his new position at Microsoft, book burnings, guns, money, proper pronunciation and Jon's bald head.

• Scott K shares that public facing applications and services seem to get the least attention when it comes to security - until there's an audit. Barry talks about the lack of security education and how training should be baked in from the ground up.
• Jon notes that folks don't start off projects thinking about security.  First you code and then you worry about the risk.  Barry speaks to the Security Development Lifecycle (SDL) and continuous threat modeling.
• Scott K asks if there is a security checklist which developers should consult when developing a web application.  Barry references his book, OWASP, CDE and Miter.  Barry states that can't think like a hacker but you can think about the risks and "what happens if this goes wrong" or "I leak this information" or "there is a cross site scripting attack."
• Jon notes there are some security measures which are baked into the .NET Framework.  Barry talks about a defense in depth strategy and the Web Protection Library (WPL.)
• Barry dives into a few of the security and code analysis tools like CAT.NET and FxCop which are available for Visual Studio.  But how, by the way, no tool offers a silver bullet.
• Scott K asks where emphasis should be placed when implementing security measures.  Barry responds by putting his security hat on and assuming that all users are scum.  Trust no one!
• The guys get into encoding rules (when and where), XSS, SQL Injection and Cross-site request forgery.  Jon asks more about the measures built into ASP.NET Webforms and ASP.NET MVC which help prevent attacks.
• Kevin asks a question about automatic encoding by the framework.  Barry states this is a tricky solution to implement and suggests that frameworks should provide tools but developers should handle the encoding manually. Jon notes the new syntax in MVC 2 which facilitates this approach.
• Jon asks about testing frameworks and asks Barry for a checklist of steps which developers must complete if they wish to secure their applications.  Barry rattles off a bunch of must-dos actions, pimps his book and pokes fun at American money.
• The guys talk about RIA, Silverlight and Flash and briefly touch upon security benefits and issues.  And then they discuss social engineering security/privacy issues.
• Scott K moves away from web applications and services.  What about client applications?  Barry talks about trusted sources, and the .NET and Java sandboxes.  And the guys speak of OS sandboxes and vitualizing applications and Code Access Security (CAS.)
• Barry talks about FoxPro thanks to a Twitter question from @jglazano and the show finishes up with talk about blue and black hats, security snake oil and scary security stories.  But wait!  Jon remembers he wanted to talk about OpenId and the show continues with a discussion about OpenId, CardSpace and OAuth and OAuth WRAP.

Show Links:

• Barry Dorrans' Blog
• Beginning ASP.NET Security, Barry Dorrans
• Google Buzz
• Writing Secure Code, Michael Howard
• Developing More-Secure Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Applications, Dominick Baier
• Threat Modeling, Window Snyder and Frank Swiderski
• DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper!
• PCI Compliance
• OWASP Top 10
• WebGoat Project
• CWE/SANS Top 25
• Web Protection Library (WPL) - Evolution of Anti-XSS Library
• Microsoft Code Analysis Tool .NET (CAT.NET)
• FxCop
• NDepend
• StyleCop
• XSS Attack Tool
• XSS (Cross Site Scripting) Cheat Sheet
• Tamper Data Firefox Add-on
• Enough Rope to Shoot Yourself in the Foot: Rules for C and C++ Programming
• Foxit
• NoScript Firefox Add-on
• App-V (Microsoft Application Virtualization, formerly Microsoft Softgrid)
• We Should Be Virtualizing Applications Not Machines
• Javier Lazano
• Microsoft BlueHat Security Briefings
• Black Hat Technical Security Conference
• OpenId
• CardSpace
• LastPass
• OAuth / OAuth WRAP
• Kim Cameron's Introduction to the Laws of Identity

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 75: Barry Dorrans on Developer Security

Episode 74

This week on Herding Code, K Scott leads a conversation with ASP.NET Insider and MVP, Javier Lozano, about his open source project, MVC Turbine, and extensibility and composition with ASP.NET MVC.

• Javier provides a twitter-like overview of his open source project: "MVC Turbine helps you build modular applications on top of ASP.NET MVC and that's pretty much it."
• K Scott asks about the advantages of using MVC Turbine to add features to your applications. Javier talks about MVC's extension points, controller factories, view engines, and "the blade."
• The guys talk about MVC Turbine's support for multiple IoC containers and whether or not MVC Turbine is merely "IoC for IoC."  Javier speaks of his design approach and the need to register components on the fly.
• K Scott notes that though ASP.NET MVC has many extensibility points it may not have been built with IoC in mind. Javier talks about the pros and cons of this and how it factored into his design.
• Scott K asks if there are any features Javier would like to implement into his project which he hasn't been able to address because of limitations with the MVC framework.  
• K Scott asks about Action Filters and Inferred Actions. Javier explains.  Jon comments on Inferred Actions' awesomeness and how they really reduce your controller code.
• Scott K asks about Inferred Actions and strongly typed views. Javier talks about how the current implementation effectively serves up static pages without a model but the ideal implementation (which is doable) would provide an inferred models and more. 
• Scott K talks about defaulting return types.  For example, if request doesn't include the mime type then default to Json.
• The guys talk about general extensibility in ASP.NET MVC and how various open source applications are addressing concerns.
• K Scott gets back on topic and asks Javier to dig deeper into filters.
• Jon and Javier talk about MEF and how it might play a roll in MVC Turbine. Bingo!
• K Scott notes that MVC Turbine is hosted on Codeplex and asks how it's going?  Javier notes the source code is now hosted at GitHub, and Jon asks if recent Codeplex support for Mercurial might lure Javier back to Codeplex. The guys talk/joke about version control systems.
• The guys talk Visual Studio 2010 versions and games of yesterday.
• Javier turns the tables and asks the guys about their thoughts on compositions in general.  Scott K has thoughts - it's painful. Jon states that MVC Turbine is doing it and you can use Attributes so what's missing in the .NET framework that makes composition so painful.
• Javier talks of folks interest in contributing to his framework, producing documentation and video, and what's next for MVC Turbine. 
• Jon asks if MVC 2 provides features (validation or templating, for example) which may be leveraged in MVC Turbine.
• Lightening round! Have you used Google Buzz?  What's the funniest comment thread you have ever read?

Show Links:

• Javier Lozano's Blog
• Herding Code 43: Javier Lozano on the "M" in MVC
• MVC Turbine
• Iowa .NET User Group and Iowa Code Camp
• StructureMap
• Ninject
• Castle Windsor
• Unity
• Common Service Locator
• ASP.NET  MVC Extensibility
• FubuMVC
• Glenn Block
• Rob Conery
• Registering External Routes
• Alan Stevens
• Tom Janssens (@ToJans)
• MVCExtensions
• S#arpArchitecture
• Louis DeJardin
• MVC Contrib
• Jeremy Skinner
• MEF
• Automapper
• Ben Scheirman
• MVP Summit
• Google Buzz
• The Confusing New Facebook Login Page (on ReadWriteWeb)
• Community for MVC.NET
• Eric Hexter

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 74: Javier Lozano on MVC Turbine and Composed Applications

Episode 73

This week on Herding Code, Jon leads a discussion with Daniel Plaisted about Model-Based Testing and the progressive practices of the MEF team.

• Daniel speaks of the primary development roles at Microsoft and how the MEF team addresses testing concerns. Guess what.  Developers write tests, too.
• Daniel talks about Model-Based Testing and validation of transitions and states.
• Scott K is reminded of a presentation he attended at Northwest Python Day which spoke of protocol and framework testing.
• Daniel shares the need of trim test cases to manageable sets which will still ensure adequate coverage.
• Jon asks about mapping out the endless states that may be found when testing MEF. 
• Jon asks about test frequency. Are tests run on each check-in?  Are they scheduled?
• The guys address the difference test types - unit, functional, performance and stress tests.
• Kevin asks about coordination of developer and tester efforts.  Who produces which tests and where is each group's focus?
• Daniel explains Exploratory Testing
• Scott K asks about Heisenbugs and how closely testers work with developers to resolve hard-to-reproduce defects.
• Jon asks if the MEF testers use any debug/test tools which are built into Visual Studio.
• Kevin asks if any special considerations must be made when QAing an open source project. 
• Daniel explains how model-based testing works well for verifying cache states.
• Scott K asks about test environment setups and how deep the MEF testers need to dive into the bugs in order to adequately report on them.
• Jon asks Daniel to share tips to help developers improve their own unit tests and improve broader testing.
• Daniel talks about MEF's beginnings. It's not an IoC container.  Oh wait. It is.
• What type of tester are you?  The guys speak of a recent Google Tester Blog post on tester types.
• Kevin ask if the progressive approach which MEF takes is gaining traction throughout Microsoft.
• Jon asks how Daniel became a tester, a Microsoft MEF tester.
• Kevin asks how much collaborating occurs between the various testing teams at Microsoft.
• Daniel briefly talks about Synchronization Coverage.

Note: The audio's a little rougher than usual this week. Sorry about that.

Show Links:

• Daniel Plaisted's Blog
• @dsplaisted
• Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF)
• Model-Based Testing
• Northwest Python Day
• Heisenbug
• Castle Windsor
• Google Tester Blog
• Interviewing Insights and Test Frameworks

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 73: Daniel Plaisted on Model-Based Testing in Action on the MEF Team

Episode 72

This week on Herding Code, the gang discusses Uncle Bob's self-titled blatherings about DI, IoC and Mocking, Clojure and polyglot programming, managed javascript, and recent support for Mercurial at Codeplex. The show finishes up with another K Scott Lightning Round with questions about the iPad and non-technical blog recommendations.

• Uncle Bob recently published two articles which are a little down on DI, IoC and Mocking. Was he merely trying to get a rise out of the community or was he sending a subtle message about poor use of our tools?
• K Scott attended Craig Andera's Clojure Presentation at a recent DC Alt.NET meet up. This sparks a discussion about Clojure Magic - functional programming, transactional memory, concurrency and multi-threaded programming.
• The guys talk about the polyglot programmer, Scala running on the JVM and Java interop. Scott K shares his interest in getting a Clojure, Scala and F# guy in the same room and Kevin gives his thoughts about the language explosion.
• Scott K leads a conversation about managed javascript, node.js, and IronJS.
• The group offers their opinions on Codeplex support for Mercurial and address questions like "Why not Git?" and "Does this make Codeplex more appealing?"
• Lightning Round Question #1: Who's going to buy an iPad?
• Lightning Round Question #2: What non-technical blogs do you read?

Show Links:

• Dependency Injection Inversion
• Mocking Mocking and Testing Outcomes
• Moq
• Rhino Mocks
• Matthew Podwysocki
• DC Alt.Net Group
• Craig Andera's Clojure Presentation Materials
• Clojure Refs
• Clojure CLR
• Scott K's Clojure Gist 
• Audacity
• Chris's Dynamic Compressor
• Gimp
• IronJS
• node.JS
• Simon Willison
• Ruby EventMachine
• Twisted
• Codeplex
• Mercurial, bitbucket
• Git, GitHub
• Rails Commits comparison from SVN to GitHub
• Larry O'Brien - Tablet PC Programmer Responds to Apple iPad
• Michael Ruhlman
• Topless Robot
• Swiss Miss
• Indexed
• Nathan Bowers, UX Hero
• Jin Yang (jzy) 8164.org
• Strange Maps
• Ex Unum, Pluribus!
• FakeSteveJobs
• Art of Manliness
• Archie McPhee
• Monkey Goggles
• Handerpants
• Dave Barry

Show notes compiled by Ben Griswold. Thanks!

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Herding Code 72: Questioning Uncle Bob, Clojure Magic, Mercurial Support at Codeplex, Thoughts About the iPad and Handerpants