Derik Whittaker

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• Testing your IoC Bindings

  One thing I like to do when I am using a IoC (Inversion of Control) container is to create simple test that ensure that my objects have been wired up correctly and can be created via the IoC container. I know this may seem like overkill, but I feel that... Posted Sep 10 2008, 06:53 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, TDD, Best Practice

• ASP.Net MVC ViewData best practice open question

  This is post is more about me asking the question then giving direction on best practice. The question is simple. When dealing with viewdata with the MVC framework, what type of usage of viewdata is preferred? Approach 1 If you watch Scott's screencasts... Posted Mar 06 2008, 08:55 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Best Practice, ASP.Net MVC

• Link building 101 with ASP.Net MVC

  Because I was stumped on the various ways to build links (hyperlinks)with the new MVC framework, I thought I would save others the pain that I went through and show the various ways to build links. You can also get this information by watching Scott Hanselman's... Posted Mar 06 2008, 07:34 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 10 comment(s) Filed under: Best Practice, ASP.Net MVC

• Being OCD and Merging don't mix

  Let me start of by publicly admitting this, I am have OCD (Obsessive-compulsive disorder) when it comes to code. My code must be clean and it must be uniform. And because I am a ReSharper lover my disorder is even more drawn out. Over the past month or... Posted Feb 21 2008, 01:34 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Humor, Opinion, Best Practice

• The VS Team Branch Merge Dance Explained

  Just wanted to dump a quick how-to on doing branch to trunk merges in VS Team. It is pretty simple really, only a few steps. Pull the latest of the branch to your local disk Pull the latest of the trunk to your local disk Merge and Pray (more on this... Posted Feb 14 2008, 09:43 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development Tools, .Net IDE, Best Practice

• Dead Code: Code Smell #1

  In my humble opinion the worst code smell you can have is Dead Code.  I know that other smells such as large methods, large classes, overly complex logic, interwoven dependencies, etc are all smells, but nothing, I MEAN NOTHING smells worse than... Posted Feb 14 2008, 05:53 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 1 comment(s) Filed under: Opinion, Best Practice

• Compiler warnings, the trash you forgot to take out

  There was once a time where I did not care about compiler warnings, but times have changed.  In fact, I remember having a debate with a fellow developer some time ago about why compiler warnings were not that bad..... Oh how times have changed. In... Posted Feb 05 2008, 01:45 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 11 comment(s) Filed under: Opinion, Best Practice, Rant

• [OT] Where Do Automatic Properties go in your class file?

  Ok, so I know this is a odd question but I am stumped. Normally when I have a private instance level variable that is exposed via a property I format my class file as such. { ..... all instance variables ..... any constructors ..... any public/private... Posted Feb 02 2008, 08:37 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Feedback, Opinion, Best Practice

• Whitebox vs Blackbox testing (location of unit tests)

  Over on the Alt.Net mailing list ( here ) the topic of where to put your unit tests was the hot topic a few days ago. This is a topic that I have debated with various people over the past few years. With all the debates I have had, it is clear to me that... Posted Jan 28 2008, 05:38 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Agile, TDD, Opinion, Best Practice

• Defensive Coding best practice

  <disclaimer> This posting is purely my personal opinion. I am sure many of you out there will disagree, if this is the case, let me know. </disclaimer> Today, during my bug hunting I stumbled across the dreaded 'Null reference' exception... Posted Jan 22 2008, 07:05 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 8 comment(s) Filed under: Methodology, Opinion, Best Practice

• Try-Catch in Sql 2005 is your friend.

  I know that SQL 2005 has been out for a while now, but I did not do ANY sql for over a year.  Anyway, anyone that has had to write anything more than trival procs knows that error handling can be a pain. In the past you have had to do something along... Posted Jan 18 2008, 09:00 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: sql2005, Best Practice

• Overuse of #Regions

  Before I get started, I personally am a fan of using #regions in my code.  I think it cleans up everything, allowing me to only see what I want to see.  I also know that many of you disagree with me, and that is fine. Here are 2 posts that voice... Posted Jan 15 2008, 07:56 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net IDE, Opinion, Best Practice, Rant

• Object Properties, make them public ONLY when needed.

  Sorry we have interrupted your daily blog reading, but we have a special service announcement for all developers. <SpecialServiceAnnouncement> Only make properties public on an object when you KNOW they are needed. Please make all properties private... Posted Jan 12 2008, 12:59 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Opinion, Best Practice, Rant

• Why using the index for data retrieval is evil

  Today I was refactoring some sql procs along with the corresponding .net code that called the procs. My primary focus was to implement some new business rules (ways to get totals) in the proc.  In doing so, I completely re-wrote the proc.  In... Posted Dec 28 2007, 01:26 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, Best Practice, Rant

• Source Control, works for code, why not use it for SQL Scripts

  Pretty much any developer with half a brain (or any real world experience) knows that you MUST keep your source code in some sort of source code repository. There are many of them out there, VSS, Vault, TFS, CVS, SVN, the list goes on. If putting your... Posted Nov 21 2007, 08:28 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 14 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Opinion, Best Practice, Rant