Derik Whittaker

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• Unused code is the worst of the 7 Wastes of Software

  Today I was having another round of conversations with a buddy of mine about the concept of waste and unused code. In agile there is a concept called YAGNI (You Ain't Gonna Need It) that basically states that you should not add code that is not immediately... Posted Aug 06 2008, 04:21 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 32 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion

• Simple extension methods to help with Asserting values

  In the past I have written about the Fail Fast principle.  This is a principle I try to live my development life by.  I would rather explicitly check for possible failure points then have a runtime error crop up.  In the past when writing... Posted Apr 10 2008, 07:49 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, Featured

• Sorting List's the .Net 3.5 Way

  This post is another in the recent string of How-to's. But it is just so hard to resist. .Net 3.5 has so many cool features, it is just fun to explore them all. Ok, so here is the issue we are going to solve today. We have a list of entities and we... Posted Mar 28 2008, 09:09 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, HowTo, Linq, Lambda

• [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

• 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

• 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

• This code sucks....

  How many times as developers have we taken a look at someone else's code and said 'This stuff sucks' or 'WTF where they thinking'? I know I have said this plenty of time. I also am pretty sure that others have said this about my code... Posted Dec 10 2007, 08:54 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Humor, Opinion

• 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

• Subclassing for Success

  As someone how has been designing and developing WinForms based applications for the past 7+ years, I have learned that subclassing UI controls is a must. You may be thinking, why would I want to subclass a text box? Or a combo box? The answer is simple... Posted Nov 02 2007, 07:36 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, WinForms, Opinion, Featured

• Backing in Unit Tests into an existing project

  Recently I was asked about backing in unit tests into an existing project. In particular I was asked A) was possible and B) is it worth it. In short my answers to both these are Yes and Yes. However, backing in unit tests is not without its challenges... Posted Oct 09 2007, 07:35 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Agile, Methodology, TDD, Opinion

• Why I believe IN and WRITE unit tests

  In my last post I think I struck a cord with some people in my post 'Unit tests taking too much time'. My intent was NOT to sound like an elitist Agilist or any else of that nature. My intent was simply to put a post out there about the misperception... Posted Oct 01 2007, 07:27 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 12 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Agile, Methodology, TDD, Opinion, Featured

• Standard questions to be asked when logging bugs

  In my last post ( here ) I spoke about different do’s and don’ts when it comes to logging bugs. What I really did not hit on was the different types of questions I feel should be asked when logging bugs. Here are my questions, in no particular order.... Posted Aug 21 2007, 07:51 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion, Best Practice

• Logging Bugs: Do's and Don'ts

  All software that is being developed WILL have bugs, sorry, but this IS a fact. Now I know some people and companies don't like to call them glitches in software bugs. They would rather call them issues or defects. For all I care we can call them... Posted Aug 19 2007, 05:40 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, Opinion, Featured

• Switch Statements with Enums best practice

  Over the years I have come to the conclusion when working with switch statements that switches on enum values, a DEFAULT block MUST be required. Not only should it be required, I think it should throw a developer exception. *** NOTE *** My stance on this... Posted Jun 26 2007, 07:08 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, .Net, Opinion, Best Practice