ReSharper 4.0 goes Beta (Candidate)

I just saw this on the wire: ReSharper 4.0 has entered Beta a Beta Candidate now as of build 804. If you want it, go get it here: http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/ReSharper/ReSharper+4.0+Nightly+Builds

If you just want to see what is new: check out this page:
http://www.jetbrains.net/confluence/display/ReSharper/ReSharper+4.0+EAP+Notes

Finally, there is another deal going on at JetBrains.  DotTrace has gone to version 3.1.  For a limited time you can now buy the Personal version of DotTrace for $199.

Note: Ilya Ryzhenkov corrected me, this is just a Beta Candidate.

Software Development Essential Practices

I was in an interesting discussion last night: what software development practices do you consider essential? 

While opinions varied, I think there was some consensus on a few items.  In my list I also include some tools.  Some of these were mentioned by the group, but consider them my own additions.  Also, I am making this list specific to .NET, but the list applies to just about every language.

Universally agreed Practices

• Source Control (1)
• Subversion
• VSTS ($)
• Vault ($)
• Local Development -- Every developer should have everything on their computer to run the system.  This includes all of the software and all of the source code.
• Bug Tracking - nuf said.  There are to many tools available to list here.
• TDD - Test Driven Development.  There was a little bit of back and forth, but the general consensus was that this should be done.
• NUnit
• MBUnit
• Rhino Mocks (2)
• TypeMock ($) (2)
• NMock (2)
• ORM - Object-Relational Mapping
• NHibernate 
• SubSonic - My person favorite
• LINQ to SQL - not yet, but I feel this should be on the list.
• LLBLGen ($) - Not free, but I've heard many good things about it.
• More
• Continuous Integration - Simple process that sits on a server and waits for things to get checked into your source control system.  When it sees something new, it gets all of the latest source code, compiles it, and runs all of the unit tests.  If there are any problems anywhere in that process it alerts the users (email, desktop icon, wave red flag, etc). (3)
• CI Factory
• CruiseControl.Net
• One Step Build - it is unbelievably cool to be able to click one button and have your entire project compile, run all tests, and possibly create an install in one step.  Personally, I do like it, but with the current set of tools this is one of the hardest parts to setup.
• MSBuild
• Nant
• BooBS/Bake (Ayende please, please, please change the name to Bake.  As cool as a project named BooBs could be -- I don't want to start an HR nightmare)
• FinalBuilder ($)
• Visual Build Pro ($)

Highly thought of but non-essential practices

• IOC - Inversion of Control - Everyone seemed to agree it was a good idea...but not actually essential.
• Castle Windsor - DotNetSlackers has a nice series on using this.
• Spring.Net
• StructureMap
• ReSharper ($) - Not a best practice per say, but it sure does make life easier. (4)

I'm sure I have missed some tools in the list, but it is the practices that are more important anyway.  But if you put a comment about any tool that I missed I will add it to the list.

(1) Source Safe was notably not in the list.  While I don't like it either, it is better than nothing.  But if your team is greater than 5 people or you have multiple people working on the same project you really should look at one of the other products on the list.

(2) Not a unit testing library, but a Mock Object library.  Pick a unit testing libarary (NUnit, MBUnit, XUnit), then pick a mock object library (Rhino Mocks, TypeMock, NMock) to use with it.

(3) I really need to talk about continuous integration more.  But it is one of those things that leads you down a path.  First you add source control, then you start adhering to separation of concerns, then you start unit testing and mocking more, then you add continuous integration, and then one step builds are all part of the mix.  One best practice leads to another, but they don't make a bit of sense without some of the prior pieces.

(4) If you are a Code Rush person instead of a ReSharper person -- carry on, you are in good company.

($) The cost money - not just beer, but may have free version versions as well.

Current favorite ReSharper shortcuts

I've been experimenting with ReSharper shortcuts again. Here are my new favorites.

Ctrl-- (control-minus): return cursor to previous position.
This is especially useful if you just had ReSharper create a field or do any number of other items that will automatically jump the cursor to some other place -- be it in the current class, or another file. Very useful. I seem to use this most when I'm creating properties.

Ctrl-Alt-V: Introduce Variable.
If I type:
System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(filename);

Then hit the Ctrl-Alt-V, it will create a variable for the return of the function. So you will end up with this:
string[] lines = System.IO.File.ReadAllLines(filename);

Ctrl-Shift-N: Find file by name
I'm used to using Ctrl-N, find type by name. But usually what I was looking for was find file by name. If your classes have the same names as your files, not a big difference, but there is a difference.

What I'm hoping for in the next version of ReSharper
Enhanced Interface support. If my class has an interface, I want to be able to right-click on a method that is not in the interface, and have ReSharper automatically add the method to the interface.

Update:
From my comments I see that this feature already exists, it just has an odd name and no short-cut. The feature is "Push member up".

So put your cursor on a method/property, right-click->Refactor->Push Member Up and you will get a dialog for adding the member to an interface.

The name is the odd part, but if you do think about all the implications, it does make sense. Anyway, the more you know... Thank you Ilya Ryzhenkov

ReSharper and MBUnit

I accept that I'm turning into a ReSharper fan boy. I'm OK with that.

But, one feature that was missing was MBUnit support for ReSharper.
I've been wanting to play with MBUnit because it seems to have a fast growing community of supporters. Plus, it is still being actively developed, while NUnit seems to be stagnating.

Today I found my answer. There is an add-in for ReSharper that adds MBUnit support.
You can read about it on the ReSharper Support Web Site.

Also, MBUnit released version 2.4 RTM yesterday.

ReSharper Unit Test Templates

While I was preparing for my presentation on Rhino.Mocks, I make a couple of nice ReSharper template for creating new unit tests and files with, and without, Rhino.Mocks additions.

So, if you are using Rhino.Mocks and ReSharper, I hope these would be useful to you.

Enjoy.

• Test Class Template.xml -- File Templates, allows you to create a new test class, one with Rhino.Mocks initialized for NUnit, and one simple unit test class for NUnit.
• Test Method Templates.xml -- Live Templates, creates new test methods for Rhino.Mocks and and another for standard NUnit.

ReSharper 2.5.2 is out

I missed this one for two days before seeing it.

JetBrains has released a new version of their Visual Stuido.Net add-in ReSharper with a health bug fix list.

It is a great tool, but if you dont have it and can't afford it, do check out their unit testing addin called UnitRun. It is free and well worth the download.

Adventures in Agile Development

I've started a new project, with a new team, under a new development methodology. And for the most part I am happy with that. We have a small team of two developers and an architect/manager/used to be coder, and we are going as agile as possible.

Now Agile development means a lot of different things to a lot of different people. It is so bad that saying that you are an agile shop can mean almost anything you want it to. So to alleviate some of the confusion, here is some of what we are doing.

1. Daily Scrum. This is a 10-15 minute meeting every morning to talk about what is going on with your code. Where are we at, what are we trying to do.
2. Test Driven development. This means having tests for as much as possible (NUnit in our case). Granted, you cannot test everything, but there are development patterns that allow you to test most of what you do. Chief among them is the MVP pattern (Model-View-Presenter). I'll talk more about this later.
3. Frequent check-ins. It goes like this. Write a test for your code. Write the code. Make sure the test works. Check in. This means you are checking in up to four times per day. It also means you are less likely to get lost in all the things you are trying to do. And it means you need a source control system (we are using Subversion), and an automated build process (we are using NANT and Cruise Control).
4. The customer is allowed to get the daily build. This way they can keep up to date with what you are doing.
5. Now throw in an alphabet soup of other best-practice-somewhere technologies like Rhino Mocks, Spring, and NHibernate . You see there is a lot to learn.
   

Luckily, Agile and Test driven development have reached a critical mass such that there are now tools to help you with this process. I've already mentioned NUnit, NAnt, Subversion, and Cruise Control. But there is also the excellent Microsoft Team Systems that has all of those tools bundled together.

Another tool that wasn't listed that we are also using is ReSharper. Very cool tool with a lot of enhancements to Visual Studio.NET -- and a little bit of pain as well. ReSharper has an extremely large collection of shortcuts, so many that it actually overwrites a number of Visual Studio.NET shortcuts. But, it does have a feature to deal with that. Any time you his a shortcut that both ReSharper and Visual Studio.NET want, a dialog pops up asking which short-cut to use. I guess that is the best compromise. Anyway, for the side of ReSharper, the refactorings, and unit test integrations make it worth the cost of entry (a little over $100).

Now, this is enough for right now. I hate overly long rambling blog posts, and I'm afraid this will have to turn into a series. So, next time I'll write up what MVP, Spring, NUnit, and Rhino Mocks have to do with each other.