I am slowly but certainly coming to the end of my parental leave. Six months without working! The time has disappeared so quickly… it’s a bit sad.

But I also feel “hungry” for work, especially to put my newly acquired skills and knowledge into practice (like TDD, ASP.NET MVC, BDD, DDD, etc.)

During my leave, I’ve done some reading. I’m proud of reaching many of the goals I set for myself on the last day of working. Here’s a short review of the books I read:

Clean Code by Robert “Uncle Bob” Martin

Clean Code was both really good and a bit annoying. It’s a classic with loads of great tips on how to identify bad code (“smells,” as Uncle Bob calls them) and what to do about it. There are also some excellent examples.

However, by the end, the tips stack up...

Yes, I know that some people will refer to Seinfeld and the episode where George goes on vacation while being without a job, but it’s true—my vacation starts tomorrow. What that means is that I am going to Hyppeln on the west coast of Sweden. It will be great and hopefully with some better weather than we have had the last few weeks…

I learned something today from the Sunday morning service. It has been quite a stressful week with loads of meetings, big things to ponder, and surgery for Albert… And I got quite stressed out. When that happens to me, I can’t really focus, and so I get more stressed out about things that I might miss. It’s a vicious circle. Also, it tends to happen more and more frequently.

But the sermon today spoke almost directly to me; it was about Jesus as our...

BDD (Behavior Driven Development) is the next natural evolution from TDD. Since I am now converted to TDD, I thought I’d look into BDD.

After scanning the net for a while, I finally found an introduction that I could understand. Here it is: Introducing BDD.

From what I understand, some colleagues implemented BDD with NUnit. You can read about it here (in Swedish, I’m afraid), and also get some code that can help you create documentation similar to AgileDox.

OK – the next thing to chew off… BDD looks cool.

[UPDATED] I have now read some more about BDD. Dan North, who wrote the article above, is considered the father of BDD, and that article is actually the birth of the subject. Pretty good introduction.

Here is a video that has some nice examples and expands on the subject.

I don’t know that much about Azure yet, but I am quite sure it will become more and more important in the future.

From what I understand now, it’s Microsoft’s platform for developing applications that use services “in the cloud.” Behind the buzzwords, you’ll find a range of services accessible over the internet, including storage, logging, and other low-level services, as well as Microsoft Live Services, CRM services, and more.

The whole idea is that with these services in place, you can get up and running much faster.

OK – sounds like a good idea. Let’s see it in action. Here are some videos.

This service is really great when you get one of those files that you don’t know how or have the program to read. In my case it was a .pub file (Microsoft Publisher).

Now you don’t have to download any readers… And for up to 6 MB it’s free.

It’s been done! It’s solved! I don’t know how but it is…

http://www.en.conv2pdf.com/

Here are a few pictures from Albert’s preparations for the summer.

Ok – the updates on this blog have been way under par for a while. That’s because I am not working right now.

I’ve noticed that when you have a lot of things to do, it’s easy to get the little things done in a jiffy, but when you do nothing, it’s hard to start even the small things… Strange but true.

OK – here are some things that I watch and enjoy right now.

Shaun the Sheep – on SvtPlay. Great fun for both me and Albert.

A complete live concert with Black Dyke Band (part 1 and 2). The playing has some minor blemishes, but overall it’s great as usual, especially the Immortal-piece at the end!

Anything with Fodens on YouTube. Check out their run through Paganini variations (part 1 and 2).

And the rest of the time, I enjoy...

After doing DDD (on a very basic level) for some time now, I now realize that I could benefit from some sort of sum up. Often when I reach this point, I quickly realize that many people have tread these paths before and that I’m reinventing the wheel… Well, in that case, I do it for me. I like my wheels or at least my way of understanding them…

So here is my take on what the deal with DDD is (I hope that it will change over time but here is how I see it today):

I think first that the whole idea of DDD can be divided into two aspects (actually Jocke pointed me in this way but I like it):

• First code - a bunch of design patterns that help you produce great object-oriented, testable software.
• Then the implications on the way you can...

In a previous post, I briefly referred to Sharp Architecture (what’s the thing with the funky spelling?).

I have now read a bit about it, and I must push for it harder. It’s rock good! What an ambitious project!

The idea is to give you a boiler-plate architecture that contains best practices and usable functionality when doing DDD, TDD, ASP.NET MVC, and NHibernate.

You know – the way you always feel when a project is done… “This is so good that it easily could be a framework, if only …” – These guys have done it for you.

It’s not done and still has a bit to go, but I really like it.

Check it out. Here are some introduction videos:

• Introduction to S#arp Architecture
• Validation, Design Decisions and Automapping
• Modify the T4 templates used by Sharp Architecture
• Testing MVC...

I have had some real problems to get going with the Sprint Planner Helper Project after the trip to Ethiopia. I am not sure why – but it made me think about the project, the scope, and purpose.

First and foremost – I am not working, I am on parental leave. That means this is my spare time project and I promised myself that I would end it if I didn’t feel up to it for some reason. Since I have found it hard to restart, I conclude that I have reached that point.

Secondly – the main reason and purpose of the project was to learn, not to produce a wonder-application (although that would have been nice :)). I think that I have learned quite a lot during this project and that I am at a junction right now. You cannot pursue depth in all directions.