MSBuild, refactor and targets in other files

I found a very niffty little feature of MSBuild, that is really helpful when it comes to structuring your build file.

In MSBuild the “sub-routines” are called targets and works just like expected, that is you can call the targets and invoke them in the order you like. BUT, there are no way of sending parameters to them - which at first are very hard to understand.

From this article I learned how to do it. And it’s not to hard. But it’s a bit of a hack… in my opinion.

Actually it’s easier to describe it as it’s intended from the outset, to call targets in other files. Imagine that you create a MSBuild-file called DeployScript.proj with a target called DeployIt. In order to deploy to different environments we use some variables that instructs MSBuild to deploy to different paths for example. Like the $(PublishWebSitePath) in the...

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Write up...

My current project has been crazy intensive with some really really tight time-schedules but they are coming to a close soon. This has made me down-priorities the blogging to a minimum.

I’ll try to do some write up to get some of my “findings” in here.

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Back from the road and well again

The last week marked a significant step in this year for the Vasa Band. We released our brand new CD Priority (as I wrote about here) and also embarked on a small tour of the western part of Sweden.

The tour was great - and the greatest part about it was the way we felt that our message was received and understood. It’s always good to be on a tour, especially with this band, but this was something else; we had really worked hard on getting the message about Jesus across and crystal clear and it seems as it worked.

I am right now editing some of the recorded music and it doesn’t sound to bad either. Hopefully some of it will be posted on the Vasa Band homepage in a while.

Oh yeah - I became sick on the last day, and the journey home was...

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I'm still alive...

The blogging has been down to a minimum for the last couple of weeks. This has to do with the current project being rushed to say the least.

But I am still alive and kicking! I’ll try to do some work related updates during the day. In my private life I can say that things are really interesting:

  • Yesterday was release-party for the Priority-CD of the Vasa Band. Very rewarding to finally see the great looking CD.
  • Tomorrow we’ll be going on tour to the eastern part of Sweden
  • I (and Elin) took the leap and disassembled my IRiver to change battery. That was as scary as I feared but now it’s done.

I’ll try to post some finding on MSBuild, PIAB and more as the day goes along

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Replacing battery of H320

When my battery to my H320 arrives I of course must replace the old one. I am dreading this moment!

Yes I know - you all are saying; come on, how hard can it be? Well I’ll tell you how hard:

You see! "Use some force. Lift up the motherboard" - these things scares me.
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RockBox and upgrading my IRiver

I own a, now, quite old MP3 player called IRiver H320. And even though I am often heckled by IPod-owners I still love it. It has some features that no-one have included in another product. For example:

  • The possibility to directly connect it to another device and move stuff between them.
  • You can download a separate operating system and install that on the device if you like.

That second point is quite cool and I’ve just downloaded the latest version of RockBox - a free open source operating system for MP3-players. Quite cool as I wrote a long time ago… Their installer was also something quite extra. Best I’ve seen in a long, long time - it literally was one or two clicks.

The only thing that remains to be solved is that my battery is very short-lived now. I’ve been using the IRiver...

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PostSharp - a new aspect on coding

Yesterday I went to an lecture at Avega by Gael Fraiteur. who has built the Aspect Oriented framework PostSharp.

This was right up my ally and quite frankly the AOP way of doing things is something I have strived for but never knew how.

However the frameworks on the market all comes with an cost or buy-in. Either you’ll have to use some sort of factory or context (Spring.NET, Castle or PIAB) to create your objects or (as in the PostSharp case) it will hurt your build time.

But Gael also tipped us on a way of combining PostSharp with Enterprise Library (PostSharp4EntLib) to get “the best of both worlds”. This seems reasonable to us since we’re currently using Enterprise Library for other stuff.

I am longing to get rid of the exception handling, tracing and logging code once and for all…

...
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Full speed and free

My situation right now is quite strange for me. The project I am involved in at work is really running full speed ahead - with my largest Scrum-team so far, 9 people - and at the same time I have some days a week off.

This has to do with a great Swedish invention called parenthood leave (my translation). When you think about it, it’s actually quite amazing - I get a lot of days from the government to be with my child. Sweden is fantastic.

The hard part for me is to switch on and off since I am not a work a day a week (or so) I still have my mind on ODP.NET, WCF and Aspects. But hey - I might learn.

Today me and Abbe have been on a really long walk around some beautiful archipelago right in the middle of Stockholm. That was great!...

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VasaBand - full speed ahead

The band I am playing in - the Vasa band - is right now in a great form, great spirit and on full speed ahead;

  • Last Sunday we did a concert in Sundbyberg - first for the season. It went very well and was good received.
  • Our website - www.vasaband.se (or www.vasaband.com) - is soon to be launched. It looks great I think. Great work Samuel!
  • We are in the last preparations for our new CD - Priority
  • On Wednesday the 8 October 19.30 there will be a release party on Centrumkåren, [Drottningatan 66](http://www.hitta.se/LargeMap.aspx?var=Drottningatan+66+stockholm)
  • Two days later we will be heading out on a tour to promote the CD. The tour will take us to Lidköping, Göteborg and Jönköping.
  • The season will end with a Christmas concert.

Lot’s of stuff but I love every minute of it. I...

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