YOOT

I’ve been fairly busy lately, working on interesting things at work, getting ready for an imminent birth, preparing some sessions as well … and also, thinking about a dozen of blog posts I wouldn’t have time to write. So anyway, here’s a quick & dirty cheap list of ramblings, not sure if it’s gonna be of any use, but it’ll hopefully free up some memory slots in my brain

• Complex Data Model != Domain Model : don’t get the “Let’s do DDD because it’s trendy. And, woohoo, that CQRS thingie would look nice on my CV as well” tendency too quickly. Knowing when not to apply DDD is almost as important as knowing how to apply it properly.
• WCF RIA Services : I played a bit with it at work … and I like it. It was designed to address 80% (more ?) of the needs of developers writing n-tiers Data-Driven applications (also known, in the .Net world, as ‘Business applications’), and it does … just that. And that’s good. Sure, it can be misused and it’s bad because it doesn’t use Pattern ‘Blah’ and it violates Rule ‘MoreBlah’, but you’re smart right, so you’ll know when to use it, and when not to. I’m just a bit annoyed that the attributes, I mean, data annotations, are scattered in 25 different namespaces. “Bah, just press ‘Alt-Enter’ dude, API design is so overrated these days”.
• Agatha : Using it, works well, like it. I’m a fan, it’s WCF for mere mortals. Keep up the good work Davy.
• RavenDB : This will deserve a post of its own to describe just how cool I think this NoSQL-for-.Net-written-by-guess-who is. Not only it makes domain-modeling and application prototyping dirt cheap (no more mapping & OR impedance mismatch bro !), it will also give a run for their money to the existing NoSQL databases out there (I mean, how can you compete with 25 blog posts & 12 releases per week lol). Oh, and if you’re into it, DDD will be most welcome as well (“But Ma, there’s no lazy-loading ! How can I do DDD without lazy-loading & bi-directional navigation properties ?” … “Kiddo, lazy-loading sucks. Big time”).
• Frameworkitis : It’s a nasty disease, I had it in the past, went through a long detox and now (I think) I’m clean. Unfortunately, I still have a lot of peers that are addicts. Wish they could see the light.
• “KISS-Mantra” : Repeat 5 times per day “I’m a complexaholic, I will not generify, I will simplicate”. Anybody has a nice wallpaper with a giant yellow Bath duck ?

Ah, I feel lighter now.

There will probably be thousands of posts like this one but anyway, here I go with my own … I wanna take a little time looking back at 2009 and then set my personal expectations for 2010.

Overall, 2009 was a great year

• I finally created my own company ! This gives me a certain degree of freedom in choosing the types of project I want to work on, the knowledge I want to acquire and even more opportunities to meet a lot of very talented people.
• I learned a lot … especially on how to have a more business-centered focus on software development. Thinking about business value, weighting different solutions benefits vs costs, and also, listening & talking more to the business guys.
• I read a lot, although I still haven’t finished all the books I started. Functional & concurrent programming, domain-specific languages, Scrum, Business/IT Alignment are in my continuous learning bag.
• I followed a great course with Udi Dahan and it helped me gain some new perspectives on how to rethink about software design in general. Messaging, SOA & DDD are fascinating topics I want to further learn from.
• Articles & presentations of Eric Evans on DDD and Udi on CQRS had a tremendous impact on my view of software building. We, software developers tend to focus too much on creating cool frameworks or libraries, and solving complex technical problems, while forgetting about our main goal : providing business value. Sometimes, solving a problem from a business point of view is far easier than at a technical level. Also, we tend to be maniac about every line of code we write … but as E. Evans is saying “Precision design are fragile” & “Not all of a system will be well designed“. Focus your efforts on writing good code in parts of the system that provide most of the business value. It is perfectly fine to write not so good code elsewhere (the duck-tape programmer has its role to play!), just make sure you make everything explicit.
• Finally, with some friends, I created a new community about the .Net platform & the Agile methodologies, DotNetHub. It’s a very exciting project

So, 2009 was so amazing that I’m eagerly awaiting 2010 !

• I already booked a DDD immersion workshop with E. Evans in Paris, mid-February, and I’m sure it’s gonna be a great course. Maybe others will follow as I find myself learning a lot during those intensive courses.
• DotNetHub will keep me busy, organizing great conferences with, well-known and well-known-to-be speakers.
• I absolutely have to finish all the books I started before I buy any new one !
• I will restart working on my app based on Northwind and demonstrating DDD coupled with NServiceBus. I have to admit, I got a bit side-tracked by DotNetHub and another major personal event (read further lol).
• Probably learn some new technical stuff like C# 4.0, VS2010/TFS2010, Dublin & some more F# but honestly, that’s less important and most probably easier than the previous stuff (although F# is quite funky). Using your brain and training your critical sense to filter marketing / wrong piece of information / silver bullets is actually the hardest part of our job.

So, that’s about it folks ! This is the list of my expectations for 2010 … but that’s actually all secondary compared to the main challenge I will have to face : becoming a father end of May 2010 ! Indeed, my wife is pregnant of my first child. I’m really excited about it … now, on top of my to-do list : read the baby books or get killed lol

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year to all !

I’ve been working with some friends on a project for a while now, and it is finally time to talk about it more publicly as it is eventually coming to life : DotNetHub !

DotNetHub is a new community about the Microsoft .Net Platform as well as the Agile Methodologies.

DotNetHub will be a bit particular for 2 reasons:

• First, it will be dedicated mainly to french-speaking people, mostly living in Belgium, Luxembourg, France & Switzerland (but, if you are elsewhere, don’t hesitate to contribute !). Why only french-speaking people ? Simply because there are already tons of english-speaking communities, all very good, but my friends and I felt that there was a void to be filled, especially here in Belgium (French people have DotNetGuru & Tech Head Brothers !).
• Secondly, as mentioned, we will not only focus on technological aspects but also on the methodological ones, something that we find missing in other communities, but that is nonetheless as important. Bringing those two aspects together in the events & conferences we are going to organize will be a big challenge, but it’s worth it !

We’re hoping to have many people joining us in order to create a very dynamic community. We are also actively looking for sponsors … so if you’re interested, please contact us.

I’m already very happy to announce that our first event will take place on the 20th of January with Jonathan “Peli” de Halleux from Microsoft Research, who will talk about “Stubs, Moles & Pex“. Go register on the website, the number of places is limited !

If you have any questions, suggestions, comments, … please visit us !

Update : A more detailed presentation in french by Pierre-Emmanuel can be found here.