PowerShell unit testing: mocking constructors
I started using PowerShell about a year ago (my new team uses it for both build and deployment scripts), and I keep meaning to start blogging about it. Today’s tip: mocking constructors. In most...
View ArticleMicrosoft.TeamFoundationServer.Client: getting started, and getting sprint dates
There’s a new REST API in TFS 2015. It’s completely undocumented at the moment, although Visual Studio Online’s REST API is well-documented and they probably overlap a lot. There’s a NuGet package...
View ArticleBootstrap grid system explained
One of my co-workers ran across an article called “The Subtle Magic Behind Why the Bootstrap 3 Grid Works“. It’s worth mentioning here, partly so I have a good place to find the link again. The article...
View ArticleAngular street cred
Today at work, a couple of my co-workers flagged me down to help them figure out a problem with an Angular app they were working on. Now, my only experience with Angular has involved playing with it in...
View Articleng-rpg: Trying to scroll the world map with Angular animations
I’ve talked before about how I’m writing a Final Fantasy-style roleplaying videogame in AngularJS. As is my wont, I’m actually trying to write a reusable framework that other people could use to build...
View ArticleUsing ImageMagick for palette-swapping
A common thing in console RPGs is palette-swapped monsters, where the same image is given a different set of colors, so an Imp becomes an Imp Captain, Dark Imp, etc. without the need for brand-new...
View ArticleUsing ImageMagick to write PNGs without embedded create/modify dates
I’m writing some Rake tasks to generate a bunch of PNGs to check into version control, and ran into a problem: every time ImageMagick generated the files, they showed up as diffs in Git, even if the...
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Growl for angular-seed test-status notifications
When you run angular-seed’s test runner (scripts\test.bat), it runs all the tests once, and then enters watch mode. If you make a change to any of your source files (either production code or test...
View ArticleWriting CoffeeScript tests with angular-seed
The first thing I did, after snagging a copy of angular-seed, was try to write a test in CoffeeScript. It didn’t work out of the box, so I went hunting to figure out how to make it work. (I also found...
View ArticleLatest project: a video game in AngularJS
I’ve been playing with AngularJS (“Superheroic JavaScript MVW Framework”) for a while. And, as is my wont, I’m trying to learn it by writing a video game with it. Here’s an introduction to what I’m...
View ArticleMaking DataContractSerializer play nice with UpdateControls
I’m really psyched about UpdateControls. I haven’t used it in too many projects yet, but it’s already changing the way I think about INotifyPropertyChanged, and opening new horizons yet unexplored. (If...
View ArticleWinRT’s default “save on suspend” isn’t good enough
If you create a new WinRT app, using the templates that ship with Visual Studio (e.g. the Grid App template), the default code will save your app’s state when the app gets suspended. “Save on suspend”...
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Stop writing INotifyPropertyChanged, start using UpdateControls
If you use MVVM, you know all about INotifyPropertyChanged, and mostly you know that it’s a pain. Simple properties are a lot of code, but otherwise not too bad; but once you start having derived...
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My current project: Stupid Quest
I haven’t blogged much in a while, and I need to. I’ve been writing a video game (aren’t I always?), and there’s stuff to blog about. But for now, I’ll just post an early screenshot. (The real thing...
View ArticleUser group presentation on AvalonEdit
This month, the Omaha .NET user group did lightning rounds. I did a presentation on AvalonEdit. If anyone’s interested, here’s the video: 2012 December Omaha .NET User’s Group. My part goes from 1:02...
View ArticleXamlParseException in WinRT
I’m writing a video game (as always), this time as a Windows 8 app. Currently I’m still developing on a VM running the Release Preview of Windows 8 and Visual Studio 2012, but I just got a chance to...
View ArticleSystem colors in WinRT/XAML
Windows apps have always adapted to the Windows color settings. But over time, Microsoft has made this progressively harder. In WinForms, you had SystemColors and SystemBrushes, which were...
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Running Windows 8 Release Preview in a virtual machine
I just spent the whole weekend trying to get the Windows 8 Release Preview and Visual Studio 2012 Release Preview running in a VM on my personal laptop. I think I may have it working now, though I’ve...
View ArticleEditing CoffeeScript with Sublime Text 2
I’ve been playing with CoffeeScript and IcedCoffeeScript lately, and I’ve been looking for a decent editor for them. Not as easy as you might think. I wanted an editor that Just Worked. And by “Just...
View ArticleAutoHotKey for quick Git access
I really like Git’s GUI tools: Git Gui for reviewing diffs and committing, and Gitk for dealing with branches. They’re powerful tools — powerful enough that I’m skeptical of any IDE that claims to...
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