Entries for May 2007

I came across this little gem earlier this week. I just had a chance to test it tonight. I pointed it to an assembly, and it generated NUnit tests. The test were devoid of code, but there were stubs for everything that can be tested. Sweet!

I'm one of those that are slowly getting into unit testing, and NStub is a time saver. Here's the URL:

http://code.google.com/p/nstub/

I was getting ready to put out a preview for PainlessSVN Professional out for the people who have signed up for the Beta. Unfortunately, there is a problem with .NET Reactor protected MMC 3.0 assemblies not loading in the MMC console. Apparently, the new .NET libraries for MMC call reflection on startup, and some objects are not being recognized. This throws a System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException.

I got a response from Denis Mierzwiak, their CTO. They are looking at the problem. I'll make another entry, once I hear from from them. It seems that I always get stuck with obscure problems. This is something that I must have inherited from my dad. He has a knack of breaking "unbreakable" tools (wrenches and the like). He's even broken several heavy duty pickups. Heavy duty axles, brakes, and transmissions are no match for my dad!

On a positive note, the SVN Backup Widget is almost done. I've only been able to work on it for about an hour a night. I'm hoping to get it done this Saturday, so that I can start having scheduled backups of my repositories. I'll make an announcement when this utility is finally done. This will be a free download. Just wanted to give something back tot he community.

I'm creating a little utility to help me backup my repositories. I could have just used a batch file to make a dump using the Windows Task Scheduler, but I wanted a bit more flexibility.



This little utility will let me create profiles for different backup jobs. It will also let me set a file name pattern for the dump file. This will let me pass the name of the profile on the command line. It is almost done. I will put it into the free programs section once I get it done. I'm very motivated to get this done ASAP, especially since the scare I had the other day.

One of my friends had to rebuild his computer and wanted to re-get the C# version of the source for for a program that we have been working for a while now. My heart started racing when he told me that he couldn't get to it. I tried to connect to the repository with TortoiseSVN, but I kept getting this:



I connected to the Windows 2003 server that is hosting the Subversion server with RAdmin, and noticed that svnserve.exe was running. By now, I'm very concerned. I have source backups, but no dump files. It would be quite tedious to re-load the source again. I was not looking forward to this. After some head scratching, I fired up PainlessSVN and looked at the repository. Well, what do you know, the files are still there!



At this point in time I'm quite relieved, but still quite puzzled. After some more head scratching, I decided to recreate my trail of sysadmin actions in the last day or so. I had just installed the latest Windows 2003 service patch last night. I am pretty sure that the patches did something to the services running on the box. I ended up recycling the service that is running svnserve.exe on this box. That solved the problem!

I can only imagine what sort of horror this scenario would be for somebody that has not done network/sysadmin work before. I happen to have been a Netware and Windows NT4 admin before I became a paid programmer. I really was not looking forward to reading the Subversion Red Book for the correct command-line programs. This is one time where I'm glad I dogfood my own apps!

As Bones would have said, "Damn it, Jim! I'm a doctor not a mechanic!"

Here's a juicy screenshot of the Repository Hot Copy dialog. This is what I'm working on right now.



To get to this dialog, you right-click on a repository node, then select Hot Copy. This will give you a chance to select the directory you want for your files.

I finally got form stubs for loading a dump file, creating a dump file, and creating a hot copy. These are basically blank now, but they have the look and feel of the other forms. I've been fighting the last of the flu, so I haven't had that much energy after work to get this started. It sure is frustrating being able to work on your software only part time!

I got a basic InnoSetup script going. It detects if you have .NET 2.0 installed or not, and does the usual C:\Program Files installation. I still need to go out and buy .NET Reactor to do the code protection bit. I'll test .NET Reactor's licensing system during the betas and see if I need something else. I have to get creative with my shoestring budget. I'm sure other microISV know about this. ;)

I'm really close to getting the features for PainlessSVN Professional ready for Beta 1. I'm thinking of doing a few betas to test different parts. The betas will most likely be time-locked. This means that they will stop working after a certain date. I'm looking at a 2 week window right now.

PainlessSVN Professional is small enough that I can put fixes and new features out fairly fast. The code base is only around 6,500 lines of C#. I know that the Workgroup and Enterprise versions will a LOT bigger than that.

I have setup a Beta role in this portal, so register then post a comment here if you want to be a beta tester. I have to assign this role manually for now. This will allow you to see the beta areas of the site when they go live. The beta testers that give constructive feedback will most likely get a free copy when PainlessSVN Professional is released.

I will copy this notice to the front page when I have Beta 1 done. So for now, only the people who read my blog will know about this. It's alright if you want to spread the word around. I just don't want people to get attached to a specific date.

I'm doing some house cleaning on my different payment accounts that I have laying around. I had setup a 2CheckOut account a while back for another venture, and I hadn't used for a while. I went through it last night and got it cleaned up, so that has SystemWidgets as the vendor. This should simplify my life considerably.

I'm looking at e-junkie, as I really like their light-weight shopping cart. They support both 2CheckOut and Paypal, so this is ideal for me.