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• Cool SQL formatter tool

  - by AndyScott

  I have to deal with all types of code that was written by people from different organizations, different countries, using different languages, obviously standards are different across these sources.  One of the biggest headaches that I ahve come across is how people differ in the formatting of their SQL statements, specifically stored procs.  When you regularly get over 500 lines in a sproc, if the code is not formatted correctly, you can get lost trying to figure out where one nested BEGIN begins, and another nested END ends.  One of my co-workers showed me this site today that does a pretty damn good job of making sense of that type of code: http://www.dpriver.com/pp/sqlformat.htm.   This is a free website that offers a box to enter your nasty code, and click "Format SQL" and have it clean it for you.  I am sure that there are situations where this may not work, but given the code that I have been working with recently, it does a really good job.  There is a pay version with more options, including VS add-in, desktop component (with quickkeys to clean text in programs like notepad), the ability to output in HTML, and other stuff.  Heck, I watched a demo where the purchased version will take formatted SQL code and turn it into a generic Stringbuilder object embedded in a formatted. Yes, this seems like a shameless plug, but no, I have no relation/knowledge of anyone involved in the development of this product, it just seems useful.  Either way, I recommend checking out the free version.

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• Thoughts on exception handling.

  - by AndyScott

  Was working on a windows form app (something I haven't done in a while), adding threading and logging so that it would work a little more smoothly and have a record of who did what.  I was just about at the point where I was going to check it into source control when I noticed that the Output window was showing "A first chance exception of type 'System.InvalidCastException' occurred in mscorlib.dll", so I googled it.  In reading some threads about the error, I came across the following comment and it got me thinking: "In addition, while they should be avoided if possible, exceptions are a quite legitimate part of program execution. It's their going unhandled that is a real issue, because that means crashy, crashy." How do you normally use exception handling?  I feel that exceptions are intended to handle errors in code (in my experience generally related to bad data making its way into the system).  Now don't get me wrong, I understand that exceptions happen and should be dealt with, but I feel that they are a "last resort" to keep a program from crashing, but should never be a way to pass data or continue logical processing that could be handled in standard code flow. I mention this, because I have seen it done. What do you think?

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• Corporate Efficiency

  - by AndyScott

  Thoughts on streamlining the process of getting someone up to speed when they join a project as a new hire; or as is common in some companies, switch from one project to another: Has anyone heard of a strategy (including emphasis towards consistent, ongoing documentation) that would bring a user up to speed quickly? Has there been any thought given to focused documentation, specific to a role within a project? Or formalized mentoring within a project, that goes beyond a “system walkthrough”?   Often it's overlooked what time is wasted when a senior level worker is brought on board.  It's assumed that they will know the right questions to ask. They are the type of people that normally learn quickly, and in their own ways, so let them get by with what's out there.   Having a user without a computer will cost you measurable worker hours, making it an easy target to shoot at (and rightly so). Not getting them up to speed as quickly as possible is an efficiency issue, that seems to have become an industry standard as an accepted loss. Given the complexity of the projects within most companies, and the frequency with which users are shifted from one project to another based on need; I think this is an area that bears consideration.

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• A key principle of Scrum...

  - by AndyScott

  "A key principle of Scrum is its recognition that during a project the customers can change their minds about what they want and need (often called requirements churn), and that unpredicted challenges cannot be easily addressed in a traditional predictive or planned manner. As such, Scrum adopts an empirical approach—accepting that the problem cannot be fully understood or defined, focusing instead on maximizing the team’s ability to deliver quickly and respond to emerging requirements." I have been working in a SCRUM environment, with 4-6 week cycles, for about 6 months now and have been very pleased with the impact that it has had on my life (regular work hours, seeing my family, etc).  But was looking up the criteria for a 'Certified Scrum Master' and came across the SCRUM definition on Wikipedia, and started reading the actual definition.  My first thought was "hey, this development methodology actually allows you to deal with what happens in the real world (i.e. customers changing requirements); but is this "selling out" on solid requirements? I understand that this works in the environment that I am currently working in, where there are deep pockets paying the bills, and also making the descisions on what requirements to change / impliment; but is this a recepie for success in smaller or simply more budget concious environments?  Having the ability to be completely flexible when the client wants the product changed.   The more I think about it, the more I feel that SCRUM development may be better suited for an environment where a team is taking over a project from another team (bringing some outside development in-house or something of that ilk), as opposed to ground up development. What do you think?

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• Reliance on Outlook (been a looong time, I know)

  - by AndyScott

  Do you feel that your development group too reliant on Outlook? Have you reached a point that you have to search your email for pertinent information when asked? What are you using? I realized things had gotten out of hand a couple weeks ago over a weekend. I was at my in-laws house (in the country, no PC/laptop, no internet connection; and I get an email on my phone that I needed to reply to, but I couldn't send without deleting items from my inbox/sent items/etc. Now mind you, I have rules set up to move stuff into folders, and files more than a month old are automatically moved to the PST; but generally don't manually move items to a PST until I have had a chance to 'work' the item. Please don't bother mocking my process, it's just the way I work. That being said, it was a frustrating process of 'I need all this information, what can I afford to lose'. I work on an International project (think lots of customers), and conversations in 9 or 10 different directions about 10-20 different things are not abnormal for a given day. I have found myself looking data up in Outlook because that's where it is. I think that I have reached the point now, where I don't feel that Outlook is up to the task of organizing the data that it contains.   When you have that many emails (200 or so a day), information seems to get lost at times, and I find that Outlook's search capabilities are lacking. Additionally, I find that any sort of organizational 'system' of sorting emails that can cover multiple topics is a lost cause. But at the same time, the old process of taking the information that I got from emails and moving it into another 'notes' type of program has proved to be too time consuming. Anyone out there have some better type of system? (Comments about the capacity of my brain, and it's ability to recall information not needed.)

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