Code review tools
When I first started at my current company I had the pleasure of meeting Jason Cohen, who had worked for the company previously. After leaving, he started a company called SmartBear Software that develops code collaboration tools. One of their primary products is CodeCollaborator - a tool that integrates with your software version control system to enable developers to do lightweight code reviews all online. Here is the description from their website:
CodeCollaborator enables peer review of source code changes before or after files are checked into version control. Automate audit trails and metrics, enforce workflow rules, and generate reports. Integrates with SCM, issue-tracking, reporting, and other external systems.
I went to a demo he gave not too long ago, and what he has is pretty slick. If you aren't doing pair programming, this is probably the next best thing, especially if you have team members that are not co-located.
Well, today I got an announcement from Cenqua announcing the latest release of FishEye, which is a cool web-based tool for seeing what is going on in a source code control system. I first evaluated it several years ago at a previous employer. At the time it only supported CVS, but it now also supports Subversion and they have Perforce support in beta. It is a very slick tool.
ANYWAYS... Looks like Jason is in for some competition. Cenqua is currently doing a closed beta of something they call Crucible that sounds like it wants to do the same thing as CodeCollaborator.
Nice article on Maven
Jason Van Zyl, one of the key contributors to Maven, wrote a really good article describing Maven. It sounds like a really sweet environment to work in. We have tried to do something similar here with the way we share dependencies, but Maven is way more flexible. Good read. Architecture - Building for Artifact-Driven Development
A Favorite Quote
A recent conversation with a co-worker of mine about overly specific job descriptions brought this quote to the surface of my mind. The description in this case was someone looking for a developer with experience writing Eclipse plugins. I likened that to someone looking for a trim carpenter with experience installing cat flaps.
I always have liked this quote. Unfortunately, I have never taken the effort to memorize the whole thing. Thank goodness for google. Here ya go:
A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.
-Robert A. Heinlein
Getting FTP working with Live Writer
So I think I am finally going to be able to publish pictures! I installed FileZilla FTP server, got that configured. Check.
Open up Firewall port 21 on the hardware firewall, check.
Open up Firewall ports 5000-5020 on the hardware firewall for PASV FTP, check.
Open up firewall port 21 on the server machine in the Windows Firewall, check.
How do you open up 5000-5020 in the Windows firewall though? Here's the trick:
http://www.newagedigital.com/cgi-bin/newagedigital/articles/ms-firewall-ftp.html
Cool beans!
