Krzysztof Koźmic

David Laribee coined the term ALT.NET. What it means, and why it’s going to be the_hot_word? David basically explained it in 4 points:

What does it mean to be to be ALT.NET? In short it signifies:

1. You’re the type of developer who uses what works while keeping an eye out for a better way.
2. You reach outside the mainstream to adopt the best of any community: Open Source, Agile, Java, Ruby, etc.
3. You’re not content with the status quo. Things can always be better expressed, more elegant and simple, more mutable, higher quality, etc.
4. You know tools are great, but they only take you so far. It’s the principles and knowledge that really matter. The best tools are those that embed the knowledge and encourage the principles (e.g. Resharper.)

 

It narrows down to: “Stay open-minded”. Roy, took it one step further, by creating a list of, what is hot and what’s not in ALT.NET people world. As he wrote, that list is not his point of view, and he disagrees with some points there. Then Sam, reproduced Roy’s list with changes to reflect his point of view.  Here’s his version (black color – Roy’s initial list, red/brown: Sam’s changes)

I to some extent agree with Sam, but there are some point I’d like to comment on:

• Why P&P is not hot? I don’t get it, it’s not a mainstream group at Microsoft, they created some tools that people use, and praise, like software factories, CAB… They’re the closest team at Microsoft to ALT.NET, they’re one of the few (or the only) team at Microsoft that releases nUnit tests along with the code, heck – they release many tools I consider to be ALT.NET, so keeping them on the dark side of the force is misunderstanding.
• About working at Google vs. working at Microsoft. It’s hype. Google is overhyped. And what’s in Google for .NET developer, c’mon! Sam recognized it with his change, I’d change it even further to: “Working at company that does agile development (probably using ALT.NET tools)” vs. one that doesn’t period.
• Google Gears – what’s so great about it? for .NET developer? I think Roy has a very good point about it.

With the rest of the list I more or less agree. And what do you think?

It seems like I may not be able to play with ReSharper after all, at least not until I find a solution to this:

After installing ReSharper 3.0 beta, onto previous build, ReSharper seems to be disabled. First, I had Two ReSharper menus, both with all options disabled like here. After I Removed ReSharper, Rolled back my VS settings to state before installing ReSharper and installing it once again, Nothing changed except for the fact that instead of two dead menus I have one. Any solution? (other than reinstalling VS ).

[UPDATE]

It seems I’m not the only one having this problem after installing beta version. Still no solution though. I reported this issue to JetBrains.

[UPDATE2]

I tried totally uninstalling beta version and going back to previously used build, but it didn’t help. I think that there are some broken registry keys or maybe something in VS configuration files…

I probably shouldn’t even admit but: ‘I haven’t been using ReSharper’… I mean, never before. And before you ask – no, I haven’t been on a remote island for last X years. I actually knew that there was such a tool, I simply didn’t realize how great it is! It was Jean-Paul S. Boodhoo’s series of screencasts on Demystifying Design Patterns, on DNR TV, that made me like – ‘Wow, that’s a great tool he’s using’ (he actually does more ReSharper magic that actual coding in these screencasts , but that’s OK – J.P – great series by the way, if you read this). I already asked my boss to buy me a licence, and I’m wondering how I will survive without it at home when ReSharper EAP is over I probably should put a little PayPal button up on this blog and start collecting money to buy myself a licence. When I dive a little bit more into it, I’ll post some ‘ohh’s and ‘ahh’s here.