CF_Underground 7

Sat, Oct 15 - Ryan

Jared (Rypka-Hauer) led a group discussion on cleanliness is next to godliness in code writing, i.e. tidy code.

Michael Smith discussed application security, how to prevent hacking and write better applications. The attendees discussed different ways to protect their applications and write better applications. Michael challenged us to spend 10 minutes writing down ways we can tweak our apps. I have a number of them that I need to focus on, including writing test cases.

Simon Horwith is discussing with us how our applications should be more object like. Treat all actions/events as nouns and objects. Typically any event that has more than one method should be treated as an object. A shopping cart would have a 'check out' object. Personify the object, 'I do this, I do that', put yourself in the place of the object, what properties do I have. Put things in the most specific object, 'for example, if you want to know how many things are in the cart, the user wants to know. The cart is more detailed than the user in what is in the cart and should be used to determine how many items are in it.

Simon estimates that he spends 30% of his project time on preparing, thinking and planning the application model. After completing it he will spend significant amounts of the time building the objects.

Streamlined Object Model ? - a book that Simon praises. Model the objects, build the objects, then do the use cases. Jared & Simon both like this idea because it causes you to think of use cases that you may not otherwise think of, however, Simon has not actively tried this yet.

"I am the object that holds product purchasing. I am aware of (the items that are inside me, the user I belong to), I can do (I can take items out of myself)." Write a brief description on a piece of paper for each object.

Here, we examine some of the note cards created

Michael was caught affixing his cool CF tatoos onto his arm.

Notice the nice glasses in the picture? Attendees received a Teratech logoed glass with a large 'cf underground' rune and the following tag:

<CF_BEER

FROM = "(imported/domestic)"

Color = "(light/dark)"

FERMENT = "(lager/ale/bock)"

FLAVOR = "(porter/stout)"

AUTOREFILL = "(on/off)">

Jared suggested two Windows based UML tools, Together (www.borland.com/us/products/together/index.html) by Borland

and Poseidon (www.gentleware.com).

Simon added in his recommendation for UML Sculptor (free) (www.sourceforge.net/projects/umlsculptor) (link fixed, thanks!)

We finished up CF_Underground with a Q&A session. A number of us headed downstairs for a drink and to go our separate ways for dinner. I had Indian with Michael (Teratech.com) and another user group manager.

-Ryan