September 1, 2008
I believe that anyone not using a productivity tool with their IDE is wasting time and, quite possibly, ripping off their employer/client. I don’t care if it’s CodeRush, Resharper, CodeSmart, or whatever but you should get a tool, get familiar with it and use it for everything it’s worth. I enjoy using the CodeRush/Refactor Pro! tools. As a matter of fact, I feel like I can’t hardly use Visual Studio without them. The only drawback I’ve found with CodeRush is that discoverability is just not there and with the vast array of capabilities, a lot of folks would rather do without than flounder so I’m hoping that this will help to ease that learning curve.
This “episode” is the first in a series screencasts I’ve been trying to put together for a while and I’m hoping that it will introduce the new user and maybe even show some existing users a few things that they didn’t know. I’m certainly no professional video editor so please excuse the quality while I try to find the right mix but I would appreciate your feedback.
Anyway, we’ll take a look at the structure markup that CodeRush does to help enhance readability and decorate code to make certain aspects visually evident. And we’ll be introduced to the mnemonic templating system and how just a few keystrokes can turn our intent to code.
2 Comments | 
.NET, CodeRush, DevExpress, Productivity, Screencast, Visual Studio | 
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Posted by David O'Hara
July 11, 2008
Randy tagged me with this meme so here goes…
What I was doing ten years ago
I had always believed that I was supposed to become a doctor; an orthopedic surgeon, specifically. But in 1998, I realized that it was not what was in my heart and I had to go a different direction. Unfortunately, at that time, the direction didn’t much matter to me so long as it was away from medical school. I was working at a buddy’s ISP (Internet Service Provider) and slinging drinks at a local bar. It was fun for a time and I am where I am today because of my experiences but I can’t say that I always made the best decisions. I’m just thankful that I had my family and friends around for support and that they were there when I was ready to move my life in a more positive direction.
Five snacks I enjoy
- Granola
- Starburst jelly beans
- Mixed nuts (but not the cheap crap with all those peanuts)
- Salt & Vinegar Kettle Chips
- Whatever is closest to my keyboard
Five things on my to-do list today
(This one is a really hard one for me since I have my to-do list split into contexts – I’m a GTD guy, what can I say)
- Call Lewisville Shoe Repair re: boot resole
- Call Adam Keys re: lunch next week
- Hang up all tools over workbench
- Upload starting codebase to Google Code for presentation
- Locate host service for CodeRush screencasts
Five favorite recipes
- Italian Egg Scramble
- Man-Mac
- Sausage & Peppers
- Genius – 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration
- Thermite – sorry, not handing this one out
Five jobs I have had
- Bag boy at country club
- Graphic artist and typesetter at college newspaper
- Skiptrace
- Veterinary technician
- Grocery clerk
Five bad habits
- Talking to myself a little too loud
- Snore (like it’s my job)
- Monitor touching when explaining/reading code
- Knowing I’m right
- Reminding people around me of #4
All the places I’ve lived
- Chicago, IL
- Louisville, KY
- San Antonio, TX
- Medina, OH
- Hillsborough, NJ
- Oxford, OH
- Denton, TX
- Flower Mound, TX
Five Random Things
- I sweat like a person twice my weight.
- I placed at state in 8th grade Science Olympiad.
- I went by the name “Michael” for a while.
- I collect antique fountain pens.
- Nutmeg is toxic if injected intravenously.
Five people I’m tagging
- Tom Opgenorth
- Brett Bim
- Chris Koenig
- Jason Portnoy
- Joe Ocampo
2 Comments | 
Personal, Random, meme | 
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Posted by David O'Hara
July 6, 2008
On Wednesday, July 9th, I’ll be giving a talk at the North Dallas .NET User Group called “Refactoring to Patterns (Not the Book)”. It’s not going to be some dry, academic talk with and bunch of UML and “Hello World” examples but an example using “real world” code like what you and I work with in our every day lives. The main patterns we’ll focus on for this web application are Model-View-Presenter and Adapter. My intent is to show the things that I’ve discovered in journey towards better, more maintainable code and provide ways to apply that knowledge in a realistic fashion. This is going to be a code intensive talk and, hopefully, a very interactive one.
Here’s the sign up form – I hope to see you there.
UPDATE: Here’s a link to the Google Code repository that contains both a start and end copy of the solution so you can see and try the refactoring that was demonstrated.
David O’Hara is a Principal with Improving Enterprises in Dallas, Texas.
Leave a Comment » | .NET, Adapter, Model View Presenter, NDDNUG, Presentation, Refactoring To Patterns (Not The Book) | Permalink
Posted by David O'Hara
Having only thrown myself into the community relatively recently, I was honored (and a bit surprised) to have been given this award. I look forward to the opportunity to continue sharing the things that I’ve learned and spreading the motivation to become a better developer. I want to thank my family for putting up with my extracurricular activities and being supportive of me following my passions. Also, a thank you to Microsoft – I take back like 3 of those things I said about you last week.
Posted by David O'Hara 
