Google Code Jam 08 - Registeration Started

Google Code Jam is a coding competition in which professional and student programmers are asked to solve complex algorithmic challenges in a limited amount of time. The contest is all-inclusive: Google Code Jam lets you program in the coding language and development environment of your choice.

Google Code Jam begins in July and continues in August, when you will compete in online rounds against contestants from around the world. The Top 500 participants will advance to onsite competitions at a local Google office to compete against those in their region (Asia Pacific; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and the Americas). The Top 100 will participate in the final round at the Google Headquarters in Mountain View, California on Friday, November 14.

Google offers more than $80,000 in cash prizes for the winners. Don't be left out! Make sure to register between June 17 and July 17, and show your coding creativity in Google Code Jam.

Code Style Review Using Microsoft Source Analysis

Today, I gave a try for Microsoft Source Analysis aka StyleCop. The tool was internally used inside Microsoft and it's now publicly released. It nicely integrates with Microsoft Visual Studio with the ability to attach the analysis process with the project build - See this post. The tool scan all your C# code and gives you hints for better coding style according to the best practices followed in writing C# code. It gives for example notes regarding the missing comments, formating, missing or extra spaces, extra blank lines and unnecessary brackets.

Here are some sample error messages resulted after running the Source Analysis on one of my projects

- The class must have a documentation header.
- The property must not be placed on a single line. The opening and closing curly brackets must each be placed on their own line.
- Property names begin with an upper-case letter: projectspath.
- All using directives must be placed inside of the namespace.
- The body of the if statement must be wrapped in opening and closing curly brackets.
- Statements or elements wrapped in curly brackets must be followed by a blank line.
- The code must not contain multiple blank lines in a row.
- All properties must be placed after all constructors.



However, there is some drawbacks regarding the tool like it targets only C# developers. More so it can't recognize the spelling mistakes in the code and comments which is one of the most common issues. Another point is that the tool is not flexible regarding its guidelines rules. It doesn't give you the option to exclude a rule in the next time of the analysis scan. For example, it consider putting a preceding underscore in the class private members as a breaking style. However, it is common for most of the C# developers. I think there is already a debate about the best style guidelines for C# coding to follow. The issue even seems to have some historical sides..

I really recommend this tool if you want your team to follow the basics of the C# coding guidelines without caring much about going in details while reviewing their code. It just help you, so that you ignore all the small crappy notes giving all your attention to the real massive mistakes in the coding logic and modules interactions.

You can find more about the tool releases and the future expectations in the Source Analysis blog.

MbUnit 2.4 - Avoiding Crappy Data Resulted From The Test

One of the nice features in MBUnit 2.4, is the ability to rollback the crappy data in the database resulted from running subsequent test methods. This is really interesting because this crappy data can become a nightmare during the application development or even after the deployment. You will spend pretty much time exploring your data to filter the dirty ones which can lead sometimes to some mistakes.

MbUnit give you the ability to rollback any changes made in the database during the test. Using MbUnit 2.4, this can be done by referring MBUnit.Framework.2.0 in the project references and using RollBack2 attribute for each test method.

[Test]
[RollBack2]
public void InsertNewProductTest()
{
      Product product = Product.CreateNew('Nokia 800', 2300, true);

      Assert.AreEqual('Nokia 800', product.Name);
      Assert.AreEqual(2300, product.Price);
      Assert.AreEqual(true, product.InStock)

      ProductRepository.Persist(product);
}

In the later example, any changes made in the database by persisting the Product object will be rolled back after the test execution. This will keep your tables clean containing only your application live data.

MBUnit uses TransactionScope in System.Transactions to provide the rollback functionality. However, you will need to set some security configurations for the DTC settings in order to make the TransactionScope properly work. To set these settings, open the Component Services in the Administrative tools. Then, show the properties of your computer and select MSDTC tab. Open the Security configurations and setup the needed settings for the remote and local authorization of the transactions on your machine.

As a side note, you are able to track the operating transactions by putting some break points inside your test method. Then, in the Component Services under the Transaction list you will find your active transactions listed there. More so you can check the Transaction Statistics to track the committed and aborted transactions of your test operations.