See you there.  All 3 of you. 

Also: I have built an extension to Unity that i will be blogging about over the weekend. This is an extension to do Interception (ala PIAB) that I ported from the ObjectBuilder work that Brad and I did.

Enjoy!

We have done some work to get the integrated tool to work in Visual Studio 2008. If you run the following registry script it will change the keys where VS looks to load the integrated tool package. After you run the script, you will need to run devenv /setup from the Visual Studio 2008 command prompt.

You can download the file from the EntLibContrib project on CodePlex from here.

[edit]

I will try and be a little clearer for the steps:

1. Install EL 3.1 (you don't need the Guidance Packages)

2. Run the script

3. Run devenv /setup from the VS 2008 command prompt  

Wheels from the album "Pressure Chief" by Cake

I want to congratulate the team on their effort!

Get the bits and read about Unity here.

Technorati Tags: patterns & practices, Unity

After working on previous versions of Enterprise Library, we have learned that we needed Dependency Injection (DI) without knowing it and did it at the most basic level. We created factories: which is a form of simple DI. The problem this created is that each individual block was responsible for it's own configuration and configuration was buried at the bottom of the stack. We need to change around the model a bit to make the responsibility of configuration built into the DI Container and remove all that extra code from each block.

Here is a picture of the old way: [BTW Enterprise Library Factory is buried at the bottom in the Core assembly that no one sees.]

Here is the new way:

This looks better. Configuration is about the container. WAHOOOOOO! This means that building a block, using a block adding your extensions and having the configuration all comes through the container. This will make it easier for you to use Enterprise Library with Unity or your current DI container and allow us to deliver more cool things to you, the customer. Look for more on this later.

That all sounds good, yet there is one lagging thing that needed to be addressed: the devil. Backwards compatibility is the work of the devil, and just like the devil, necessary. This is fueled by the fact that Enterprise Library has reached over a million downloads and not having a story would cause a lot of people to swing large baseball bats at us. So the old way will still work working with factories so you can upgrade and migrate slowly.

Unity is a lightweight container built on top of the work of Object Builder 2, with heavy tweeks by Chris Tavaras. You can read more from Grigori and Chris on Unity.

The funny story about Unity is the name. Grigori and I were trying to come up with a name for this DI block and mentioned it to Peter Provost when we settled on Unity (which is better than the Doohicky Application Block that was up on the board). Peter never thought we would get it pass legal... neener neener is what we said when we got it. He said "Enterprise Library 4: Now with more Peace love and Rock n' Roll".

Doesn't Remind Me from the album "Out Of Exile" by Audioslave

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Library, patterns & practices, Unity

Borrowed pic from Grigori's original post.

Technorati Tags: Enterprise Library, patterns & practices, Unity

Doesn't Remind Me from the album "Out Of Exile" by Audioslave

Technorati Tags: Unity

For the last nine months I have been working in a group working on a project doing WinFX (.NET 3.0) with CAB. (No, the reports are wrong, I was not living under a rock).  I can definitely say that it has been fun working with XAML.  Turning a ListBox into a totally new thing with  a few lines of code is wicked cool.  Now it is time for the next evolution in my career.

To be honest, when I was looking at the next stage of my career 9 months ago, I contacted Jim about the CodePlex project.  At that time, he was just getting traction and did not have a spot for me.  Little did I know that after I accepted the offer with my current job space would open up.  I know what you are thinking because I am thinking the same thing… “Why oh why did I not take the CodePlex pill?”.  I saved it for a rainy day. [I live in Seattle.] I start October 24th!.

Now playing: Tool - Lost Keys (Blame Hofmann)

Go get it while it is hot here.  I can’t believe.. we could have waited a few more days and it would have been a full year.

Now playing: Collective Soul - Forgiveness