Come mingle with me

It has been a long time since I've worked on the ecto/Windows code in any serious manner. Sure, I've fixed a few bugs here and there as well as updating various libraries that ecto uses, but the last time a major feature was added to the code was at least 6 months ago, if not longer. That doesn't mean I have not given any thoughts to the development of ecto during that time. I had many ideas on and off on either new features or how I would code it now if I were to start from scratch.

Well, last week I officially started jolting down some of these ideas and tasks. I've tried recording my ideas down 'properly' and used it as project planning before but had never found a tool that worked well. I've tried the basic (text files) to complicate (bug tracking application like Mantis). This time I thought I would try Mingle, an Agile project planning tool developed by (yes, my employer) ThoughtWorks. *

So far, my experience is pretty positive. I've recorded my ideas on new features, improvements, and tasks down in Mingle. Each of these is stored as a 'story card' and Mingle allows me to tag it, set properties (which I can define my own), and add description. It is the description part that proves to be powerful to me. Mingle allows a kind of wiki style markup in the description so I can add URLs, format the text, or even link to another story card inside the description. This means I can record links that are relevant to the story (e.g. product page for new feature, API documentation for references, etc.) right there so I don't have to look for them in my bookmarks or google it every time I need them.

I can also record bugs or issues in Mingle and reference them back to ecto's support forum so I won't lose track of the bug as it gets push down the message board. It is not a full blown bug tracking application such as Trac or Bugzilla but I don't need those features anyway as I am working on my own.

The iteration planning aspect of Mingle is of less relevance to me since I won't be forcing myself into a strict weekly or bi-weekly schedule, likewise with the very nice and powerful graphing and reporting features of Mingle.

We'll see how well Mingle will hold up as a repository of ideas and knowledge when I slowly move into the actual coding phase.

* I've started using Mingle during their beta testing phase before I joined ThoughtWorks. But having the inside track on what's coming in the next few versions certainly helps me decide on trying it out!

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November 4, 2007 0

Refreshing

It's been a week and a half since I've joined a ThoughtWorks project in London. It's been such a refreshing change. The whole team lives and breathes Agile. The code base is not the cleanest I've worked on but actually easier to work with because the team made sensible compromises and did not being stubborn about ideas or patterns. (Actually we still have some way to go on the Mingle front, but that's another story.) We are doing TDD, continuous integration, pair programming with regular rotation, 9-5:30 hours, everyone are treated as equal, basically the whole nine yards! I can foresee the next three months will just disappear quickly. You know what they say, time flies by when you are having fun…

As for London itself, I was pleasantly surprised by all the good/new stuff they have. But at the same time, the Tube still pisses me off, with the never ending tunnels and the asinine system of having to swipe your ticket/card on exit. At least the travel cost is paid for by my company!

I'm going up to Shropshire this weekend to visit my parents. Instead of taking a 2+ hours train ride, I'll be driving a rental car up. I know, it's not environmentally friendly but consider the total amount of driving I haven't done in the last 7 years, I think I can take this carbon emission hit.

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October 3, 2007 2

The event street?

If you are a Windows programmer, you would get this picture.

Programming street sign?

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September 26, 2007 0

It’s a sign!

Wow, double wow! Scott Hanselman is moving to Microsoft! I worked with him very briefly when I was at Corillian and his deep knowledge of the .Net world inspired me to better myself. His fresh perspective on development process make me think about what kind of programmer I wanted to be. He probably won't remember me but thanks Scott!

And it is a sign because hopefully I'll have something to announce myself early next week.

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July 22, 2007 0

What I think of my iPhone

I know I should have taken time to write about my iPhone experience last Friday. But with having friends over for dinner on Saturday, tennis and French Grand Prix on Sunday, some important programming to do Monday and Tuesday, and 4th of July lunch with my friend Wendy, only now I have the time to sit down and write something.

Anyway, I think the iPhone is the best phone I've had so far. And I have a lot of phones since 1992. There are a few things that bug me though:

No scheduled email checking, only periodic checking – no point checking for emails while I'm asleep and waste battery.
Keyboard volume can't be adjusted – the clicking is a great feedback tool but it is way too loud to use in an office.
No WAP support – not an iPhone issue as such but since I can't log onto Facebook's mobile site (which is WAP) I wish either Apple or Facebook do something about it.
Wi-Fi password entry is difficult to say the least – since there is no copy & paste in the iPhone, I have to manually enter the wi-fi password. I ended up connecting our iPhones to the less secure router running WEP because the password is shorter (the WPA one is 63 characters long).
The 'Share' feature should be pluggable for developers, i.e. plug-ins for Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, etc.

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