Prism rocks!

Noticed my previous blog post was 4 months ago … what have I done for the past 4 months? Did I just quit trying to write and learn code?

No way, I am more and more into it, sometimes just could not let go till its easily 3 or 4 in the morning.

For the past 4 months, I have successfully:

1. Start using Prism 

Prism really rocks! It has all those great services that I could easily use and achieve so much more so quickly once I get over the initial learning curve. Now I could manage all views and their viewmodel and navigate user to any region I want, easily with parameter passed. I could easily choose between creating a new instance (using tab region) or a create a completely new view if I wish. 

Also the application is designed to be modular, so all my functions are loosely coupled together. I could easily add or remove functions and deliver projects to different users without breaking anything. That is awesome.

2. MVVM and Repository Pattern + Entity Framework

Really forcing myself into the MVVM pattern, which initially was quite hard. Need to figure out how to model all the view’s data, behavior and states using properties instead of the quick and dirty code behind methods. Also using the Repository Pattern, I could move all my data access code to the repository base class, which reduce the code needed and also very clean.

3. WPF data binding

Interesting enough, all those pattern and services are not that difficult to learn, as long as I got the concept right. However, data binding is the real time consuming stuff for me. There were alot of trial and errors needed for me to the the data binding right. Even the binding is right, alot of time was used to troubleshoot the notification issues as the veiw won’t refresh alot of the time. This however I believe will certainly goes away as I spent more and more time on it.

4. Team Foundation Server Express

Although I code alone, there is no one around me in my team, I still found the TFS a real useful tool for me. It is free for the express edition, which is really great. It could keep all the check-in and history for me. I could easily compare and rollback the changes (especially in those late night where major stupid mistakes were made). The web interface for tracking all the bugs and work items are really cool too.

So after a few month, I am getting more and more comfortable with all these stuff. My first project will be delivered within a month, after that I will definitely evolve the project to a standalone product I am planning on.

Cheers!