Another bank holiday weekend - another quite week.
I've been making some improvements to the basic pipeline for my Docs.Functions.
On build, VSTS is running through unit tests (with coverage being uploaded to VSTS - via OpenCover & OpenCoverToCoberturaConverter) and running an automated acceptance test.
I've written previously about the automated acceptance test. I've extended it a little since last time, but basically it performs the same actions:
Assuming all works, then its a good indication all is working well.
Plenty of functionality to go yet - but I wanted to spend some time on both the pipeline and the quality of the code. Already refactored a fair amount of code. Likely to do more as I work through it.
Hopefully have the core of this completed by end of May to allow me to move on to other development.
Caught out a little by a bug in Azure Functions this week. Luckily found details of the bug already logged - Optional route parameters throw exception when they are omitted #1216
I found that I had to set a default in function.json:
"route": "Blog/{blogUrl=*}"
Then have some logic within the function to branch based on if "*" was passed in:
if (blogUrl == "*")
{
// Get all the Urls
}
else
{
// Get one Url
}
Not the best of fixes, but will do until the bug is addressed.
Finally ordered my replacement laptop. Had hoped to have prior to the Bank Holiday - but probably best not as the wife would have become a laptop widow.
I've gone for something that should be ridiculously overpowered for what I need. A Dell Inspiron 15 7567.
Its designed as an entry level games machine - so has a massive amount of horse power with a quad i7, 16GB memory & 512GB SSD. This is considerably more that I've traditionally gone for - so hopefully this time I can avoid a lack of resource problems (although I'm already considering throwing another 16GB memory into it).
All in all it seems to come out fairly strongly in reviews - even though it is unlikely to win a beauty pageant.
One of the reasons I went for this (other than the stupid level of power) was the discount available by going through the Dell Outlet UK site. Not only are they selling at a good reduction for refurb units (full supported), they have a fair level of other discounts that apply from time to time. Those discounts vary from 10-30% from what I've seen and will be dependant on the cost of the system from my experience.
It does operate on a first come, first served basis - so a specific device may not be available.
From talking to their chat representatives, it appears that inventory is generally updated 3pm & 8pm (UK time). So if there is a good discount code available, really worth watching for those points if looking for something. (And of course you aren't in a rush).
Hopefully should have mine tomorrow. Really looking forward to having a play with it - its been a long time since I've been excited by a laptop.
Still working through Design Patterns by the Gang of Four. As I suspect before I started to read it, I'm fairly aware of most of the content (so far). The book itself is a little dry, but still worth the effort.
I released ROI of the Planning Horizon last week. It feels an important consideration when looking at the true ROI of a Software project. I plan to back this up with an example this week of how one of my first every Software projects could have evolved over time - and the associated costs.