Eric Will Code for Coffee

Moved to Jekyll

2020-08-16T00:00:00-06:00

After getting a little tired of constantly getting hacked I’ve left WordPress for the Jekyll static site generator. It imported WordPress pretty easily.

I’ve still got some more stuff to learn but long-term this will be a lot easier to maintain.

ERR_EMPTY_RESPONSE connecting to a Docker container in Chrome

2017-12-13T14:31:26-07:00

When you get this error it means you've exposed the right port in your Dockerfile, but you have to make sure the app within your container is binding to 0.0.0.0 instead of localhost or 127.0.0.1.

I got this error using Angular CLI's ng serve within a container. I had to add --host=0.0.0.0 to the ENTRYPOINT arguments. If you're using a different framework check for a similar command-line argument, configuration parameter or setting.

Dotnet Core Build Error in Docker: Resource file “**/*.resx” cannot be found

2017-09-23T14:47:13-06:00

While building my new .NET Core project using Docker I ran into an error with the two stage build:

/usr/share/dotnet/sdk/2.0.0/Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets(2924,5): error MSB3552: Resource file "**/*.resx" cannot be found. [/Hapthorn.csproj]
The command '/bin/sh -c dotnet publish -c Release -o out' returned a non-zero code: 1

The problem it turned out was that while trying to tune my Dockerfile I'd accidentally removed the WORKDIR directive. As a result MSBuild was interpreting the *.resx as an absolute path instead of a grouping/collection directive.

To fix it I put back in a WORKDIR /src directive in my Dockerfile.

Quick and easy!

What is the difference between NPM and Bower?

2015-10-23T23:08:52-06:00

NPM is is a package manager for NodeJS. It installs packages so that they can be used with Node applications using the Node require() keyword. NPM uses a repository of NPM packages, similar to the NuGet Gallery package repository.

Bower, on the other hand, calls itself "A package manager for the web". Bower installs front-end frameworks for your website. Bower doesn't have a repository and can grab packages from many places, most notably straight from GitHub!

Use NPM for installing Node packages, things that will be used on the server-side, app building process. Things like:

Gulp, Grunt, build tools
CSS Preprocessors (LESS, SASS) Minimization tools, build tool utilities
Express, web server frameworks
Testing frameworks

For example, Bower is installed using NPM.

Use Bower for installing front-end packages that are actually used within your application on the client-side. Things like:

jQuery, Underscore, Lodash and other libraries.
Angular, Backbone, front-end frameworks
Bootstrap, Foundation, Font-AWesome and front-end stylesheets

Advice for .NET Web Developers: Learn the command-line!

2015-04-01T20:47:48-06:00

Visual Studio has spoiled us .NET developers. In Visual Studio we have a GUI that does everything for us: compiling, source-control, editing, you don't even have to remember class or method names because of auto-complete and parameter guessing! It is all there and it holds your hand and it feels safe and easy.

The next version of ASP.NET is going to use a lot of the web functionality that many .NET devs have never seen: NPM, Bower, Grunt, and others. Visual Studio will probably cover the front-end of those things, but it will be invaluable for you to learn them the way they were meant to be used: from the command-line.

Agile and Unit Testing

2014-09-19T15:57:15-06:00

Unit Tests are the backbone of Agile development. Unit Tests ensure that you are done making a "unit" of a program, that a change or refactoring you have done to a "unit" has not broken the program, and they also help to ensure that you are not over-programming - creating more than you needed to in the wrong place.

I didn't always understand this, but Uncle Bob is probably the best at explaining it when he does The Bowling Game Kata. You should also read Clean Code if you haven't already.

Read Test First:

Tests are Specs - they define the behavior of the system.
Tests are part of the system - The definition of the system's behavior (see #1) makes the system. You don't have a system without the Tests, and you aren't fulfilling the spec without the passing test.
Tests ensure Simple Design - You always write the simplest code to make the spec test pass. You aren't allowed to write more if you're following the "3 Rules of TDD".

Unit Testing isn't a natural thing for me, probably also for you. It is a habit that I have to stay in, and that I have to force myself to conform to. I start out with the idea in my head. I know what I need. Putting it into the form of a test takes extra time I don't have. Or so it seems.

Once I'm in the habit, and I'm working on a codebase that already makes testing easy then the tests get easier to write and the code gets easier to maintain. I think Uncle Bob is right: your software will not look like it was written by a craftsman until you're writing good tests.

64-bit Mobile

2013-10-23T14:05:44-06:00

Probably the least interesting and noticed and talked about feature of the new iPhone 5S and iPad is the 64-bit A7 processor.
I guess it had to happen eventually but why now? Maybe this is to get Apple ready to ditch Intel for desktop and move into A* processors across the board?

What is MVC vs. MVVM Pattern

2013-06-12T18:07:46-06:00

How do you compare the Model-View-Controller (MVC) design pattern with the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) design pattern? What is the difference between the MVC and MVVM design patterns? I'll try to explain here.

The most obvious answer, and the most over-simplified answer is that MVC is primarily a server-side programming pattern, while MVVM is more often a client-side pattern.

MVVM is concerned with keeping the View up-to-date with the server data in the Model and ViewModel. The ViewModel is a special object separate from the Model (though not always). In a web app using MVVM the Model usually represents the data on a server, while the ViewModel is the data on the client. MVVM often also uses the Observer pattern to keep the View in sync with the ViewModel data that backs it up, and the same for the ViewModel and Model. When a change in the Model or ViewModel data is observed the View will refresh itself to show the latest Model data. Likewise, when a form is used in the View to update the Model these changes can be passed back to the Model on the server immediately.

MVC is an application structure that is a little more complicated than that. MVC uses a Controller to populate a Model and give it to the View for the View to display. MVC usually also has a few other components in it like a Router to activate different Controllers and Binders to create Models and populate the values from a client (like a web browser).

The obvious difference is the C in MVC: the Controller object which changes and manages the Model and View. In MVC the Controller is arguably the smartest component of the three, while in MVVM the components are more interlocked because changes to one automatically affect the other. The Controller is responsible for creating the Model and choosing the View. The View will consume the Model data to display. Likewise when returning data (say a POST from a web browser form) the Router will pick the Controller to activate and create a Model based on the data coming back from the View and give it to the Controller to use. The Controller will then do some work.

Sometimes MVVM and MVC design patterns are used together, MVVM on the client and MVC on the server.

MVC sounds more complicated, but actually in the end we have so many helper frameworks that implementing MVC or MVVM becomes almost trivial. I don't think either Design Pattern is better than the other, so you should learn them both and choose to use the best fit for your technology stack and situation.

The Android Advantage

2013-06-03T19:32:57-06:00

Last November I had to trade in my LG Windows Phone 7 phone. Unfortunately I was a month early for the new wave of Windows Phone 8 phones, so I ended up going the safe route and getting a Samsung Galaxy S3. To me there is one thing that sets Android based phones head-and-shoulders above the iPhone and Windows Phone competitors.

That advantage is replaceable on-screen keyboards.

I've used iPhone keyboards, Windows keyboards, stock Android keyboards and they all usually suck. They're awful. They guess the wrong words, "auto-correct" the wrong words, and generally do not make typing on the phone a happy experience.

But I after using the trial version I bought SwiftKey and haven't looked back since. Its made typing and working possible on my phone. Now I can't go back to Windows because of it!

I hope that in the future Microsoft will allow on-screen keyboard changes for both Windows 8 and Windows Phone. It would make all the difference for me. I'd love to be able to use a good keyboard with Word and Skydrive on my phone again!

How do I parse HTML in C# using Regular Expressions

2012-01-18T20:03:51-07:00

I ran into an interesting problem yesterday. All I wanted to do was some simple tokenizing of a partial HTML document, an HTML fragment (it was article content from the website I work on) based on certain elements. At first it seemed like a really simple string manipulation thing, but quickly blew out of proportion into something crazy.

In short, never ever never use Regexes or anything else to parse HTML. To do so is to descend into madness. HTML is not simple text, it has structure. Even simple fragments have structure to them that cannot be identified simply through token parsing.

Always always always use an HTML parser, such as the Html Agility Pack. That is what I did. The parser created the document and tokenized everything for me and from there I was able to parse and manipulate the node tree to match the requirements we had.

Never use anything else if you can avoid it.