protobuf-net; a status update

I keep promising “v2” is just around the corner, and (quite reasonably) I get a steady stream of “when” e-mails / tweets etc, so it is time for a status update…

…but first I must apologise for the delay; the short version is that in the last few weeks I’ve changed jobs, and it has taken a bit of time to get my daily pattern (work time, family time, geek time, etc) sorted. Since I no longer spend 4 hours a day commuting, in theory I have more time available. In reality I’m spending lots more time with my family, which I don’t regret. But I’m getting back into the “crazy geek” thing ;p

So where is protobuf-net?

The first thing to note that “v2” is not a minor change; it completely changes the crazy-complex generics pipeline (which killed CF, and was generally a bad design choice for lots of reasons), opting instead for a non-generic pipeline coupled with an IL emitter to get the maximum performance. It also introduces a whole new metadata abstraction layer, and static dll usage (so it works on iPhone (but don’t ask me how the SDK rules affect this; IANAL), Phone 7, and so that CF doesn’t have to use reflection).

The numbers

• Tests for new new features (metadata abstraction, IL generation, etc): 100%
• Compatibility tests:79% (228 / 287, plus some skipped that won’t be in the first alpha release)

I should note: my unit tests for this tend, right or wrong, to each cover a number of features; it is very hard to make the regression tests overly granular, but to be honest I think we can all agree that the main objective is not to have the world’s most beautiful tests, but rather: to check that the system works robustly.

The gaps

• Mapped enums; it’ll handle enums, but it currently only treats them as pass-thrus to the underlying primitive value. It doesn’t currently process [ProtoEnum]. Not hard, just time.
• Member inference (which was the best “v1” could do to allow serialization of types outside your control); this doesn’t involve IL, so not too tricky – and not used by the majority.
• Roundtrip for unexpected fields (currently dropped; this also impacts the memcached transcoder)
• Parse/ToString fallback for unknown types (another “v1” feature)
• Packed arrays (an optional, alternative wire-format for lists/arrays; this won’t affect you if you haven’t heard of it, since it is opt-in)
• *WithLengthPrefix – for reading/writing multiple objects to/from a single stream
• GetProto (this is deferred from the alpha release, as it isn’t “core” functionality, and is significant work to do properly)

No show-stoppers; just work to do. Not long now. I’m reluctant to promise a “when” since I’ve delayed already…

Highly Polished Software

No, not what you think...

Is it just me that dreads finding that the office cleaners have come around? Re-attaching jostled cables and re-adjusting monitor heights is one (annoying) thing - but how much polish does a desk really need? I can barely touch my laptop without it sliding over the desk - so you can imagine what my "freak keyboard" is like.


Looks like I'm going to have to spill copious amounts of coffee just to make the desk usable again. Sigh.

Numeric keypads; what is the point?

As I hinted the other day, I've recently had some stress/RSI symptoms in my arm. Nothing too serious, just definitely worth fixing ASAP. I'm by no means crippled with RSI or anything, but I am on a mini-crusade for programmer-health, and want to help others avoid unnecessary stress / irritation.

I had a very productive session with a physiotherapist today, who made some really constructive and pragmatic points (for example, demonstrating quite simply and clearly that the curve on my corner-desk points the wrong way, and simply swapping to a mirrored desk could help hugely).

But one startling point she made while observing me; as a programmer, I move frequently between the keyboard (in my case a decent ergonomic split jobbie) and the mouse (now a shiny new "vertical" model) - code a few lines, use the mouse to click a few buttons, test a few things via the UI - rinse, repeat.

Sure, I use the keyboard shortcuts, but I would struggle to remember the hundreds of magic key-presses and "chords" that drive Visual Studio.

Very rarely do I use the numeric keypad. Heck, I also use a laptop, and the only time I find myself looking for Num Lock is when my password inexplicably doesn't work. Yet every time I move between keys and mouse I have to travel this pointless distance.

Lets not do that

Numeric keypads; absolutely useless. Underused, oversized, badly placed, and they don't agree with 'phones on which way the numbers should go.

She gave me a tip to simply try a keyboard without one, letting me have the mouse much closer. You can pick up a "Goldtouch" ergonomic keyboard (sans keypad) for about GBP25 at Amazon. This is so simple and so obvious that I'm just stunned that people insist on still including it, even on "ergonomic" keyboards. If it is so ergonomic, why is it causing unnecessary travel?!?!

If you want a keypad (and I do find them handy occasionally), then buy a USB keypad (like they sell for laptops) - roughly GBP10, and that is for the models that double as a handy USB hub. If you're right-handed, stick it on the left, or on the far side of the mouse - whichever you prefer and find most comfortable. Plus you can move it to either side if a "sinister" shows up at your desk.

Join the revolt! I invite you to ditch (or move) your keypad today!

Thieving rail

Not programming related…

Holy spaghetti monster! This morning I made the mistake of asking how much it will be to renew my annual rail ticket. I really wish I hadn’t asked… from GBP3117 to GBP3672 – which is very nearly 18% – yikes!

This isn’t a very original complaint, but have these people not seen the state of the economy! And when you consider that I have to pay this out what the state deigns to leave me after income tax (@40% on any new income) and state deductions (NI etc) – and by my crude reckoning, in order to pay this extra GPB555 I’d have to achieve extra income in excess of GBP1000 – just to break even on travel (i.e. before any other increases are paid for, you know, like inflation on everything else…).

If it wasn’t for my employer offering an interest free loan on travel costs, I’d have to add interest to the above bill (either interest lost on savings, or interest accrued on a credit facility).

So, my options:

• accept that any annual pay review that isn’t pretty extraordinary (unlikely in the current climate) is going to represent a pay cut
• drive instead and somehow convince my employer to let me work 2 (or more) days per week at home (otherwise it becomes even more expensive) – and sacrifice the time I spend reading / working /etc on the train
• look for a job with lower commute costs

I’ve been regularly commuting by train for nearly 4 years; renewing long-established travel arrangements should not be this stressful.

</rant>

Busy busy busy

Just a quickie...

Apologies if you've sent me a patch, bug, or other piece of work over the last week or so; I will get to it, but things are a bit hectic at the moment; "crunch" time on a project for work, plus lots of non-work things keeping me very busy.

So I'm not ignoring you; I'm just completely maxed. Hopefully normal service will resume shortly ;-p

Checking your career path

or... have you asked yourself lately: "what matters to me?"

In July 1999, the Microsoft platform consisted of a combination of Windows 9x, NT4, SQL Server 7 (or 6.5 in most cases), and VB6 (more correctly, Visual Studio 6). Monitors were deep, storage wasn't, and there was still often a funny slot in the front of beige boxes to take the ever-rarer floppy disk. More importantly, though, I stopped scrounging as a student and started getting paid to write line-of-business code using that suite.

The thing is, though; I'm still at the same company, with just a snitch short of 10 years under my belt. Sure, I've changed job title a few times since then - but I've also repeatedly heard it said that it is atypical (unnatural, even) to stay in one place so long these days (a "job for life" being ancient history) - especially as a first job.

But why should I change?

• I like the work and the team, and the projects are ethical; and usually varied, interesting and rewarding
• The company* is big enough to span most of the common "enterprise" scenarios for IT systems
• They have always respected that I'm happy being a code geek; I'm quite good at it, and I don't particularly want to be a manager (indeed, over the last few years they've introduced an additional grade of senior geek**, to respect this as a career progression option)
• We're pretty good about adoption of new technologies and methodologies
• I'm still learning and growing, both in work and on my own time
• My employer is liberal about my out of work community involvement - indeed, they actively encourage and support such
• They are pretty flexible, with a number of policies that help with the fact that (by my own choice) I live a stupid distance away and commute by train
• The compensation package is acceptable
• The sector (education) is relatively stable and secure

(*=if you are UK-based and want to check the recruitment boards, it is no secret that I work at RM)
(**=no, that isn't the actual job title)

My only possible concern is that as a result, I've been mainly limited to the Microsoft technology stack. I can't really complain here, though since:

• The stack is rich enough and fast moving enough that you can never know all of it
• As part of the senior technical team, I'm involved in our choice of tools, so it is (in part) of my own doing

So why should I change?

Frankly, I have no immediate plans to do so. I do, however, firmly believe that it is critical to regularly check that one is following the right path. I think that with the above list I've done enough to satisfy myself that I'm still in the right place for me (and conversely, for my employer: a malcontent employee isn't a constructive employee). But have you asked yourself the same question lately?

Some history: I was guilty of this a few years ago; we (my wife and I) found we'd been idly "drifting" through life for several (wasted?) years. We only realised this (the hard way) when my father was tragically killed in an accident while on holiday; in the sad, reflective months after that, the question(s) came up "what are we doing? where are we going? what is important to us?" As it happened, it turned out that going to work each day to pay the mortgage wasn't actually our life goal - and we made some big changes (including relocating half way across the country) and went the family route. We've never been happier. Of course, you need to make your own priority list (and it doesn't strictly have to relate to career), but make decisions - don't just drift idly. And "no change" counts as a 100% valid decision, as long as it is considered.

Summary

Reminiscent of a project health-check...

Priorities weighed and measured? check
Remedial action? none required
Follow up actions? re-book in 1 year, same attendees

And back to the grindstone...

Hectic Weeks, Charisma; and Trolling

(not much code here - if you're after a "fix", come back soon ;-p)

A busy week...

First, I somehow got elected as a community moderator on stackoverflow. In reality, this mainly means that I get more visibility of where people flag spam / etc. You can probably guess at some of the obvious trolls and other personalities that appear (hopefully briefly before being deleted). Fortunately, it isn't keeping me too busy! The main down-side is that I can no longer cast a regular "close this" vote; but that's OK.

I'm not sure whether I should feel guilty when I click the button to delete/destroy an account... even if there is clearly no doubt to "give the benefit of"; hmm - I must get over that ;-p

(this only applies to clear and indisputable spam/troll/puppet accounts, usually with no e-mail, etc)

Then on the weekend, I was at DDD South West; I'm afraid I bombed out of the balloon debate; I must concentrate less on specific details, and more on delivery/charisma (persuasion trumping fact in a debate). It was won for VB by Microsoft's Eric Nelson, who stepped in after the scheduled VB warrior had to drop out. I'll blame my defeat on his charms ;-p A fun diversion in a busy day.

I also presented a session on the Expression API in .NET 3.5 (and 4.0) - which was daunting (not least because my laptop was throwing a BSOD hourly until Friday). I don't think I did as good a job on this presentation as I have in the past, but it seemed to be received OK. The eval forms show that it is a bit of a divisive one, though - presumably because it is quite complex; either you "grok" it or you don't. But from some after-presentation conversations I know that it clicked with the people who come to talk to me , which is cool. I must make sure I describe it as a "deep dive" (or similar) if I do this one again...

Now I just need a few weeks quiet to catch up ;-p

Back to the coal face

With the summit now over, back to the day job - but first some thoughts (taking NDA etc into consideration):

• It is no secret that the big theme in .NET 4.0 is the DLR; despite some C# dabbling (here, here), I need to get my head around this "proper"... to that end, I've secured a copy of IronPython in Action, which I hope will set me on the one true path. Besides which - it is good to look at other languages occasionally (and I never really got far with F#).
• It is no secret that there are lots of changes afoot with Entity Framework and ADO.NET Data Services; now that I've had chance to see them, I'm encouraged that they might be a lot more usable in 4.0 - still waiting on the "bits" though ;-p
• Windows 7 continues to look very good; I've got the beta at home, and it runs very well on my ancient machine - and the newer builds look even better. Microsoft stand a good chance of actually getting some forgiveness for Vista.
• The EMP is very, very... odd. Beer, a live-rock/karaoke, an Xbox Rock Band arena and a robot museum all in one.

Other than that - back to the day job. Oh; and planning for a few user group sessions - so if you're in the UK and near Gloucester or Taunton, then I'll be talking about Expression. Feel free to say hi ;-p I also seem to have become involved in the "Balloon Debate" at the latter, so you can watch me try to defend the very existence of C#.

Summit's up

No, not a bug report. But on Sunday begins the Global MVP Summit 2009 - an opportunity to nag liaise with the various Microsoft product teams, and to catch up with the geeks at large.

My first MVP Summit, and I'm quite looking forward to it. My only regret is that I don't expect to be able to blog about anything said there... oh well - it is a small price to pay.

Back in a few ;-p

Welcome

Blog.Write("Hello, World!")

Hello and welcome, existing and new friends alike...

About me

I'm a C#/.NET/TSQL/etc developer working for RM in Abingdon, UK. I'm also a keen community supporter, mainly in the C#/.NET arenas. Oh, and I spend a lot of time (probably too much time) dabbling with code ;-p

On Oct 1st, Microsoft decided to make me a Visual C# MVP, so it seemed timely to start blogging properly.

Back in the real world, I'm blessed with a fantastic wife, son, and another baby in the works.

About the blog

My plan is to use this blog for a dumping ground for bits'n'bobs - sharing knowledge, writing up ideas (hopefully some good), and just discussing various thoughts on development. If somebody out there reads it, even better ;-p

So, things like:

• .NET/C# - general thoughts on the language and runtimes
• System.ComponentModel - custom binding ahoy
  
• LINQ - in various guises
  
• Expression - the .NET 3.5 Swiss army API
• protocol buffers, HyperDescriptor, Push LINQ or any of the other mini-projects I've contributed to
• Anything else that takes my interest

So without further ado:

goto blog;