Cherry picking work is slow and unproductive

The IT Director would work with the sales team and choose a set of new features, functionality, and prioritized bug fixes to include in the next release of the software the company made. Individual developers would then choose an individual item to work on from the list. When they'd done that one they'd pick another. When they were all done the release was ready. Then I came along. "Rather than...

The end of Windows Mobile/Phone just leaves more questions

Of course we'll continue to support the platform.. bug fixes, security updates, etc. But building new features/hw aren't the focus. 😟 https://t.co/0CH9TZdIFu — Joe Belfiore (@joebelfiore) October 8, 2017 With posts like this, it seems that Microsoft is starting to publicly acknowledge the end for Windows Phone/Mobile. So should we just shut up and move on? It's not that clear-cut. There are still...

Optimizing the comparison of a variable with multiple options in C#

Yesterday, I wrote about my thoughts around optimising the comparison of a variable with multiple options and how I prefer to optimize for readability over theoretical or potential performance issues. After some discussion on twitter about how my sample code might be optimized I thought it was worth doing some proper analysis. The big potential optimizations are The removal of LINQ Not creating...

Comparing a variable with multiple options in C#

In a code review recently there was some debate about how to compare a variable with multiple values. I'm writing this to put all my thoughts on the subject into one place and in a coherent (hopefully) manner. As an example, consider this `if` statement. if (new[] { MyEnum.Value1, MyEnum.Value2 }.Contains(someVariable)) It's the equivalent of "if (X or Y) = Z". Also, consider...

What is a "bug bash"?

Disclaimer: I'm thinking this through as much as anything. Don't expect any amazing conclusions but I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and opinions on this. Microsoft uses the term "bug bash" (example - but I first heard them use this a few years ago) to mean to hunt for bugs. Everyone...

3 reasons to use the MVVM pattern

MVVM (Model - View - ViewModel) is a separation pattern that was based on the MVP (Model - View - Presenter) pattern. It's very popular in XAML and some web development camps but is frequently abused. As a separation pattern MVVM aims to provide 3 specific benefits: #1 Collaborative working By...

Book Update: New Title and 50% off *TODAY ONLY*

My book has a new title: Usability Matters: Practical UX for Mobile Developers and other Accidental Designers. Feedback tells us that this better fits the content and better communicates this is a book for mobile developers. Not a book for people who currently consider themselves designers or UX experts. For...

Windows Phone support ends in 100 days

Yes, on July 11th, 2017 support for Windows Phone 8.1 will finally end. Ok, so not many of you are still using Windows Phone devices anymore, but this may matter for those of you who are. Like, say, if you've got several hundred in your organization. What does support ending mean? The...

Playable ads - a cynical response

This week, Microsoft announced support for playable ads for Windows apps. I totally believe this is a good thing, but I have some cynical observations to the announcement. Some of you who read this will be aware of my cynical take on things and have even reported to liking my alternative points of...

Quickly add some text for testing

Sometimes I need a lot of text in a control to test something. For something very short I'll just mash the keyboard a few times but when I need something longer a bit more effort is required. I thought there needs to be something that can generate some text (say, some Lorem Ipsum) when it's needed. My initial reaction was 'how hard can it be to make such a thing'? But then I caught myself...

What is 5G?

An innocent question from a "normob" recently and I thought it was worth answering publicly. 5G is the fifth generation (the 'G' stands for Generation) of mobile data network. This is the way that data (rather than voice) is transmitted between mobile devices. It will allow for even faster data...

Launch a store installed app from the command line

How to launch an app from the store Use the name of the install folder: ">start shell:AppsFolder\{folder}!App". e.g '>start shell:AppsFolder\Microsoft.WindowsStore_8wekyb3d8bbwe!App' Or, if it has one, use the app's one own URI scheme: ">start {scheme}:". e.g '>start ms-settings:' Applies To : Windows 10 Starting a normal app from the command line (or a script, or a scheduled...

Intuitive Mobile UX - Slideshow

A nice person at Manning made this slideshow about my book. Enjoy Intuitive Mobile UX from Manning Publications...

Arbitrary UI changes - XKCD

Getting older is hard enough, don't make it unnecessarily, arbitrarily, harder by changing your apps ...