I’ve been working on some ActionScript code for work related projects, and was really hoping that I could get a Flex Builder 3 and Flash CS4 License purchased for ongoing use. The Adobe tools & frameworks are really pretty sweet. So with ongoing efforts continuing with the Adobe Tools/Codez the decision was made to purchase the tools. I’m stoked, and looking forward to more ActionScript work and getting to figure out this framework stack.
When creating an Excel Application there are some things to keep in mind. Recently I was creating some tests, which I’m not sure if they’d be "unit test", but they do test Excel. I created a fixture setup and a fixture tear down that would create my Excel Application object that I?d want to test again. The code I ended up with is shown below.
[TestFixture]
public class ConnectionManagement
{
public Application ExcelApplication { get; set; }
[TestFixtureSetUp]
public void CreateExcelAppAppropriately()
{
ExcelApplication = new Application();
ExcelApplication.Workbooks.Add(Type.Missing);
}
[TestFixtureTearDown]
public void QuitExcelAppAppropriately()
{
foreach(Workbook workbook in ExcelApplication.Workbooks)
{
workbook.Close(false, false, Type.Missing);
}
ExcelApplication.Quit();
}
}
.csharpcode, .csharpcode pre
{
font-size: small;
color: black;
font-family: consolas, “Courier New”, courier, monospace;
background-color: #ffffff;
/*white-space: pre;*/
}
.csharpcode pre { margin: 0em; }
.csharpcode .rem { color: #008000; }
.csharpcode .kwrd { color: #0000ff; }
.csharpcode .str { color: #006080; }
.csharpcode .op { color: #0000c0; }
.csharpcode .preproc { color: #cc6633; }
.csharpcode .asp { background-color: #ffff00; }
.csharpcode .html { color: #800000; }
.csharpcode .attr { color: #ff0000; }
.csharpcode .alt
{
background-color: #f4f4f4;
width: 100%;
margin: 0em;
}
.csharpcode .lnum { color: #606060; }
Now if anyone has a better idea on how to test Excel and knowing the code will work against the actual Excel Application, PLEASE, let me know as this doesn’t feel like the best way to do this. I keep getting the sinking suspicion that there should be a better way to test Excel Application Addins, Spreadsheet code and such.
A current task of mine is to create a tagging architecture, implementation, and code for a Flash Plugin but also for a general Flash Plugin. That way it can easily be dropped in for any tagging needs in the future. This means I have a lot of speed reading and studying to do over the next few days. These are the bases I covered in the short time between start and completion of my first iteration of this effort.
Setting Up a Development Machine
Since the development machine that I was going to work on, which is a Microsoft Virtual PC Image, was corrupted I decided I'd just download a 30 day trial and hack this out real quick on a VMWare Virtual Windows XP Image. I got the XP Image up and running in about an hour and downloaded Flash Builder CS4. For good measure, and out of my own curiosity, I loaded up a Windows Vista Image also to load the software on and see how it played out.
DO WA WRITE UP ABOUT THE QUICK APPS WRITTEN ALREADY.
Resources:
Webtrends Internal Discussion Points:
This is one of those personal tech related entries I just wanted to write. It doesn't have anything to do with any specific technology, just the industry and more specifically the local software industry here in Portland.
It's Good to Be a Software Type
Recession, depression, I have to say it isn't all that bad being a software developer, engineer, or generally someone who builds software. The job market is NOT bleak but instead there is still pretty continuous hiring. Of course, mind you, I'm talking about jobs that require experience and lots of skill specific knowledge. Nationally, the fact this part of the software industry is doing ok doesn't help the rest of the nation much.
The other comment I thought was justified is that I still have to turn away work regularly, because I have too much work. I hope this continues to be the situation forever but who can tell. There are a lot of speed bumps for the economy as a whole in the coming days.
Learning New Technologies
There are so many technologies to learn, in one technology stack that it is difficult to stay even slightly versed in each part of a single stack, let alone two or three stacks. I've done just that recently and leapt face first into Adobe's Technology Stack.
Customer: If we could understand the difference between these numbers, the gulf so to speak, we’d be able to make choise based on them.
Dilberty: The difference is 3%.
Customer: Yeah, but if we could really understand the difference, the decision making enablement would greatly empower our business.
Dilberty: Wait, the difference is 3%, it is accurate, you can make a decision based on a 3% difference.
Customer: We really need to understand these numbers though.
Dilberty: ?!?!!?@?@#$!%(!$&%^(!#$@!?$!??!?! What?
