I got my University of Warwick Computer Science BSc result today: First Class!

Whilst this has no affect on my plan to start my own business, it's still nice to know that I'm not that awful at computer science. :)

Right then, on with the code monkeying for now.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007 10:29:54 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)      Comments [0]  degree | university

Using Silverlight 1.1 means I am able to write .NET code that runs in the web browser. This should make it very easy to implement a clean model-view-presenter (MVP) architecture. I am envisaging a model that acts as a web-service proxy to get data and perform actions on the server. The view would thinly wrap the XAML UI. The presenter would handle all the interactions between the other two. This makes for very unit-testable code.

The one thing I'm not sure about is what level of granularity to use regards presenters and views. In XAML it is possible to define amazing interfaces that have animations and transitions between states. Should these different UI states have distinct view/presenter objects? Would it make sense to have a single XAML canvas that implements a number of different View (OOP) interfaces?

Does anyone have good resources dealing with switching views?

Monday, June 18, 2007 3:04:07 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)      Comments [0]  

With exams completed, I am effectively done with university. I still have to wait for my results and attend graduation, but I am now free to do what ever I like!

It seems like everyone in my year is either staying on for more academia or seeking regular employment. Neither of these particularly appeals to me. The way I see it, I can innovate and invent out in the real world. I have really had enough of formal education. Of course I would not trade my time at university for anything. I have met some amazing people along the way and had some crazy adventures. I don't plan on slowing down however!

The default option then is to get a "real" job. This default sucks, in my opinion. I've felt this way for quite a few years, but it was always due to thinking I'd make more money working for myself. Recently I have noticed a change in my outlook. Whilst making enough money to be secure and enjoy life is important for me, being stinking rich seems less so.

I want to make a difference. Most software sucks. Let's fix this.

I need to do lots more research of course, in fact I reckon that part will never end. The human factors of software are becoming more prevalent every day. We are in possession of powerful new tools with which to craft future software. But it is so easy for us geeks to become distracted by the bells and whistles of some new technology. We need to think carefully about to leverage all our tools to best help our users.

I want this blog to be a mix of hardcore geekery and more subtle discussion about making software better. If I ever get too "head in the clouds" however please do call me out! I'm just one voice after all.

So what is the plan?! Stick the formula of "Coffee => Code => Cash" (i.e. consultancy) to pay the bills and develop real products (new and existing). Over the summer a new version of Insight for primary schools will get created, hopefully with sexy new graphics! Facebook presents a new and interesting platform that also requires attention. As for technology, Silverlight and .NET 3.5 will be regular themes here.

Sunday, June 10, 2007 9:25:32 PM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)      Comments [0]  thinking

Hello and welcome to the new blog by me (Andrew Davey).

I will soon be graduating from the University of Warwick. So my blog hosted there will soon be discontinued. I fancied starting a new one that I have full control over, rather than pay them to maintain it. I will try to extract all the old entries and archive them somewhere soon.

I plan to blog at lot actively once university is out the way. Topics will include .NET, Silverlight, Nemerle and anything else new, cool and interesting in the software world!

Watch this space...

Sunday, June 03, 2007 11:42:33 AM (GMT Standard Time, UTC+00:00)      Comments [1]  welcome