1. Reduce dependencies
   Isolate them if you can't remove them.
2. Log Don't Explode
3. Don't Handle Errors if You Don't Know How
   Let them raise so they can get identified and fixed

privatestring HumanizeString(string source)
{
StringBuilder sb =new StringBuilder();

char last =char.MinValue;
foreach (char c in source)
{
if (char.IsLower(last) &&
char.IsUpper(c))
{ sb.Append(' '); }
sb.Append(c);
last = c;
}
return sb.ToString();
}

List<T> FindControls<T>(Control control) where T : Control
{
List<T> list =new List<T>();

foreach (Control c in control.Controls)
{
if (c is T)
{
Global.LogDebug(c.ID);
list.Add(c as T);
}

list.AddRange(FindControls<T>(c));
}

return list;
}


private Control FindControlRecursive(Control root, string id)
{
if (root.ID == id)
{
return root;
}

foreach (Control c in root.Controls)
{
Control t = FindControlRecursive(c, id);
if (t !=null)
{
return t;
}
}

returnnull;
}

publicstatic Type[] FindCompatibleTypes(Assembly assembly, Type baseType)
{
List<Type> types =new List<Type>();

foreach (Type type in assembly.GetTypes())
{
if (type != baseType && baseType.IsAssignableFrom(type))
types.Add(type);
}

return types.ToArray();
}

function format(format) {
var params= arguments;
var toReturn = format;

for (var i = 0; i < params.length - 1; i++) {
var rString = '\\$\\{' + (i) + '\\}';
var regex =new RegExp(rString, "g");
toReturn = toReturn.replace(regex, params[i + 1]);
}

return toReturn;
}

OK, so I've been using Python quite a bit lately and I've been enjoying it.  I've been getting stuff done with it too.  Python inter-operates with COM quite well and that saved me a lot of pain yesterday.  However, learning Python has caused me pain in other areas.

Yesterday I had to perform some maintenance in a C# ASP.NET app that I had written not too long ago.  Even though I use the CoolStorage.NET and some other nice time savers, it has become painful to write C# code.  It's just too verbose.

I used to marvel at people who claimed that you don't need an IDE to develop with Python.  I thought that was blasphemy as Visual Studio was the bee's knees in C# development.  However, I'm amazed at how much more I'm engaged in coding when I'm writing Python (or JavaScript).  You have to pay attention to what you're doing, no IDE is going to help you out.  However, this heightened state of concentration is actually fantastic for writing good code.

I use Notepad++ as my editor for Python (and JavaScript and HTML, etc) when I'm not using C# and Visual Studio.  I find its adequate for the job and it does have a function/method browser built in.  It also does HTML auto-complete and it can highlight a psp template file where I have Python, HTML and JavaScript all in one file.  It's also very stable, something that Visual Studio is not.

Visual Studio 2005 is flaky.  Sometimes all my Windows will rearrange or reset.  Other odd things happen and I find myself re configuring my layout from scratch.  Actually worse than scratch because every thing is helter skelter around. 

The worst part though is the amount of code I have to write to keep the compiler happy.  I know what I want to do and I know how I want to do it but I have to tell the compiler what I'm doing ahead of time so that it's happy.  Honestly, this is a great feature for a newbie or someone who really doesn't want to learn the language.  However, it becomes a burden after a while.  The C family of language has so many tokens (symbols like { [ ( ; , for while do foreach if) that your code becomes very noisy very fast.  Python is nice and clean which is something that I've come to appreciate.

I think I've found a better appreciation for Python (and JavaScript) because I've used C#/C++/Java.  For my everyday programming needs Python can handle everything I need to do.  However, at my current job getting Python into the mix might be a bit hard.  However, it might be worth it.  We spend so much of our day writing Programs that should just be nice and easy scripts.  We have so many programs and projects that could easily be one python file.  We do a lot of file transfer and validation. 

So yes, I'm feeling the pain of C#.  I just don't need/want that bug IDE and big language for what I need to do. 

Python does it faster, smaller and cleaner. 

Have you ever need to browse to several pages and print them?  It seems like it should be easy and it is with this little Python script.

I had an Intranet based system that displayed items in a browser.  The manager of the group I built this for asked for a hard copy of every item that fit a certain criteria.  So instead of them going to over 400 pages by hand I just created this simple script. 

It worked like a charm.

#start script

from win32com import client
import time

ie = client.Dispatch("InternetExplorer.Application")

def printPage(url):

    print "printing " + url
    ie.Navigate(url)

    while ie.Busy:
        time.sleep(1)
        print 'navigating...'

    print 'starting print job...'
    ie.ExecWB(6, 2)
    print 'executed print job.'
  
    while ie.Busy:
        time.sleep(1)
        print 'printing...'

printPage("http://google.com")
ie.Quit()

#end script

Sources:

http://www.darkcoding.net/software/printing-word-and-pdf-files-from-python/

http://www.grimsworld.org.uk/printie.html

CREATEPROCEDURE [dbo].[usp_PageResults_NAI]

(
@startRowIndex int,
@maximumRows int
)
AS

DECLARE @first_id int, @startRow int
    
-- A check can be added to make sure @startRowIndex isn't > count(1)
-- from employees before doing any actual work unless it is guaranteed
-- the caller won't do that

-- Get the first employeeID for our page of records
SET ROWCOUNT @startRowIndex
SELECT @first_id = employeeID FROM employees ORDERBY employeeid

-- Now, set the row count to MaximumRows and get
-- all records >= @first_id
SET ROWCOUNT @maximumRows

SELECT e.*, d.name as DepartmentName
FROM employees e
INNERJOIN Departments D ON
e.DepartmentID = d.DepartmentID
WHERE employeeid >= @first_id
ORDERBY e.EmployeeID

SET ROWCOUNT 0

GO

In my previous post about what people use computers for, I stated that computers are for saving state.  Duh.  I felt I needed to make that clear to myself as I explored functional programming languages like Erlang, F# and Scheme.  State seems to be a dirty word relegated to second class citizenry in a functional world.

I think that functional language have an uphill battle for mainstream acceptance.  A bit bolder, I think they are a small niche and always will be a small niche.  In fairness, I think most of literature on functional languages portray them as a special purpose languages.  As the saying goes, the right tool for the job.  Microsoft is looking for F# developers to write driver validation software. 

My goal is to find languages that are applicable to general purpose problems.  I'm not a mathematician and I don't need so solve theorems.  Most of the programming jobs I've completed involved storing and manipulating some shared stated, a database.

Yet another realization courtesy of a man seeking to explain the failure of the best language on earth. 

Local state in programming is just like scratch paper for mathematics.  Some rare gifted individuals don't need it and can do the calculus in their head.  For the rest of us scratch paper and number two pencils are the only alternative.

While debugging, I can inspect the state of the system, either with the debugging facilities or with well placed print statements. 

So local state helps us understand our systems.  Global state, again databases, are the reason our systems exist.  Some in the Erlang camp want to wish this away.  However, I think Erlang advocates understand that Erlang was built for telecom switches.  Erlang's usefulness in general purpose programming is yet to be determined.  If you're building a system that manipulates global shared state (most of the web applications in existence), choosing a language that waves its hands at shared state in the name of concurrency might not be your best choice.

Now we come to the revelation stage of our journey.  What can we do in mainstream languages to deal with global  shared state (databases) effectively?  I've found something in my own development work that is effective for me.  It's not a new language, but in fact, works in many languages, including C# and Python.

My solution may not be a silver bullet, but then I might not be hunting werewolves.  I can't claim to have invented it.  For from it.  All I can claim is that I've seen this pattern work across languages.  I can also tell you that it might be a wooden stake, useful if you are hunting vampires.

For a (brief) while, I was learning F#.  It proved an interesting excursion.  If you into mathematical correctness F# and OCaml maybe just the languages for you.  Myself?  Well I'm looking for something with a little more to offer in the functionality department.  I want a language where I can do most anything.  I'm willing to sacrifice mathematical niceties.

Python seems to be that language.  Python is one of the languages I knew I would love when I tried it, so I've held off diving into it until I had gone through almost every other one.  I've journeyed through Lisp, Scheme, C++, C#, Java, Ruby, F#/OCaml and dabbled in a few less known like Factor and Cat. 

Python Advantages:

• Available and almost every platform (every platform I'm interested in)
• Terse clear syntax
• Whitespace (yes, I do enjoy the whitespace!)
• Easy to learn, easy to teach (I taught C++ to undergrads during my time in Hell)
• More complete than Ruby
• Better documented than Ruby
• Good riddance to the Edit/Compile/Wait/Debug loop (hello Edit/Test, Edit/Test, Edit/Test...)
• Python is available on the CLR as Iron Python and on Java as Jython.

Disadvantages

• It's not C# (heh)
• It's not Java (heh, heh)
• Performance (slower than the above)

I believe that Gabriel is correct and that worse is better.  Worse as in Python is not Lisp.  Even Dr Norvig, chief brain in a jar at Google, thinks Python is good for something.

Note that Python is one of the four languages in use at Google.  Google has, in fact, hired the Frost Giant.

Python is used in game scripting.  My favorite game series of all time uses Python as the scripting engine.

I've also found one of the best Web Frameworks to date to use with Python.  I'll detail that it a future post. 

Right now Project X is moving forward on rockets fueled by Python.  This is the most complete proof of concept I've completed in an alternate language (not C#) and I'm LOVING it.