Don Browning from Turner Broadcasting came out of the fun buildings which bring you the Cartoon Network (and those other channels) to talk to the group about the new architecture features of Visual Studio 2010. Those changes include:
- 6 new designers
- case model – a visual view of user stories (including dependencies) backed to TFS (2008 or 2010) work items
- class diagram – UML class designer NOT tied to code so you can make changes without messing up code
- activity diagram – looks like a flowchart to show logic
- sequence diagram – across a given span of time, what objects get used or come into play
- component diagram – helps you define service interactions
- Layer diagram
- architect explorer – architectural view of code supporting class view and solution view
- model explorer – model elements that are reusable are listed in the model explorer, which is a repository model of elements
- code analysis visualizations – a static analysis turned graphical including graph mode, force directed mode, and matrix mode.
- Integration with TFS – supports the storage of model elements in TFS and can be tied to work items.
The talk was clearly popular as we had a huge turnout at about 65 people!
Last week I received my new machine that I am going to use for every Microsoft server product under the sun. Last week I was having an asthma attack and keeping my wife up with the coughing, so she kicked me out of bed. I came downstairs to work on the computer until it settled down. Needless to say the computer never kicks me off. I am just kidding my wife wasn’t that bad, it just sounds funnier that way.
Anyway, I have installed Visual Studio Team Foundation before, in fact I have even installed the TFS Proxy, but I wanted to make sure nothing had changed since the last time I installed it (during the BETA). For some reason when I install VSTF I get the same feeling that I used to get when I installed BizTalk 2004. I call it the “Next and Pray” method. This method consists of you setting the settings, pushing the Next button and Praying! Hopefully over time I will become more comfortable with the VSTF install or they will make the install easier for guys like me, maybe creating a developer install. =)
Well I got it up and running, but I have a few suggestions for VSTF doc team. This is more of a wish list, the documentation is great and make sure you read it first.
Wish List of changes in documentation:
1) Have detailed steps in the walk through about how you would set up the users for TFS. I know how to set up users, but I am not 100% sure that I know my install is perfect based on the directions given. Just have to “Next and Pray”
2) This is really a wish list item. Have a web site where you enter the configuration you will use and it creates a step by step list of things you have to do to install TFS. Most of the documents are well written, but having a web site to create this checklist would be helpful. This probably won’t happen because most people that install TFS are familiar with their network environment.
3) Put more error checking in the install. I know that this is the first version, but hopefully like BizTalk the next version will be a much easier install. It becomes hard when you have a bunch of major products like SharePoint, SQL Server, and Visual Studio on the same machine.