Today I installed RubyMine 2.0 which is a great IDE from JetBrains. However, I was confused as all the keystrokes referred to ‘Meta’, for example ‘Meta+C’ for copying. Being on Windows 7, this wasn’t a valid keystroke.

After a bit of search around, it turns out RubyMine has keystrokes targeted for different environments, in my case it was targeted to be the same as TextMate. Awesome when I’m on my Mac, not so good on Windows.

To change the keymapping, select File > Settings. Pick the keymap option, and in the dropdown change it to Visual Studio.

Everything will then feel right at home.

Labels: Jetbrains, Ruby

If you have been following me on twitter then this will be old news however I realised I never announced it on my blog.

Well, here is it! I have written a book on Testing ASP.net Web Applications! The website for which can be found at http://www.testingaspnet.com/

I agreed to co-author the book with Jeff McWherter at PDC08 almost a year ago. Now, after a long hard year of constant work on both of our parts, I'm pleased to say that the book is now available on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.

The book provides the reader with an introduction into the main issues faced when testing ASP.net web applications, both WebForms and MVC. We wanted to provide a guide covering the various different issues you will face during the development and testing lifecycle.

The chapters are:
Chapter 1: Preliminary Concerns
Chapter 2: Design and Testability
Chapter 3: Unit Testing and Test Driven Development
Chapter 4: Integration Testing
Chapter 5: Automated UI Testing
Chapter 6: Acceptance Testing
Chapter 7: Manual Testing
Chapter 8: Performance Testing
Chapter 9: Accessibility Testing
Chapter 10: Security Testing

As proof that the book does actually exist, the amazing Betsy Weber spotted the book on the Wiley stand at PDC09.

If you happen to spot the book anywhere, or if you have read a copy and have feedback then please do let us know! We would love to hear from you!

Since completing the book, I've taken a break, joined 7Digital.com and started working on a number of other projects. Exciting times!

Labels: book, TestingASPnet

I've been using GitHub for a while now as it's a great way to share ideas and code in the public domain. Recently, I've had a number of people ask me how they can get started using GitHub. Thankfully, GitHub is an extremely simple service to use!!

Firstly, GitHub is a social coding repository, building on top of git (a source control system) to encourage collaboration on code and open source projects. By having this aim, the site is organised in such a way to make it very simple to upload code, as well as add additional contributors to the project. GitHub also has paid for accounts offering private repositories and additional features.

First, to use GitHub you need a git client installed. If you are on OSX, I recommend using the git-osx-installer while if you are on windows I suggest the MSysGit project. From my experience, I've found these to be the most effective way to start using git.

After signing up for a free account on GitHub, you need to create a public key. The next stage is to create a public repository to store code.

All you need to do is enter a name for a new repository, a description and click Create. Each project has it's own repository, unlike with other source control systems such as SVN.

After clicking create, you have your repository. GitHub provides you with the next steps about how you can add code in your public repository. A great way to learn the fundamentals of git at the same time.

The first command you will need is 'git init', this creates your local repository to store your project. Once you have a local repository, you can do all the standard commands you would expect such as git add, git commit, branch etc.

After you push your code to github, everyone will be able to view, clone, fork your repository. A great way to allow others to collaborate on your project. In my case, the repository I created was http://github.com/BenHall/SimplyRubyServer/.

As you start using GitHub and Git more and more, you will really understand how powerful they are.

Labels: Git, GitHub