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Authors  >  Nick Harrison

Nick Harrison Nick Harrison
Nick Harrison is a Software Architect and .NET advocate in Columbia, SC. Nick has over 14 years experience in software developing, starting with Unix system programming and then progressing to the DotNet platform. You can read his blog as www.geekswithblogs.net/nharrison
A Developers' Guide to Refactoring Databases
by Nick Harrison | 04 April 2011 |  20 comments |
When Agile meets 'Big Design', the result can be frustration on both sides. Is it possible for database development to to easily coexist with Agile methodologies for application development? Nick suggests that the technical solutions already exist, and the... Read more...
Database Refactoring
by Nick Harrison | 01 February 2011 |  6 comments |
Although the methodology of refactoring code has been adopted enthusiastically, the same has not really been the case with databases. Nick argues that the reason could lie in the extent of the task of unpicking complex databases systems sufficiently to make them... Read more...
Some NHibernate Best-Practices
by Nick Harrison | 25 November 2010 |  5 comments |
NHibernate can help to build a project more quickly if the database it connects to is sound. Otherwise, there are bound to be problems, but they are not problems of NHibernate's making. Nick Harrison gives some advice, and suggests some 'best-practices' for using... Read more...
Under the ORM Hood: Revealing the SQL
by Nick Harrison | 05 October 2010 |  19 comments |
Your application code may look neat and clean, and you are using a sound Object-relational Mapper, but when you put the pedal to the metal, you're not getting the performance. The time has come to lift the hood and see what SQL is being generated by the ORM, and... Read more...
jQuery Goodness in a DotNet World
by Nick Harrison | 12 August 2010 |  3 comments |
jQuery is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks. It shields the programmer from the idiosyncrasies in the way that each browser implements the language: it makes life easier by doing all the routine chores and takes the pain out of AJAX. It also introduces a... Read more...
Back to Basics: Wiring up a Web Application
by Nick Harrison | 18 June 2010 |
In the third of a series on Web Application design, Nick turns his attention to the Model part of the Model View Presenter (MVP) pattern, and discusses what a well-behaved model might look like Read more...
Back to Basics: Converting a Web Page to a Web Form View
by Nick Harrison | 20 April 2010 |  9 comments |
ASP.NET developers can learn a lot from MVC practices. This article shows you how to structure a WebPage in an ASP.Net web application so that it is behaves like an MVC View, and suggests a number of ways to increase the quality, and portability, of ASP.NET... Read more...
Reflector Pro Cometh
by Nick Harrison | 25 February 2010 |  3 comments |
Reflector 6 is here. Nick Harrison is a long-time Reflector enthusiast, and has been responsible for writing an add-in. As he'd helped test the new version, Nick asked to review it for Simple-Talk. The team were anxious to know what he thought. They needn't have... Read more...
Back to Basics: Structuring a Web Page with CSS and ASP.NET
by Nick Harrison | 28 January 2010 |  16 comments |
Nick explains why such habits as using nested HTML Tables to position content in the right place on the browser page is bad practice and, nowadays, avoidable. This is just one 'Markup smell' that he discusses on the way to demonstrating the benefits of CSS... Read more...
.NET Reflector meets the CodeDom
by Nick Harrison | 02 October 2009 |  6 comments |
.NET Reflector was the first .NET tool to allow assemblies to be disassembled back into the high level language that produced them. Moreover, it has a plug-in architecture that allows you to disassemble to any language for which you have a plug-in, or are prepared... Read more...
A Defense of Reflection in .NET
by Nick Harrison | 13 August 2009 |  16 comments |
The trouble with making general rules about programming practices is that one can miss out on many benefits of of a framework by following them too literally in every context. Everyone knows that one should watch for performance problems and security issues with... Read more...
Code Deodorants for Code Smells
by Nick Harrison | 09 July 2009 |  17 comments |
Code Smells have become an established way of talking about indications that things may be wrong with your code. Nick Harrison extends the idea with the concept of 'code deodorants' and shows how the code smell of 'inappropriate intimacy' can be cured by means of ... Read more...
A Gentle Introduction to .NET Code Generation
by Nick Harrison | 28 May 2009 |  12 comments |
Code-generation has been used throughout the age of the digital computer. The use of code to generate code might, at first glance, seem an odd thing to want to do, but the technique is alive and well, and is widely used in .NET. Nick Harrison explains, and... Read more...
Exploring Smelly Code
by Nick Harrison | 27 April 2009 |  8 comments |
Bad Code Smells are similar in concept to Development-level Antipatterns. They don't describe bad programming aesthetics and you can't sniff them out precisely with code metrics. They describe code in need of refactoring in rich language such as 'Speculative... Read more...
Hosting .NET Reflector in your own Application
by Nick Harrison | 22 March 2009 |  6 comments |
You can automate .NET Reflector processes, and run .NET Reflector from within IDEs or other applications. You can even use it as a web control within a browser! . Here Nick shows how to develop a web control that accepts metadata for a method, uses .NET Reflector... Read more...
Using .NET Reflector to Manage Complex Software Dependencies
by Nick Harrison | 23 February 2009 |  2 comments |
Tom Carter's Dependency Structure Matrix Plugin for .NET Reflector turns the tool into a means of tracking inter-module dependencies in .NET. Why is this such a powerful way of keeping the complexity of an application in check? How can you benefit from being able to... Read more...
Metric-Driven Refactoring with .NET Reflector
by Nick Harrison | 27 January 2009 |  4 comments |
Software Metrics are a great way of suggesting those parts of your code that may need refactoring, if they are treated purely as an aid to judgement. Nick Harrison shows how metrics can be done simply with NET Reflector and Peli's CodeMetrics Addin, and explains... Read more...
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