Archgrove

Microsoft MVP Phil Weber is running a competition with licences for VS 2005 combined with one year of MSDN Premium as the prizes. My now student status rather rules out a purchase of the VS magnitude (espcially not Team System!) and whilst the express editions are nice, the features missing cut rather close to home (why, oh why, is unit testing only in the top of the range release?). “Well”, I thought “why not give this a go?”.

He’s after 100 words on why an entrant is a worthy winner. So, without further ado, here’s a poem. Hah! How many people saw that coming?

A Short Ode to the Trials of an Programmers Outmoded Toolkit

Whilst coding one day, to my great dismay,
I found myself growing nonplussed.
In mounting frustration,
I grabbed my workstation
and hurled it away in disgust!
“How much better”, I cried,
“could my work be inside
if my tools weren’t so covered with rust!”

“With version control, I could go take a stroll,
whilst continuous builds catch my quirks.
With more unit testing,
I could spend time investing
in specifications that work!
I might again feel
full of programming zeal
and less like a mechanical turk!”

Traditionalists (well, those even more traditional than myself) will note that this is a pretty poor “ode”, and it’s missing an entire stanza that should sit on the end (I had to cut it to get it into 100 words, you’ll be pleased to hear). I didn’t want to spend hours on it, so it also lacks some of the refinement I’d normally like to include (such as “quality” ). Nonetheless, a fun exercise; if one can’t be eminently silly sometimes, real gravitas is much harder to reach.