I know it’s bad news to release things on Friday right before the day is out, but I can’t hold it in any longer:

I am pleased to announce that after a far-too-long silence, CR_Documentor 2.0.0.0 has been released and is now available for download.

Three major things to report in this release:

1. All reported bugs have been fixed. If you mailed me or left a comment about a bug, it should be resolved in this release. While there are some known issues, things should render right and it should behave itself reasonably.
2. Sandcastle “Prototype” preview style is available. You can choose between the classic NDoc preview style or the new Sandcastle “Prototype” style.
3. The plugin is now open source. I’ve created a new home for the plugin on Google Code and have released it under the Apache 2.0 license. I’d love to get some help and contributions on it, but even if you’re just curious about how it works under the hood, feel free to grab the code.

All the info - FAQ, known issues, etc. - is all on the new CR_Documentor site at Google Code, as is the download. Head on over and check it out!

My CR_JoinLines and CR_SortLines plugins for DXCore have been joined up with the DXCore Community Plugins project headed by Rory Becker. Complete source, installation/usage info, etc., has all been put up over there and any further dev on them will be done there.

Hopefully this more public release area will be helpful to folks who not only want to find and use the plugins, but also who want to learn how to write plugins.

I’m a few days late on this (I was on vacation) but Typemock Isolator 4.3 has been released and has some great new features like Ivonna integration for ASP.NET testing. Check out the blog post on it and then go get it!

While I’m on the subject of Typemock, Roy Osherove has offered up a sneak preview of the new Typemock Racer tool he’s working on that will help detect thread deadlock. Very promising, indeed. Check out his site for some great screenshots.

I’ve been doing various fireworks shows for the past few years and each year I always end up having to recreate the list of things I want to bring along with me to the shoot. Instead of constantly updating and forgetting and such, here’s the list of everything you’d want to bring with you if you’re shooting a show.

This is pretty exhaustive and will probably need to be adjusted for based on the shoot. For example, sometimes you have to dig trenches so you’ll need a shovel… but if you’re not digging, no shovel required. Obviously if you’ve got more than one person, you may need to adjust quantities. Also, sometimes the company you’re shooting for will provide some equipment. Here we go…

• Tools
  • Shovel
  • Rake (like, one of those wide plastic ones for raking leaves)
  • Pocket knife
  • Pliers (if you have a Leatherman tool, use that)
  • Cordless drill with screwdriver bits
  • Hammer
  • Large marker (like a Sharpie)
  • Masking tape
  • Flashlight
  • Continuity tester
• Clothing
  • Leather work gloves
  • Firefighter turnout or other flame-retardant overcoat
  • Knee pads
  • Sunglasses
  • Hat with brim
  • Foam ear plugs
  • Helmet (motorcycle or firefighter)
• Sustenance
  • Water
  • Gatorade
  • Energy drinks
  • Dry food - crackers, granola bars, etc.
• Amenities
  • Cooler (for your food/drinks)
  • Camp chair
  • Camp table
  • Shade shelter (one of those four-metal-legs-and-a-tarp things works great)
  • Moist washcloth in plastic bag
  • Digital camera
  • Book/magazine
• Health products
  • Excedrin Migraine
  • Ibuprofen
  • Pseudoephedrine (or other decongestant)
  • Sunscreen - SPF45 or better
  • Moist towelettes
  • Bug repellent

Sandcastle, the documentation generator for XML doc comments in .NET, has released its source code on CodePlex starting with the May 2008 release. It had gotten booted from CodePlex for not releasing the source, so they released it.

Somehow I don’t think releasing the source is going to help anything. It’s still crap that you have to run like 10 different commands and have a specially-tailored configuration file to get docs to render and that they leave it up to the community to fill such a huge gap with projects like Sandcastle Help File Builder. I’ve had to set up Sandcastle in several builds now and I always dread it because it’s such a nightmare even with helper programs like that. Sigh.