When I’m not working, I read a lot of blogs. While eating lunch today, I read a quote from writer J. Robert Lennon on Wil Wheaton’s blog that instantly put a smile on my face. I can attest that the quote applies equally to programmers. In fact, I catch myself doing this several times a day.

The truth, of course, is that writers programmers are always working. When you ask a writer programmer a direct question, and he smiles and nods and then says “Well!” and turns and walks away without saying goodbye, he is actually working.

If a writer programmer is giving you a ride to the bus station and pulls up in front of the supermarket and turns to you and says, “Enjoy your trip!,” she is actually working.

So if you’re talking to me and something similar to the above happens, I apologize. I’m only working.

Mark Pilgrim, a Technical Writer at Google, explains his new project, Google DocType.

According to Mark, Google DocType will be an open resource for sharing web programming knowledge. As of today, it contains HOWTO articles on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation, and Web security. Links to CSS and HTML references round out the site’s content. I have no doubt that DocType is just the beginning for Google, but will this be just another W3Schools?

In numerous posts on codinghorror.com, Jeff Atwood has suggested that programmers no longer read books. Jeff believes the Internet is most programmers’ first reference choice. He has since announced a partnership with Joel Spolsky to create a community for developers. In his words:

There’s far too much great programming information trapped in forums, buried in online help, or hidden away in books that nobody buys any more. We’d like to unlock all that. Let’s create something that makes it easy to participate, and put it online in a form that is trivially easy to find.

My plea to both of these fledgling projects is best stated in the last sentence of the above quote. Please make the information trivially easy to find. I’m one of those developers using the Internet as a programming reference and I’m tired of searching for the proverbial needle in a haystack.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization) isn’t the only answer. Too many times keywords return results containing solutions for yesterday’s problems. What worked yesterday may not be today’s answer. Operating systems, software dependencies, and programming languages all change. How do we keep content relevant? Unfortunately I don’t have an answer to this problem, but perhaps Mark, Jeff, or Joel can come up with something profound. I wish them luck.

Quite a few automated build articles have been cropping up this week over at CodeBetter.Com. The first, How do you build your application?, by Kyle Baley, asks Developers of the .NET community how they manage builds using the NAnt toolkit. Jeffrey Palermo responded with a helpful post including a link to his own NAnt build template. Kyle then followed-up with a few humorous links to graphics of common build scenarios.

CodeBetter.Com has provided me with an overwhelming amount of great .NET content over the years and the above articles couldn’t have arrived at a better time. My spare cycles at Primus Technologies Corporation have been few and far between, but those found have been spent configuring the companies Continous Integration system. I must admit that I was pleased that my own NAnt build script looked remarkably similar to Jeffrey Palermo’s template. :)

Of all of the work involved in developing software, build automation and Continuous Integration are my favorite. When Continuous Integration is implemented correctly it should function like an assembly line. Just like Ford Motor Company, your software will see improvements in efficiency and development time. If you’re a .NET Developer and confused by what I’ve written thus far then you should definitely familiarize yourself with these concepts. At the very least, I’d recommend researching the following tools:

• CruiseControl.NET
• NAnt
• MSBuild
• NUnit
• NDoc / Sandcastle
• FxCop

In addition, Scott Hanselman has a few podcasts that could also be helpful. Listen carefully, read diligently, and improve your software. Be better at your craft.