A Wish - Validators for Properties in C#

While writing a validation framework for a whole bunch of business objects this weekend, I wish I would have had the following in C#/.NET

public double Notional
{
get
{
return this._notional;
}
set
{
this._notional = value;
}
validate
{
if (this._notional <>
{
this.AddBrokenRule("A Buyer's notional cannot be negative");
return false;
}
return true;
}
}

If I called businessObject.IsValid, then all properties of the businessObject that implemented validate would be tested. Each object would automatically contain an IList of all broken business rules.

There would be support for this in the Visual Studio designer, so that I could created a resource-based string for each error message.


©2006 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved

Boy, Things Have Changed!

When I left my position as Technical Director of a new division of SGP in March 2002, I knew that the market was starting to turn bad for consultants. Even the ones who were "known quantities" out there. I left SGP because I wanted to fulfill a dream and persue a master's degree in Percussion Performance. I had never had any downtime since graduating college and the pull of music was becoming stronger.

However, on my first day of freedom, at 8:30 AM (they did not even wait until 9), I got a call from an old colleague of mine who was forming a new company and wanted me to be CTO of it. This position carried me until the summer of 2003, when we sold the company to our biggest competitor.

During this time, I heard all sorts of horror stories about the consulting market. Nobody could find a job anywhere! At the apex of this madness, the New York Times magazine ran a story about a former high-flyer in the Internet world who was working at The Gap, selling jeans and trying to eke out a living. After we sold the company, I had about 2 months where I experienced the depths of the consulting marketplace. People with 10 years of heavy C++ were being offered $35 an hour, and were happy to take it!

Fast forward to January 2006.....

Jobs seems to be abundant in the IT field. How abundant? I just posted a help-wanted ad for Finetix, and I received a grand total of 2 replies, one of which was from a glorified computer technician. Now, Finetix happens to be a good company to work for. They have interesting projects in the Wall Street area and they pay about 10-15% over the prevailing market rate in order to get the best talent that they could find. But, seriously... 2 replies!!!

Anyone interested in working for Finetix? Send your resume to me at magmasystems@yahoo.com.

©2006 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved

User Groups in the NYC/NJ Area

Here are user groups of interest that one can attend after work if you are in the NYC/NJ area.

New York City .NET Developers Group
The meetings are usually held at Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas (the AXA building - bet. 51st/52nd Sts.), 6th floor

The Design Patterns Study Group of New York
The weekly meeting are held at various places, depending on which subgroup you belong to.

New Jersey .NET Developers Group
The monthly meetings are held at the Microsoft NJ Office in Iselin.

©2006 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved

MFC to C#/.NET Porting Service???

Are people out there still learning C++ and MFC? I can't imagine that they are. If you are a financial services company, and you have a big application written in MFC (let's forget about ATL and WTL right now), how difficult is it for you to find an MFC developer to enhance the application?

Would you pay for a porting company to transform the application into a C#/.NET application? Or, if there was a product available, would you pay for a .NET framework that is quasi-compatible with MFC?

Maybe Finetix will give me some seed money for this!

©2006 Marc Adler - All Rights Reserved