Hugo Estrada's House of Wonder

After doing some research, it seems that there is no clear way to unit test asp .net WebForms.

ASP .Net web forms behavior collides with the current testing principles. The big one being that you only test public methods. Well, it seems that most Web Form pages don't have ANY public methods, making it impossible to test following the unit test principle. For those developers that want to do testing, it means that they have to expose the different private methods that they are using as public methods, breaking a big principle in OOD, which is that public methods are the interface to the object. So the developer who wants to unit test their code either breaks the principle of not testing privates or breaks the OOD principle of exposing as little interface as possible.

So the solutions that I have found either involves some complex code bending to allow for the testing of private methods, doing weird practices such as exposing private methods as public.

The other big solution seems to be to move to the MVC framework. Ideal solution for new projects if one has the time to learn the framework, but won't help that much if one has to work with legacy code.

The one idea that popped into my mind as I was writing this is that maybe it is possible to mvc-ize a bit the code. If every interaction of the page has to rely on objects, then we can test those objects. This seems to have some limitation in that separating database interactions may be difficult, impossible, or create greater problems that it attempts to solve. But at least it, if used properly, allow for testing of potentially breakable parts of the code.

I will experiment with this idea and see what happens.

Crunchy Granola Academy
So after almost 2 months and a half, I finally have the time to actually interact with my children.

Today I did math with Isabella again, I attempting to teach Alexander to read, and then I worked with Isabella on her homework. Then we practiced the violin. Isabella showed a surprising interest in Old Time music, and what finally got her practicing violin was her desire to learn how to play Boil Them Cabbage Down, which I am learning as well.

Isabella did two exercises in math which is good. At some point she decided that she was bad it, which really angered me because she is actually quite good at it, but hopefully in the next month she will be back to normal on that front.

Old Time Music

So after working a lot over the weekend, I decided to buy myself a present, and I got a book with Old Time fiddle music. At home there are three sources for interest in this music: interest in folk music in general mainly the easy listening pop stuff from the 60s, but some other stuff as well, my interest in contra dancing, which I barely ever do, and Railroad Tycoon.

So now I have about 60 tunes to learn. I doubt I will get through that anytime soon, so I won't buy another music book retail until I finish reading that one.

In any case, I am going to have a lot of fun with it. And it seems that Isabella likes it too.

Chess, Hebrew, Torah

These have taken a back seat right now. I will get them back on track once everything returns to normal in the following weeks.

Erlang, Cobol and Tech project

Same thing. Although there are these really cool android classes over the internet that I have been taken. I must do the task to really learned them though. Then I will create a schedule for the rest.

Exercising

That really took a back seat, and now I am all achy. I had to go to the doctor today on that. That I must start working on because I must protect my health. Let's see how it works out.

Yeah, I also wanted to start a political party. And an international political party for that since I am already making one. It is the the International Love Party, where people who are moved by love can join together, enhance their love for humanity and maybe even do something!

I will put a link to its blog soon. Hopefully the store will get up quickly as well.

This stormy weekend I got to make a number of nice silly goals. I built a snow maze in the driveway, I made another igloo, the biggest one that I have made, actually, and I built a sled area for the kids to go down our driveway. I used their sleds to snowboard down it. It was fun.

I did this in the last month over a weekend. We hiked for 6 hours in Great Falls, MD. We hiked over the park in the trails, and then we visited the vistor's center and saw this great little gate keeper museum there. Then we saw part of the falls. We were going to go to the Billy Goat Trail Section A, but then I saw the entry to Olmstead Island, which I haven't been to at all, and we went there first. It was great, and my daughter really loved the island.

Then we went to hike on the Billy Goat Trail Section A. We got to finish half of it since it got dark. We had to use the emergency trail exit. Then we hiked in the canal towpath in the darkness until we got to the car. It was really nice. :)

Okay, this is something I was going to blog about a month ago, but then the January storm hit and derailed that.

So, these are the first 22 exercises of the 99 Prolog Problems. I am doing them in Erlang. I know, I know, this is super cryptic by naming the functions after its problem number rather than by nice descriptive problems, but I was taking the easy way out; I just wanted to do them pretty quickly rather than show them off as an exercise on proper programming technique.

For what it is worth, here they are:

-module(p99a).
-export([a1/1, a2/1, a3/2, a4/1, a4b/1, a5/1,
a6/1, a7/1, a7b/1, a8/1, a8b/1, a9/1, a10/1,
a11/1, a12/1, a13/1, a14/1, a15/2,
a16/2, a17/2, a18/3, a19/2, a20/2,
a21/3, a22/2]).

%Find the last element of a list.
a1([], Result) -> Result;
a1([H|T], _) -> a1(T,H).

a1(List) -> a1(List, "Not a list").

%Find the last but one element of a list.
a2([_|[]], Result) -> Result;
a2([H|T], _) -> a2(T,H).

a2(List) -> a2(List, "not a list").

%Find the K'th element
a3([], _, _) -> {error, "out of range"};
a3([H|T], Nth, Index) ->
if Index == Nth -> H;
true -> a3(T, Nth, Index + 1)
end.

a3(List, Nth) -> a3(List, Nth, 1).

%Find the number of elements of a list.
a4([], Result) -> Result;
a4([_|T], Result) -> a4(T, Result + 1).

a4(L) -> a4(L, 0).

a4b([]) -> 0;
a4b([_|T]) -> a4b(T) + 1.

%Reverse a list.
a5([], R) -> R;
a5([H|T], R) -> a5(T, [H|R]).

a5(L) -> a5(L, []).

%Find out whether a list is a palindrome.
equal([], []) -> true;
equal([H|T], [H1|T1]) ->
if H == H1 -> equal(T, T1);
true -> false
end.

a6(L) -> equal(L, a5(L)).

%Flatten a nested list structure.
% a7 is concat in the O'Reilly Erlang book
% a7b is flatten per se
strip([], R) -> a5(R);
strip([H|T], R) -> strip(T, [H|R]).

a7([], R) -> R;
a7([H|T], R) -> a7(T, strip(H, R)).

a7(L) -> a7(L, []).

a7b([],R) -> R;
a7b([H|T], R) when is_list(H) -> a7b(T, a7b(H, R));
a7b([H|T], R) -> a7b(T, [H|R]).

a7b(L) -> a5(a7b(L, [])).

% Eliminate consecutive duplicates of list elements.
a8([], _, R) -> R;
a8([H|T], P, R) when P == H -> a8(T, P, R);
a8([H|T], P, R) when P /= H -> a8(T, H, [H | R]).

a8([H|T]) -> a5(a8(T, H, [H|[]])).

a8b([], _) -> [];
a8b([H|T], P) when P == H -> a8b(T, P);
a8b([H|T], P) when P /= H -> [H|a8b(T, H)].

a8b([H|T]) -> [H|a8b(T,H)].

% Pack consecutive duplicates of list elements into sublists.

pack([], _, R) -> [R];
pack([H|T], P, R) when H == P -> pack(T, P, [H|R]);
pack([H|T], _, R) -> [R| a9([H|T], H)].

a9([], _) -> [];
a9([H|T], P) when H == P -> pack([H|T], P, []);
a9([H|T], _) -> a9(T, H).

a9([H|T]) -> a9([H|T], H).

% Run-length encoding of a list.

a4c(L,[H|_]) -> [a4(L), H].

a10h([]) -> [];
a10h([H|T]) -> [a4c(H,H)| a10h(T)].

a10(L) -> a10h(a9(L)).

% Run-length encoding of a list.

a4d(L,[H|_]) ->
X = a4(L),
case X of
1 -> H;
_Other -> [X,H]
end.

a11h([]) -> [];
a11h([H|T]) -> [a4d(H,H)| a11h(T)].

a11(L) -> a11h(a9(L)).

% Decode a run-length encoded list.

unpack([0,_], R) -> R;
unpack([N,C|_],R) -> unpack([N-1,C], [C|R]).

a12([], R) -> R;
a12([H|T], R) when is_list(H) -> a12(T, unpack(H,R));
a12([H|T], R) -> a12(T, [H|R]).

a12(L) -> a5(a12(L, [])).

% Run-length encoding of a list (direct solution).
a13([],P,C, R) ->
case C of
1 -> [P|R];
_Other -> [[C,P]|R]
end;
a13([H|T], P, C, R) when H =:= P -> a13(T, P, C+1, R);
a13([H|T], P, C, R) when H =/= P ->
case C of
1 -> a13(T,H,1,[P|R]);
_Other -> a13(T,H,1,[[C,P]|R])
end.

a13([H|T]) -> a5(a13([H|T], H, 0, [])).

% Duplicate the elements of a list.
a14([]) -> [];
a14([H|T]) -> [H,H|a14(T)].

% https://prof.ti.bfh.ch/hew1/informatik3/prolog/p-99/
repeat(_,0) -> [];
repeat(C,T) -> [C|repeat(C, T-1)].

a15([],_) -> [];
a15([H|T],C) -> a7b([repeat(H,C)|a15(T, C)]).

% Drop every N'th element from a list.
a16([], _, _) -> [];
a16([_|T],C,N) when N rem C =:= 0 -> a16(T, C, N+1);
a16([H|T],C,N) -> [H|a16(T,C,N+1)].

a16(L,C) -> a16(L,C,1).

% Split a list into two parts; the length of the first part is given.
a17([],_,_,L) -> {a5(L),[]};
a17([H|T],N,R,L) when N =:= R -> {a5([H|L]), a5(T)};
a17([H|T],N,R,L) -> a17(T,N,R+1,[H|L]).

a17(L, 0) -> {L, []};
a17(L,N) -> a17(L,N,1,[]).

% Extract a slice from a list.
a18([],_,_,_) -> [];
a18([H|T],I,K,N) when N >= I, N =< K -> [H|a18(T,I,K,N+1)];
a18([_|T],I,K,N) -> a18(T,I,K,N+1).

a18(L,I,K) ->a18(L,I,K,1).

% Rotate a list N places to the left.
a19(L, N) -> SP = N rem a4(L),
if
SP < 0 -> S = a4(L) + SP;
true -> S = SP
end,
{H, T} = a17(L, S),
a7([T,H]).

% Remove the K'th element from a list.
a20([],_,_, L) -> L;
a20([H|T],N,I,L) when N =:= I -> {H, a5(a20(T,N,I+1,L))};
a20([H|T],N,I, L) -> a20(T,N, I+1, [H|L]).

a20(L,N) -> a20(L,N,1,[]).

% Insert an element at a given position into a list.

a21([],E,P,N) when P =:= N -> [E];
a21([],_,_,_) -> [];
a21([H|T], E, P, N) when P =:= N -> [E,H| a21(T,E,P,N + 1)];
a21([H|T], E, P, N) -> [H|a21(T, E, P, N+1)].

a21(L, E, P) -> a21(L, E, P, 1).

%*) Create a list containing all integers within a given range.
a22(A,B) when A > B -> [];
a22(A,B) -> [A|a22(A+1,B)].

SELECT * FROM USER_TABLES

Short

Select COLUMN_NAME from all_tab_columns where table_name=upper('tableName')

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=375977

Yesterday I had the joy of having the Oracle 11g install majorly mislead me. Even though it couldn't really work on my windows computer due to it having a dhcp ip, the installer gave me a "warning" that got buried in their amazingly small viewing area, and it let me continue the install. Even better, by letting me log into the db in SQL*Plus, it totally faked me out into believing that the installation was successful. It was only when I tried to work with it in .net that i started getting the annoying tns not running error.

So I search for to see what the problem is, and there are tons of posts in the oracle forums on this error, everyone with a different problem and solution. I dutifully try the different solutions, I get it to "work" according to the solutions, i.e, I get the hellish service to actually run, and yet it still won't work in .net.

And this is RIGHT AFTER INSTALLATION, WHEN THE DAMN THING SHOULD WORK.

So I decided to uninstall and install again. While installing again, I noticed that I got "warning" telling me in a weak worded way that stuff may happen in dhcp if I go ahead with the installation. The stupid feedback should read: "It WON'T WORK. Install the freaking Microsoft loopback Adapter First."

Fortunately this actually fixed the problem.

I don't know if Oracle just likes to prank developers, or if this is some kind of hazing to join the Oracle crowd. This error message is so common and is triggered by so many things that the desperate posts of people are received with a massive yawn by the regulars who tell you to search through their archives to find the solution.

And I guess that their ridiculously small viewing windows at the prerequisite check of the installer, which one cannot adjust, is their way of stating to the world that Oracle is a totally back-end development shop? Do they put interns to create the install GUIs?

I am still angry, and the best part of this is that I actually rested and went to sleep before posting this.

You initialize it like this:

var membership = Membership.Providers["orclmembershipProvider"];
var validated = membership.ValidateUser(user, password);

A bit different than MS's provider. The name of the provider that you give is the one that you put in the web.config tags.