June 5th Meeting

Using StackExchange.profiling for fun and profit. - Tiang Cheng


StackExchange wrote a runtime profiling tool called  MiniProfiler to identify bottlenecks in the Stackoverflow family of websites. This results in a websites that are well known for being superfast and responsive. With the 2.0 version being released shortly, it's the perfect time to look at why every .Net web developer needs to know how to use this Nuget tool. 

MiniProfiler will identify code and database bottlenecks in your ASP.NET and MVC websites. It supports database profiling for Entity Framework as well as basic SQL, and WCF. And it also measures client-side performance!

It is part of the holy trinity of  Scott Hanselman "Love and Kittens" toolkit, and he has said on his blog  "this amazing little profiler has become, almost overnight, absolutely essential to ASP.NET MVC.

There will use real world examples to show how you can instrument your codebase to identify bottlenecks. There will be pointers around optimisation techniques, and some of the common performance issues in ASP.NET development. There will be tips on evaluating third party vendor controls, and performance monitoring on production and development environments. It will be awesome. 

Tiang's latest gig involves writing high-volume high-performance business and risk management dashboards for Periscope Corporation, with clients across a number of public and private, state and national enterprise, including the facility management of all Australian post offices nationally. Thanks to MiniProfiler, he has improved the dashboard performance, made new friends, and has become a better developer.


Cucumber is Bullshit (and other rants) - James Bach

Since 1982 I have programmed computers for a living. But for most of that time I have used my coding skills in the service of testing. I have managed test tool projects and written test tooling. My team created one of the first code coverage analysis tools for the Macintosh. I thought that I invented data-driven automation in 1988, but later learned that everyone invents it. It's like a rite of passage. I am on a test-support programming project right now. My point is: my experience with tool-supported testing is extensive... and yet I think Cucumber is a silly, wasteful, irresponsible tool; TDD is not a best practice; tests cannot be automated; and testability is my salvation.