Embarking on a journey...

It was Scott Hanselman and Joel Spolsky talking on Hanselminutes about (amongst other things) blogging, that suggested lots of blogs complain about stuff - the point of difference for a good blog is one that does something about the problem. They mentioned I Started Something by Long Zheung who doesn’t like UI inconsistency. So rather than complaining about it, he actually made a community website that does nothing but collect screenshots of dialogues with inconsistencies so that people can document and then download them. This was done a couple of years ago but it’s kind of a Stack Overflow for one thing, UI inconsistencies.

So I re-read my recent posts on working with Force.com, and asked myself "were you just bleating about stuff?" ummm....

Decision 1: Talk about stuff that's great, and don't just moan about the stuff that isn't: Change it!

In the meantime, I had decided that writing an article a month about reasonably random topics was fairly lightweight of me, so Descision 2: Blog more.

I'm hoping these two decisions can collide in a fairly positive way... I have decided to create something that will (hopefully) improve my development experience working with Salesforce.com, since it looks like I'm going to be working with it for a few more months at least.

Now usually when I think about writing bits and bobs of software, it's not with any consideration to longevity or stability of the code... It's typically me hacking together cool bits of the shiniest newest technology just to see what happens, so this may be a new experience for me... I really would like to end up with a product that brings actual benefit to at least me, and simultaneously continue my arduous, challenging, invigourating, wonderfully-rewarding journey up the WPF learning curve.

So, for the record, as of today - 5th August 2009 - Here's my grand design:

- Create a Salesforce.com development studio that supports:

• Querying the Salesforce data objects using SOQL / SOSL

• Running anonymous code blocks.

• Editing of Apex code and Visualforce pages/components

- Use WPF as a development platform

- Use M-V-VM as a design pattern

and fundamental to all this is to create a product that *feels* much nicer to use than the existing tool set. I'm hoping to identify pain points with the tools I have, and create a better alternative where possible.

I'll be blogging about the journey, and depending on how happy I am with the destination, I may even post my code for public ridicule along the way :)