I have been doing some BX24 development again lately.  I have also been reading a lot about the new shell support that Microsoft has pre-released called PowerShell (formerly known as Monad).  Well since I have been using the same batch files and VBScript files to manage my build process for BasicX source since 2001 I thought it might be time to look at another alternative. 

I need to be able to do the following:

• Perform command line compiles of the BX24 project
• Allow for the source to reside anywhere on the hard drive and still be able to compile.
• Initiate a compile of all BX24 projects so I do not have to do them one at a time
• Parse the BasicX.err file to determine if the compiler found errors
• Launch an editor that shows the BasicX.err file only when an error exists
• Be able to manage some registry entries specific to the BasicX IDE
• Have a limited set of scripts that do not require any changes to support the build process
• Allow for multiple project files to co-exist in the same folder. This means I need to save off the BasicX.err file into another file if I want to preserve what the results where from the compile.

After reading some about PowerShell it was very apparent that it would support anything I needed to do.  The main huddle I needed to over come was learning the syntax that revolved around PowerShell.  Fortunately it is based on the .Net framework so the majority of it was fairly easy to adjust to. 

Since I already had a VBScript file that did most of the above tasks I started dissecting what it did first.  The last time I touched this script was in 2001.  The script did the pieces around changing the registry entries and launching the compiler but it had no support for parsing the error file and managing many project files.  Here is the script that I ended up with:

param ([string]$WorkingDirectory)

# Define some script variables$chip_type="BX24"

# Save the current dirrectory so we can return to it

Push-Location

# If a working directory was passed in lets change to it

If ($WorkingDirectory){Set-Location $WorkingDirectory}

# Get the project files to process

$projectFiles = Get-ChildItem *.bxp 

foreach ($project in $projectFiles){$project_file = $project.name.split(".")[0]

# Use the current directory as the working directory

$work_dir = $project.DirectoryName

# Set some registry entries for the basicx IDE

$configEntry = "hkcu:\software\vb and vba Program Settings\basicx\config"

Set-ItemProperty ($configEntry) -Name Chip_Type -value 

$chip_typeSet-ItemProperty ($configEntry) -Name Work_Dir -value 

$work_dir

# determine from the registry where the basicx executable is installed

$program_dir = Get-ItemProperty ($configEntry) -Name Install_Directory

# Map the P drive to the basicx install directory for convieniance

if (Test-Path p:) {}else {subst P: $program_dir.Install_Directory}

# Remove the error file if it exists

if (Test-Path basicx.err){del basicx.err}

if (Test-Path ($project_file + ".err")){del ($project_file + ".err")}

# Launch the compiler

P:\basicx.exe $project_file /c

# Wait for the compiler to finish

$processToWatch = Get-Process basicx$processToWatch.WaitForExit()

# Unmap P: drive

if (Test-Path p:){subst P: /d}

# Check for errors and launch the error file if some do exist

$CompileResult = get-content basicx.err

If (($CompileResult -match "Error in module").Length -gt 0){notepad basicx.err}

# Copy the error file off so it does not get overwritten when multiple

# projects are being compiled in a single directory

copy-item basicx.err -destination ($project_file + ".err")} 

# Restore the original location

Pop-Location

Well that was pretty painless.  I basically had a script that managed processing all BasicX project files in a given folder.  Next I needed to have another script that found all the project folders for a given folder.  This also meant processing projects in sub folders.  This higher level script would launch the script above to do the compile.  I ended up with the following script:

# Save the current dirrectory so we can return to it

Push-LocationSet-Location ..\

# Get a list of all projects

$project_Files = Get-ChildItem -recurse -include *.bxp | sort $_.DirectoryName$lastDir=""

foreach($project in $project_Files)

{

# Since we can have multiple projects in a folder and we send the

# working folder to the build script we want to skip folders we already

# processed

if ($lastdir -ne $project.DirectoryName)

{./tools/build $project.DirectoryName  $lastDir = $project.DirectoryName}}

Pop-Location

Well that too was pretty easy.  I am beginning to really respect the power of PowerShell.  I can do so much more than what I was able to do with VBScript and do it easier.  Later I will but together a sample BX24 project showing how I use these scripts and the folder structure I place them in.

Although the BasicX Integrated Development Environment works for writing, compiling and downloading source code for small quick projects once you start using it a lot for writing source code it tends to be lacking features.  However the folks at Netmedia were nice enough to allow for command line execution of their IDE to compile and download code.  This opens up the opportunity to use your favorite editor to write source code and launch the IDE via command line to compile the source.  I have been using these command line options since 2001 to make my development environment a little more to my liking.  In this blog post I will talk about how I manage the process and the tools I use.

First a couple notes about some things that might trip you up in using the command line options.  The BasicX IDE wants to know the base directory where your projects live.  This is ok if you want to manage this directory in the IDE every time you switch to another folder or if you only have one project.  However if you are like me you have many projects and you don't want to have to load up the IDE to change this base directory every time you work on one of them.  Next the chip setting for BX24 or BX01 is also set from the IDE and is needed for the command line compile.  I bounce back and fourth between projects that use one or the other chip so my IDE could be set for either one at any given time. 

Neither the base directory or the chip setting is offered as an option in the command line.  Although Netmedia does store these items in the Windows Registry so an external program can modify them before launching the command line compile.

So I created a vbscript that sets the IDE options and then calls the compiler.  The script accepts 3 parameters:
 1 (Required) - Project file
 2 (Optional) - /c
 3 (Optional) - /d

The script supports drag and drop capabilities so you can use it 1 of 2 ways. 
1 - Drag the project file onto the script
2 - Call the script from your editor or a batch file

I usually create a build.bat file that I just call from the text editor.  The build batch file is specific to the project that I am working on so I generally keep it in the main folder of my project.

I have included the script files along with a sample BX24 project so you can look at what I did and maybe make use of it for your own BasicX projects.

I also use a shareware text editor called TextPad.  This editor supports syntax highlighting and multiple documents.  The nice thing about it is that I can pass TextPad the project file and it can load up all the source modules that are associated with the project.  I often use a batch file to launch the textpad editor and open all the source code for the project.  I have also included this batch file in the bx24.zip so you can see how it is done.

On my flight from Charlotte to Phoenix this week I listened to a number of podcasts.  One of my favorites is Hanselminutes.  Scott Hanselman talks about a lot of thins I am interested in.

In the Line of Scrumage podcast Scott talks about applying the Scrum agile process in his work place.  Most of what he talked about are things that we have been using at JDA Software Group Inc.  However Scott brings up an interesting point about applying Scrum processes to a 1 person team.  I have often thought about this for some of my own personal projects.  I often do small projects for myself and I end up playing the roles of product owner, business analyst, developer, and tester.  So could I effectively use Scrum as a way to manage these projects?  Well I have sort of attempted this on a couple projects and here is what I found out.

The part about building a backlog of stories that are features to get into a product and giving them a priority is something that has worked for me vary well.  I find it easier to express the features that I wish to get into my projects as a story.  The story format lets me capture the user, action and benefit in a quick step.  If I had to spend a lot of time working out the functional documentation of a given feature I am afraid I would not end up completing the feature in a timely fashion.  Even prioritizing the features helps me focus on what needs to be developed next. 

However the process of story pointing features and planning them out over multiple sprints just does not seem to give me any real benefit.  The main reason for this is that since these projects are personal projects they do not get a consistent amount of time dedicated to them.  I might have 3 hours 1 week and 0 hours the next to dedicate to the project.  So planning for sprints and trying to determine my velocity is somewhat difficult.  This aspect of Scrum ends up not being part of my personal projects.  This is ok for me though because I feel more organized by maintaining a backlog with priorities.