Meeting Information:

Taking advantage of the new wave of .NET build tools

For the decade since it was released, MSBuild has been the standard way to build .NET applications, due in large part to its use in Visual Studio. But while it is a reliable and even extensible tool, configuring anything more than trivial tasks in XML is often a challenging experience. In the past several years, a number of new build tools have been developed to make creating and managing build processes easier. These include Cake, Fake, and PSake. These tools are written in .NET languages (C#, F#, and PowerShell respectively) and allow you to configure your build using a simple DSL, while giving you access to the full .NET Framework when you need it. We will talk about why these tools were created, how they differ from MSBuild and from each other, how to choose one to manage your build, and what the future of the .NET build ecosystem might hold.

Speaker Bio

David Nelson has been developing in .NET for 12 years. He is a Senior Consultant at ThoughtWorks, where for the past several years he has worked in several different languages and platforms; but he still goes home and works in .NET to soothe his soul. He is passionate about automated testing, build tools, open source, and making software development more efficient. He is also the organizer of the .NET Unboxed conference in October ().

Door Prizes

Make sure to attend, because in addition to our awesome presenter, we have some way cool prizes!

NDDNUG Kid's Night

MinecraftU will be back to help us learn how to program in Minecraft using the ComputerCraft mod. We'll split the group up so those who haven't been to our previous meetings can get help getting started.

Note: For your child to participate, they will need a laptop with Minecraft installed and a Minecraft account. We do not have extra laptops to use or free licenses to Minecraft, so come prepared!