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Review: Logidex .NET Library
- By Mike Gunderloy
- November 17, 2003
Logidex .NET Library
lab.msdn.microsoft.com/logiclibrary/logiclibrary.aspx
LogicLibrary
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(412) 471-4710
www.logiclibrary.com
I've written about LogicLibrary and their Logidex product before. Now
LogicLibrary has teamed up with MSDN to give you a free version of the
Software Development Asset management tool running as an integrated
Visual Studio .NET add-in. After a 10MB or so download and a
trouble-free setup, you'll find a bunch of new windows in your Visual
Studio .NET.
Start with the main Logidex Explorer window and connect over the
Internet back to the repository of information at MSDN. Now go to the
Search Result window and start a new asset search. Trying the search
string "log*", for example, brought back 176 assets, including
namespaces, patterns, and other information. The Exception Management
Application Block looks interesting, so I double-click to retrieve its
details into the Information window.
In the Information window, I can read about the asset, and then click
over to a list of its artifacts. These include a list of requirements, a
usage guide, and sample code. I can easily download any of these
artifacts to my machine to explore further.
The final piece is the Reference Models window. A reference model
provides a sort of clickable picture of a group of assets - for example,
the major Framework classes, or patterns based on tiers. Drilling into
the picture with your mouse ultimately results in an asset search.
The initial implementation of Logidex .NET for MSDN includes the major
Framework namespaces, the Pet Shop reference application, and stuff from
the Patterns & Practices site. Overall, I'd rate this a good start, but
not yet essential. For this to be really useful to the working
developer, the metadata needs to be more fine-grained; ideally, right
down to the class level (at the moment, there is no asset finer than a
namespace from the FCL, and the information window simply takes you to
the appropriate URL in the help). LogicLibrary is using this as a way to
get people interested in classifying their own assets for re-use, but I
hope they've got an ongoing commitment to work with MSDN as well.
About the Author
Mike Gunderloy has been developing software for a quarter-century now, and writing about it for nearly as long. He walked away from a .NET development career in 2006 and has been a happy Rails user ever since. Mike blogs at A Fresh Cup.