IBBoard

Since I joined the workforce after leaving University, and even before that, I've spent my days using computers and my nights tinkering with them. My two jobs have both involved a lot of software development, but that hasn't stopped me programming in my own time as well (mainly PHP for websites and C# for desktop applications). The following are various hints, tips, useful snippets of information and code fragments that I've come across that need sharing with others.

Programming tasks

Some tasks require one-off little scripts to help you along your way.

• How to archive phpBB - steps and scripts for when your community dries up and you want to keep the content available without having to keep phpBB active and up-to-date.

Tools of the trade

The following are useful snippets about the development environments themselves, as opposed to the language.

Version Control Systems for non-Developers is an introduction to and history of version control systems and why more people should use them, even if you don't call yourself a "software developer".

If you're running openSUSE then I recommend using the latest version of MonoDevelop from the Mono:MonoDevelop build service repositories. For all other coding I currently use Geany, which I have built with the plugins in my home:IBBoard:desktop build service repository.

• Fixing the The type or namespace name `Gtk' could not be found error in Monodevelop

C# snippets and pointers

Although I've used Linux since 2008 as my sole desktop, I still prefer to write code in C#. I used to spend my days using Java at work and I prefer some of the ways that C# does things. The only thing I ever missed from Java is some of the more advanced Eclipse functionality, which is incredibly useful and powerful and is only just appearing in MonoDevelop.

• IBBoard dev site - my central repository of open source libraries and utility code that are used by WarFoundry and my Dawn of War tools
• .Net's special folders and how they relate to the two desktops
• Using Qyoto for Qt interfaces in Mono and .Net
• XML Validation in .Net and Mono - problems, pitfalls, confusion and inconsistency

Web snippets, scripts and pointers

• Detailed server up-time - a simple formatted text version of the "uptime" output. An updated version is also available and running on this server.
• Unix timestamp converter that allowed you to specify timezones