Five things to love about modern.IE

You might be surprised to learn that the browser testing resources website, modern.IE (provided by Microsoft) is not just about Internet Explorer. Although some of the features are geared solely toward IE testing, some are browser-agnostic and can be very useful when developing websites. Here are a few of the things modern.IE can do for you.

Virtual Machines

Working on websites often means debugging using different browser variants. Unless you are exceedingly lucky, that will include older versions of Internet Explorer. While services like BrowserStack are invaluable for testing, they cost money and are not always responsive enough for productive debugging. Instead, I have found virtual machines (VM) to be much more useful.

Microsoft has been making VM's available for Internet Explorer testing via the website modern.IE for quite some time now. You can download VM's for whatever development platform you have, whether it is OS/X, Windows, or Linux.

Azure RemoteApp

If you want to test your work against the latest Internet Explorer in Windows 10 and you do not want to download a virtual machine, or are working from an unsupported device, Azure RemoteApp is for you.

All you need is a Microsoft Live ID and you can login and test with the latest IE for free.

Browser Screenshots

Just want to check what your site looks like across various browsers and devices? The Browser Screenshots feature of modern.IE will give you screenshots across nine common browsers and devices. Somewhat surprisingly (at least to me), this includes more than just Internet Explorer; at the time of writing, you get:

Internet Explorer 11.0 Desktop on Windows 8.1
Opera 12.16 on Windows 8.1
Android Browser on Samsung Galaxy S3
Android Browser on Nexus 7
Mobile Safari on iPhone 6
Safari 7.0 on OS X Mavericks
Chrome 36.0 on Windows 8.1
Firefox 30.0 on Windows 8.1
Mobile Safari on iPad Air

Not only will it give you the screenshots, but you can share them with others, generate a PDF, and more.

Site Scan

This scan checks for common coding practices that may cause user experience problems. It will also suggest fixes when it can. Not only that, but the source is available on GitHub so that you can run scans independently of modern.IE and the Cloud.

I ran this against my blog and it took just over seven seconds to return the results.

Compatibility Report

This feature will scan a given site for patterns of interactions that are known to cause issues in web browsers. The first time I tried to run this, it did not work. However, a second attempt gave me results.

Getting posh-git in all your PowerShell consoles using GitHub for Windows

If you use git for version control and you use Microsoft Windows, you may well have used posh-git, a module for PowerShell. For those that have not, posh-git adds some git superpowers to your PowerShell console including tab completion for git commands, files and repositories, as well as an enhanced command prompt that tells you the current branch and its state¹.

PowerShell console using posh-git

GitHub for Windows

GitHub for Windows includes posh-git for its PowerShell console, if you choose that console when installing or later in the settings. It even adds a nice console icon to the task bar and Start screen². Unfortunately, posh-git is only installed for the special version of the console that GitHub for Windows provides and you cannot make that prompt run as administrator, which can be useful once in a while.

Now, you could install a separate version of posh-git for all your other PowerShell needs, but that seems wrong. Especially since GitHub for Windows will happily keep its version up-to-date but you'd have to keep track of your other installation yourself.

Faced with this problem, I decided to hunt down how GitHub for Windows installed posh-git to see if I could get it into the rest of my PowerShell consoles. I quickly discovered ~\AppData\Local\GitHub containing both the posh-git folder and shell.ps1, the script that sets up the GitHub shell. The fantastic part of this script is that it sets up an environment variable for posh-git, github_posh_git, so you don't even need to worry about whether the folder changes³.

Armed with this information, you can edit your PowerShell profile⁴ and edit it to call both the GitHub shell script and the example profile script for posh-git⁵.

# Load posh-git example profile
. (Resolve-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\GitHub\shell.ps1")
. (Resolve-Path "$env:github_posh_git\profile.example.ps1")

cd ~/Documents/GitHub

Once the edits are saved, close and reopen the PowerShell console to run the updated profile. Posh-git should now be available and all you have to do to keep it up-to-date is run the GitHub for Windows client once in a while.

such as if there are any unstaged or uncommitted files and whether the branch is behind, ahead, or diverged from the remote [↩]
or menu, if you're pre-Windows 8 or installed something to bring the Start menu back [↩]
and if you've seen the folder name for posh-git in the GitHub for Windows installation, you'll see why that's useful [↩]
just enter `notepad $profile` at the PowerShell prompt [↩]
you may want to do the same thing for the PowerShell ISE, as it uses a separate profile script [↩]

CodeMash 2.0.1.4

Adventure

It is almost nine years since I first set foot in the US. It was through that experience that I rediscovered the joy in challenging myself and embracing change, something I had not so strongly felt since I first started singing in a band. So, while I had faced challenges before as a result of my own decisions, none had been bigger. Even though the opportunity had been provided by someone else, it had been my choice to take it and to see it through¹.

It took me a while to settle in to my new home (or even to acknowledge it as home), but I eventually joined the developer community in Ann Arbor and the wider mid-west region. The interaction with other developers has continued to provide challenging opportunities and encourage positive change within my career, as well other aspects of my life. It was through the basic act of attending one local Ann Arbor .NET Developers Group meeting and the people I met there that I learned about CodeMash.

CodeMash

The CodeMash conference – a community-organized event held annually in Sandusky, Ohio – never fails to provide unique experiences or challenges. My first CodeMash, CodeMash v2.0.1.2 was unique because I had never attended a developer conference before (or any other conference), and CodeMash v2.0.1.3 provided a completely new experience when, after attending a fantastic workshop on public speaking, I went on to win the PechaKucha contest.

This year, I was guaranteed yet another unique experience when I was accepted to be a speaker. I am extremely grateful to friends, mentors and others for their support and encouragement leading up to speaking at CodeMash v2.0.14. It was a wonderful honor that I thoroughly enjoyed, and while it changed my CodeMash experience with the added anxiety of speaking and subsequent release when my session ended, I would definitely do it again if the chance arose.

To those that attended my talk on AngularJS for XAML developers, thank you. I hope that you found it valuable. If you were there or if you have an interest, you can find my slide deck and code on GitHub (Deck|Code).

I am very grateful to the volunteers that organize and run CodeMash each year, as well as the many friends and mentors that have guided my own CodeMash experiences and the many other experiences within the developer community. Without these people, I would not have had such amazing opportunities, nor would I have learned how important it is to challenge myself and strive for new experiences. It is always uncomfortable to embrace change, but the rewards of doing so are often worth the pain.

To close, I encourage you to challenge yourself this year. Make sure to let me know in the comments below how you will challenge yourself and perhaps we can follow-up at the end of the year.

Of course, there were many times in the weeks between being offered the position and setting foot in the US when I considered changing my mind, including just after the plane doors closed [↩]

Git integration for all your PowerShells with Github for Windows

We use git for our source control at work. In fact, we use Github. I have GitHub for Windows (GfW) installed because it's one of the easiest ways to install git on a Windows desktop. As part of the installation, you get to choose how the git shell is provided; I selected PowerShell (PS). This works well. You can access the integrated console via a separate shortcut or by the ~ key when viewing a repository in GfW.

However, the git integration (provided by posh-git) isn't available in the standard PS console nor PS ISE¹. I use PS ISE a lot more these days as it gives me tabbed console windows and some cool features like auto-complete dropdowns², so I wanted git integration there too.

As I already have git and posh-git installed via GfW, I didn't want to install both separately again just to get this support, I wanted to use what was already there.

To do this, open your PS or PS ISE console (you'll need to do this for both as they have separate profiles) and enter:

notepad $profile

Then add the following lines and save:

# Load github shell and posh-git example profile
. (Resolve-Path "$env:LOCALAPPDATA\GitHub\shell.ps1")
. (Resolve-Path "$env:github_posh_git\profile.example.ps1")

To see the changes, you need to restart your console. If you're sure there'll be no nasty side-effects from running your profile twice in one session, you could also just enter:

. $profile

And there you have it, git support using the GitHub for Windows installation in all your PowerShell windows.

Integrated Scripting Environment [↩]
There are some caveats to using the ISE console tab over a regular PS console [↩]