A Weekend with VAM

So this weekend I worked a lot. Come to find out that one of my applications that was ASP.NET Validators had NO client-side validation for netscape, mozilla and opera. Of course there was no mention of this deficience in the .NET framework documentation. This explains the ghost problems that I have been chasing for close to a year with this application. That being the case I need to fix it and fix it quick. That is where VAM comes in. VAM is a fantastic validation framework that Peter Blum has put together. It is completely cross-browser and cross-platform compatible validation. Simply put is it brilliant. Peter has done a great job of documenting the product. So this weekend armed with the documentation and the new validation framework, I went to work at rewriting the application the take advantage of VAM and get back a little self respect. (It's really hard to realize that something you wrote, didn't work as you planned for a year. It's kind of humiliating).

Between learning the new framework and writing some code the make the application better than it was. (I know a year more of .NET then I did when I wrote it) I spend about 15 hours this weekend on it, but I am much happier with the product. Interesting enough, some of the code from a year ago seemed a little sloppy, and the validators thought so too. Like I would have two buttons, one for each mode the page would have and then I would hide or show the button depending on the mode. Well, that is a little redundant. So I rewrote the pages with one button that would change dependingo on the mode. It all goes back to KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid). Why would I need two buttons when one will do the job. I did a lot of clean up like that , that I feel will make the application run quicker. The less controls that have to be rendered the faster the ASP.NET will run.

Well, this weekend wasn't all work. My Beautiful Wife vowed to get me way from my squareheaded girlfriend (my laptop). So sunday afternoon/evening, we picked up Mom and Dad and headed down to the happiest place on earth. We decided to go in the other disneyland park. It was a blast. Sunday was very warm, so everyone had apparently decided to skip going to the park that mouse built. I don't thiink I had ever seen the park so empty. We walked on to "Soarin' over California", checkout the Grand Californian, got drenched on "Grizzly Rapids", had some wine and dine at the Golden Vine. It was all so nice, and it cool down perfectly. (Especially after the soaking we got on Grizzly Rapids) Then Dad and I got to check out the new Tower of Terror Ride! I have to say that it is first rate. We both thought that it was a lot of fun. A good sunday afternoon.