* CoffeeScript is a little language that compiles into  JavaScript. * CoffeeScript is an attempt to expose the good parts of JavaScript in a simple way. * The golden rule of CoffeeScript is: "It's just JavaScript". -- from the official site

Just recently I heard fellows on Twitter talking about CoffeeScript. I believe I heard the name before but I was very busy couldn’t even have a look. This time I tried to check what is that.

It turns out to be a new way for writing JavaScript that is more compact & dynamic, and resembles Ruby and Python dynamic languages. After I gave it few hours & I felt I like it.

The idea behind this new language is to write your code in a dynamic syntax that later can be compiled to generate a 100% equivalent JavaScript that's granted to be always valid if you check it against a tool like JavaScript Lint. The gain of this is brevity and readability, typically 1/3 fewer lines with no effect on runtime performance.

First issue I faced was how to get it working on my PC? The installation on Windows is somehow long & complex; no single-filre installer available for Windows on the official site yet. But I found this project that simplifies compiling CoffeeScript into JavaScript on Windows. Hence, my first environment consisted of a good text editor, Notepad++, and a CoffeeScript Compiler for Windows. There's another simple alternative, the online compiler available on official site called "TRY COFFEESCRIPT".

What I liked about this language that I can write complex JavaScript in a more compact & readable form. The major difference for me, since that I’m not a good JavaScript developer, I don’t like the way JavaScript define classes. JavaScript way of defining classes sounds, for me, a method-oriented way than an object-oriented way. But when tried CoffeeScript I was able to express my thoughts in an object-oriented way. Moreover, It has a dynamic syntax similar to Ruby & Python that takes indentation into account instead of braces and parentheses to make your code looks more readable & expressive; though I love static languages in general & specifically C# :)

Using my simple environment, I managed to write my first simple program. I found Ayende’s latest challenge for Tax Calculation a good start, so I decided to write my answer in CoffeeScript. You can find this simple program in this GitHub:Gist. The screenshot below can give u an idea about how does it look like if u didn’t check the official site yet.

This is my first account about CoffeeScript, the second will come soon about preparing a better environment for developing on Windows, probably also on Ubuntu.

Enjoy learning... :)

I'd like to share my experience about a valuable OSS project I liked very much & used recently.
The latest project I designed & implemented was an integration subsystem that acts as a bridge between two systems, our B2C Portal & e-Government  Message-based Services.

The solution architecture is based on building multiple multi-threaded windows services that receive, parse, initiate and send different types of requests & transactions between both systems bidirectional.
Building this number of windows services required building a good common infrastructure for all services to make them consistent enough, well refactored, and easy to debug.
And, Here came the decision to use Topshelf as an infrastructure for my services. Topshelf describes itself as "An easy service hosting framework for building Windows services using .NET"

What I liked about Topshelf, as a first reason to search about it & use it, that It enables you to build Windows service as a console application and run & debug it as a console application but you can deploy it as a Windows service. This idea sounds very good for me. So my services shouldn’t inherit from a specific class and shouldn't install them during development time before each debug session & uninstall them again.

Edit: Installing Topshelf became quite easy because of NuGet integration with Visual Studio 2010.
Other wise, you can simply download binaries & add references to you project.

So, let's see how it's easy to use Topshelf! All what I need is an empty console application and in the main method let's write the following.

   1: const string SERVICE_NAME = "Do Something Service";

   2:  

   3: // configure log4net

   4: XmlConfigurator.Configure(PathHelper.GetFileInfo("do_something_service.log4net"));

   5:  

   6: // configure service runner or host

   7: HostFactory.Run(cfg => {

   8:     cfg.Service<IDoSomethingService>(svc => {

   9:         svc.SetServiceName(SERVICE_NAME);

  10:         svc.ConstructUsing(name => new DoSomethingService());

  11:         svc.WhenStarted(service => service.Start());

  12:         svc.WhenStopped(service => service.Stop());

  13:     }); cfg.RunAsLocalSystem();

  14:     cfg.SetDescription(SERVICE_NAME);

  15:     cfg.SetDisplayName(SERVICE_NAME);

  16:     cfg.SetServiceName(SERVICE_NAME);

  17: });

Those few lines will make the console application work both as console application, as expected, and also as a Windows service that can be installed & controlled from Services Manager.

The code shown above is very generic so it doesn’t require implementing specific interfaces or to inherit from specific base classes. You can see method signatures below to make sure it’s all generic.

   1: void ConstructUsing(Topshelf.Model.DescriptionServiceFactory<TService> serviceFactory);

   2: void WhenStarted(System.Action<TService> startAction);

   3: void WhenStopped(System.Action<TService> stopAction);

To implement my services, first, I created custom interfaces. First interface called IGenericService that will be a base for all service classes. Then, I create a custom interface for each service. For instance, I create DoSomethingService, I use an interface IDoSomethingService that inherits from IGenericService.

   1: public interface IGenericService {

   2:     void Start();

   3:     void Stop();

   4: }

   5:  

   6: public interface IDoSomethingService : IGenericService {

   7: }

   8:  

   9: public class DoSomethingService : IDoSomethingService {

  10:     void Start() { return; }

  11:     void Stop(){ return; }

  12: }

Now, you can easily install your console application executable as a Windows service through the following command line: {console_exe} install  Or {console_exe} uninstall to uninstall it.
Then, using Services Manager you can control the service as needed.

There’s another way to host services built by Topshelf called shelving but I was interested in stand-alone Windows services that I can control through Services Manager.

That was a quick dumb of steps I went through during building my services. I hope it was useful.
Questions are welcome :)