Setting up a Development Tree...

Start your .NET project off on the right foot....

" In my career I've setup quite a few development trees for .NET projects. What do I mean by a 'development tree'?

• It is a directory structure
• containing:
  
  • source files
  • tools and dependencies
  • references to external tools and dependencies
• checked into source control
• that is atomically integratable
• to produce a set of artifacts

A good development tree should:

• be easily integratable on new environments
• require little maintainance
• but be easily maintainable when it does require maintenance
• support, but not hamper, developer productivity
• have consistent behaviour

These are rather qualitative ideals, but give some direction about where we want to head.

In this article I show how to develop a good 'boilerplate' development tree structure for .NET projects that other people can use.

..."

I seem to reinvent my Dev project tree structure with each project. Mostly to try out new ideas and to avoid issues with previous layouts. This gets a little old. Also it doesn't take into account new areas I have yet to play with (like automated builds).

This article not only covers directory layout, but also source control, automated builds (NAnt) and unit testing (NUnit)... This is an article I want to review in detail.

(via Alex Lowe - Start your .NET project off on the right foot....)