The Perils of Intellisense

Work on my WMI library has been a little erratic during my recent time off, but I came across a bug recently which I lay squarely at the door of Intellisense. Of course, it's really a case of user error, but Intellisense lulls you into a false sense of security...

I had just started the library and added the initial unit test for creating a connection. I decided that I could get away with talking to the WMI service on the local machine as it's pretty much a standard piece of Windows technology and the unit tests would still run quickly. I started the implementation in the Connection class by adding the some private typedefs and members:-

typedef WCL::ComPtr IWbemLocatorPtr;
typedef WCL::ComPtr IWbemServicesPtr;

IWbemLocatorPtr m_locator;
IWbemServicesPtr m_services;

As one would expect, Intellisense did it's thing during the typing of the typedefs by showing me a list of types, and after typing just "IWbem", I could see the ones I wanted listed and so went with them.

In the implementation file I proceeded to write the Connection::open() method by declaring local variables for the underlying Locator and Connection using the typedefs declared earlier. The WMI Locator is the root object and is a singleton so requires no arguments during or after its construction. Once again Intellisense shows its productivity enhancing ability by showing me a list of relevant CLSID's after I type the initial portion, which I know to be "CLSID_Wbem". Seeing a CLSID that has 'Wbem' and 'Locator' in it's name I dutifully click it and get on with the hard part of actually writing the method logic - after all I "Lean on the Compiler" as it's much better at spotting errors than me...

IWbemServicesPtr services;
IWbemLocatorPtr locator(CLSID_WbemAdministrativeLocator);
WCL::ComStr path(host + nmspace);

HRESULT result = locator->ConnectServer(path.Get(), nullptr, nullptr, nullptr, 0, nullptr, nullptr, AttachTo(services));

if (FAILED(result))
throw Exception(result, locator, TXT("Failed to connect to the local WMI provider"));

m_locator = locator;
m_services = services;

This works a treat - my unit test passes. I can open and close a connection, so without delay I get on with writing the next set of tests and code to perform a simple WMI query.

After a few distractions, such as going on holiday, I decide to start implementing my WMICmd tool which is a simple command line tool for executing WMI queries. It will also do very nicely as a vehicle for thoroughly testing the WMI library. I get the shell of the application up and running and add support for running a query. The first query is the same as the unit test, and it works. I do some work on the output format and try a few other simple queries for good measure. It's working a treat and so I move onto more the more useful features like being able to query a remote computer. I add the command line support for providing a remote host and give it a whirl...

It fails. The error is "Invalid Parameter". I read the MSDN help and surmise that maybe you can't use 'localhost' as it suggests you use '.' for local connections. I need to allow a separate login and password to be provided anyway so I skip straight onto the full solution by refactoring the Connection::open() code to allow a username and password to be provided. I don't have any unit tests for this (for obvious reasons) but the other tests pass, so I know I haven't broken anything. It sill fails. Huh? "Invalid Parameter" again...

I guess that I've forgotten something COM security related, perhaps I need to call CoInitialiseSecurity() - but I'm sure I don't. I know it can't be the call to CoSetProxyBlanket() as that comes after. I pull Keith Brown's "Programming Windows Security" off the bookshelf in search of enlightenment. Nothing obvious. I try a few 'random tweaks' in the hope of getting a different error. Still nothing. I go over it in my head again and again - "Invalid Parameter" means I must have got one of the arguments to the ConnectServer() method wrong. So I carefully read the documentation a number of times and this raises a few questions about my assumptions in my implementation. But none of them are the cause.

I stare at the code for ages trying to work out what to do next. I compare it line for line with the example code in the WMI SDK documentation. Only I don't. I've been skipping the 'trivial' initialisation code before the call to ConnectServer(). Finally I decide to double-check the CLSID for the Locator COM object and I spot a difference... It's not CLSID_WbemAdministrativeLocator in the example, it's CLSID_WbemLocator! I make the relevant code change...

IWbemServicesPtr services;
IWbemLocatorPtr locator(CLSID_WbemLocator);

I run the unit tests. Good, they still pass. I run my WMICmd tool, and bingo, it now works. I go back and try 'localhost' to prove to myself that I was obviously wrong with my assumption about having to use "." for a local query, and of course it also works.

So, by accident, I've been instantiating the wrong COM object, and that object just happens to implement the interface I need - IWbemLocator! As Harry Hill would say "What are the chances of that happening?". I'm blaming Intellisense for the hair that I've torn out trying to fix this issue, but that's not exactly fair. I could have cut-and-pasted the code from the WMI documentation, and we all know how fallible documentation is. I'm sure the fact that I've implemented something like this before for a client some years ago lead me to become complacent. And the unit tests, which constantly passed, deflected me away from the existing code and instead lead me to believe I was missing something else. Useful though unit testing is, I need to remind myself that they are not a panacea.

I've not forgiven the Intellisense window yet, but at least we're on speaking terms again...

Going Back to Work

Back in March I made the decision not to renew my contract for a 4th year and instead to take some time off. After discussing my financial situation with my Accountant (aka wife) I found I could easily take 4 months off, but probably longer if I sent her out to work more :-) In the end it's been 6 months and I feel thoroughly refreshed and ready to dive back into working life. So did I manage to achieve all that I had planned?

Well, not exactly. I had grandiose plans of trying to attain a working style day where between 10am and 3pm would be devoted to 'career enhancing activities'. I would use this time to read various blogs & books and continue to work on my personal codebase to keep my eye in. Also I intended to get into writing by starting a blog and publishing some articles in the ACCU. The good thing about your work also being your hobby is that career development is far from being a chore! The bad thing is that it's hard sometimes to differentiate the two and ensure your family and social life gets the time it deserves.

More family time was the main reason for me taking a sabbatical. Commuting takes its toll, and with only occasional working from home, I missed the little things like taking my kids to school and picking them up again. Those short periods of time in the playground at the start and end of the school day allow you to track your child's ever changing circle of friends. Although I never worked long hours in the office (preferring to get home and work remotely instead after the kids have gone to bed) I still missed the family evening meal which is a nice time to find out what's happened during the day at school.

However, much as I love my family dearly, they aren't very good at the Geek talk :-) My eldest son is on his way to becoming a hardcore techie (not through any fault of mine you understand) but it's not the same as spending all day in a team with like-minded individuals. The biggest thing I miss is the social aspect of work. Even when I broke my ankle a year or so ago and did 3 weeks working from home, I found that being at home and keeping in touch with people by phone, email and chat just doesn't have the same buzz as being in the office.

Clearly it's been a case of 'Mission Accomplished' as far as family life goes, but did I manage to achieve anything else? Well, I got the writing started by having two reviews published in C Vu, and this blog, although not not daily or weekly, is getting some erratic TLC. I've read a considerable number of books - Imperfect C++, Extended STL, Extreme Programming Explained, Implementation Patterns, C++ Gems 1 & 2 to name a few. Plus I've bought and read selected chapters from numerous others, mostly as a result of following up on ideas I've read in other blogs and on the accu-general mailing list. The rabbit-hole soon gets pretty deep doing this :-)

Naturally I have managed to get some coding done, but not quite what I had intended. I was going to write a Wrapper Facade for the COM based Windows WMI infrastructure along with a couple of WMI based tools. I've only just started on that as I was distracted by some articles on Good Unit Tests by Kevlin Henney that caused me to do some refactoring of my unit testing framework in preparation for some serious TDD on my impending WMI library. The other major interruption was caused by finding out how easy it was to get GCC to compile my main C++ libraries and that snowballed into an investigation about using it for additional Static Code Analysis.

And what to next? Well, my new position is going to be something of a departure. After 15 years of C++ I am going to be entering the world of C#. At first it's supposed to be business as usual on the C++ front, but then it's probably going to be C# all the way. I'm hoping there will be some C++/C# Interop to ensure I still get to apply some of that rekindled and newly acquired knowledge from Imperfect C++ & Extended STL :-). I'm also looking forward to working again with some colleagues from previous jobs.

I've only written the obligatory 'Hello World' program in C# so far, but I'm sure the transition from C++ to C# will provide some blog fodder in the future...