XAML: Event Handlers for Templated Items of Collection Controls

Recently, while fighting my way through XAML required to create a relatively simple UI for a Windows Phone 8 application I have come across some unexpected difficulties. When it comes to hacking markup I prefer to modularize it as much as possible – many of us do. Here we follow the same ideas that govern us when we write imperative code and break it into relatively small and simple functions and classes to assemble them into something bigger on higher levels. The benefits of this approach are well known: better isolation, finer specification of responsibilities and less code duplication. With markup we usually behave worse – the code for pages frequently feels quite monolithic and it is difficult to explicitly split it into parts each of which pursues its own goals. Here XAML gives us ControlTemplate and DataTemplate allowing to improve the state of affairs to some extent. The DataTemplate is primarily used with collection controls so that we can specify the way each element should be displayed. In my specific case the parent control was LongListSelector, which should have displayed a list of more or less complex items.

TDD: Downsides

Being a fan of TDD I have heard and read a lot about the benefits of test-driving software and creating tests in general – as well as about the drawbacks. While the most widely mentioned issue with tests is false confidence that they might give developers, there are also other major problems associated with this popular approach to software development. Most of these come from misusing TDD and because I have mastered the skill of doing things wrong I would like to describe some of the potentially harmful results of test-driving programs.