CodePlex is Dead. Long Live GitHub

I was very sad to hear about the demise of CodePlex.  I had a couple of open source projects on their site and I loved the tools provided to manage a project, especially the tight integration with Visual Studio.  But alas all good things must come to an end.  Always looking for a positive aspect to all situations, I decided that on the plus side this will force me to learn how to use Git for version control.

I have heard for some time all of the buzz around using Git but was quite content with using Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC).  But even Microsoft is embracing Git and has offered it as an option in Visual Studio for some time now and seems to get all of the new functionality when it come to version control.  Each takes a very different approach to version control, with Git being a distributed solution whereas TFVC is a centralized solution.  Microsoft has a good discussion comparing the two and when to use each in this article, Choosing the right version control for your project.   I can see where Git can be a better fit for open source projects.

So I am going to revive one of my old open source projects on CodePlex and move it to GitHub. The Project is VoiceModel and you can now find it here on GitHub.  The project has been dormant for a while but I have been getting some requests to move it to .NET Core and Visual Studio 2017.  I think that will be a great project to make the product more portable and improve performance.  With the popularity of Twilio I am also thinking about adding support for this platform.

For those not familiar with VoiceModel it is a project that makes it easier to develop VoiceXML and Tropo speech applications using ASP.Net MVC and Razor. VoiceModel uses the MVVM (Model-View-VoiceModel) design pattern to abstract the voice application to a higher level and decouples the voice user interface from the application domain and call flow. VoiceModel also supports Reusable Dialog Components (RDC) which allow you to build modules that can be reused across voice applications for increased productivity. It also has a built-in easy to use state machine that allow you to easily define your call flow. With VoiceModel you can develop your voice application once and deploy it for any VoiceXML compatible IVR or the Tropo Cloud IVR.

I am excited to revive this project and will be sharing on this blog what I learn about using GitHub for open source projects and moving VoiceModel to .NET Core.  So stay tuned.  And if you are interested in contributing visit the VoiceModel on GitHub.

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