DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by Loonquawl

Anders Hejlsberg Video on C# Dynamic

Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:46:02 GMT

In this Channel 9 video C# architect Anders Hejlsberg answers some commonly asked questions about the new Dynamic features that will be included in C# 4.0. Building on the talk that he gave at PDC, Anders chats with C# Community PM Charlie Calvert. They discuss questions that community members have asked and riff on themes of import to developers who have been following the latest news from the C# team.

Skip lists are fascinating!

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 16:16:03 GMT

Skip lists are a fascinating data structure: very simple, and yet have the same asymptotic efficiency as much more complicated AVL trees and red-black trees. In this article, I discuss the asymptotic efficiency of operations on skip lists, the ideas that make them work, and their interesting use cases. And, of course, I give you the source code for a skip list in C#.

Call Virtual Functions From Constructors?

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 05:01:02 GMT

Be aware of this matter because it is not a trivial issue and apparently, there are no errors or warnings generated by the compiler. So, the rule to remember is to never call virtual methods from constructors.

Test Driven Development Naming Conventions and Guidelines

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 09:31:12 GMT

New TDD and experienced TDD developers will find this list of naming conventions and guidelines useful.

Levels of Enthusiasm

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:31:04 GMT

A good summary on the various manic states of development.

Software Developers Never Change

Wed, 14 May 2008 15:31:24 GMT

So if you are to take anything away from this rant, take this, do what you love, and become the best at it. And if what you love isn't your 9-5 job, deeply understand this and get out of the way of people who's 9-5 job is what they love.

Beware of List(T).Find

Tue, 13 May 2008 14:46:12 GMT

Llist(t).Find returns the first element found that matches a given criteria, but what happens if no such element found?

Beauty is only Skin-Deep: Skinning your WinForms Application

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:01:03 GMT

"The first impression is everything, right? So this post is all about how to skin your application. While I can't turn you into Monet, I can show you what a paint brush looks like."

Using Database Projects for Visual Studio

Wed, 07 May 2008 18:31:04 GMT

Do you use database projects in Visual Studio? If not, then now is a good time to start. It is the best way I have found to source control my databases without actually sticking the database file itself in the repository.

See how simple is to create a great user interface for you app

Tue, 06 May 2008 17:46:04 GMT

See how simple is to create a great user interface for your WPF or Silverlight application. You can simply use almost any vector drawing application (Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Inkscape, Visio, Autocad, Excel, Word, etc.) and then with the ViewerSvg or Paste2Xaml convert the drawing into XAML. Or even simpler, you can use one of the thousands vector images that are already available on the internet - see links. There are also samples that demonstrates the power of vector images and how simple is to create a great effects with them.

Yet Another Project Euler Series (YAPES)

Tue, 06 May 2008 18:31:02 GMT

For the past several months, I've been using F# to solve at least two Project Euler problems each week. I find this is a great way to sharpen my math skills and my F# skills simultaneously. If you're looking for a way to flex your programming muscles, you really should check out Project Euler.

New F# Compiler Released

Sat, 03 May 2008 02:01:02 GMT

The new version of the F# Compiler was released May 1, 2008. Go download it now.

Dependency Injection, Duck Typing, & More Coming to .Net (Natively)

Sun, 04 May 2008 11:46:02 GMT

Krzysztof Cwalina reveals details on .Net's upcoming Managed Extensibility Framework. "MEF is a set of features referred in the academic community and in the industry as a Naming and Activation Service (returns an object given a "name"), Dependency Injection (DI) framework, and a Structural Type System (duck typing)."

A Great Visual Studio Add-on You Must Have

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:01:03 GMT

Recently I found out this great add-on for Visual Studio 2008 called PowerCommands. PowerCommands Extends the functionality of Visual Studio 2008 by adding some features which we all want built into Visual Studio. PowerCommands provides the following...

SVN Bridge 2.0 Released

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 07:16:03 GMT

Version 2.0 of SvnBridge has been released! This is a great tool for those of us who use TFS but love the SVN client TortoiseSVN.

A .NET Cryptography Primer, part 3

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:01:02 GMT

This part covers symmetric encryption, more commonly known as password-based encryption. Goes over the different types of symmetric algorithms available, concepts such as initialization vectors, and includes code examples.

.NET Obfuscators

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 20:46:13 GMT

Comprehensive list of all .NET obfuscators available today and online reviews.

The Linq let keyword

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:31:07 GMT

Make your Linq queries more readable using the "let" keyword.

Encrypting Passwords in a .NET app.config File

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 19:16:09 GMT

Here's how to use DPAPI to encrypt entire sections or specific settings in your configuration file.

Beware of the mysterious params in C#!

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 14:01:03 GMT

The 'params' keyword may behave different than you might think it should! This one is a must for every C# developer out there!

Most Useful 50 CSS Tips

Sat, 12 Apr 2008 12:31:02 GMT

A useful page that provides a nice listing of various CSS tips, tricks and tools.

Out parameters suck, tuples rule, F# wins

Wed, 16 Apr 2008 14:46:02 GMT

The TryParse method found on many value types is nice and useful. Unfortunately, you're forced to use out parameters to make use of them. Ugh.

Observer Pattern Revisited - Events and Delegates

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:31:03 GMT

This article shows how to use events and delegates in the .NET Framework to simulate the Observer Design Pattern.

How to: Optimize the memory usage with strings

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:16:03 GMT

System.String type is used in any .NET application. We have strings as: names, addresses, descriptions, error messages, warnings or even application settings. Each application has to create, compare or format string data. Considering the immutability and the fact that any object can be converted to a string, all the available memory can be swallowed by a huge amount of unwanted string duplicates or unclaimed string objects. Now let's see how a string object should be handled to preserve memory.

Real Ultimate Power: Dependency Injection With Ninject

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 15:01:09 GMT

Using Ninject for Dependency Injection / IoC