DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by Ragoczy

The Programmer Responsible for the World's Financial Collapse

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:16:25 GMT

I knew it. You knew it. We just didn't want to admit it. There had to be software at the heart of world's financial woes and some way to blame a programmer.

A Bit About the Performance of Concurrent Collections in .Net 4.0

Fri, 03 Apr 2009 12:12:58 GMT

In a previous post I mentioned the curious side-effect of the .Net 4.0 concurrent collections' thread-safety, that it will be possible to modify these collections (add/remove) while enumerating them. In this post, I examine the possible performance consequences of doing just that.

Changing a Collection While Enumerating in .Net 4.0

Mon, 30 Mar 2009 00:16:09 GMT

We've probably all done it at one point, tried to remove an item from a collection in the middle of a ForEach enumeration and gotten an exception for our trouble -- you can't change a collection in the middle of enumerating it. The Coordinated Data Structures coming in .Net 4.0 change that, giving us threadsafe collections for parallel programming that allow changes while enumerating.

Content Stealing Jerks

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 22:01:02 GMT

I've grown somewhat accustomed to seeing my articles regurgitated on some random blogger's site and passed off as their own. Usually I just send content stealing jerk (CSJ for future reference) an e-mail asking that they provide some sort of link back to my original article and leave it at that. Sometimes they comply, oftentimes they don't. In the end, life goes on. After all, it's not like I'm going to press charges over it.

spicIE How To: Writing Internet Explorer Plugins in Managed Code

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 05:06:36 GMT

An introduction to spicIE, a Code Gallery offering that wraps the COMplexities of writing Internet Explorer plugins and allows you to write a plugin in managed code (C#, VB.Net, etc.).

It's Not a "Bug", It's a Defect

Fri, 20 Mar 2009 04:47:06 GMT

The days of problems being caused by insects getting crushed in mechanical switches are far behind us - these days, if there's a problem with software, it was put there by a programmer. It didn't crawl in and it didn't "develop" - it's a result of someone's screw-up.

Cast<> to the rescue.

Wed, 04 Mar 2009 07:22:20 GMT

How to convert an collection of classes to a collection of interfaces.

Observations of a Developer - What's In a Title?

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 21:21:40 GMT

Normally a blog with a technical bent, this opinion piece observes the phenomenon of title abuse in the tech industry and its reprocussions.

TaskManager -- The Range Rover of the .Net 4 Parallel Extensions

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:52:04 GMT

A discussion of the TaskManager and TaskProfile classes available in .Net 4 and how they can be misused to negatively impact parallel and system performance.

A Post About Nothing, or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Null

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 00:11:16 GMT

What does null mean? It's got to mean something. You're either pregnant or you're not. You can't have a third state. A light switch is either on or off. If a light switch doesn't exist then it's potentially very dangerous. Almost as dangerous as having a nullable bool.

Using Windows Live Writer with BlogEngine.net

Mon, 23 Feb 2009 23:31:02 GMT

Using the built-in blog entry tools in BlogEngine.net works just fine, but I have come to like Windows Live Writer better. It just seems to make things just a little bit easier. Here are some very simple instructions on how to get Windows Live Writer working for BlogEngine.net

Parallel.For(.): A Deeper Dive - Parallel Programming in .Net 4.0

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 19:46:05 GMT

An in-depth look at the Parallel.For() method from the Parallel Extensions coming in .Net 4.0. This article examines the return value and optional parameters of Parallel.For, including local thread initialization, finalization and the ParallelState object. Most of the information also applies to Parallel.ForEach, as well.

Future<T> -- Parallel Programming in .Net 4.0

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:20:15 GMT

This article examines Future<T> and it's use to start a parallel task that returns a value, enabling you to block when retrieving that value if it hasn't completed proessing yet.

Parallel Programming in .Net 4.0: BlockingCollection<T>

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 09:46:08 GMT

This article takes a look at BlockingCollection<T>, one of the new, threadsafe collections coming in .Net 4.0. BlockingCollection<T> allows different threads to add-to/iterate-over the collection simultaneously while giving subscribers the option of blocking until more items are available and publishers to block if too many items are already in the collection.

Why the ItemsControl ScrollViewer Attached Property Does Not Work

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 15:16:12 GMT

In my latest article I discussed Scrolling and Binding to large collections in WPF. We saw some disturbing behavior when binding a large collection to an ItemsControl. After Further Examination I found out very interesting things regarding that matter.

Infinite Lists With C# Yield

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 22:01:07 GMT

What we are about to talk about here may seem like a purely academic exercise, but hopefully I will convince you that this isn't exactly the case. There are several situations in real-world applications where infinite lists can appears if only we were to think about them in the right way.

Using C# "Yield" for Readability and Performance

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:46:30 GMT

I must have read about "yield" a dozen times. Only recently have I began to understand what it does, and the real power that comes along with it. I'm going to show you some examples of where it can make your code more readable, and potentially more efficient.

Why aren't I an MVP?

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 00:16:03 GMT

There's a problem with the MVP program I'd like to talk about. The fact that I'm no longer an MVP (haven't been for over a year now) isn't the problem, merely a symptom. My problem is that I don't know why I'm not an MVP, and by extension I don't know why others are. The process of becoming and remaining an MVP is completely opaque. Plainly, the MVP program lacks transparency.

"Quality Doesn't Matter That Much" -- Jeff and Joel

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 06:16:02 GMT

I was riding my exercise bike, listening to Stack Overflow #38 when I heard Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky say "Quality just doesn't matter that much." I nearly fell off my bike.

Back to Basics: Generics

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:01:12 GMT

Introduction There are language features that are nothing more than syntactical sugar. For example, C#'s coalesce operator (??) is a short-handed and specialized if-else. Object initializers make it easier to set properties on a newly created objects. Some features though go beyond mere convenience and add real value. I know it seems like we constantly have to learn new things, while at the same time actually produce code to pay our bills. It can be hard to pick and choose what to learn and what can wait. Let me be straight up though: if you haven't mastered generics yet, you're starting to fall dangerously behind.

How to build your own Digg Client in SIlverlight 2

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:59:04 GMT

Silverlight 2 is a impressive RIA creator. Learn how to make a application using the API from a popular social bookmarking site.

Interfaces vs. Concrete Classes

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 01:01:12 GMT

When designing architectures in .NET, I frequently use interfaces for parameter types in my method signatures. This post will help to explain why I choose to do this and the benefits of coding in this manner.

Update to: Microsoft cracking down on community extensions

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:31:02 GMT

The original story (http://www.dotnetkicks.com/csharp/Microsoft_cracking_down_on_community_extensions) got quite a bit of traffic from here. There've been some clarifications and updates from Microsoft and the StyleCop team that, I think, make their position clear and reasonable -- also, the original how-to that had been taken down "at Microsoft's request" is back up. A lot of people kicked the original story, so I hope you'll all take the opportunity to read Microsoft's responses and give them fair consideration.

Call Virtual Functions From Constructors?

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:01:02 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.

PagedList Strikes Back

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:46:12 GMT

A few months ago I posted about my changes to Rob Conery's PagedList class. Since writing that article many comments have been left about how to further improve the design, which have since been incorporated into a new, further improved PagedList class.