DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by Zteff

What is Unit Testing?

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 16:45:02 GMT

good introductory article explaining what unit tests are (and are not) and why you should use them

Pulling others up

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:45:00 GMT

What should you do when you're in a situation where the people you're working with aren't using the latest and greatest technology and might not be using the so-called "best practices" that you subscribe to?

jQuery demo and documentation

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:53:18 GMT

Demo and documentation of jQuery interactions, widgets and effects.

Session Attacks and ASP.NET - Part 1

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 17:30:01 GMT

I've spent some time recently looking for updated information regarding session attacks as they apply to ASP.NET and am still not completely satisfied with how Microsoft has decided to implement session management in ASP.NET 2.0+. Part 1 explores ASP.NET session management, authentication, and session attacks against ASP.NET with a comparison of how ASP.NET stacks up against mitigation techniques against these attacks.

The Most Powerful Development Tool Ever Made

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 16:00:03 GMT

Justin Etheredge wrote a great blog post about not inventing the wheel everytime a classic programming problem shows up.

11 keystrokes that made my jQuery selector run 10x faster

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 21:15:00 GMT

An in-depth analysis of the performance concerns when using a popular jQuery selector and a couple ways to dramatically speed it up, including benchmarks.

22 Visual Studio Short Keys and 6 Short-cut Ways to Custom Jobs

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 09:15:00 GMT

Efficient programmers use short keys in IDE like Visual Studio. This saves time and in many cases makes the work run faster also. I also love short keys. They are smart! And there also go some tricks that help make your visual studio days a party! I have listed here some short cuts and some tips with the hope that this will be helpful to you all.

Refactoring: parameterize constructor

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:45:03 GMT

In legacy code you may find classes with constructor where some objects are created and initialized. These classes are not easily testable because they depend on other classes and therefore when you unit test these classes they may also throw exceptions of classes they depend on. In these cases we can use parameterize constructor refactoring.

Overview of .NET 4.0 features - C# 4.0 Named and Optional Parameters

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 13:45:05 GMT

The concept of Optional parameters is not new and exists in other languages such as C++. Infact, the functionality is a part of the .NET framework and exists is in VB.NET. Optional parameters will be introduced in C# 4.0 and can be used to call a method without having to specify all the arguments. The intent of this feature is to assist in writing concise code and in COM interoperability.

The Greatest Exception Handling WTF?!? of All Time

Thu, 28 May 2009 10:00:00 GMT

The Exception object has ONE purpose and ONE purpose only - to represent a runtime error, nothing more. Exceptions should never be used for purposes for which they were not intended -- or you could end up with this monstrosity...

Live Twitter stream of notable people in the .NET community

Tue, 26 May 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Built with ASP.NET MVC, jQuery and TweetSharp

My Dot Net Developer's tools list, and more.

Wed, 27 May 2009 04:00:01 GMT

I gave a brownbag presentation at my current client recently about the common tools (in addition to Visual Studio), that I use on a regular basis for working with .NET or web development in general. I also threw in some non-development tools that are a part of my day to day life and make things easier. Here's the complete list:

The Dynamic Programmer - Tuple, a new type on .Net 4.0

Mon, 25 May 2009 19:00:06 GMT

If you ever played with some language that have the Tuple type I bet you miss it in .Net. Well 4.0 adds it. Let's take a look at the implementation and how to use it.

How Do You Deal With Exceptions?

Fri, 15 May 2009 04:01:09 GMT

A little post on my ideas about handling exceptions within applications. How do you handle them?

Open Source or Die - The Real Future of Graffiti?

Tue, 12 May 2009 12:16:02 GMT

Telligent's Graffiti hasn't quite flatlined yet, but the signs aren't looking too good. Could OSS be the way to breathe life back into this once-promising CMS platform?

Linq-to-SQL vs Linq-to-Entities : Revisited

Tue, 12 May 2009 05:31:02 GMT

After 2 months of nothing but L2E, I feel I can give a decent comparison. Linq-to-Entities is fully capable and can do almost everything Linq-to-SQL can do, it just takes a bit more code some times; the almost is for multiple database utilization. L2E is a great ORM, but many of us were spoiled with L2S, so it is now up to Microsoft to live up to the expectations that they put out for us with this framework that they are deprecating. I hope and assume it will become a superior ORM, but that is in Microsoft's hands now; for the time being, it is not.

A Software Craftsman's Bookshelf

Wed, 06 May 2009 19:46:04 GMT

Every now and then I get the question about what books I recommend on the topic of programming and software development. As I try to practice the DRY (Don't repeat yourself) principle while writing code, I'll also intend to do it in real life. And by answering this question in form of a blog post, I'll be able to redirect future questioners here.

Top 5 SQL System stored procedures every developer should know

Wed, 13 May 2009 17:31:02 GMT

There are a number of documented and undocumented system stored procedures in MS SQL Server that are helpful for every web developer working with databases. From the developer's perspective, here's a list of 5 System stored procedures that are my favorite.

22 amazing JQuery - Modal - Plugins

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 08:31:03 GMT

A collection of 22 amazing JQuery - Modal - Window - Plugins

Another List of 5 Great and Useful Visual Studio Shortcuts

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:16:13 GMT

a while back we had 2 great posts and one page about visual studio shortcuts. The first one had a list of 10 Visual Studio Shortcuts and the second one had 11 Visual Studio Shortcuts. We also have a Visual Studio CheatSheet with all the Keyboard shortcuts Visual Studio has.

Creating a Cool UI effect on ASP.NET Panels using jQuery

Wed, 29 Apr 2009 10:01:14 GMT

see how to create a Cool UI effect on the ASP.NET Panels using jQuery

How I Learned to Love Dependency Injection: The Code Samples

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:01:16 GMT

Code samples from a presentation on Dependency Injection at Central Ohio Day of .NET

ASP.NET MVC Free eBooks

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:16:11 GMT

Here's a list of all sample chapters of ASP.NET MVC books available to the community.

C# Regions are not Useful? Give me a Break

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:46:02 GMT

I often see arguments about use of regions in C# code. And this is one of the most annoying things I see on the Internet in my opinion when it pertains to code structure. Whoever says regions are not to be used, I'd love to see your code and know what standards you have established as a team with your code base. I bet you it's a mess and the reason you don't like regions is because the developers on your team has abused use of them and that there is no logical pattern or team standard established.

5 Useful Visual Studio C# Snippets - Part 2

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 22:01:04 GMT

I initially published 5 Visual Studio c# Snippets yesterday and it got a lot of attention and had some positive feedback, so this is a follow up that I hope would be as helpful as the first one.