DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by bert

Build Server Rules

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 05:40:24 GMT

Breaking the build server is Serious Business. Fortunately there are a set of rules that have been put together by a group of wise and thoughtful men to encourage good build server practice. And beer.

ASP.NET MVC and Json.NET

Fri, 17 Oct 2008 03:31:02 GMT

Bringing Json.NET to ASP.NET MVC

LightSpeed 2.1 Released - includes new search API

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 08:01:02 GMT

LightSpeed 2.1, the performance minded object relational mapping framework, is fresh from the oven with new features like database independent full text search capabilities using Lucene.Net, Visual Studio integrated designer enhancements and a bundle of other new features.

A Serious Challenge for Open Source?

Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:46:02 GMT

. . . what Mindscape has done is really quite impressive. To evaluate, accept, and incorporate feedback that quickly into the product and to have the installer ready that afternoon is impressive - for anyone.

How to use NDepend to improve code quality

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:16:09 GMT

Code quality is an important aspect of every software development project - discover how NDepend can aid in giving you a richer and more meaningful understanding of the quality of your code as well as helping to identify areas you could improve. This post is a high level overview of what you can achieve with NDepend.

Faster domain model development with schema round-tripping

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:01:02 GMT

Schema round-tripping is the ability for your domain model entities to be updated seamlessly when schema changes occur or, when your modify your model, for those changes to be propagated back to your database schema without any fuss. This article covers how to leverage schema round-tripping with LightSpeed 2.0's Visual Studio 2008 integrated domain design tool. This functionality is baked into every version, including the free express edition.

Which kind of cast should you use in C#?

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 17:01:04 GMT

C# offers two casting operators: the prefix-cast and the as-cast. Although the two operators compile to different op-codes in the CLR, the practical difference between them is in how they handle failed casts. Prefix-cast throws an exception on cast failure, while as-cast returns null. It's easier to implement correct error handling when you use prefix cast, because it doesn't require manual checks for null values that can cause problems in distant parts of your program. Prefix-cast should be the default cast operator on your fingertips, that you use for everyday situations - reserve as-cast for special cases where performance matters.

Rich domain modeling with Visual Studio 2008

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 04:16:03 GMT

LightSpeed 2.0 includes a powerful visual domain model designer that has support for database round tripping (auto update on schema changes, push model changes to the database), creates .NET 2.0 compliant or .NET 3.5 compliant code depending on the target framework of your project and customizable code generation templates. Drag and drop database support for SQL Server, Oracle, My SQL, SQLite and PostgreSQL is also supported right out of Visual Studio 2008. Free version available.

Leveraging LightSpeed specific features from LINQ

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 22:54:28 GMT

Post about accessing the powerful features that LightSpeed offers through the new LINQ provider supplied with LightSpeed 2.0. Specifically this article deals with leveraging the powerful Named Aggregates feature and Soft Delete functionality.

"Velocity" project - memcached by Microsoft?

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:31:07 GMT

Is the Velocity project by Microsoft simply a me-too framework or are they creating real value for developers on the Windows platform?

LightSpeed 2.0 Released

Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:16:02 GMT

LightSpeed 2.0 has been released. It includes a full, round-tripping Visual Studio designer and support for LINQ!

Using the unit of work-per-request pattern in ASP.NET MVC

Tue, 13 May 2008 08:01:03 GMT

Describe a simple, efficient and testable approach to implementing the unit of work-per-request (a.k.a session-per-request) pattern in Microsoft's new ASP.NET MVC framework.

Slice - Collection Slicing Extension Method

Tue, 13 May 2008 08:46:02 GMT

A recreation of Python collection slicing in .NET using extension methods.

Cool WPF MulticolumnTreeview

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:01:02 GMT

Great, detailed article on using a WPF MulticolumnTreeview control to display complex, hierarchical data.

LightSpeed 2.0 Gets Visual Studio Designer

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 08:46:02 GMT

First it was LINQ support, now LightSpeed 2 gets a complete Visual Studio design experience.

Mindscape releases WPF Elements

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 02:01:04 GMT

WPF Elements is a suite of 12 controls that make WPF more approachable for developing line of business applications. Included is a MulticolumnTreeView (aka TreeListView) control, MaskedTextBox control, DateTime controls, Numeric text boxes and much more.

FormatWith 2.0 - String formatting with named variables

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 13:31:02 GMT

An improved version of the string FormatWith extension method. It now has the ability to also work with named variables, e.g. "{UserName} last logged in at {LastLoginDate}".FormatWith(user)

Silverlight 2.0 + OOXML = TextGlow

Thu, 06 Mar 2008 16:31:02 GMT

A Word 2007 document viewer built with Silverlight. An example of what is possible using the power of Silverlight 2.0.

Json.NET 2.0 Beta 2 (aka LINQ to JSON)

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 16:31:02 GMT

A huge update to Json.NET! Much improved syntax for creating and querying JSON objects.

LINQ to JSON beta

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 08:16:02 GMT

A beta release of Json.NET 2.0. New in 2.0 is a LINQ to JSON API.

VS 2008 Web Development Hot-Fix Roll-Up Available

Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:16:03 GMT

VS 2008 Web Development Hot-Fix Roll-Up Available, as posted to ScottGu's blog. Numerous fixes, including the "source code editor freeze" issue that a few people have experienced.

Using Ruby to generate LightSpeed models

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 23:16:02 GMT

The end of a 4 part series on creating a little ruby application to generate lightspeed models. It demonstrates usage and provides links to relevant information.

LightSpeed 1.2 Released

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:31:02 GMT

Mindscape released a new version of LightSpeed, their OR mapper. There are quite a lot of new features like more mapping options and a cool debugger visualizer that shows the queries being executed to get the data from the DB.

LINQ to XML over large documents

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 02:56:48 GMT

A look at one of the less talked about features of LINQ to XML: improvements with working over large documents. Has an example of how LINQ to XML combines the low memory usage of XmlReader with the easy of use of a XElement.

ASP.NET MVC Framework and December CTP of Extensions released

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 04:31:03 GMT

The ASP.NET MVC Framework is now available as part of the December CTP for the ASP.NET and ADO.NET 3.5 Extensions.