DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by grantg81

Back to Basics: Generics

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 15:01:12 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.

Using .NET for Mobile Applications

Thu, 10 Jul 2008 13:16:11 GMT

30 .NET mobile applications done in 30 days.

This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things, People

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:46:13 GMT

A brief discussion of the Rob Conery TDD backlash, and what it says about open-source on .NET, and the community at large.

Developing Kigg - Part 1

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:46:02 GMT

Learn how to develop a Digg-like application with ASP.NET MVC, LINQ to SQL and ASP.NET AJAX. The first part of the article goes here.

A Physics Engine for XNA, Silverlight and .NET

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 21:01:04 GMT

Farseer is a free 2D physics engine to use in your XNA, Silverlight or.NET projects. It allows you to easily add multiple collision algorithms as well as a number of dynamic interactions from joints to fluid drags.

Visual Studio Express 2008 Versions Download for everyone!

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 12:46:02 GMT

Here anyone can download the express versions!

VisualSVN Server

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 16:31:11 GMT

The guys that already made VisualSVN, a plugin that integrates into Visual Studio and provides a way to manage your source code changes into Subversion, just realized VisualSVN Server.

15 -hot- tools that made me a coding Paris Hilton.

Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:31:03 GMT

Look good while doing things the easy way. 15 tools I use every day that make me a "hot" coder. You sling code every day. So do I. You sit down at your box, throw on those noise canceling headphones, fire up some mp3s, and get jiggy wit' it. That's hot. But could it be hotter?

Speed up inserting records into database with SqlBulkCopy class

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 22:31:02 GMT

When you need to insert a great deal of rows into database...

Strings on Steroids

Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:31:02 GMT

Here's an extension on the String class in .net using C# 3.0 extension methods. Thanks to Brad Vincent

URL Rewriting in ASP.NET without using HTTPHandlers or ISAPI.

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 03:01:02 GMT

How to perform URL Rewriting by writing a custom HTTPModule. This technique even works on shared hosting plans.

OpenWinForms - open source windows forms and controls

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 15:46:02 GMT

OpenWinForms is a open source website for windows forms and controls. Here you can find windows controls and libraries for free. This is a non-commercial open source web site. This site mainly focuses on Microsoft technologies e.g. Microsoft .net, VB.net, C#.net etc. You may use these for any commercial or non-commercial purpose for free.

Copying and pasting rectangular blocks of code in Visual Studio and Ma

Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:46:02 GMT

Did you know that the Visual Studio and Management Studio editors allow you to copy and paste rectangular areas of code (not just lines of code)? This blog demonstrates how. Very handy when copying and pasting variable names!

Setting Form Values Automatically with SubSonic

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:31:02 GMT

Time saving code to set form values automatically from a SubSonic Active Record object

SubSonic LoadFromPost Method

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 18:01:02 GMT

A time saving tip for SubSonic.

.NET Framework 3.5 Is Shared Source

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:46:25 GMT

Microsoft's .NET Framework 3.5 is going to be released open source.

.NET 2.0 Data Structures

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 06:31:02 GMT

The .NET 2.0 framework includes many data structures that go unnoticed by many developers. Additionally, there are very powerful data structures that are not part of the base class library, but are very efficient when used in the right situation. This is a great article that (re)demonstrates a very important topic that many of us have forgotten since college.

How to design a Fluent Interface

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:16:02 GMT

How to design Fluent Interfaces and why it's important to know about this pattern.

15+ Free Visual Studio Add-Ins

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:16:02 GMT

After some extensive researching (Googling), I've compiled this list of 15+ FREE Add-ins for Visual Studio 2005. Some of these add-ins will help improve the quality of your code, while others will help you code faster, however, none are guaranteed to help you get with the ladies.

Reverse Engineering with Reflector and Reflexil

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 18:31:01 GMT

I've always been a big fan of Reflector, allowing me to have a look in assemblies to learn new things, debug in case of problems and provide useful information when creating bug reports. Combined with the Reflexil Add-in it's now easy to also modify assemblies yourself.

11 Visual Studio 2005 IDE Tips and Tricks to Make More Productive

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 08:01:02 GMT

Here are 11 tips and tricks for getting things done faster with the Visual Studio 2005 IDE (without using third-party add-ins or upgrading hardware...). Yes, some of these tips and tricks may fall into the "obvious" category, but I think they are worth repeating. Thee are too many .NET developers not taking advantage of even the basic time-saving techniques.

Brute Force? I Guess I'll Just Use SubSonic Then...

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 12:31:03 GMT

Hand written sql versus SubSonic? SubSonic wins hands down...

Phil Haack to join ASP.NET team

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 07:16:01 GMT

Only good things can come from this

StringBuilder is not always faster

Tue, 18 Sep 2007 05:01:02 GMT

Here is something you may not know about string concatenation: StringBuilder is not always faster.

Attention: PHP executes twice as fast when it's run on ASP.NET

Mon, 10 Sep 2007 08:46:02 GMT

Phalanger, the tool for compiling PHP into .NET binaries, can improve the execution speed of PHP5 applications twofold. In addition it extends PHP5 so that it can incorporate portions of the .NET framework and it allows for Visual Studio integration.