DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by mikeon

7 of Hardest Things I Learned About Writing Software

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 10:31:04 GMT

Learning to write code is not that hard. With a book, Google, and a little free time just about anyone can hack something together. However, to become a good software developer you need a passion to constantly and continually learn.

.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.

Utilities.NET 1.0 released

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 20:46:02 GMT

Utilities.NET is a collection of helper classes and components for quickly solving common .NET programming tasks.

BlogEngine.NET needs translators

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:31:03 GMT

We are just about to ship the next release, but we need help translating a resource file (.resx). If you can, please help out. You will be credited with name and URL on the official BlogEngine.NET website.

Open Type Macro In Visual Studio

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:35:14 GMT

Second article on working with macros in Visual Studio. This time I present to you, a very useful macro: OpenType. It allows you to open a file that contains a type with a given name. Code included as always :-)

Open File Macro In Visual Studio

Sat, 22 Sep 2007 14:31:13 GMT

Do you know how to use Visual Studio macros? Today I describe how to write and use a Visual Studio macro for opening files found in the solution.

Quickly Find/Open a File in Visual Studio

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 16:16:01 GMT

A quick way to find and open files in a large solution in Visual Studio that very few people know about. Other people have created addins to do this without even realizing the functionality was already there.

Using SingleTagSectionHandler Instead Of appSettings

Thu, 06 Sep 2007 15:31:02 GMT

As an alternative to appSettings you can use SingleTagSectionHandler to store settings in a web.config file. Learn how.

Easily Test Custom Controls Inside of Visual Studio

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 01:16:01 GMT

Here's a quick way easily test and debug your custom WinForms controls right inside of Visual Studio without having to launch your entire application.

Use DebuggerDisplay attribute for Easier Debugging

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:31:02 GMT

Did you know that you can appply DebuggerDisplay attribute to a class or member to determine how it is displayed in the watch window. It's quick, it's easy, and it really works!

CodeFileBaseClass Attribute And Generic Types

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:59:20 GMT

Ever wanted to declaratively set properties of you Page class in a Page directive like you do with Title? It can be done with a use of CodeFileBaseClass. But what about generics? How to handle them? Read on.

RegularExpressionValidator - Do Not Repeat Yourself

Wed, 11 Jul 2007 06:31:03 GMT

Best Practice for working with RegularExpressionValidator controls.

Getting MS SQL Server Database Dump

Thu, 05 Jul 2007 01:23:23 GMT

How to get a dump of SQL Server 2000/2005 database. The Database Publishing Wizard.

Event Handler Code Snippet

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 13:05:19 GMT

A code snippet for creating Event Handlers in C#.

DebuggerTypeProxyAttribute - Attribute That Helps

Tue, 03 Jul 2007 08:57:16 GMT

Description of an attribute that allows you to create "views" of your types that are then used by Visual Studio debugger. A useful find!

Working With Web.config And App_Code

Mon, 25 Jun 2007 09:23:43 GMT

Few things to know when working with Web.config and App_Code directory. What is the assembly name for App_Code classes, how to use controls defined there etc.

How To Writer br Without Writing br

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 11:36:16 GMT

On using HtmlTextWriter object with HtmlTextWriterTag enumeration and how to writer <br /> without using literal "<br />" string.

Good Practice For Working With ASP.NET Controls

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 05:01:01 GMT

A good practice that I'm using when working with ASP.NET controls that saves me a lot of work.

Anonymous Methods vs Threads

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:46:01 GMT

What happens when you combine anonymous methods and threads - a things you need to be aware or you will encounter a strange behavior that will be hard to explain.

Don't use the ThreadPool in ASP.NET

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 05:01:01 GMT

You can use the ThreadPool in exactly the same way in ASP.NET and it works just as you would expect. The problem is not in the ThreadPool itself but in what else ASP.NET uses it for at the same time.

Getting All Controls On The ASP.NET Page

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 08:01:01 GMT

How to get all controls on a page in a recursive way - FlattenHierarchy method and what you can do with it.

Working With Asynchronous WebRequests

Mon, 18 Jun 2007 04:16:01 GMT

Do you knowh how to handle multiple asynchronous WebRequests? Do you know why the obvious way doesn't work?

String.IsNullOrEmpty can lead to runtime Null exceptions!

Tue, 19 Jun 2007 15:31:01 GMT

The author shows a flaw in String.IsNullOrEmpty of the .NET 2.0. Microsoft replies that this bug won't be fixed until Orcas. (see bug report at: http://connect.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=113102 )

Think twice before using any third-party assemblies

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:46:02 GMT

A lot of people have asked me why we don't use third-party assemblies in BlogEngine.NET, so I thought it was about time to explain why.

The DIV Tag Around Hidden ASP.NET Input Fields

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:31:01 GMT

How to get rid of the div tag that gets generated around hidden ASP.NET input fields? Is it at all possible? Yes, but not in a way one would expect.