Exploring some of the cool things you can do with extension methods in C# 3.0.

I will be giving the following talks in November and December:

Coding: Get Back to the Basics

Abstract: In the ever-changing world of software development, we must constantly keep up with new technologies. In fact, so much time is spent absorbing new APIs, documentation and hype that we are often left with very little time to improve our coding skills. This session will some discuss general ways to improve code quality that apply to all languages. In addition, we’ll cover several ways to use C# 2.0 (and some future C# 3.0) features to create readable and elegant code.

November 15: Great Lakes Area .NET Users Group (GANG)
December 13: Dayton .NET Developers' Group (DDNDevGroup)

Getting to Know Generics

Abstract: Since the release of the .NET Framework 2.0, generics have been a hot topic. But, beyond the basic generic collection classes, they can be challenging to understand and use properly. This session delves into less-obvious uses of generics to create elegant and flexible code. Topics covered include defining generic types and methods, consuming generics and generic constraints. Along the way, we will explore some of the pitfalls of generic development and highlight some of the lesser-known generic nuggets found in the .NET Framework.

Novement 29: Findlay Area .NET Users Group (FANUG)

Feel free to drop by if you're in the area and throw some popcorn.

Today I was iterating a List<int> using a foreach loop and feeling a bit smug in knowing how much more performance-conscious I was being than if I'd tried doing the same thing with an ArrayList filled with ints. Thanks to the wonder of generics, the C# compiler neatly avoids numerous boxing operations by using a System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator<int> instance instead of the older System.Collections.Generic.IEnumerator. Then I got to thinking: "is this really the fastest way?" Upon investigation, it turns that, no, it isn't the fastest way.

Microsoft has released the first Community Technology Preview of the next version of Visual Studio here.

Note that this download is not for the faint of heart. According to this screenshot taken from the webpage mentioned above, it will take approximately 6.25 days to download with a 56K modem. Fortunately, with my bad-boy DSL, I got a 313 KB download rate and it only took about three hours.



There is one other catch: after you download this massive thing, there is yet another download containing the base operating system for the VPC machine. That download is another 1.1 GB. I'm nearly finished downloading this last chunk now. I'll post here if I have any trouble installing.

OK. I admit it. I have a problem: I am an iTunes junkie. It's always had its share of annoyances but not enough to keep me from using its clean and simple interface. Thanks to yesterday's release of iTunes 7, most of the minor problems are gone. A lot of the press is going to the new feature-length film and game support. But, in my opinion, its the little improvements that make this the best release yet.

The word is out. Thanks to Carl Franklin at PWOP Productions, Mark Miller now has his very own podcast called Millahseconds. This could very well be the end of Mark's professional career.

Of course this might be a very good thing for me. One way to increase your chances of a promotion is to get a job directly beneath the most publicly insane person in your field. I have the distinct privilege of having this position. Perhaps this is the beginning of vertical movement up the corporate ladder for me? Only time will tell...

To me, enums in the .NET Framework 2.0 don’t feel like a polished feature. Writing serious code with them is a descent into typecasting madness filled with the maniacal laughter of bitwise ands and ors. Maybe the problem is that they are considered "good enough" or simply "not interesting enough" to improve. I mean, what’s more exciting to a compiler writer: enumerations or generics and lambda expressions? It’s possible that enums haven’t been improved simply because of time constraints or resources. But, in my humble opinion, it’s high time they deserved some love. In this article, I offer up my list of potential improvements for .NET enums. When possible, I present workarounds to implement the improvements with the current or next version of the .NET framework.

Responding to a user's comments about a warning raised by Microsoft's Code Analysis tool in Visual Studio Team System.

After this evening's Northwest Ohio .NET User Group meeting, Jason Follas and I met up at Tony Packo's for a bit of post-meeting hangtime. In our conversation, Jason admitted his frustration at not being able to write code like this using C# generics...

This article gives an overview of how to achieve a rich-debugging experience when Visual Studio itself is the debuggee. By the time we’re through, you'll be debugging Visual Studio in mixed-mode (with both native and managed code debuggers), getting full call stacks with symbols from the IDE itself and watching exceptions that occur in the IDE but are never marshaled across to the managed world. With these tools, you will gain insights that will lead to better-informed solutions to any hair-pulling bugs that you're struggling with.

I am officially the last person in the entire universe to jump on the blogging bandwagon. For many months, my friends have been asking me what the link to my blog is. My colleagues have complained about my apparent lack of Internet presence. Heck, even my trophy wife has expressed concern. Today, gentle reader, this all changes. I now boldy stand in the ranks with all bloggers everywhere.

I wish to offer my humble thanks to Jason Follas for helping me get this set up. I'll be honest and say that I'm pretty much an idiot when it comes to web development but, fortunately, Jason is an expert.