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Limes ARE Lime Green
It's sometimes interesting to think about the decisions that went into the software that we use. There is an interesting article or two on the design decisions surrounding the Start menu in Windows Vista . These large design decisions are very interesting and have far-reaching impacts. It's fascinating to me to think about everything that is involved in deciding what word should describe something...
Null Child Object After Deserialization
I have been running into a situation a lot lately, especially with applications that utilize WCF services. Specifically, it deals with deserialization, so I wanted to write up a little bit about what I have found and some best practices. Problem Consider the following scenario. You have the following object, defined in your WCF service: [DataContract] public class Programmer { [DataMember] public List<...
Debugging Windows Services is a Pain
If you are taking time out to read this post, you have probably experienced the pain of debugging windows services. When I first started writing windows services, I looked far and wide for a solution that would allow me to hit the ol' F5 button in Visual Studio and be able to run everything fine. If you believe Microsoft's advice , it's not possible. The MSDN article on the subject suggests a six step...
Learning WCF Basics
In my last article I told you that I've been learning Windows Communication Foundation. I have a system for learning about technologies like this (a loose system, I'll give you). My system has two steps: Read lots of articles that go over the basics of the technology Try and put together some samples that show me more about the performance metrics I could read a book from cover to cover (and do often...
Dynamic Type Composition at Runtime
I've been diving deep into some emerging technologies lately. One of the areas of interest to me has been Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and all of the goodies that comes with that in the .NET Framework 3.0. When I learn about a new technology, I typically like to learn the basics and then start out by really putting the technology through its paces. One of the new serialization classes...
Provider Patterned Solutions Explained
Nic accused me of having explained provider pattered solutions fairly well. Looking back on my post on the subject I realized no one would get anything from that other than my random babbling on the subject. What Providers Can Do (Visual Edition) To start, I'd like to take the opportunity to show what the provider pattern is to me. Let's say that you have an application that parses files and...
The Provider Pattern Is Not Just For ASP.NET
I have to admit that I have drank deep from the cool-aid pitcher that is the Provider Pattern . I love it for so many different reasons but there is a major misconception that is bandied about on the interwebs that I think should be clarified. The Provider Pattern is not just for ASP.NET websites. In my job I have to write a lot of software that runs as a background process which makes me pretty much...
The Black Art of Debugging
I have only once in my life seen a true master of debugging at work. It is an art form that few programmers take the time to really learn. It's viewed as more of a necessary evil only to be done in the most dire situations. I'm guilty of this on occasion, but no more! I've resolved to practice this as much as possible. I found a few resources on line (and by few, I mean very few), but Doug...
Codesmith BuildProvider
I found a reference on Scott Watermasysk's blog about a project called " SubSonic " on CodePlex. I watched the video demo for the project and I was very impressed with quite a few things here. First off, the DAL that SubSonic generates is top notch. I think it's very flexible and a lot of programmers will like the flexibility that it provides. This is not what caught my eye, though...
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