Ernst Wolthaus : .NET related

Threading in C#

Ernst Wolthaus — Wed, 23 Aug 2006 22:50:00 GMT

I stumbled across this site: http://www.albahari.com/threading/
It offers a nice free e-book on threading in C#. I haven't had time to read it but it looks quite good.

Greetz,
Ernst

Transactions on common types

Ernst Wolthaus — Sun, 13 Nov 2005 23:16:00 GMT

A collegue of mine directed my attention to the following:

Juval Lowy created a nice framework on 2.0 which enables you to do transactions on common types.
So rolling back local variables when exceptions or issues occur! True error handling… J

Love it!

Free Book - Introducing Visual Basic 2005 for Developers

Ernst Wolthaus — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 09:45:00 GMT

If you're interested in anything .NET-ish (or anything free ), then you might wanna download this free Visual Basic 2005 book.

db4objects - A rising star!

Ernst Wolthaus — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 08:19:00 GMT

Robert Jan some time ago blogged about DB4O. And I've been following their progress ever since.

You really should take a look at DB4O. It's cool technology!

You open a database like this:

db = Db4o.openFile(@"c:\db4otest\database\test.dbo");

Now suppose I have a Object: Person.

Person P1 = new Person();
P1.Name = "John";

Person P2 = new Person();
P2.Name = "Peter";

Now I want so persist it to the database:

db.set(P1);
db.set(P2);

That's it! How simple do you want it to be...?!
No defining tables, constraints, etc. Everything is done in objects.

This is how is always should have been! If you want to work in a OO environment, you shouldn't have to deal with relational stuff like tables and constraints.

It takes some time to get used to... it takes a 'new mindset' to work with DB4O, because we're all so used to thinking in relational patterns when it comes to data access.

From their newsletter:
The open source benchmark PolePosition (www.polepos.org) is a great platform to learn about the specific performance of persistence solutions in object-oriented environments. Earlier this year, published results showed that db4o outperforms a Hibernate/MySQL stack by 3-44x, for instance, depending on the task at hand, clearly illustrating that adding an object-relational mapper to the stack does seriously degrade performance. db4o should be considered whenever performance is critical.

I know there's still some work to be done...
I miss some good tools like a kind of Enterprise Manager and a reporting tool.

But the guys from DB4O are getting there!

There’s More to Java vs. .NET Than Technology

Ernst Wolthaus — Thu, 23 Jun 2005 07:54:00 GMT

A new colleague of mine, Raynni Jourdain (LogicaCMG, Arnhem), pointed me towards this article about Java vs. .NET.

In short, it says .NET for projects that have ease-of-use, need quick time to market and a lifespan of 2-5 years and Java for more complex projects, scalability and a lifespan of 5-10 years.
I'm not a Java expert, but I think I disagree...

Why couldn't you build complex projects with .NET? I think you can...!

When it comes to .NET vs Java, the words of an classic Irving Berlin song come to mind:
“Anything you can do, I can do better
I can do any thing better than you...“

With .NET, you can build reliable, fast, complex solutions, just as well (in fact, even better, because of the better tools available) as with Java/J2EE.

I see one problem, however....

A lot of times, MS (Microsoft) technology is used to rush to get results fast. And MS technology gives this ability.
MS projects are quicker to market but (because of the rush) sometimes suffer some quality issues.
On the other hand, when using Java/J2EE, it is accepted that development takes longer because it's more 'complex'...
And so it becomes a selffullfilling prophecy (try typing that without a typo ;-)) that Java is more robust...

If managers and business would deal with MS projects the same as with Java projects (time and budget), the MS consultants would get the chance to prove MS technology is ready for complex, enterprise-level solutions.

What do you think?

Nice and usefull links

Ernst Wolthaus — Wed, 18 May 2005 14:11:00 GMT

WSDL Tool
A collegue of mine, Erwyn van der Meer, pointed to a nice and usefull WSDL tool from ThinkTecture. If you have a WSDL file, you can use this WSDL to generate the webservice code so you start testing before the actual webservice is on-line!

Usefull stuff
At IDesign, there's a lot of usefull stuff on this page.
You should really take some time to browse through the page, because there's always something that you can use.

Rocking tool
Take a look at this tool: ASP.NET Development Helper.
Combining serverside components with clientside components, this tool could be really usefull for your web projects.
It gives you all kinds of info on a webpage like debug- and trace info. Good test tool!

Enjoy!

Aren't we all coding for fun?!

Ernst Wolthaus — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:33:00 GMT

New MSDN section: Coding4Fun

Designing .NET Class Libraries

Ernst Wolthaus — Tue, 12 Apr 2005 11:54:00 GMT

Read this article on designing .NET Class Libraries....

About a week ago we had a discussion on the Microsoft mailinglist @ LCMG about whether or not to combine several assemblies into one assembly. Maybe this article will help you decide what the best option is for you.

Cheers!

Introducing Indigo: An Early Look

Ernst Wolthaus — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 08:31:00 GMT

David Chappell has published a paper on Indigo on the MSDN Web Services Development Center.

It's good reading and contains a few nice simple examples to feel right at home in Indigo...

I like it, I like it...

Microsoft Windows Forms FAQ

Ernst Wolthaus — Mon, 07 Feb 2005 11:48:00 GMT

Even Microsoft loves the Windows Forms FAQ by George Shepherd. Als you can see in this Windows Forms FAQ from Microsoft, they used a lot of stuff from his FAQ...

As you can see, Microsoft also introduces a FAQ for Windows Forms 2.0.

And if you want to know what the new features are gonna be in 2.0, here's the list...

BTW:
These FAQ's are placed under the Smart Client Developer Center... Why?
Is Microsoft dropping the term Winform in favour of Smart Client technology? There's more to Winforms than Smart Client technology...
Or are we witnessing another marketing strategy from Microsoft?

George Shepherd's Windows Forms FAQ

Ernst Wolthaus — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 15:27:00 GMT

A lot of you know the George Shepherd's Windows Forms FAQ.
You can find it at http://www.syncfusion.com/FAQ/WinForms/

It's also available at http://64.78.52.104/FAQ/WinForms/default.asp

To prevent from losing this information when George decides to end it all together I decided to download the pages and make them usable offline (asp -> html). So, here they are...

[update 7 feb 2005]
In case you're wondering: Syncfusion has been so very kind to give me permission to do this.

Infopath rocks!

Ernst Wolthaus — Fri, 04 Feb 2005 12:15:00 GMT

A client recently expressed their wish to use electronic forms for their representatives. The reps would have to take these forms on their laptops, travel around Europe, and be able to send the data in the forms back to a webservice at HQ, when connected to the internet.

This requirement triggered me into researching Infopath for a while. Although I'm not an Infopath expert, I now know enough to see that this new addition to Office has a lot of potential!

What's Infopath?

Suppose you have XML documents and you want other people to enter data. Of course, you don't want to let the users enter data in XML in something like Notepad.
That's where Infopath steps in...
With Infopath, you can create a form-like document as a kind of wrapper around the XML. Now the user can enter data, just like in a regular webapp or winform app.

Infopath lets you use events to check submitted data and use Jscript to create a lot of extra functionality. When the user submits the form, you can send the XML data straight to a webservice or sharepoint, you can send the XML via e-mail or you can even use custom code to handle the submit.

There's a SDK for Infopath that works with VS 2003. When installed, you can handle all required actions with C#. Yeah baby!

You can send a Infopath form (.xsn) to someone else, he/she opens the form, fills out the data, do some stuff with .NET and finally press submit, and voila, the data arrives back at your webservice.

How cool is that! I gotta tell you, this new Infopath really rocks!
Especially with .NET integration, I see a lot of potential.

And it's not a premature product. As a dutch company, you can even use an Infopath form to do your income tax!

check out the Micosoft product info and the Infopath team blog.

Free (just like we Dutch like it)

Ernst Wolthaus — Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:50:00 GMT

Googling for some info I hit this site with all kinds of free chapters, from elementary C# to the lesser known GraphicsPaths.

All samples so free for download.
As we say in Dutch: “us bin zuunig“ (“we're stingy“).

Spot the difference

Ernst Wolthaus — Wed, 12 Jan 2005 09:47:00 GMT

Frans Bouma already wrote some stuff about the delay of WinFS.
WinFS probably won't be present in Longhorn for a long while.

Hmmm...
Especially interesting since I've just recently read this article about SOA on MSDN.
It's also downloadable as Word doc.

Now, can you find the difference?
I'll make it easy for you.
On page 11 of the Word doc you'll read:

“WinFS,” the code-name for the next-generation storage platform in “Longhorn,” is one key innovation that will make “Longhorn” critical to your connected systems strategy. This new structured file system will permit schematized storage of information using an extensible type system. Microsoft will deliver initial support for common types and encourages development groups to schematize the information their applications use for greater reusability of critical organizational information. “WinFS” will greatly reduce the cost of replicating service information for local and offline manipulation.

Now try to find the word “WinFS” in the webbased article...

I guess Microsoft forgot the remove this section in the webpage

WYCIWYP (What You Copy is What You Paste)

Ernst Wolthaus — Wed, 22 Sep 2004 09:50:00 GMT

Do you also find it annoying that Visual Studio (VS) always adds ID's and Names to certain HTML tags when you copy/paste?

Like this:

INPUT type=hidden value=1

Copy/paste this in VS and you get:

INPUT id=Hidden1 type=hidden value=1 name=Hidden1

Now, that's quite annoying...
And there's no way to turn this 'feature' off in VS, even more annoying...

So, I turned to Google and found this add-in for VS:

http://www.codeproject.com/macro/wiicwgp.asp

Works very nicely! Has become a standard add-in for me ;-)