Useful Utility functions in .Net a.k.a ‘Hidden Treasures’
It’s no secret that Microsoft’s is releasing the source for some of its core .Net classes in upcoming visual studio 2008. Before that arrives, the option to look at some of core classes is probably the .Net Reflector. Every now and then, when I want to find out how Microsoft implemented some of the functionalities in core classes, or if I want to learn better way to program, I use the reflector to dig through the core components. During these adventures, I have bumped into various classes and functions, that I thought were just too cool, and also unfortunate that most were internal only. One of my favorites is the VirtualPath class. However, during this quest I have also found that in some way or other the framework team did expose some great utility functions. Most developers aren’t aware of this, including myself and make the mistake of rewriting it. Thus, here’s a shot at exposing some of the cool Utility Classes and Functions (I have been using) that every .Net developer should know. (I hope to keep adding to this list, if anyone has other suggestions please feel free to add.)
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