July 2003 - Posts

• Wow... Lots of changes for .NET Weblogs

  Wow.... I'm gone from blogging for a week and everything changes!  Though it's not evident to non weblogs.asp.net people, ScottW did a lot of work on the administration stuff for our weblog.  It looks great!  Nice job Scott... BTW, I'm writing this from a linux box (though very indirectly).  I'm running RedHat 9, using cisco vpn to access my internal network.  Once I've logged in, I'm using rdesktop to login to my Windows XP box at work, which has IE 6 installed, which I'm using to write this blog post... I love open source software!   Posted Jul 29 2003, 09:38 PM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• One reason why Gyro rocks

  If anyone saw Don Box's post today on delegates being the monikers of .NET (excellent article by the way), they may have seen a preview into the future.  Check out the code sample from Don's article: public sealed class Tester2 {     static IEnumerable<object> Generate(Predicate p) {       List<object> list = new List<object>();       foreach (object o in MyGoop) {           if (p(o))             list.Add(o);       }       return list;     } }   Anyone see the cool template code? If you've never used templates in C++ or Gyro, they are designated by the <> after a type reference. Very cool! I've been messing with Gyro for a while now, primarilly because I know it's the working draft for templates in Whidby. I can't wait for templates in C#. I am so sick of casting and writing "collection classes". Whoo Hoo!!!!! If anyone is interested in learning more about generics in the CLR, take a look at the generics add on for Rotor @ http://gyro.sscli.net/. Posted Jul 21 2003, 10:17 PM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• Initial PDC Sessions listing...

  is up on the PDC website.  Brad asks "what are your top 3 must attend sessions?"  Well, since you asked:  CLR Under the Covers: "Whidbey" CLR Internals  .NET Framework: Exploring What's New in the Base Class Library for "Whidbey"  File System and Storage Advances in "Longhorn": Overview I'll probibly skip any sessions related to ASP.NET (I'm not a big web guy), or mobility (that's Mark's thing). P.S. Scoble, do me a favor; Make sure we leave the PDC with bits!   Posted Jul 20 2003, 11:14 PM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• Avoiding Stack Overflow

  Charles has a hilarious post on his weblog about his internal stack overflowing when assigned more than 2 tasks.  Upon the arrival of the 3rd task, he experiences a stack overflow...  Near the end of the day, the boss walked up to my desk and asked me how a third task (that had neatly slipped my mind) was progressing. What I experienced could only be described as a stack overflow. The attempt to add the third task to my stack caused the whole mess to fall over, leaving me babbling like an idiot for a few seconds while I tried to reconstruct enough state to allow me to provide an intelligent response. Funny Stuff!  Turns out since my move to the Architecture Team a couple months ago, I've had to up my stack frame size to about 6 before my brain turns to mush... Unfortunately, a stack frame of this size means my productivity as a developer has hit an all time low! [Listening to: Acumen Nation - Liquid Hater] Phil: thanks for letting me know I forgot to link Charles' blog.  I guess I was in the middle of a context switch when I posted this item =) Posted Jul 20 2003, 10:36 PM by dbrowning with 2 comment(s)

• Java Extreme Programming Cookbook

  I stopped by the local Borders on Monday and picked up this book after previewing it on Safari.  Great book!  About 95% of it is applicable to .NET, so I suggest anyone whose interested in agile methods go by and pick up a copy. Speaking of Safari, we've got a enterprise license of Safari online and I absolutely love it!  If anyone reading this doesn't know what safari is, go check it out for yourself.  Membership is cheap, and it's nirvana for a book junkie like me! [Listening to: Ohgr - Dog]   Posted Jul 16 2003, 09:58 PM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• Got the beta 1 invite today...

  Needless to say, I'm stoked!  I've been waiting to get my hands on these bits ever since I first read about Yukon a year ago.  The bad news is that the download isn't actually available yet, so I'm in a wait state.  Of course, due to NDA this will be my one and only blog about it; but I was so exicted I had to share.... By the way: Thanks MD! [Listening to: Ohgr - HiLo]   Posted Jul 16 2003, 09:49 PM by dbrowning with 2 comment(s)

• I'm Back...

  ... From vacation in the Keys.  Man, I'm not ready to go back to work!  After several days on the beach, I'm stuck in weekend mode... Oh well, time to get back to reality... Posted Jul 08 2003, 08:19 PM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• The Longhorn Backlash...

  Sam blogs about how Windows 2k3 is getting lost because of the buzz surrounding Longhorn, which as many people point out, doesn't ship until maybe 2005 (6?).  I think I know why this is happening. If you don't know it yet, Win2k3 is great!  I'll never switch back to an old Win2K server, but I think the reason why people are buzzing about Longhorn is because it's the next thing. For most of us, we've been using Win2K3 for months (maybe up to a year or more), due to its fairly long beta cycle.  Most of us have been testing it (e.g. playing with the new features) for so long that when it officially shiped it was kind of anti-climatic. So whats next on the OS horizon?  Longhorn.  Naturally being the tech geeks that developers tend to be,  a lot of us are putting our focus on it.  I'm not trying to deminish the importance of Win2k3, I'm just excited about the next round of Windows OS technology. Posted Jul 03 2003, 10:42 AM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• Exchange 2003 RTMs

  Wow... I signed up for the 7 day trial of Outlook Web Access after hearing Tosh brag about it, and I have to say, it is nice.  Check it out for yourself at http://www.microsoft.com/exchange/evaluation/ti/trial/OWA.asp.  The signup is a piece of cake. Every now and again I'm forced to use OWA that was part of the current version of exchange and it is a painful experience every time! Nice job guys! [Listening to: Download - III Steps Forward] Posted Jul 02 2003, 09:48 AM by dbrowning with 1 comment(s)

• On Designing Good Libraries

  Brad Abrams posted a great list of library design guidelines.  You should go check it out.  Think of it as a bulleted list version of the .NET Framework Class Guidelines. By the way, if you've never read the .NET Framework Class Guidelines shame on you!  Every install of .NET includes them in the following directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET 2003\SDK\v1.1\Tool Developers Guide\docs (assuming you installed .NET in the default location of course). Anyway, not only does this directory contain the Class Guidelines, but it is chock full of information that anyone using .NET should know.  Topics include: CLR Debugging Services (which I really need to read) A summary of the Common Language Infrastructure, and an in depth discussion of the Common Language Spec, Common Type System and Virtual Execution System. An extremely detailed description of Common Intermediate Language An exaustive look at metadata and how it works. About a billion other topics related to .NET, the execution engine, and other CLR internals So next time you're thinking of spending 50 bucks at Amazon.com on a .NET book, go print out one of these Word docs.  I guarantee it'll save you a few bucks! [Listening to: The Prodigy - The Fat of the Land]   Posted Jul 01 2003, 09:02 PM by dbrowning with no comments