Fabrice's weblog

Architecte, architecture et événements

Let's do it in french for a change...

Une fois n'est pas coutûme : quelques nouvelles pour les francophones férus d'architecture.

La parution de septembre du magazine Programmez présente le métier d'architecte logiciel, notamment à l'aide de l'avis d'acteurs du domaine. Dépêchez-vous car le numéro d'octobre arrive...

Deux conférences/symposiums/séminaires gratuits à ne pas manquer :

• Le symposium DotNetGuru du 9 octobre. (un peu tard pour s'inscrire, désolé)
• CTO's Days du 18 novembre proposé par BrainSonic : Modélisation et Architecture au coeur des systèmes d'information.

WinForms debate

The WinForms debate on Chris Frazier's weblog and mine showing some heat-up generated many comments. The most interesting comments are those showing that the WinForm team is listening: among the comments you'll find replies from Brian Pepin.

How to find out what's running inside that out-of-control Services.exe or Svchost.exe

For Windows XP: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314056

To view the list of services that are running in Svchost:

1. Click Start on the Windows taskbar, and then click Run.
2. In the Open box, type CMD, and then press ENTER.
3. Type Tasklist /SVC, and then press ENTER.

 For Windows 2000: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;250320

 To view the list of services that are running in Svchost:

1. From the Windows 2000 installation CD's Support\Tools folder, Extract the Tlist.exe utility from the Support.cab file.
2. On the Start menu, click Run, and then type cmd.
3. Change folder to the location from which you extracted the Tlist.exe utility.
4. Type tlist -s.

[Scott Hanselman]

CodeSmith getting some press

Here are some recent articles about CodeSmith:

Interview with me on the Code Generation Network

Article on Tech Head Brothers about CodeSmith (In French)

Article on Developer.com referring to CodeSmith

Article on TechRepublic referring to CodeSmith

[Eric J. Smith]

Winforms compared to ASP.NET

I'm currently working with Winforms for a project, while my background on .NET is mostly web apps.

I won't be as severe as Christopher Frazier, but I too am disappointed with the windows forms. Winforms don't work at all like webforms. I knew beforehand that webforms and winforms were not close in design, but this reality strikes me now that I have to work with winforms.

Also, when working with winforms, it's not long before bugs or rough aspects appear. The DataGrid control is a good example of this.

Like Christopher, I'd like to drop a "note to the windows forms team": Microsoft tells us to build smart applications, mixing winforms and web technologies. I think it's good, we need this. But you have to help us, bring winforms and webforms closer!

Onions and code

Martin Spedding presents the onion approach as a way to mask complexity of development platforms to achieve simplicity without losing power when needed.

The problem I think is that in many ways what people really want is an "onion approach" to development. Very simple to start off with but one that provides immediate response and uses a simple syntax. However, one that grows with you, so that each time you remove another skin of the onion the complexity may increase but so does your flexibility.

I agree on the onion approach and the PDC.
Of course, .NET gets more and more powerful everyday, but this comes with increased complexity. I think a good way to hide the complexity (without losing the richness of the platform) is to use higher level frameworks. Those frameworks need to be oriented and dedicated to specific media and businesses (web, winform, content management, ...). They also need to be open enough to let the power developers dig deeper and take full advantage of the whole .NET platform.

Note: Surely enough, this does not apply to .NET only.

Securing ASP.NET: use a checklist

Using a checklist for this is an excellent way to make sure nothing is forgotten.

Now, who wants to create the tool that would validate this set of rules, please? ;-) (/me think FxCop like...)

NullableTypes for .NET

If you've worked with the Int32, DateTime, Decimal types in C#, you probably faced a little problem one day: these data types don't support the null value.

Stop grumbling! Don't search further, the solution exists : http://nullabletypes.sourceforge.net/

PS : If you never worked with the Int32, DateTime or Decimal types... you never used C#!!! ;-)

Data Access Application Block 3.0

A new realease of the DAAB is available. This version offers support for ADO.NET generic interfaces.

I need to check this out to see how they did it, see if we can use it, and compare it to what we did.

Progress report on web services and associated specifications

IBM and Microsoft give a progress report on web services and associated specifications:

One of the most useful articles about WS, ever.
Check this out, definitely. Recommended.

[Vittorio Bertocci]