October 2004 - Posts
Peter Hallam created a really useful
parser for command line arguments, which has been
recently updated.
It parses command lines like the following one for you:
drinkmachine.exe /chilled /money:2 /drink:coke /drink:icedtea
It has a lot of options and can even automatically display the correct usage if needed.
I'd vote for its integration within the .NET Frawework.
Update: Stefan Demetz points out that there is a command line parser in
Genghis too.
From theserverside.net:
Microsoft has decided to delay the release of SQL Server 2005 from the first half of 2005 until later in the summer of that year. A Community Technical Preview will be released as an interim beta with possibly more to come before the final beta and the product’s eventual release.
As Visual Studio.NET 2005 is connected to SqlServer 2005 when it comes to release date, it's also delayed till later in 2005. Unless Microsoft decides to disconnect the two, however I don't think that will happen. All in all, a sad remark, as it will be even longer when must-have features like a working HTML editor/webform designer are available. 
[Frans Bouma]
I don't need all the clutter they are trying to put inside. All I need has been ready for months now, but they just won't release it!
Microsoft started showing and making promises about Whidbey, .NET 2.0 and all the stuff in early 2003...
SharpToolbox turns 600!
'nough said.
Now that Google Desktop Search is out (still beta), it's already time to improve the user experience ;-)
What you need to make Google Desktop even better is a Firefox/Mozilla search plug-in. As soon as it is installed, you can start searching your local machine right from Firefox.
Get the plug-in right now.
Let me know if everything's OK or if you have problems.
Reminder: you can also get plug-ins for SharpToolbox.
For a while, the Google AdSense service was a good source of revenue if you have a web site. From what I see with the SharpToolbox web site, and as others seems to say on the web, AdSense is paying less and less. Do you notice this as well?
I also noticed that AdSense is serving less paying ads, and more and more "public service ads". I may be wrong, but my guess is that as more web sites are running AdSense, less ads become available for each site. Another possibility is that people are becaming used to text ads, and don't click much anymore.
One thing I don't like about AdSense is that the stats they give you are pretty useless. Also, there is no apparent logic behind the revenue you get. You can get a lot of money one day, and nothing the day after for the same number of clicks.
One other thing that I don't like at all, is the following questionable part of the Terms and Conditions agreement: "You agree not to disclose click-through rates or other statistics relating to site performance in the program provided to you by Google". Is there something to hide here? What do you fear Google? How come the rules for revenue arithmetic are not public and don't seem deterministic?
Is AdSense becoming less interesting? If you use it, do you plan to move to another service?
I had met that one once, but I had forgotten it existed... Really useful! But somewhat a hidden treasure.
Thanks shaykatc for the tip about $exception:
In Visual Studio 2003, the debugger team put in a little feature called $exception. The next time you crash in C# or J# go ahead and dismiss the dialog. Open the locals window and take a peek at $exception there (chills are setting in right now). Expand it and you can see all the delightful things inside the Exception object - Messages, Stacktrace, Inner Exception etc - everything you would have gotten had you put a try catch around the code and caught the exception object. Is that cool or what?
I just discovered that Microsoft and Avanade are cooking new versions of the Application Blocks. They are to be packaged under the new Enterprise Library name.
Enterprise Library is a major new release of the patterns & practices Application Blocks, which are reusable software components designed to assist developers with common enterprise development challenges. Enterprise Library 1.0 will include blocks for Data Access, Exception Handling, Caching, Configuration, Logging & Instrumentation, Security and Cryptography, in a single integrated download. The Library will feature improved consistency, extensibility, integration and ease of use, and will include a GUI-based configuration editing tool, generally eliminating the need to hand-edit XML configuration files for the blocks.
Regarding Avanade's involvement and its ACA.NET framework:
Enterprise Library is being developed out of Microsoft and will be a patterns & practices deliverable. Microsoft has licensed parts of ACA.NET to use within Enterprise Library 1.0, but it will also include code from previous p&p application blocks as well as newly developed code. The project team includes a combination of Microsoft, Avanade and third-party developers. Avanade has plans to build a new version of ACA.NET which will be a superset of Enterprise Library, distributed through Avanade engagements. We are also beginning to work with other partners who may be building on and/or contributing to future versions of Enterpirse Library. However the core Enterprise Library will be a Microsoft deliverable, covered by a Microsoft EULA.
[Tom Hollander, Product Manager, Microsoft patterns & practices]
Right now, only preliminary documentation is available. Release is planned for "early 2005". You can learn more on the pattern & practices web site, and on the Enterprise Library GotDotNet workspace.
Some stats from the last eight months. These stats come from the SharpToolbox web site, so this is really just about techies' habits.
March:
| IE | 55.6% |
| RSS aggregators | 38.6% |
| Mozilla | 4.6% |
| Opera | 1% |
April:
| IE | 55.1% |
| RSS aggregators | 38.8% |
| Mozilla | 4.9% |
| Opera | 0.9% |
May:
| IE | 47.7% |
| RSS aggregators | 46.2% |
| Mozilla | 4.8% |
| Opera | 1% |
June:
| IE | 54.3% |
| RSS aggregators | 37.3% |
| Mozilla | 5.7% |
| Opera | 2.3% |
July:
| IE | 54.5% |
| RSS aggregators | 35.6% |
| Mozilla | 7.8% |
| Opera | 1.7% |
August:
| IE | 54.4% |
| RSS aggregators | 35.6% |
| Mozilla | 8.4% |
| Opera | 1.3% |
September:
| IE | 52.3% |
| RSS aggregators | 38% |
| Mozilla | 8.2% |
| Opera | 1.3% |
October:
| IE | 50.6% |
| RSS aggregators | 38.5% |
| Mozilla | 9.4% |
| Opera | 1.2% |
I wouldn't consided those numbers all that reliable, but I guess it's easy to see where developers are going :-)
Update: on the search engine field, it looks like Yahoo is getting close to 6%, MSN close to 3%, while Google remains at more than 90%.
Un petit mot pour que vous rappeler que vous passez votre journée de vendredi prochain avec nous au Symposium DotNetGuru...
Avec
Didier Girard, nous vous éclairerons sur
l'Inversion de Contrôle et les Conteneurs Légers.
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