Archives
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Quote of the Week
"The difference between theory and practice is that in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice, but in practice, there is." -
System.ComponentModel
With much of the Java and OO world discussing Inversion of Control (IoC) patterns, also dubbed "dependency injection" by Martin Fowler, its worth remembering that the .NET Framework has always included a "service locator" pattern which allows a component to access shared "services".
It can be used to support a pattern which provides a mechanism by which one can loosely-couple components - i.e. eliminate hard coded dependencies between objects. [For those lightweight container aficionados here, .NET's implementation provides for Type 1 (interface) IoC injection of a "Service Locator" into each .NET Component]
It's widely used in the Framework and in tools like Microsoft Visual Studio. For example, it underpins the Windows Forms Designer architecture, and it is the mechanism through which Windows Forms Controls inherit aspects of the underlying Form. You could use it to share say a particular ToolBar across Forms, but it goes much further than that - really to the heart of OO and how one can wire together objects without introducing hard-wired dependencies.
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Why Code Separation in .NET 2.0?
While Amanda Silver of Microsoft demonstrates code separation through partial types in a clip on Channel 9, I remain convinced that this is solely of use to those creating development tools and frameworks.
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PostXING Your Weblog
Chris Frazier has released a free weblog editing tool - PostXING - supporting the Metaweblog API. It's become my preferred application for creating and editing blog entries. Thanks Chris.
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Updated: MS Longhorn Release Dates
Updated 23-Jul-06: This topic is now out of date.
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What is the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture?
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing organizations and those seeking to facilitate systems within them is complexity. And that complexity has two facets:- content and process.
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Update: displaying the Gmail ATOM feed in your Web Browser
Update: you can download the script here and the script engine here. If your Gmail account name contains a 'dot', you should use the /a command line switch e.g. axscript /a:myaccount,mypassword gmail.csx
Transforming the Atom feed XML returned from Gmail to HTML and displaying the result in your web browser - makes the previous example somewhat more useful. -
Getting Unread Gmail as an Atom Feed in VB.NET
Gmail currently provides a list of unread emails in a subscriber's inbox as an Atom feed. While that may change in the future, the following Alintex Script code will retrieve and print the returned XML given a username and password.
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MSH vs IronPython
[See here for my original introduction to MSH]
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Quote of the Week
You know what I want for Christmas? Markup Barbie. You pull a string and she says "XML is tough".
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The Old Boys Club
Pascal is saying out loud what many in the community are thinking ...
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Update: Why Don't Most Windows Systems Have .NET Installed?
Perhaps Microsoft really does see .NET as only a web (and mobile) technology.
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OT: Free .info Domains
If your looking for up to 25 free .info domains - and free means no credit cards required - check out DomainSite.
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What is .NET?
Updated 23-Jul-06 (~2 years later): Added link to download .NET 2.0 Redistributable.
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OT: Gmail Invites Available
I have a number of Gmail invitations available if anyone would care for one (until they run out). -
A Plug-In Architecture for .NET
Implementing a plug-in architecture in .NET can be problematic due to the inability to unload an assembly from the primary AppDomain. Here are two possible alternatives:-
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Whidbey/Yukon Dates Slip
Updated ...
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COM+ versus Web Services
I thought I would include my response to a question recently posted on the Australian .NET Developers mailing list ...
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.NET Design Guidelines for Class Library Developers
Ken Brubaker is maintaining a useful list of new class library design guidelines as published by Brad Abrams [MS] on his weblog.
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Longhorn/Whidbey/Yukon Release Date Summary
This item is now out of date and no longer maintained.
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Visio UML Shapes
If you use Visio for UML, Pavel Hruby has a useful collection of interpretation free Visio UML stencils.
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Still in Love With VBScript and JScript?
Roy Osherove has written an interesting article on scripting in .NET, but it should be mentioned that there are issues that prevent you implementing a modern .NET integrated scripting solution within your application ...
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Directions on Microsoft
Directions on Microsoft have some useful articles and resources available online e.g. ...
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Why Don't Most Windows Systems Have .NET Installed?
It's an all too common response to the question of using .NET code.
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Can Sun Tempt Windows Developers?
Can Sun Java Studio Creator (formerly Project Rave) tempt Windows platform developers?
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Shared Code, the GAC and Applications
A recent developer mailing list discussion questioned the efficiency of shared code, suggested the GAC should never be used, and suggested that (enterprise) applications should never be installed on the client.
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Synthetic Feeds and Australian Bloggers
There has been some discussion recently in the Australian .NET community about creating an Australian community weblog server, so one could have an aggregated feed for Australian weblogs.
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Win32 to .NET Framework API Map
“This article identifies the Microsoft .NET Framework version 1.0 or 1.1 APIs that provide similar functionality to Microsoft Win32 functions. One or more relevant .NET Framework APIs are shown for each Win32 function listed.
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ASCII vs ANSI Encoding
A question posted on the Australian DOTNET Developer Mailing List ...