DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by nihi_l_ist

return a = "hello"; What will Happen?

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:00:52 GMT

I came across an interesting piece of code the other day, something I didn't even know possible in C# - return a = "hello";. What do you think this line returns?

Say Goodbye to NAnt and MSBuild With IronRuby

Thu, 29 Apr 2010 06:45:52 GMT

Tired of writing tons of XML in order to create automated .NET builds? Well, look no further... IronRuby, Rake, and Albacore are here to rescue you!

PostSharp Going Commercial. Introducing Commercial.

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 15:00:00 GMT

Gael Fraiteur warmly thanks the PostSharp community for its support and announces the launch of SharpCrafters, the new company behind PostSharp. He explains the reasons behinds this choice and the new licensing/pricing model.

Free .NET Profilers and Some Paid Ones Too

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Profiling is an important part of your software development process and allows you to determine improvements in your applications. In simple words, it is tuning your application to increase its performance. Here are some free and paid .NET profilers to do the job for you

ReSharper 5.0 Overview

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT

As promised, we're publishing a general ReSharper 5.0 overview, elaborating on its feature set. Please keep in mind that this is a preliminary document. The general picture will stay unchanged, but local amendments cannot be ruled out at this point, and many user interface items will probably change.

Design Patterns - Using the Composite Pattern in C#

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:15:01 GMT

Composite Pattern enables a client to treat a single entity and a collection of entities in the same way. Frequently, developers create systems in which a component may be an object or a collection of objects. For example, an application that gathers metrics on the size of the files/folders in a file system would like to treat the folder and the file in the same way. A folder is either empty or composed of one or more files. The size of a folder is the size of the individual files that make the folder and the size of the file is the size of that individual file itself. The Composite Pattern is designed to accommodate such a requirement.

How to: "Kick It" or "Shout It" from Google Reader

Mon, 17 Aug 2009 02:00:00 GMT

Evernote published a Google Reader "Send To" "how to" today, and I showed DZone readers how to push items to DZone's queue yesterday. Here's how you can send stories to DotNetKicks or DotNetShoutout.

12 Tips To Speed-up Your Windows Forms Applications

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 20:45:00 GMT

Here is the list of my top suggestions and further reading recommendations on how to speed up your Windows Forms applications...

Windows 7 Code Pack v 1.0 Released

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:45:06 GMT

The Windows® API Code Pack for Microsoft® .NET Framework provides support for various features of Windows 7 and previous releases of that operating system. The Code Pack has reached version 1.0 and has been published on Code Gallery:

Overview of Visual Studio Team System 2010 for Developers (Part 2)

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:15:04 GMT

In the first part of this article we have seen some of the features which were present in VSTS 2008 but may have been enhanced in Team System 2010. In this second part we will study two new features which are added in Team System 2010.

Exception signatures - organize your exceptions

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:15:03 GMT

Unhandled exceptions in your websites and applications are often a strong indication that one of your users is having a bad experience. Treat exceptions as TODO-items and use exception signatures to keep track of them without being overwhelmed.

Bing Desktop Translator using C# and VB.NET

Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:45:00 GMT

n this article we will see how we can create a simple Desktop Translator which uses the Bing Translator API.

How to add "Open with reflector" to your right-click actions

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 23:45:00 GMT

A tip for convenience, this post provides instructions on how to easily add "Open with reflector" to your windows explorer right-click menu so you can right-click and open any DLL with reflector.

Having Fun with the New Editor in VS 2010

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 20:45:00 GMT

A brief demo of how easy it is to customize the new WPF-based text editor in VS 2010

LINQ is not LINQ To SQL

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:30:00 GMT

Justin writes about a frequent misconception about LINQ: LINQ is not just LINQ to SQL, but it's a general purpose query language

Asp.Net vs php : Speed Comparison

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 11:00:00 GMT

Why is the myth that php is faster than Asp.Net so prevalent? Asp.Net is faster than php, here are the facts. So many times I have heard php pushers claim that php is so much faster than Asp.Net and that Asp.Net is clunky and slow. The most annoying part is that everything I have read (that is not factless opinion), and I mean everything, says that this is wrong; but for some reason, this myth is widely accepted. It has become a religious argument that ignores the facts...

LINQ to SQL is NOT dead!

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:00:03 GMT

Ever since Microsoft announced that the Entity Framework was their ORM of choice, people everywhere have been saying, "LINQ to SQL is dead!" A lot of people feel like they're not allowed to use LINQ to SQL anymore and that they have to use Entity Framework instead. In fact, LINQ to SQL is not only alive and well, Microsoft has even announced LINQ to SQL improvements in .NET 4.0, including finally adding using ITable<T> for tables instead of Table<T>, which makes it much easier to test. Combine that with this open source tool that will create an IDataContext interface for you and you're on your way to testable LINQ to SQL. So no, LINQ to SQL is not dead!!

LINQ in Action samples available in LINQPad

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 10:15:00 GMT

In addition to being a great LINQ tool and C# and VB snippet IDE, LINQPad now integrates code samples from LINQ books. The first LINQPad-enabled book is LINQ in Action. This allows you to quickly and painlessly discover LINQ.

CodeSmith 5.1 Released with New Lower Pricing Options!

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:30:00 GMT

CodeSmith is now offering personal licenses for individual developers at $199 (50% savings) when purchasing CodeSmith Professional. Put time back in your day with CodeSmith 5.1. Packed full of new Schema Providers, merge strategies, and updated CodeSmith project management, CodeSmith provides an even better code generation experience.

Rarely used C# Keywords

Sun, 17 May 2009 15:31:02 GMT

When doing code reviews or when working with code that was developed by someone else, once in a while I come across keywords that are rarely used. Some of them are forgotten keywords that are not considered a good practice and hence are not promoted by the community. Some of them could be handy and efficient but they never made it to the limelight.

How to test your multi-threaded code (part 3 of 3)?

Wed, 13 May 2009 19:16:05 GMT

In the last post we learned how to find and fix a simple multi-thread problem. Now we will see a more complex scenario and see how CHESS wil find the solution.

No bandwidth MSDN: Reflector

Sat, 25 Apr 2009 23:01:17 GMT

How you can use Reflector to browse the insides of the .NET framework classes and why choosing Reflector over MSDN will make you a better developer.

Navigate your codebase like a pro with ReSharper 4.5

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:46:03 GMT

Taking a look at how you can navigate your souce code using ReSharper 4.5

C# Regions are not Useful? Give me a Break

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:46:02 GMT

I often see arguments about use of regions in C# code. And this is one of the most annoying things I see on the Internet in my opinion when it pertains to code structure. Whoever says regions are not to be used, I'd love to see your code and know what standards you have established as a team with your code base. I bet you it's a mess and the reason you don't like regions is because the developers on your team has abused use of them and that there is no logical pattern or team standard established.

Launching .NET Applications From Memory

Fri, 10 Apr 2009 23:01:05 GMT

An interesting idea of how to run a .net application from memory directly.