DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by nsoonhui

How to Use C# Client to Consume Google App Engine RPC

Tue, 04 May 2010 01:52:56 GMT

An example of how C# Client can be used to consume Google App Engine RPC web service method.

Why Software is Expensive

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 10:10:16 GMT

Malaysian consultant's perspective on the costs of building custom software.

Writing Great Unit Tests: Best and Worst Practises

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 03:30:04 GMT

A suite of good unit tests is immensely valuable: it documents your design, and makes it easier to refactor and expand your code while retaining a clear overview of each component's behaviour. However, a suite of *bad* unit tests is immensely painful: it doesn't prove anything clearly, and can severely inhibit your ability to refactor or alter your code in any way. How can you be sure to write unit tests that contribute positively to your project and don't end up being a liability?

An introduction to UI Automation - with spooky spirographs

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:30:14 GMT

UIAutomation provides a robust way of poking, prodding and perusing any widget shown on the Windows desktop; it even works with Silverlight. It can be used for many things, like building Screen Readers, writing automated UI tests - or for creating a digital spirit to spook your colleagues by possessing Paint.Net and sketching spirographs.

Code is Not That Important, Marketing Is

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 08:40:45 GMT

When I was in my early days as a software developer, I thought that the most important aspect for a software product organization, was software development. Code was everything and the single determiner of the success. But as I grow in maturity ( meaning suffering enough bumps on head), I gradually come to the realization that the above just-improve-your-code-and-you-do-fine theory is a total nonsense

Understanding Lambda Expression via Step By Step Debugging

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 23:28:51 GMT

A step-by-step guide through the debugging on Lambda expression

Isolation Frameworks: Learning how to Stub

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 12:30:03 GMT

Learning how to use an isolation framework (Rhino Mocks) to help create simpler and more reliable unit tests. In this episode we will start off our learning experience by learning the basics. We will be taking a look at how to setup stubs/fakes in order to hard wire return values for our objects/methods.

Does RentACoder.com Work?

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 06:04:09 GMT

A lot of people ranted against online consulting sites- such as Elance, guru, RentACoder and so on. Of course, given that the bids on those websites are ridiculously low ( at least by developed world's standard), one would tend to assume that the quality would vary proportionally with the bids. Whether you think those websites are cannibalizing the software craft, or whether online consulting sites are a force that flattens the world, one thing is certain: online consulting sites work.

SubSonic 3.0: ActiveRecord

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:45:00 GMT

Google's project site is down for a while and I have some perf tests running in the background so I thought it might be time to crank out a few more "preview" posts of SubSonic 3.0. This one's about ActiveRecord - one of my favorite patterns for its ease of use and versatility.

Exploring how to use Global Variables and ViewData (Strongly typed and

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:15:03 GMT

Taking a look at how to utilized both global variables and local variables. We will also take a look at how to create and use both strongly typed viewdata and weakly typed view data.

The Most Powerful Development Tool Ever Made

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:00:03 GMT

Justin Etheredge wrote a great blog post about not inventing the wheel everytime a classic programming problem shows up.

Binding in ASP.NET MVC

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 02:45:00 GMT

Answers to some frequently asked questions about binding data to forms in ASP.NET MVC. Covers Bind(), ModelBinders, and ViewData.Model.

ASP.NET MVC TDD using Visual Studio 2010

Wed, 10 Jun 2009 10:15:07 GMT

Phil Haack announced yesterday that the tooling support for ASP.NET MVC is available for Visual Studio 2010. Troy Goode already blogged about the designer snippets (which are really really cool, just like other parts of the roadmap for ASP.NET MVC 2.0). I'll give the new TDD workflow introduced in VS2010 a take.

Why Developers should always be Involved in Product Feedback

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 12:35:17 GMT

Not every developer likes to product feedback on the products they use, but they should. Here are the whys...

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!!

Overview of .NET 4.0 features - C# 4.0 Named and Optional Parameters

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 11:45:05 GMT

The concept of Optional parameters is not new and exists in other languages such as C++. Infact, the functionality is a part of the .NET framework and exists is in VB.NET. Optional parameters will be introduced in C# 4.0 and can be used to call a method without having to specify all the arguments. The intent of this feature is to assist in writing concise code and in COM interoperability.

IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit (ScottGu)

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 08:45:05 GMT

"Today we are shipping the first beta of a new free tool - the IIS Search Engine Optimization Toolkit - that makes it easy to perform SEO analysis on your site and identify and fix issues within it."

Visual Studio 2010: Multiple web.config versions

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 21:30:00 GMT

Visual Studio 2010 has support for multiple web.config files. It is one feature of new web application packaging and deployment system. We can create now separate web.config files for each configuration we have for application.

SubMain acquires GhostDoc

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:45:03 GMT

An agreement between SubMain and Roland Weigelt, author of GhostDoc, will place future development of GhostDoc in the hands of SubMain. GhostDoc ( http://submain.com/ghostdoc ) is the popular XML Comments and documentation helper tool which SubMain will continue to maintain as a free product.

A Degradable jQuery AJAX Email Form for ASP.NET MVC

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 05:45:10 GMT

Pretty much every web site on the Internet features a form for users to provide feedback via email to site owners. Migrating to ASP.NET MVC requires a slightly different approach to that used by Web Forms development, so this article looks at one way to implement a web site contact form using the MVC framework and jQuery that degrades nicely. AJAX functionality is said to be "degradable" if a way is provided for the process to work, even though users don't have Javascript available to them.

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.

Tuple, a new type on .Net 4.0

Mon, 25 May 2009 21:46:37 GMT

If you ever played with some language that have the Tuple type I bet you miss it in .Net. Well 4.0 adds it.

The Dynamic Programmer - Tuple, a new type on .Net 4.0

Mon, 25 May 2009 17:00:06 GMT

If you ever played with some language that have the Tuple type I bet you miss it in .Net. Well 4.0 adds it. Let's take a look at the implementation and how to use it.

Visual Studio Tips and Tricks - II

Sun, 24 May 2009 18:05:01 GMT

Learn how to format your code better in Visual Studio

Five Reasons for using an ORM Tool

Fri, 15 May 2009 23:46:03 GMT

Gud intro of as what orm tools do...