ZarkBlog

From the Dept. of Redundancy Dept.

2009-02-05T16:55:00-05:00:00

Please stop coding like this. It hurts my eyes.

   62 /// <summary>Check whether any Foobar is available</summary>
   63 /// <returns>True / False based on if Foobar is there or not</returns>
   64 private bool CheckForFoobar()
   65 {
   66    if (FoobarHelper.CheckForFoobar() == true)
   67    {
   68        return true;
   69    }
   70    else
   71    {
   72        return false;
   73    }
   74 }

Text Template Transformation Toolkit (T4)

2008-04-15T22:30:56-04:00:00

On a recent episode of .NET Rocks, I heard a quote along the lines of "Is it easier to write the code that writes the code or to write the code yourself?" If you want to generate some code with a tool, then this post is for you.

The T4 has to be the most popular tool that I hear so little about. Like CodeSmith, T4 is a template based code generation engine using ASP-like syntax. The best thing about T4 is that if you have Visual Studio 2008 installed, you already have it. I originally intended to write a brief overview here, but Oleg Sych has already written an *excellent* overview here. I could hardly top that.

Madhavrao has also complied a list of links to MSDN articles related to T4 here.

VPC to VMWare Mouse Problems

2008-01-14T10:39:24-05:00:00

Thanks to Virtual PC's inability to utilize USB (insert the 'Old Bit' siren sound) and my need for USB support in my virtual machines, I'm in the process of moving some VPC images to VMWare Workstation 6. Recently, I've converted an existing Virtual PC based XP image to VMWare using the the VMWare 3.0.2 converter with no issues. No issues that is until it was time to install the VMWare tools on my recently converted XP machine. The install went fine, but after the required virtual machine reboot, I found that my mouse pointer was more or less stuck in the bottom right corner of the guest's screen. The mouse pointer itself moved around freely, but any clicks hit a target off screen. Not a very useful "enhancement".

Well, it turns out that this may be an issue between the Virtual PC Additions that were already installed on the VPC based image and the VMWare Tools. Specifically, the mouse driver. After some trial and error, I've found two workarounds to this:

Remove Virtual PC Additions from the virtual before conversion to VMWare.
Install VMWare Tools on the converted virtual without the VMWare Mouse driver. This means that you should install the VMWare Tools while logged into the existing virtual rather than silently via the VMWare menu.

More MVC Framework for ASP.NET

2007-12-06T13:31:22-05:00:00

If you haven't been living under a mushroom, you're most likely aware of Scott Guthrie's posts on Microsoft's new ASP.NET MVC Framework. If you are indeed living under a mushroom, then you can check out Part 3 right here.

MVC Framework for ASP.NET bits

2007-11-12T22:57:03-05:00:00

You may have heard about it, now take a peek at it. Scott Hanselman has posted some MVC bits from DevConnections. You can read about it here. There's not a lot yet, but word is that a CTP is around the corner.

Composite UI Resources

2007-08-03T00:07:34-04:00:00

I've been struggling to get a post out here, so let me begin with a quick list of some of my favorite CAB resources;

Szymon Kobalczyk's Blog:
Understanding Composite UI Application Block

CabPedia
Getting started with CAB
Getting started with SCSF

CodePlex

Jeremy Miller's awesome "Build your own CAB" series, which Bil Simser points out to 'not look at it as "how to replace CAB" but rather "how to learn what it takes to build CAB"'.

That's the short list off the top of my head for now. Hopefully between iterations and beta releases, I'll find more time to share my experiences with developing a Smart Client app using CAB, SCSF, CruiseControl.NET, Subversion, and all the other little things that make this stuff fun.