Bill Blogs in C#

Bill Wagner discusses C#, LINQ, and other items of interest

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There is a reason I still get a big blue rash
Earlier this week, Open XML won ISO approval. By any objective measure, it won handily. 86% of the participants voted for the standard. Does that mean that 16% of the voting countries are run by IBM officials? One could make the case that it does. Jan...

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Notes on an inconsistent API
When you design your API, make it easy to use and hard to misuse. Brad Abrams quotes Rico Mariani on the Pit of Success here: http://blogs.msdn.com/brada/archive/2003/10/02/50420.aspx The key point: " we want our customers to simply fall into winning...

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Do I write software at home like I write at work?
Dave Donaldson asks " Do you write software at homer like you do at work? " Dave wonders if we use the same discipline writing software at home (for our own use) that we do at work. I think the question is great, but I'm concerned about...

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Some Clarification on VSTS licensing, builds, and Continuous Integration
Jeff Beehler wrote this post clarifying some questions on VSTS licensing as it relates to build environments. There is a common misconception (that I shared) that your build machine needed a licensed copy of VSTS team developer. In fact, that's not...

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Is the Vendor Lock-In Argument dead?
Microsoft published an interesting announcement last week announcing its Interoperability principles: ( http://www.microsoft.com/interop/principles/default.mspx ) Since that time, the usual suspects have said the usual things: Microsoft's staunchest...

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VS 2008 Source Server now live
Oh happy day. I'm stepping into the .NET Framework source using the VS 2008 debugger. Shawn Burke has the most detailed post on how to get your VS 2008 enviornment setup.

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MVP status renewed, RD status renewed
Yup, it's that time of year. My MVP award was renewed, as was my RD status. Both are prestigious awards that represent contributions to the technical community around various products. In addition, Patrick Steele, one of our senior consultants re...

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Rich Internet Applications Jam in Ann Arbor, Jan 14-16
If this keeps up, I'll actually be Super Excited (tm). Right after CodeMash, we're hosting a Rich Internet Applications Jam, covering Adobe Flex and Silverlight. James Ward and Bruce Eckel will be there to help attendees learn as much as they...

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Yet another good explanation on the pitfalls of Finalization
Brian Grunkmeyer has written a rather deep article for the BCL weblog that discusses many of the pitfalls that surround finalization, dispose, and weird things that can happen during the birth, death, and possible resurrection of an object: http://blogs...

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I hate testing
And that's why I write automated tests. I recently inherited some truly bad code. I'd post some examples, but the codebase is owned by a client, and the code is covered by an NDA. But, to give you an idea how bad it is, here are a few interesting...

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Source Code for .NET Framework being released
I read this on Scott Guthrie's blog early this afternoon. This is absolutely fantastic. Instead of all that time in Reflector, wondering what something does, where the method works, or why it was implemented, we'll have actual source code. If...

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What about MFC?
Should you still use MFC? why or why not? Question: Is MFC considered to be obsolete technology? If so, what has replaced it? .NET? Answer: It depends on what you are doing, and exactly what part of MFC you mean. MS has clearly placed an emphasis on ...

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