We interrupt our series on compound assignment operators with a quick note to say check out my interview on .NET Rocks! http://www.dotnetrocks.com/default.aspx?showNum=649 We have a long, rambling conversation about languages, tools, AI, you name...

When people try to explain the compound assignment operators += –= *= /= %= <<= >>= &= |= ^= to new C# programmers they usually say something like “ x += 10; is just a short way of writing x = x + 10; ”. Now, though that is undoubtedly...

(This is part three of a three-part series; part one is here ; part two is here .) Last time we saw how you could emulate virtual methods in a language that only had static methods by creating fields of delegate type, and then choosing what delegates...

(This is part two of a three-part series; part one is here ; part three is here .) So far we've gotten rid of instance methods; they're just static methods that take a hidden "this" parameter. But virtual methods are a bit harder. We're going to implement...

(This is part one of a three-part series; part two is here .) If you've been in this business for any length of time you've undoubtedly seen some of the vast literature on "design patterns" -- you know, those standard solutions to common problems with...

Suppose you have an immutable value type that is also disposable. Perhaps it represents some sort of handle. struct MyHandle : IDisposable { public MyHandle(int handle) : this() { this.Handle = handle; } public int Handle { get; private set; } public...

Here's a handy type I whipped up when I was translating some complex pointer-manipulation code from C to C#. It lets you make a safe "managed pointer" to the interior of an array. You get all the operations you can do on an unmanaged pointer: you can...

Writing code in C# is really all about the programmatic manipulation of values . A value is either of a value type, like an integer or a decimal, or it's a reference to an instance of a reference type, like a string or an exception. Values you manipulate...

As long-time readers of this blog know, I am often asked why a particular hunk of bad-smelling code does not produce a compiler warning. "Why not?" questions are inherently hard to answer because they turn causation on its head; normally we ask what...