jaybaz [MS] WebLog

I'm pretty pissed off about a lot of things that I see my goverment doing right now. For example, we claim to be fighting a "War on Terrorism", but we're missing a few important facts: The US is the #1 perpetrator of terrorism world-wide After Sept 11...

So now I have GMail , the Google Toolbar , the Google Deskbar , and the Google Desktop . To search MSDN help, I use google . At home, all my computers use Google as their home page. When I want to browse the web on my phone, I use Google Number Search...

There has been a lot of discussion, both here and on Andy's blog about C# E&C. Some folks really want it badly. So, I figure you deserve an update on its status. At the last PDC, we got a lot of strong feedback along the lines of “We understand...

Eric recently posted a blog: “ Property or backing store from inside a class? ”, and I responded in a way that skirted the issue entirely. I want to discuss them in a little more detail. Part 1: Why bother? First, why do we use...

In Whidbey, the WinForms designer takes advantage of a new C# language feature called “ partial classes ”. This allows them to pull out the designer generated code into a separate file. It has several advantages: · Users are less likely...

Almost 4 months after the first post in the series … not bad! There are 3 Signature Change Refactorings: Remove Parameter Reorder Parameter Promote Local I rank these as “Tier 2” – they’re not as important...

Continuing on a theme, today we talk about Elivs and E&C. We don't have a good way of measuring how Elvis uses E&C, since C# has never had the feature in a released product. So, what I say here is even more likely to be wrong than normal. Elvis...

Have you heard? Microsoft has decided to start publicly dropping Visual Studio Whidbey builds on a regular basis. That means we'll regularly just grab a build of the product and publish it. Cool, huh? I think this is totally awesome. (Dude!) This...

If you use a C# struct , it should be immutable. Mutable structs cause all kinds of nasty problems; don’t do it . If I had to design the C# language over, I’d say that mutable structs would have to be marked with the ‘mutable’...

Concerning my post about funneling my $600 check from the U.S. government to Amnesty International , I've received quite a bit of feedback. Some of it is a response to my position on U.S. policy, like "Jay, you're a dumbass. " "The world is safer with...

I've recently gotten used to the idea that extreme ideas are an important part of learning . It seems that when trying to understand an idea, it helps to consider the idea in its most extreme form. For example, consider the idea of coding in C# with...

I’m heading off into the deep end here. If you want to come with me, make sure you’re wearing your SCUBA gear. One of the first questions that come up in TDD with NUnit is “ How do I test private methods?” Usually the answer...

Sean asks for it, and Andy blogs some of the thinking behind no E&C for C# . I really like using E&C when writing C++, and I know that VB users find it pretty valuable. Seems strange that we wouldn't have it for C#, yeah? When we talk about...

Let's start by talking about Rename. I view Rename as being one of the “Tier 1” refactorings – the refactoring we absolutely must provide, and which must be of the highest quality. They must be fast, reliable, and easy to use. You’re...

On Eric's blog, a discussion about 'switch' statements in C# & why they require 'break' inspired this post. One of my favorite principles in the design of C# is that it forces you to be explicit when that removes confusion. The best example is the...

In my passwords post, several people mentioned carrying a USB drive with encrypted passwords on it. I used to have a small one, but lost it a while back. I don't one a new one, both because I'm trying to simply my life , and because I don't like to carry...

This is a real problem I had recently. Suppose you have a form with OK and Cancel buttons. You want the buttons to be placed in the bottom-right corner of the form. Normally you'd place them where they go, then set their Anchor properties to Bottom...

I was thinking about two items from Object Thinking : Everything is an object . Every object should provide events for when its attributes change. There's the idea that objects can collaborate without top-down control, if they provide &...

Put on your life vest & tankini. We’re heading off into the deep end again. You’re doing TDD . You are happy with the results, enjoying the thrill of going fast . As with most C# projects done test-first, you have some code...

2 days before the trip to the Far East , I lost my wallet. Looks like it fell out of the luggage on my bicycle on the way home. That’s a tough time to lose a wallet, because I really wanted that stuff for the trip. There was also a lot of cash, a lot...

In this entry on Ladybug , a customer asked for named indexers in C#. Here’s one way to get it: class Car { object [] wheels; public WheelsHelper Wheels { get { return new WheelsHelper ( this ); } } public class...

This has nothing to do with C#, but maybe you'll find it interesting. I'm a geek. I know this, because the definition of geek is “someone who pays someone to mow their grass but wires their own house for Ethernet.” I've pulled Cat 5...

The C# refactorings we're building in Whidbey are designed to be reliable. Not all of our customers use TDD, but many will use the refactoring tools we build. If the tools don't work reliably, users will stop using them. The big exception was unbuildable...

Cyrus then incorporated the Weak/Strong reference stuff into the LazyLoader. He also refactored the factory to give you a reliable, predictable default & be a bit simpler. (You also need Optional<> and the Lock<> code.) First, the...

Dithermaster says “it's *much* easier to find out of they DON'T overlap” and proposes: ! ( (end2 < start1) || (start2 > end1) ); If we apply DeMorgan’s Law, we get: (! (end2 < start1) && !(start2 > end1) ); And (end2 >= start1)...