The Brain Dump
My brain poured out on paper (or so to speak)
Blog migration
Hi all,My blog is moving to a new location (merging with my personal project blog) :...
Author: BenWilli Date: 05/07/2019
Raw threads and async lambdas
Using async methods/lambdas where they are not expected causes unexpected problems. The typical...
Author: BenWilli Date: 08/27/2018
Accessing a .NET bot's state via dependency injection
[NOTE: This post refers to version 3 of the Bot Framework] When using the .NET BotBuilder SDK’s...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/13/2018
Async Main() is available, but hidden
How did I miss this? I love C# and I try to keep up with the latest features. What I didn’t realize...
Author: BenWilli Date: 12/08/2017
Setting up Xamarin Live Player
[UPDATE] You no longer need the preview version of Visual Studio. Updated directions can be found in...
Author: BenWilli Date: 05/12/2017
An alternative to ConfigureAwait(false) everywhere
One of the general recommendations you may often read is to use ConfigureAwait(false) in library...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/09/2017
Quick dev directory cleanup tip
When cleaning up drive space, the first thing I do is remove the ‘obj’, ‘bin’, and ‘packages’...
Author: BenWilli Date: 09/21/2016
Asynchronous infinite loops instead of timers
Did it occur to you that an infinite loop, with async/await inside it, isn't really an infinite...
Author: BenWilli Date: 06/30/2016
Waaaaay oversimplified async/await plumbing
Often, when someone asks "how does this async await stuff actually work"? There is a lot of hand...
Author: BenWilli Date: 03/28/2016
Windows Live Writer lives on as Open Live Writer!
I am happy to be posting this blog entry from the newly announced Open Live Writer! The most...
Author: BenWilli Date: 12/11/2015
Tasks are (still) not threads and async is not parallel
I talk to a lot of developers who are either new to .NET or are moving from an older version to the...
Author: BenWilli Date: 09/10/2015
Visual Studio Tip #8: Adding existing files with Show All Files
Sometimes instead of adding a new file to your project, you need to reuse an existing file. That...
Author: BenWilli Date: 05/21/2015
Visual Studio Tip #7: Whole line editing
OK here is a quick simple one. How do I move or edit entire lines of code? #1 Just don’t...
Author: BenWilli Date: 05/14/2015
Visual Studio Tip #6: Turn on those line numbers (with Quick Launch)
Writing code is very often a collaborative process and to discuss something you need to be able to...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/24/2015
Visual Studio Tip #5: Quickly adding a namespace “using” statement
One thing that slows down new C# users is the requirement to add “using” statements to...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/15/2015
Visual Studio Tip #4: Code Snippets
There is lots of code that we write that follow standard patterns with some minor changes for our...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/15/2015
Visual Studio Tip #3: Use “Navigate To”
I spend a lot of time looking at other people’s code. That means a lot of time searching other...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/09/2015
Visual Studio Tip #2: Pin your data tips
Most people know that when you are debugging, you can hover the mouse over a variable in your code...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/08/2015
Back to basics: Visual Studio tips
Lately I’ve been working a lot with developers who are completely new to C# and/or Visual...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/07/2015
Tasks and awaits and Rx! (And Drones!) Oh My!
A few people I work with are tinkering with an off-the-shelf drone in our spare time and so we are...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/14/2014
async/await does not “release the thread”
There is some language around async/await that I am going to stop using. I’ve heard others use...
Author: BenWilli Date: 03/25/2014
Simple consoles and async
[UPDATE: 12/11/2017 - Asynchronous Main methods are now directly supported in c# 7.1. See this post...
Author: BenWilli Date: 11/21/2013
Cancellable “awaiting” on .NET events continued
Compose, compose, compose. Reuse, reuse, reuse. In the last post on cancellable “awaiting” on .NET...
Author: BenWilli Date: 08/06/2013
Drag and Drop with Tasks & Async
Lucian has an excellent series on turning things into Tasks so that you can can be compose them and...
Author: BenWilli Date: 07/25/2013
Tasks are not Threads
One of the common misconceptions I’ve encountered when developers first start using the Task...
Author: BenWilli Date: 04/24/2013
Windows 8 ViewModel Property Code Snippet
Visual Studio provides a bunch of good code snippets for creating boilerplate code. For example if...
Author: BenWilli Date: 10/12/2012
Windows Phone MessageBox implements scrolling!
Helpful quick and dirty debugging tip: I never noticed this before, but if you send a large amount...
Author: BenWilli Date: 08/06/2012
Managing multiple web service calls with Rx
Lets say I have a phone app (or any app really) that needs to make several web service calls at...
Author: BenWilli Date: 06/15/2012
Give formatting its own line
I got bitten by this not once but twice on Sunday as I hurriedly worked on a new phone app. Can you...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/21/2012
Using Rx? Subscribe to exceptions!
I have an app in the Windows Phone Marketplace which suddenly saw a spike in Little Watson email...
Author: BenWilli Date: 01/12/2012
Rx ensures Unsubscribe
I recently had an ObservableCollection which did not currently contain the item I was interested in,...
Author: BenWilli Date: 11/08/2011
Windows Phone travel tip – pin your map locations
Whenever I’m travelling I always have two freshly pinned tiles at the bottom of my start screen....
Author: BenWilli Date: 11/07/2011
Populating Windows Phone view models with Rx
I’ve gotten rather fond of using the Reactive Extensions for populating my data from the web in my...
Author: BenWilli Date: 11/01/2011
Type, don’t look!
Just a quick tip for Windows Phone users regarding the onscreen keyboard. Most people I’ve talked to...
Author: BenWilli Date: 08/18/2011
Mango goodness for devs today!
From the App Hub’s news comes information on how to update your Windows Phone to Mango today in...
Author: BenWilli Date: 06/29/2011
Pivot Title Templates
By default the Pivot Control on Windows Phone 7 simply displays a TextBlock as the title of the...
Author: BenWilli Date: 06/23/2011
Don’t ForkJoin your Events
I’ve been using Reactive Extensions for .NET to attempt to wait until multiple async calls to load...
Author: BenWilli Date: 03/31/2011
A Windows Phone update is going out!
No, unfortunately its not that update. It’s a small update designed to improve the software update...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/21/2011
Windows Phone 7 Developer Quickstarts
The Windows Phone 7 development articles are now published. They are aimed at guiding you through...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/11/2011
Custom Page Transitions in WP7 (part 2)
In the last post I discussed how to create a custom page transition with the Silverlight for Windows...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/08/2011
Windows Phone Developer Tools January Update
Come and get it! The new developer tools include updated reference assemblies, a new version of the...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/04/2011
Custom page transitions in WP7
The Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit provides the mechanism for creating animated page...
Author: BenWilli Date: 02/04/2011
Need a little Push?
The Windows Phone team recently released the Windows Phone 7 Recipe for Push Notifications which is...
Author: BenWilli Date: 01/18/2011
Sweet, sweet, data
I forgot to post this yesterday when we saw it go live but … Windows Phone Marketplace reporting is...
Author: BenWilli Date: 12/09/2010
Hidden Features in Windows Phone
My pal Girish has a whole host of tips for Windows Phone interaction.The vast majority come down to...
Author: BenWilli Date: 12/06/2010