.NET Framework

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Mark H. Wagner — Sun, 11 Dec 2005 08:29:00 GMT

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WinFX: Guidelines and Best Practices

Mark H. Wagner — Wed, 04 May 2005 10:22:00 GMT

The WinFX SDK Community Technology Preview Edition has some very good content. I recommend the reading the WinFX: Guidelines and Best Practices

http://winfx.msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_fxguidance/html/2995cebf-2b57-4cdb-8cac-0e171fb7b0b7.asp

Spence Prahl - Now Blogging

Mark H. Wagner — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 18:55:00 GMT

A sharp .NET developer has just started blogging. Spence is an excellent .NET developer and I expect good things to come from his blog in the future. He always seems to deliver something just a little extra special when it comes to software development.

MSDN Download Manager keeps suspending?

Mark H. Wagner — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 14:40:00 GMT

Jason Bunting has a cool little trick to keep it running here. Sometimes the obvious - is just not obvious enough. Good job Jason.

Visual Studio 2005 Standard Beta 2 Released

Mark H. Wagner — Mon, 18 Apr 2005 08:33:00 GMT

For those of you with an MSDN subscription, Visual Studio 2005 Standard Beta 2 has been released.

Microsoft and .NET - a true enabler!

Mark H. Wagner — Fri, 15 Apr 2005 10:51:00 GMT

I have been on a blitz with the .NET Compact Framework. I have a number of items I intend to post. There is so much information available its a significant task just trying to get your arms around where to start. I have a number of (100?) reminder emails I sent myself as I cruised the Internet for information - just so I would remember to read in more detail later. The .NET Framework 2.0, .NET Compact Framework 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 gets more exciting the more I learn. This will truly become the ultimate enabler for developers.

I have been developing for more than 18 years now. Yes, I know this may make me a grandpa in the developer community. lol. You shouldn't laugh so hard. You might just hurt my feelings. lol. I've barely touched my fourth decade in life and I am as excited about development and technology as I was 18 years ago. That is why I have chosen to remain a technical resource, and have opted to stay away from the management track. And, with no regrets.

Microsoft and .NET - a true enabler!

Convert a string to an enumerated (enum) value

Mark H. Wagner — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 08:12:00 GMT

Convert a string to an enumerated (enum) value.

Using the Enum.Parse method, you can easily convert a string value to an enumerated value. Doing this requires the type of the enum and string value. Adding the true argument will cause the case to be ignored.

Using the following enum for this example:

private enum Aircraft
{
   Beech,
   Cessna,
   Piper
}

You can easily convert the string to an enum value like this:

Aircraft air = (Aircraft) Enum.Parse(typeof(Aircraft), "Cessna", true);

Ideally you should wrap a try-catch around the Enum.Parse statement.

What is your (assembly's) native tongue?

Mark H. Wagner — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 20:05:00 GMT

Per an MSDN TV episode (Using Managed Resources) - to improve the performance (albeit minimal - I expect) of your assemblies, you should include the following line in your assemblyinfo.cs

[assembly: NeutralResourcesLanguageAttribute("en-US")]

This defines the default language for your assembly. This allows the .NET runtime to bypass the process of looking for a satellite assembly for the “en-US” (default) language if the current culture matches the assemblies default culture. Of course, assemblies intended for other languages should define that language as the default language.

Also, if you can put your satelite assemblies in the Global Assembly Cache (GAC), the Common Language Runtime (CLR) will load the assembly faster by not having to verify the cryptographic assembly signature.

Trace.axd - The more you learn, the less you know

Mark H. Wagner — Wed, 06 Apr 2005 15:08:00 GMT

The more you learn, the less you know.

Trying to keep up with the extensive areas of .NET and Microsoft products can easily bring you to this conclusion. Its easy for us to continually focus on all the new technologies and versions (Whidbey and the .NET Framework 2.0) only to overlook some of the low hanging fruit - at least for me it is. Remember, this is the “Simple Thoughts from a Simple Mind“ blog. ;)

One area I forgot about is the ASP.NET Trace - Trace.axd page. As you may know, ASP.NET allows you to trace the processing for a single page or for all pages. The trace output can be rendered at the end of each page. Don't forget (as I did) there is also the Trace.axd page that provides a nice list of traced pages such as this.

The web.config file needs only a small change to make this available.

Clicking on the View Details link for a page process will present you with the familiar trace detail.

Securing the Username Token with WSE 2.0 by Keith Brown

Mark H. Wagner — Wed, 30 Mar 2005 13:26:00 GMT

I have been working to improve my knowledge of WSE and WSE 2.0. Keith Brown has an excellent article on Securing the Username Token with WSE 2.0. He also has a post on his blog with comments regarding this article.

Keith does an excellent job of clearly discussing the what, why, and the how on best-practices for securing user tokens - and why it is so important to do this correctly. He covers how to mitigate agains issues like brute-force and off-line attacks as well as what not to do. Clear and concise.