I had a little fun today playing with ‘==’ vs. the Equals(…) method. I knew that somewhere in .NET 2.0 (I believe) there had been some improvements in String.Empty versus “”, but I didn’t quite realize that this affected all string literals.

In the code below you can see how value types and reference types may behave differently when using ‘==’ versus the Equals method.
My surprise came when I discovered that line 39 and 41 both return TRUE. Apparently the string literals in an assembly get put in a master list of string constants and then reused where the same string literal gets used. Nice!
The way to force the reference comparison of the string against object to actually be different is to delay the creation of the string until runtime, like in line 52.

             1: 
            static
            void Main(string[]
args)

             2: {

             3:  

             4: 
            // value types
          

             5:  

             6: 
            int x = 10;

             7:  

             8: 
            int y = 10;

             9:  

             10:  Console.WriteLine( x == y ); //
compare by value -> return true

             11:  

             12:  Console.WriteLine( x.Equals( y ) ); //
compare by value -> return true

             13:  

             14:  Console.WriteLine( object.ReferenceEquals(
x, y ) ); // compare by reference -> return false

             15:  

             16:  

             17:  Console.ReadLine();

             18:  

             19: 
            // Reference types
          

             20:  

             21:  StringBuilder s1 = new StringBuilder( "yes" );

             22:  

             23:  StringBuilder s2 = new StringBuilder( "yes" );

             24:  

             25:  Console.WriteLine( s1 == s2 ); //
compare by reference -> return false

             26:  

             27:  Console.WriteLine( s1.Equals( s2
) ); // compare by value -> return true

             28:  

             29:  Console.WriteLine( object.ReferenceEquals(
s1, s2 ) ); // compare by reference -> return false

             30:  

             31:  Console.ReadLine();

             32:  

             33: 
            // object and string
          

             34:  

             35: 
            object o1
= GetName();

             36:  

             37: 
            string o2
= "Mark";

             38:  

             39:  Console.WriteLine( o1 == o2 ); //
compare by reference -> return true

             40:  

             41:  Console.WriteLine( o1.Equals( o2
) ); // compare by value -> return true

             42:  

             43:  Console.WriteLine( object.ReferenceEquals(
o1, o2 ) ); // compare by reference -> return true

             44:  

             45:  Console.ReadLine();

             46:  

             47:  

             48: 
            // object and string
          

             49:  

             50: 
            object ss1 = "Mark";

             51:  

             52: 
            string ss2 = "Markx".Substring(
0, 4 );

             53:  

             54:  Console.WriteLine( ss1 == ss2 ); //
compare by reference -> return false

             55:  

             56:  Console.WriteLine( ss1.Equals( ss2 ) ); //
compare by value -> return true

             57:  

             58:  Console.WriteLine( object.ReferenceEquals(
ss1, ss2 ) ); // compare by reference -> return false

             59:  

             60:  Console.ReadLine();

             61: }

             62:  

             63: 
            static
            object GetName()

             64: {

             65: 
            return
            "Mark";

             66: }

ISO images with the Windows 8 Consumer Preview are now available for download. Go to http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/iso to get the bits.

Microsoft Visual Studio 11 Ultimate Beta has just become available for download. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28975 to download the bits.

If you’re interested in the Include method in a LINQ to Entities queries to be type-safe, then Joe Ferner has the answer for you in this post: Type-Safe Entity Framework Include: http://www.nearinfinity.com/blogs/joe_ferner/type-safe_entity_framework_inc.html

If you’re using Entity Framework Code First, then you may want to create an index on some of your table. The way to do this is to call “Database.ExecuteSqlCommand” in the “Seed” method of your database initializer. The sample below shows how it is done (thanks to Rolf for pointing me in the right direction):

            using System;

            using System.Collections.Generic;

            using System.Linq;

            using System.Text;

            using System.Data.Entity;

            using System.ComponentModel.DataAnnotations;

            namespace CodeFirstPlayground

{

            class Program

  {

            static
            void Main( string[]
args )

    {

      Database.SetInitializer<CodeFirstSampleModel>( new CodeFirstSampleDbInitializer()
);

            using ( var model = new CodeFirstSampleModel()
)

      {

        var query = from c in model.Customers

            where c.Name != null

                    select c;

            foreach ( var item in query
)

        {

          Console.WriteLine( item.Name );

        }

      }

      Console.ReadLine();

    }

  }

            public
            class CodeFirstSampleModel
: DbContext

  {

            public CodeFirstSampleModel()

      : base( "CodeFirstSampleDB" )

    {

      Customers = this.Set<Customer>();

    }

            public DbSet<Customer> Customers
{ get; set; }

  }

            public
            class CodeFirstSampleDbInitializer
: DropCreateDatabaseAlways<CodeFirstSampleModel>

  {

            protected
            override
            void Seed(
CodeFirstSampleModel context )

    {

      context.Database.ExecuteSqlCommand( "CREATE
INDEX IX_Customer_Name ON Customers (Name) " );

      Customer c = new Customer()

      {

        Name = "Mark",

        LastOrder = DateTime.Now

      };

      context.Customers.Add( c );

            base.Seed( context );

    }

  }

            public
            class Customer

  {

    [Key]

            public
            int Id
{ get; set; }

    [Required]

    [MaxLength( 50, ErrorMessage = "Customer
name must be 50 characters or less." )]

            public
            string Name {
get; set; }

            public DateTime? LastOrder { get; set; }

  }

}

Just a quick service announcement:

Winxnet, in Portland, has started hosting the first Maine based SharePoint User Group.

For more information visit: www.winxnet.com/spugme

I’m honored to have been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional 2012 Award for contributions in the Visual C# technical communities. I’m honored to be counted amongst the 228 people world wide to receive this award.

“At Microsoft, we believe that technical communities enhance people’s lives and the industry’s success because independent experts, like you, help others extract greater value from products and technologies through the free and objective exchange of knowledge. As a Microsoft MVP, you are part of a highly select group of experts that represent technology’s best and brightest who share a deep commitment to community and a willingness to help others.”
    - Heather Kostes

Thank you Microsoft and thank you Heather! I’m looking forward to organizing more events again this year for the Maine Developer Network and hanging out with the Bangor Area .NET Developers and I’m looking forward to Maine Code Camp #3 and also to meeting my fellow MVPs and product groups in Seattle at the MVP Summit 2012.

- Mark

Sometimes you’re working on a website and you get some images with text in them, but no one remembers what fonts was used in the image. No fear! There is a website call “What The Font” that will take your picture and tell you what font was used: http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/

Silverlight 5 got released this weekend and can be downloaded here: http://www.silverlight.net/downloads.

Summary of the features

(from the Silverlight 5 download package)

Improved media support

• Low Latency Audio Playback
• Variable Speed Playback
• H/W Decode of H.264 media
• DRM Key Rotation/LiveTV Playback
• Application-Restricted Media

Improved Text support

• Text Tracking & Leading
• Linked Text Containers
• OpenType and Pixel Snapped Text
• Postscript vector printing
• Performance improvements for Block Layout Engine.
  

Building next-generation business applications

• PivotViewer
• ClickCount
• Listbox/ComboBox type-ahead text searching
• Ancestor RelativeSource Binding
• Implicit DataTemplates
• DataContextChanged event
• Added PropertyChanged to the UpdateSourceTrigger enum
• Save File and Open File Dialog
• Databinding Debugging
• Custom Markup Extensions
• Binding on Style Setters

Silverlight 5 performance improvements

• Parser Performance Improvements
• Network Latency Improvements
• H/W accelerated rendering in IE9 windowless mode
• Multicore JIT
• 64-bit browser support

Graphics improvements

• Improved Graphics stack
• 3D

"Trusted Application" model

• Multiple window support
• Full-Trust in-browser
• In-browser HTML support
• Unrestricted File System Access
• P/Invoke support

Tools improvements

• Visual Studio Team Test support

The next Maine Developer Network meeting will be in Augusta on Wednesday November 16th, starting at 9:00am finishing at 12:00 pm.
It is going to be a unique event about Windows Azure: "Playing Games in the Cloud" and will be hosted by Jim O'Neil, Microsoft Developer Evangelist. It will be more of a workshop than just presentation, so bring your laptop and make sure it is prepped to for the class.
For more info see: www.maine-devnet.org

Richard Blewett reminded me that the XmlReader.ReadSubtree method makes it even easier to use LINQ to XML with a streaming approach. The code sample below will load nodes from an arbitrary XML files and yield them to the caller as they’re read from file:

            static IEnumerable<XElement> Load(string filename, string elementName)

{

    XmlReaderSettings settings = new XmlReaderSettings();

    settings.IgnoreWhitespace = true;

            using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(filename,
settings))

    {

            while (reader.ReadToFollowing(elementName))

        {

            // build element from subtree
          

            XElement element = XElement.Load(reader.ReadSubtree());

            yield
            return element;

        }

    }

}

I just rediscovered this blog post about reading and parsing XML as it becomes available in conjunction with LINQ to XML: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/xmlteam/archive/2007/03/24/streaming-with-linq-to-xml-part-2.aspx

It’s a little dated, but still relevant .

Just came across this great picture of what’s new in .NET Framework 4.5 (click for larger version):

I was implementing a client report (RDLC) using the Microsoft Report Viewer control and I wanted to set the background color of a table field based on value from my object source. At first I used the Color.ToKnownColor() method, but discovered that this does not work for all colors. I needed to convert to Hex. Here is the little extension method I used:

              public
              static
              class ColorExtensions

{

              #region --
Data Members --

              static
              char[]
hexDigits = {

              '0', '1', '2', '3', '4', '5', '6', '7',

              '8', '9', 'A', 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'F'};

              #endregion
            

              ///
<summary>
            

              ///
Convert a .NET Color to a hex string.
            

              ///
</summary>
            

              ///
<returns>ex: "#FFFFFF", "#554ECE"</returns>
            

              public
              static
              string ToHexString( this Color
color )

    {

              byte[]
bytes = newbyte[3];

        bytes[0] = color.R;

        bytes[1] = color.G;

        bytes[2] = color.B;

              char[]
chars = newchar[bytes.Length
* 2];

              for ( int i
= 0; i < bytes.Length; i++ )

        {

              int b
= bytes[i];

            chars[i * 2] = hexDigits[b >> 4];

            chars[i * 2 + 1] = hexDigits[b & 0xF];

        }

              return
              "#" + newstring(
chars );

    }

}

I just ran into an issue where I have a WCF service that depends on a .NET assembly that is compiled specifically for x86. In order to use that assembly I need to compile the service as a x86 service. No problem, but now when I want to test or add a service reference to this WCF service I ran into the problem that WcfSvcHost and WcfTestClient both will run a x64 because I’m running Windows 7 x64.

How to solve this? I found the answer in the forums and adapted the answer for my specific problem:

1.Copy WcfSvcHost.exe and WcfTestClient.exe from C:\program files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE to a local directory. Keep a backup copy of this file, of course.
2.Start a Visual Studio 2010 Command Prompt (one of the links from the start menu -> Visaul Studio 2010)
3."cd" to the directory where your copy of WcfSvcHost is located.
4.Execute the command "corflags /32BIT+ /FORCE WcfSvcHost.exe"
5.Copy the files back to where you found it.
 
Now your WcfSvcHost and WcfTestClient will be running in 32 bit mode.

Omnext was part of a Dutch trade delegation visiting the New York CloudExpo 2011.
Here is a link to a great article by Theo Loth (coordinator EuroCloud Nederland) about the event: omnext - cloudexpo 2011.pdf (in Dutch).

If your looking to find out more about Omnext and how Source2VALUE can help improve the ROI of your software development investments, then visit www.omnext.net or talk to Jaco and Andre at the 2011 European Outsourcing Summit in Madrid, Spain.

For those who will be in the Netherlands in October: the SDN is organizing it’s annual 2-day conference on October 3rd and 4th, 2011. A preview of the schedule is now online and registration has just opened: http://www.sdn.nl/SDN/SDNEvent/SDNConferences2011/tabid/162/Default.aspx

A (short) video impression of Maine Code Camp #2:

Suppose I have a list of time cards from multiple employees, but I want to group them into dictionary, based on the Social Security Number (SSN) of the employee. Here is an example of how to convert a list of items into a dictionary of lists:

Dictionary<string, List<TimeCardInfo>>
dict;

dict = ( from timecard in listOfTimeCards

         group timecard by timecard.SSN ).ToDictionary( x => x.Key, x => x.ToList() );

In the model below the phone number for an artist is actually a complex type (a little over engineered, I know, but I was just exploring how well this works).

The complex type consists of 4 ‘fields’: CountryCode, AreaCode, Number and Extension:

Each ‘field’ has properties set:

The great part is that this is fully supported by the DDL generator, so right click on the Entity Framework Designer in Visual Studio 2010 and choose ‘Generate Database From Model…’ and the ‘Artist’ table will be generated as:

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Entity Designer DDL Script for SQL Server 2005, 2008, and Azure
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Creating all tables
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Creating table 'Artists'
            

              CREATE
              TABLE [dbo].[Artists]
(

    [Id] intIDENTITY(1,1) NOTNULL,

    [Name] nvarchar(100)  NOTNULL,

    [IsIndividual] bitNOTNULL,

    [Phone_CountryCode] nvarchar(4)  NOTNULL,

    [Phone_AreaCode] nvarchar(5)  NOTNULL,

    [Phone_Number] nvarchar(10)  NOTNULL,

    [Phone_Extension] nvarchar(10)  NULL

);

              GO
            

              --
<snip other tables>
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Creating all PRIMARY KEY constraints
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Creating primary key on [Id] in table 'Artists'
            

              ALTER
              TABLE [dbo].[Artists]

              ADD
              CONSTRAINT [PK_Artists]

              PRIMARY
              KEY
              CLUSTERED ([Id] ASC);

              GO
            

              --
<snip other primary and foreign key>
            

              --
--------------------------------------------------
            

              --
Script has ended
            

-- --------------------------------------------------

If you’re using the Entity Framework and don’t want to implement ToTraceString() at strategic points in your code in order to see what kind of SQL statements are getting generated then check out one of the following:

• Community Entity Framework Provider Wrappers (free)
  • http://efwrappers.codeplex.com/
  • Or use NuGet:
    • Install-Package CommunityEFProviderWrappers.EFTracingProvider
• Entity Framework Profiler
• http://efprof.com/
• SQL Server Profiler
• More info on setting up SQL Server Profiler: http://blog.tonysneed.com/2010/08/05/setting-up-sql-server-2008-express-with-profiler

Update 07-02-2011: Added SQL Server Profiler after comment by Tony Sneed.

If you’re doing Model First with Entity Framework you may run into a scenario where you want to design a 1-to-1 relationship, but also have a foreign key be available on your entity. The default behavior in Entity Framework when doing a 1-to-1 relationship (with Model First), or 1-to-0..1 relationship, is to create a foreign key on the 0..1 side of the association but hide the foreign key. A better approach is this:

• Start a new model
• Add the entity that goes on the 1 side of the association, give it a primary key of type integer. Make sure the StoreGeneratedPattern property is set to Identity.
• Add the entity that goes on the 0..1 side of the assocation, name the primary key as you would a foreign key, make it of type integer. Make sure the StoreGeneratedPattern property is set to None.
  
• Click on the 1 entity and add an association, make it a 1-to-0..1, example:
  
• Double click the association and set a referential constraint.
  
• Now you’re ready to generate your database schema.

Here is a script for getting size information on every table in your SQL Server database. Based on a script by Mitchell Sellers, this script also works if you have multiple schemas in your database:

              DECLARE @TableName VARCHAR(100)
--For storing valuesin the cursor

 --Cursortoget the
name ofalluser tables from the
sysobjects listing

              DECLARE tableCursor CURSOR

              FOR
            

              SELECT
              '['+SCHEMA_NAME(schema_id)+'].['+name+']'

              AS SchemaTable

              FROM sys.tables where type_desc
= 'USER_TABLE'

              FOR
              READ
              ONLY
            

--A procedurelevel temp tableto store
the results

              CREATE
              TABLE #TempTable

 (

     id intidentity,

     tableName varchar(100),

     numberofRows varchar(100),

     reservedSize varchar(50),

     dataSize varchar(50),

     indexSize varchar(50),

     unusedSize varchar(50)

 )

--Open the cursor

              OPEN tableCursor

--Get the firsttable name from the cursor

              FETCH
              NEXT
              FROM tableCursor INTO @TableName

--Loop until the cursor was not able tofetch

              WHILE (@@Fetch_Status
>= 0)

              BEGIN
            

     --Dump the
results of the sp_spaceused query to the
temp table

     INSERT  #TempTable

              EXEC sp_spaceused
@TableName

              UPDATE #TempTable set tableName
= @TableName where id = @@identity

     --Get the nexttable name

              FETCH
              NEXT
              FROM tableCursor INTO @TableName

              END
            

--Get rid of the cursor

              CLOSE tableCursor

              DEALLOCATE tableCursor

--Selectall records
so we can use the results

              SELECT * 

              FROM #TempTable

              ORDER
              BY tableName

--Final cleanup!

              DROP
              TABLE #TempTable

GO

The dates are set and confirmed! We have the Mt. Blue Campground booked for July 29th and July 30th. We'll be tenting, presenting and hanging out! If you're interested in speaking or attending the second Maine Code Camp then please email: mark.blomsma@maine-devnet.org. We'll be tenting, presenting and hanging out! More information to follow!

Update: Just to be clear, the code camp will be Friday to Sunday from the 29th to the 31st, with two nights spend at Mt. Blue State Park.

Just wanted to call out attention to a new Silverlight site created by Maine’s own Carolyn Smith: www.silverlightmadam.com

“Silverlight Madam is the creation of Carolyn Smith. For many years Carolyn's preferred medium was watercolors. Then she discovered computer graphics and now she specializes in creating art in Silverlight.”

Note: Carolyn also runs the site www.pixycolors.com.

I just had Skype crashing on me every time it tried to connect and go online. The following worked for me (on Windows 7):

1. If the Skype icon is displayed in the system tray at the bottom right of the screen, right-click it and select Quit.
2. Click Start, type "run" and press Enter. (On Windows XP: Click Start and then Run.)
3. Type "%appdata%\skype" and click OK.
4. Locate and delete the file shared.xml. The file may be displayed as shared if file extensions are not displayed by default on your computer.
5.If you cannot find this file:
-> Click Start, type "run" and press Enter. (On Windows XP: Click Start and then Run.)
-> Type "control folders" and click OK.
-> In the View tab, ensure that Show hidden files and folders is enabled.
-> Repeat the instructions from the beginning.
6. Restart Skype.
7. Choose ‘Check for Updates’ from the ‘Help’ menu. Perform upgrade to the latest version.

Gartner is mentioning Bangladesh as a country that is growing when it comes as a place for outsourcing IT. Omnext was part of a Dutch trade delegation that went down to Bangladesh to explore opportunities. This article (in Dutch) has the details. Omnext delivers software and services to create an MRI-scan of your software. This can be used in outsourcing projects to measure progress, quality and complexity.

On May 16th the Maine Developer Network will be hosting the Augusta Business Intelligence Event and you're invited to attend.

Thanks goes to John Gagnon for putting together a great event! Here is the tentative agenda for the day:

8:30am - 9:00am Registration (and Breakfast if we find a sponsor)  
9:00 am - 10:00 am Designing the Business Process Dimensional Model  
10:10 am - 11:30 am ETL System Physical Design -
11:40 am - 12:40 am Lunch
12:40 pm - 2:00pm Designing the Analysis Services OLAP Database - Slava Kokaev
2:10 pm - 3:20pm  Interactive Dashboards with PerformancePoint 2010 - Sunil Kadimdiwan
3:30 pm - 4:30pm Custom BI Applications and Interactive Dashboards -  Slava Kokaev

Presenters:
Slava Kokaev - Principal BI Developer/Architect at Industrial Defender, specializing in Design and Development of Business Intelligence Systems, Custom BI Web Applications and BI Integration. Slava is a Boston Microsoft Business Intelligence User Group leader, SQL Server Community and INETA Regional speaker.

Sunil Kadimdiwan - has 25+ years' experience in architecting and implementing database solutions. He has deep knowledge of the Microsoft SQL Server and Business Intelligence technology stack. He is a frequent speaker at Microsoft sponsored code camps and user group meetings in the New England region.

The event will be held at:
Central Main Commerce Center
Florian Auditorium
45 Commerce Drive
Augusta, ME

Go to www.maine-devnet.org/Home/SignUpForEvent.aspx to sign up and find for more information.

Today I had a little bit of challenge trying to demonstrate the behavior of TaskSchedular.UnobservedTaskException. TaskSchedular.UnobservedTaskException can be used to deal with any unhandled exception that occurs during the execution of a task. The event fires when the garbage collector tries to clean up the task. My initial code was good, but I forgot to wait for the task to be done before forcing the GC to do its job

The code below is an effective example of how TaskSchedular.UnobservedTaskException works.

            1:
            public
            
              class
              
                Example
                
                
              
            
          

            2:
            {
          

            3:
            public
            
              void
               Test()

            
          

            4:
            {
          

            5:
            Task
             t
= newTask ( delegate
          

            6:
            {
          

            7:
            Console
             .WriteLine( "Do
test, just before exception." );

          

            8:
            throw
            
              new
              
                Exception
                 ();

              
            
          

            9:
            } );

            10: t.Start();

            11:
          

            12:
            }
          

            13:
            }
          

            14:
          

            15:
            class
            
              Program
              
              
            
          

            16:
            {
          

            17:
            static
            
              void
               Main( string []
args )

            
          

            18:
            {
          

            19:
            TaskScheduler
             .UnobservedTaskException
+= newEventHandler <UnobservedTaskExceptionEventArgs >(
TaskScheduler_UnobservedTaskException );

          

            20:
          

            21:
            Example
             example
= newExample ();

          

            22: example.Test();

            23:
          

            24:
            Thread
             .Sleep(
2000 ); // delay is needed to make sure the task is done
before calling GC.
          

            25:
            Console
             .WriteLine( "Done
sleeping" );

          

            26:
          

            27:
            GC
             .Collect();

          

            28:
            GC
             .WaitForPendingFinalizers();

          

            29:
          

            30:
            Console
             .ReadLine();

          

            31:
            }
          

            32:
          

            33:
            static
            
              void
               TaskScheduler_UnobservedTaskException( object sender, UnobservedTaskExceptionEventArgs e
)

            
          

            34:
            {
          

            35:
            Console
             .WriteLine( "Error." );

          

            36: e.SetObserved();

            37:
            }
          

            38:
            }
          

            39:
          

I’ll be speaking at the Bangor Developers meeting next week (March 22nd) about code contracts. The session is all about improving code reliability and predictability using .NET code contracts. Additionally Mark will demonstrate that using a tool like code contracts static analysis essentially helps you do a thorough code review of your own code. If there is time he’ll also do a demo of the Visual Studio Productivity Power Tools.

For you benefit and amusement: here is my experience with upgrading to Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1.

10 minutes later:

Another 25 minutes later:

NOTE: If you are working on a Word document while installing the Visual Studio Tools for Office then be warned that the installer will automatically shutdown Word when it reaches this step! I lost a bunch of changes because of this!

Restart required:

Reboot complete… start Visual Studio 2010 and check the Help | Info screen:

Life is good!

I’ve checked my DevExpress add-in and also the Code Contracts add-in that I’ve got installed and both seem to be working fine. Nice!

Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 and also Team Foundation Server Service Pack 1 are now available! More information about enhancements offered in this release can be found on Somasegar’s blog and Brian Harry’s blog.

Change lists can be found here:

• VS 2010 SP1 Changes (includes Test and Lab Manager)
• TFS 2010 SP1 Changes

Go to the MSDN download center for immediate downloading.