Software

  • Opening OpenXML, the Open XML Package Editor Power Tool for Visual Studio 2010 – Greg Duncan highlights the release of the updated release of the Open XML Package Editor PowerTool, now updated for Visual Studio 2010. This tool allows you to open OpenXML document packages in the Visual Studio IDE and view, edit, supplement and export the component parts of the package.
  • Introduction to StickyBeak – Mark Kemper introduces StickyBeak, an ASP.NET HttpModule which allows you to log and view all HTTP requests to your ASP.NET powered web application, including form posts, query strings, cookies, etc. This looks like a very useful tool for debugging problems with sites and systems, although don’t forget to turn it off when you are done.

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  • How I use Inversion of Control containers – pulling from the container – Krzysztof Kozmic follows up on his previous post answering reader questions on how you can obtain components from the container based on some external input, discussing the use of the Abstract Factory/ Factory Method pattern, and how the Windsor container does a lot of the hard work for you in providing the implementation of such a factory.
  • Extension Methods and "yield return" – Jason Bock explores the use of yield return, and the changes that it makes to the structure of your code once compiled, in order to delay the execution of the iteration loops until needed, and shows a situation where this can result in dramatic changes to the way something works when called.
  • AndAlso and OrElse – Christiaan takes a look at two less known VB.NET operators which provide the lazy evaluation of conditionals which makes working with reference types easier as you can test for null on one side of the statement and use the reference on the other side when combining with these operators.
  • Now Available: Layered Architecture Sample for .NET 4.0 – J.D. Meier highlights the release of an update to the Layered Architecture Sample, now updated to .NET 4. This sample aims to show how you can structure your applications into layers utilising different .NET technologies in each layer.
  • Great Uses of Using Statement in C# – Steve Smith looks at how you can use the using statement along with IDisposable to have actions taken at the start and end of a code block with minimal effort and code around the code block.
  • Using Custom Performance Counters with Windows Azure Services – Mike Kelly explores the support for custom Performance Counters when running your applications on the Windows Azure cloud, and looks at how you can monitor the counters having the data from them written into the Azure Table Storage.
  • MSTest vs. NUnit with Visual Studio 2010 & TDD – Jeff Vera explores the differences between NUnit and MSTest for unit testing in .NET, breaking the comparison down into a few stages, examining setup and a number of test cases and announcing the winner of the round at each stage. Check out the comments for some other good points from Sergio Pereira
  • The Task Parallel Library Series – Introduction – Steve Strong begins a new series of posts looking at the Task Parallel Library. This introductory posts sets the scene for the TPL discussing the need for parallelism and the state of parallel programming in the pre-.NET 4 era.
  • Sequential Async using CoRoutines – Torkel Ödegaard takes a look at implementing Async Workflows based on the work by Rob Eisenberg in his Build your own MVVM framework talk at Mix10. Torkel shares an implementation and explains the background nicely, showing how you can have your workflow in one place readable consecutively but maintaining the async nature and providing feedback for the UI
  • Web Application Extensibility with FubuMVC (Part 1) – Jeremy D. Miller talks about the importance of extensibility and customisation for small product based companies selling their software to large organisations, and discusses some of the extensibility features his team put into FubuMVC to enable easy customisation by obeying the SOLID principle.

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