Contents tagged with C#
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Updating dictionary keys and GetHashCode
I just came across an interesting problem looking over a coworker's code. He was calling external code that returned a populated Dictionary. The key of the dictionary is a custom class with simple int properties that implements IEquatable, kind of like a composite key, but only part of the key was populated. He needed all components of the key populated, so he looped through its items and populated those keys.
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Struct vs. class
Structs seem to be largely ignored in .NET. Everyone uses them (Int32 is pretty common!), but rarely pay attention to the fact that they're structs instead of classes, and rarely need to. I've worked on several projects where I don't think a single custom struct was defined. A good .NET/C# programmer should understand the differences between classes and structs as they consume them, but when creating a new type, most folks just create a class without a second thought (a class is usually the right answer anyway).
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Unsigned integral types - ushort, uint, and ulong
If you've dug into the .NET documentation much, you've probably seen the framework has unsigned versions of the integral types we use all the time, and C# considers them built-in types with language keywords to easily use them--
ushort,uint, andulong. If you haven't, you may be unfamiliar with them--in 14 years of C# development, I could probably count on a hand or two the number of times I've seen them in production code. -
Migrating from VS 2005 to VS 2008
I recently helped migrate a ton of code from Visual Studio 2005 to 2008, and .NET 2.0 to 3.5. Most of it went very smoothly; it touches every .sln, .csproj, and .Designer.cs file, and puts a bunch of junk in Web.Configs, but rarely encountered errors. One thing I didn't expect was that even for a project running in VS 2008 but targeting .NET Framework 2.0, it will still use the v3.5 C# compiler. As such, it does behave a bit differently than the 2.0 compiler, even when targeting the 2.0 Framework.
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Microsoft Sandcastle
In working with my company's offshore developers, I was tasked with providing them documentation on a set of class libraries we use in our applications. In the .NET 1.0/1.1 time frame, we used NDoc, which, sadly, passed away last year, to turn the XML comments output by the C# compiler into CHM help files. After a bit of googling and a false start, I discovered Sandcastle, which Microsoft uses to build the .NET Framework documentation itself. I also discovered from the Sandcastle blog that it takes a whole mess of manual steps to use, which appeared daunting at first glance, and, being a programmer, I was looking for an easier (lazier) way.
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ASPInsiders Summit 2006 - C# 3.0 and LINQ
C# 3.0 (not to be confused with the confusingly-named .NET Framework 3.0, which includes C# 2.0, not C# 3.0) was the most exciting thing discussed at the ASPInsiders Summit. When I first learned a bit about LINQ at the 2005 summit, I didn't really get what was so great about taking some mangled SQL syntax and duct-taping it onto the language. Given a few hours for Anders Hejlsberg, the lead architect of C#, to explain LINQ, how it came to be, how it works behind the scenes, and why it's a Good Thing, I changed my mind. He and Scott Guthrie sold me on LINQ (at least, as much as I could be until it's released and I can play with it first-hand).