The Wiert Corner – irregular stream of stuff

Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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Archive for the ‘Development’ Category

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VB.NET history: VBPowerPack download (formerly from GotDotNet) via: VB Helper: Tip: GotDotNet Visual Basic Power Pack Going Away

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/28

I was involved in porting a Visual Studio 2003 VB.NET solution to the latest Visual Studio.

One of the things present was a binary (don’t ask) version of the VBPowerPack, which used to be available on GotDotNet.

Though you can link against .NET 1.1 assemblies from .NET 2.0 and up, I’d rather have source.

That allows me to fix things whenever something comes up (it probably does, as VBPowerPack was pre-Aero, so the controls in it might need some adjustments).

GotDotNet was hated by many people, and finally closed in 2007 by Microsoft in favour of CodePlex (don’t you just love the cloud?).

Luckily, people do archive stuff, so VB Helper has VBPowerPack.

The download is a simple MSI installer, that you can extract using something like this:

msiexec /a PathToMSIFile /qb TARGETDIR=DirectoryToExtractTo

–jeroen

via:

Posted in .NET, Development, Software Development, VB.NET, Visual Studio 11, Visual Studio 2002, Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | 1 Comment »

System Error Messages: anyone who has links for SQL Server > 2000?

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/27

I could only find the System Error Messages overview for:

Are there any such links for SQL Server 2005 and up?

The odd thing is online lists of Database Engine Error Severities are available for multiple versions of SQL Server: 2005, 2008 and 2008 R2.

–jeroen

Posted in Database Development, Development, SQL Server, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 7 | 1 Comment »

SQL Server quick tip by Denis Gobo: use DBCC SHOWCONTIG for Min/Max/Average row sizes (via: sql server – Size of a single Record ? SQL – Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/22

Thanks SQLMenace (Denis Gobo) for this great tip on getting min/max/average row sizes (and more) using DBCC SHOWCONTIG.

Don’t forget the “with tableresults”, without it, it will skip the min/max/average recordsize from the results, and present the results as text (not as a row).

 

 

Run DBCC SHOWCONTIG with your table name

dbcc showcontig ('TableName') with tableresults

then look at max min and average record size

This feature works at least from SQL Server 2000 onward, though somewhere after SQL Server 2012 it will be removed.
As of SQL Server 2005 you can use sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats. An example on how to use that is here.

It just made me shiver when finding out an unindexed table with 9 million rows averaging about 300 bytes took 8 minutes to query.
Time to add some indexes, and have someone look at the disk back-end.

–jeroen

via: sql server – Size of a single Record ? SQL – Stack Overflow.

Posted in Database Development, Development, SQL Server, SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012 | Leave a Comment »

.NET/C# LINQ gem: How to check if a char in a list of characters (via Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/21

Often when comparing characters with a list of characters, that list does not consist of consts.

It if were, you could make a switch statement:

                    switch (item)
                    {
                        case '/':
                        case '\\':
                        case ';':
                            addSeparator(separatorsUsed, item);
                            break;
                    }

But reality is that you cannot do things like this:

                    switch (item)
                    {
                        case Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar: // Error: A constant value is expected
                        case Path.DirectorySeparatorChar:
                        case Path.PathSeparator:
                            addSeparator(separatorsUsed, item);
                            break;
                    }

However, you can perform a small trick and use LINQ to write some pretty elegant code based on Contains.

                    char[] pathSeparators = { Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar, Path.DirectorySeparatorChar, Path.PathSeparator };
                    // LINQ: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1818611/how-to-check-if-a-char-in-a-char-array/1818635#1818635
                    if (pathSeparators.Contains(item))
                        addSeparator(separatorsUsed, item);

The LINQ logic has the logic backwards (you can think of it like “item in pathSeparators”, but it is far easier to read than this:

                    if ((item == Path.AltDirectorySeparatorChar) || (item == Path.DirectorySeparatorChar) || (item == Path.PathSeparator))
                        addSeparator(separatoseparatorsUsedrsInUse, item);

Full source of a demo application: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in .NET, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.5, C#, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, LINQ, Software Development, Visual Studio 11, Visual Studio 2008, Visual Studio 2010, Visual Studio and tools | 2 Comments »

.NET/C# duh moment of the day: “A char can be implicitly converted to ushort, int, uint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal (not the other way around; implicit != implicit)”

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/20

A while ago I had a “duh” moment while calling a method that had many overloads, and one of the overloads was using int, not the char I’d expect.

The result was that a default value for that char was used, and my parameter was interpreted as a (very small) buffer size. I only found out something went wrong when writing unit tests around my code.

The culprit is this C# char feature (other implicit type conversions nicely summarized by Muhammad Javed):

A char can be implicitly converted to ushort, int, uint, long, ulong, float, double, or decimal. However, there are no implicit conversions from other types to the char type.

Switching between various development environments, I totally forgot this is the case in languages based on C and Java ancestry. But not in VB and Delphi ancestry  (C/C++ do numeric promotions of char to int and Java widens 2-byte char to 4-byte int; Delphi and VB.net don’t).

I’m not the only one who was confused, so Eric Lippert wrote a nice blog post on it in 2009: Why does char convert implicitly to ushort but not vice versa? – Fabulous Adventures In Coding – Site Home – MSDN Blogs.

Basically, it is the C ancestry: a char is an integral type always known to contain an integer value representing a Unicode character. The opposite is not true: an integer type is not always representing a Unicode character.

Lesson learned: if you have a large number of overloads (either writing them or using them) watch for mixing char and int parameters.

Note that overload resolution can be diffucult enough (C# 3 had breaking changes and C# 4 had breaking changes too, and those are only for C#), so don’t make it more difficult than it should be (:

Below a few examples in C# and VB and their IL disassemblies to illustrate their differnces based on asterisk (*) and space ( ) that also show that not all implicits are created equal: Decimal is done at run-time, the rest at compile time.

Note that the order of the methods is alphabetic, but the calls are in order of the type and size of the numeric types (integral types, then floating point types, then decimal).

A few interesting observations:

  • The C# compiler implicitly converts char with all calls except for decimal, where an implicit conversion at run time is used:
    L_004c: call valuetype [mscorlib]System.Decimal [mscorlib]System.Decimal::op_Implicit(char)
    L_0051: call void CharIntCompatibilityCSharp.Program::writeLineDecimal(valuetype [mscorlib]System.Decimal)
  • Same for implicit conversion of byte to the other types, though here the C# and VB.NET compilers generate slightly different code for run-time conversion.
    C# uses an implicit conversion:
    L_00af: ldloc.1
    L_00b0: call valuetype [mscorlib]System.Decimal [mscorlib]System.Decimal::op_Implicit(uint8)
    L_00b5: call void CharIntCompatibilityCSharp.Program::writeLineDecimal(valuetype [mscorlib]System.Decimal)
    VB.NET calls a constructor:
    L_006e: ldloc.1
    L_006f: newobj instance void [mscorlib]System.Decimal::.ctor(int32)
    L_0075: call void CharIntCompatibilityVB.Program::writeLineDecimal(valuetype [mscorlib]System.Decimal)

Here is the example code: Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in .NET, Agile, Algorithms, C#, C# 1.0, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, C++, Delphi, Development, Encoding, Floating point handling, Java, Software Development, Unicode, Unit Testing, VB.NET | 1 Comment »

Some notes on finding the cause of a .NET app generating a “application has generated an exception that could not be handled”

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/15

A while ago, one of the users at a client got an error in a .NET 1.1 app of which the sources were not readily available:

“application has generated an exception that could not be handled”

I think it is a e0434f4d  exception.

This particular site has very strict rules about what you can and cannot do as a developer. Which means that on a production system, you basically cannot do anything.

A few links that should help me finding the solution, and escalate far enough upstream to get someone with local admin rights to assist me:

If WinDbg is allows to be ran, these should help me:

–jeroen

Posted in .NET, .NET 1.x, .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5, .NET 4.0, .NET 4.5, C#, C# 1.0, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

Interesting: Visual Studio Project Renamer | ComVisible

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/14

Over the course of development time, each suite of projects is bound to get some renames.

Doing that from the Visual Studio IDE is a pain, so I was glad to find Visual Studio Project Renamer by ComVisible.

Though it only supports C# and VB.NET projects (so no solution rename or rename of F#, Database or Reporting Service projects, nor stuff outside of the Microsoft realm like Prism).

These Just geeks: Renaming a Visual Studio Project link led me to the project.

Renaming solutions still is largely a manual operation as it involves renaming directories. You have to re-add some (sometimes all) projects later where this tool can come in handy: CoolCommands by SharpToolbox.

–jeroen

via:

Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, F#, Prism, Software Development, VB.NET, Visual Studio and tools | Leave a Comment »

.NET/C#: Cleaning up path names with invalid characters (via: validation – C# Sanitize File Name – Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/13

Thanks Andre for this cleanup code:

To clean up a file name you could do this

private static string MakeValidFileName(string name)
{
string invalidChars = Regex.Escape( new string( Path.GetInvalidFileNameChars() ) );
string invalidReStr = string.Format( @"[{0}]+", invalidChars );
return Regex.Replace( name, invalidReStr, "_" );
}

Next to GetInvalidFileNameChars, you have GetInvalidPathChars.

–jeroen

via: validation – C# Sanitize File Name – Stack Overflow.

Posted in .NET, C#, Development, Software Development | 2 Comments »

IIS on Windows 7: installing and opening the firewall

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/12

Usually, I run IIS only on server systems, but for the occasional time when I need it on a (development) workstation (as Cassinni only listens to localhost), these links come in handy:

  1. Installing IIS 7 on Windows Vista and Windows 7 : Installing IIS 7 : Installing and Configuring IIS : The Official Microsoft IIS Site.
    This helps you setup IIS 7, and make sure ASP.NET works on it
  2. Allowing Remote Connection in IIS on Windows 7 – Super User.
    This helps you open up the firewall to access IIS over http port 80.
  3. Make sure if you add virtual directories or applications, that they are based on Physical Paths. When not (for instance with a subst path), you will get an error like this:
    <<
    —————————
    Add Virtual Directory
    —————————
    The specified directory does not exist on the server.
    —————————
    OK
    —————————
    >>
  4. For ASP.NET applications, when creating a virtual directory or application (especially outside the C:\inetpub\wwwroot realm), make sure the rights are set correctly.
    The IIS configuration will warn you when testing a new virtual directory:
    <<
    The server is configured to use pass-through authentication with a built-in account to access the specified physical path. However, IIS Manager cannot verify whether the built-in account has access. Make sure that the application pool identity has Read access to the physical path. If this server is joined to a domain, and the application pool identity is NetworkService or LocalSystem, verify that <domain>\<computer_name>$ has Read access to the physical path. Then test these settings again.
    >>
    When in doubt, check out the rights set to C:\inetpub\wwwroot and use that as a point to get started.
    Usually the user is IIS_USRS, and the minimum rights looks like read+execute, but in fact is excute+read-data+read-attributes+read-extended-attributes.

–jeroen

Posted in Development, IIS, Software Development, Web Development | 2 Comments »

.NET/C#: Drives, Directories, Paths and Filenames in Windows is hard, let alone cross platform (: via: .net – Why Path.Combine doesn’t add the Path.DirectorySeparatorChar after the drive designator? – Stack Overflow)

Posted by jpluimers on 2012/11/08

Handling names of drives and paths (directories, filenames) is hard in Windows, as both C:myfile.ext and C:\myfile.ext are valid – but potentially different – filenames, C is a valid driveletter, C: and C:\ are valid – but also potentially different – directory names.

This leads into confusion as how Path.Combine behaves.

Part of the confusion comes from the meaning of the absence or presence of the leading DirectorySeparatorChar as explained by user Peter van der Heijden:

C:filename is a valid path and is different from C:\filename. C:filename is the file filename in the current directory on the C: drive whereas C:\filename is the file filename in the root of that drive. Apparently they wanted to keep the functionality of refering to the current directory on some drive.

This behaviour is described here in MSDN

Another oddity is that Path.Combine will only use the drive portion of the left argument when the right argument contains an absolute path.

If you understand the above, then dealing with cross platform directory and path separators, spaces in filenames and UNC path names are peanuts (:

–jeroen

via: .net – Why Path.Combine doesn’t add the Path.DirectorySeparatorChar after the drive designator? – Stack Overflow.

Posted in .NET, C#, C# 2.0, C# 3.0, C# 4.0, C# 5.0, Development, Software Development | Leave a Comment »

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