Lots of C# open source projects

Handy list of open source C# projects

Orcas CTP drops starting from this summer - sweet :)

In one of the comments to Using LINQ with ASP.NET Scott said that the final version of Orcas should be available the second half of 2007 and what is even more important we can start playing with its CTP drops this summer :). I know it’s Microsoft and they can postpone it but for some reason I trust Scott.

ASP.NET pages not spider and search engine friendly by default

This article shows some pitfalls when it comes to indexing asp.net pages. I would add one more – AJAX.

Visual introduction to (managed) C++ 2005

I’m sick but I can still watch videos from Channel 9 :). If you need a general overview of C++ 2005 and its relation to CLR then I recommend this video with Brandon Bray. It looks like C++ 2005 is big improvement in terms of usability since C++ 2003. I was using managed C++ 2003 about two years ago and it was nightmare. In one solution I had C, C++, managed C++ and C# code. Even if it compiled it very often threw strange exceptions during runtime because of mixed nature of almost all my assemblies. A few things Brandon mentioned:

• for each statement in C++(for .NET and STL collections)
• difference between generics and templates
• why C++ managed compiler can produce best MSIL ever

Of course I’ve added his blog to my list.

Microsoft's certificates - any real value?

Scott Hanselman represents quite similar to main point of view. But I think that Microsoft’s certificate can have real value if we satisfy a few conditions. If we learn in order to prepare to them then it makes sense otherwise it’s bullshit. And one more remark, many job offers say that the certificates are either required or at least more then welcome. Does it make any senses? Not much to me because every single person that can handle mouse and keyboard can pass them without any problem. How? Just download brain dumps from the Internet. Then how having them or not having them can be any criterion? Anyway you have to check a given person out in order to confirm its certificates are true. You can ask why I’ve passed 2 of them. I think the answer is just a few lines above :).

I need more syntactic sugar

I am really excited about extension methods and once C# 3.0 is released I’m going to extend every collection class with IsEmpty, IsNotEmpty functions. They should look like that:

public static bool IsEmpty(this ArrayList list)
{
   return list.Count == 0;
}

public static bool IsNotEmpty(this ArrayList list)
{
   return list.Count > 0;
}

I know that it’s not big deal but I would rather write: if (list.IsEmpty()) then if (list.Count == 0). The first one is just much more readable.

INDC - you should regret if you missed it

I was there. Here is the proof. But where is my pint of Guinness? :)