Serialize objects into C#

Am I the only crazy person who would like to serialize objects into C# code? Not binary or XML serialization. I want to take an object and generate C# code that will recreate all the public properties of this object and save the code to CS files.

MSDN and Offshore developer

Including TFS (and some other features) in MSDN Pro has another benefit: it makes it possible to use these features when working with offshore outsourcing partner. It is no secret, that offshore development is all about cost, so to keep the cost down the offshore partners limit the money they are willing to pay for development tools. Having extra $2000 per developer means extra 96c per hour, which can reach 5% of the hourly rate. Which means that either the company risk losing business or the developer will be underpaid.

So this is really a smart move from Microsoft side.

Overheard today...

A manager about the consulting company he uses for software development:

"I don't like them to be creative. We are not paying them to be creative."

Why Non-broadcast Networks are not a Security Feature

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb726942.aspx

Wireless security consists of two main elements: authentication and encryption. Authentication controls access to the network and encryption ensures that malicious users cannot determine the contents of wireless data frames. Although having users manually configure the SSID of a wireless network in order to connect to it creates the illusion of providing an additional layer of security, it does not substitute for either authentication or encryption.

A non-broadcast network is not undetectable. Non-broadcast networks are advertised in the probe requests sent out by wireless clients and in the responses to the probe requests sent by wireless APs. Unlike broadcast networks, wireless clients running Windows XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Server® 2003 with Service Pack 1 that are configured to connect to non-broadcast networks are constantly disclosing the SSID of those networks, even when those networks are not in range.

Therefore, using non-broadcast networks compromises the privacy of the wireless network configuration of a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client because it is periodically disclosing its set of preferred non-broadcast wireless networks. When non-broadcast networks are used to hide a vulnerable wireless network—such as one that uses open authentication and Wired Equivalent Privacy—a Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based wireless client can inadvertently aid malicious users, who can detect the wireless network SSID from the wireless client that is attempting to connect. Software that can be downloaded for free from the Internet leverages these information disclosures and targets non-broadcast networks.

This behavior is worse for enterprise wireless networks because of the number of wireless clients that are periodically advertising the non-broadcast network name. For example, an enterprise wireless network consists of 20 wireless APs and 500 wireless laptops. If the wireless APs are configured to broadcast, each wireless AP would periodically advertise the enterprise’s wireless network name, but only within the range of the wireless APs. If the wireless APs are configured as non-broadcast, each of the 500 Windows XP or Windows Server 2003-based laptops would periodically advertise the enterprise’s wireless network name, regardless of their location (in the office, at a wireless hotspot, or at home).

For these reasons, it is highly recommended that you do not use non-broadcast wireless networks. Instead, configure your wireless networks as broadcast and use the authentication and encryption security features of your wireless network hardware and Windows to protect your wireless network, rather than relying on non-broadcast behavior.

MSDN

Am I the only one who is confused by MSDN download screen? I have two MSDN subscription on my email, and I have no idea which software belongs to which client. I hope I don't get punished by Microsoft.

UPS

Just connected my server to APC UPS I just received. I realized that WHS does not have USB support, and the server itself does not have COM ports, and APC does not have a server version of the software that take care of shutdown. Oops...

This means I'll have to shutdown the server manually if I loose power for extended periods. Luckily that almost never happens. Most of the time I lose power for a few seconds, and the UPS should cover that.

Variable naming...

How do you pronounce variable "contactus"? "Con-cactus"?

One more argument for correct variable casing...

Too many items

Our coding standards mandates we don't have more than 10 non-trivial members in a class. So I am doing some code review and for one of the classes there are so many members even ReSharper refuses to count them, just reports that there are too many of them (see picture on the right). I guess there are gonna be some rather serious refactoring.

Boolean is difficult

Sometimes you see the C# code like this:

if(isValid()) {
return true;
}
else {
return false;
}

or even "better":

return (isValid()? true : false);

I always wondered why not just write the code like this:

return isValid()

Is the reason is that some of the younger developers don't have any background in C, C++ or any languages where the conditional statements return int, not bool? It is psychologically difficult for them to accept Boolean as the first class citizen - data type. For them Boolean cannot be separated from the if statements or "?" operator. Am I correct? What is your opinion?

JavaFx installation

Oddly enough it did not prompt me to download and install JavaFx, it just showed me the small icon. When I clicked on the icon it prompted me to download the latest Java, and after 6 minutes (on high-speed connection) and two browser restarts I've got it up and running.

Fixing Outlook annoyancies

If a message comes as plain text, Outlook will use plain text format to reply to this message. As a result the signature gets messed up, etc. This article shows how to overcome this limitations. A simple macro can convert a received email from plain text to html:

Sub ConvertMessage()
Dim oMailItem As MailItem
Set oMailItem = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
oMailItem.BodyFormat = olFormatHTML
'oMailItem.HTMLBody = oMailItem.Body
oMailItem.Close (olSave)
Set oMailItem = Nothing
End Sub

I commented out one of the lines because it works better for me this way.

Anger-driven development

Being angry at the badly written code stimulated me to a few hours of very productive refactoring and bug fixing. Do I need to get angry to be productive?

IOC container

I found a great idea in Dave Laribee's article in MSDN Vol 24 # 2: Don't use IOC containers for entities, only for services. I am saying this becase our team is practicing this for the last year or so.

Silverlight instead of JavaScript?

I would not recommend anyone to use Silverlight instead of JavaScript, because of low tolerance of the former to browser differences. Besides, why would you trade your almost strongly typed JavaScript to weakly typed Silverlight syntax like:

HtmlElement label1 = HtmlPage.Document.GetElementById("Label1");
label1.SetProperty("innerHTML", "Dino");

However there is one scenario that could provide a good case for using Silverlight in place of JavaScript, as described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd148642.aspx . Look at this piece of code:

HtmlElement button1;
button1 = HtmlPage.Document.GetElementById("Button1");
button1.AttachEvent("click", new System.EventHandler(Button1_Click));

You can attach a managed event handler to an HTML button!

How to fail the build if unit tests fail.

I just realized that the way TFS is architected is that it will mark the tests "Partially Succeeded" if the unit tests fail. This does not agree with out development process. Our development process prescribes that the build should fail if any of the unit tests fail. One way to deal with this problem is to edit C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\TeamBuild\Microsoft.TeamFoundation.Build.targets and set ContinueOnError to false.

Another way of dealing with this was suggested in the blog entry http://blogs.msdn.com/aaronhallberg/archive/2007/11/05/how-to-fail-a-build-when-tests-fail.aspx

I modified the code suggested there to make sure also that the files are not copied to the drop location if the unit tests fail.

<Target Name="AfterTest">

<!-- Refresh the build properties. -->

<GetBuildProperties TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"

BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"

Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' ">

<Output TaskParameter="TestSuccess" PropertyName="TestSuccess" />

</GetBuildProperties>

<!-- Set CompilationStatus to Failed if TestSuccess is false. -->

<SetBuildProperties TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"

BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"

CompilationStatus="Failed"

Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' and '$(TestSuccess)' != 'true' "/>

<SetBuildProperties TeamFoundationServerUrl="$(TeamFoundationServerUrl)"

BuildUri="$(BuildUri)"

SkipDropBuild="true"

Condition=" '$(IsDesktopBuild)' != 'true' and '$(TestSuccess)' != 'true' "/>

</Target>

Mock object framework makes refactoring difficult

Probably unintended consequence of using a mock object framework is that it makes refactoring somewhat difficult if the method signature changes, or if methods are split/combined or rearranged to different interfaces. Sometimes I am having really hard time in getting the test back to the working condition, and often don't know why I need to do what I have to do to get it fixed.

FxCop rigidness

What drives me really crazy in FxCop is that I cannot easily change the MessageLevel of the built-in rules. The XML file describing rules is compiled into the rule assemblies as an embedded resource, so the only option for me is to create a new rule assembly, copy the XML file, exclude the old rule and include the new rule. I'd rather change the MessageLevel using FxCop project files.

Misfeature of FxCop 1.36

When upgraded to version 1.36 I started getting the messages "Strong name doesn't match the reference", or "Could not resolve member reference".

The solution can be found here. What worked for me is setting AssemblyReferenceResolveMode to None.

Problem with CollabNet SVN 1.5

When I upgraded I started getting messages like this:

Failed to load module for FS type 'bdb'

Apparently bdb module is not working (or maybe they forgot to include it?) in the CollabNet distribution. I had to use the old binaries to migrate the repositories from bdb to fsfs like this:

svnadmin create NEW_REPOSITORY
svnadmin dump OLD_REPOSITORY | svnadmin load NEW_REPOSITORY

where NEW_REPOSITORY is the file path to the new fsfs repository and OLD_REPOSITORY is the file path to the old bdb repository.

BizTalk services let you expose stuff on internal network?

See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/cc546613.aspx. Using RelayedHttp you can expose the web service on your internal network to the internet. But I wonder how this thing work? Is the service polling the BizTalk services all the time to check if there is any request?