Links for 3-Aug

MSFT WPF Ribbon RTW.

Gems for .net -- leveraging Ruby's package and dependency management:

• How-to series (Parts 1, 2, 3).
• The nu tool and how-to example.

Languages:

• F# : converting Func<> to  FSharpFunc<>.
• OSCON 2010 Emerging Languages Camp.
  
• New releases IronRuby 1.1, IronPython 2.7 alpha1.

Web:

• A CSS3 text-shadow tip.
• Choco -- in page JavaScript MVC framework.

Links for 8-Jun

Visual Studio's WCF test client.

What code contracts look like after compilation.

F#:

• Using F# dynamic lookup from C# for Silverlight/WPF.
• Using async and parallel workflows from IronPython.
• Powerpack 2.0 including Silverlight 4.

WPF -- essential tools for the beginner.

Enumerating all WMI classes from .net code.

Using Mono.Cecil as a decompiler for windbg.

13000 free icons for your software.

IronPython, WPF, and button-free windows

So, how do we achieve something like this with WPF, using IronPython?

Assume Vista or later (if you want to support XP, do something different if System.Environment.OSVersion.Version.Major < 6)

Start with some XAML

<Window
    xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
    xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
    Title="Window2" Height="300" Width="400" MinWidth="400" MinHeight="100"  WindowStyle="None" AllowsTransparency="True">
    <Grid>
        <Grid Name="banner">
            <Image Name="icon" Stretch="Fill" HorizontalAlignment="Left" VerticalAlignment="Top" Width="20" Height="20" Margin="4,4,0,0" />
            <Label Height="28" Name="title" VerticalAlignment="Top" Background="WhiteSmoke" Margin="28,0,0,0">Label</Label>
        </Grid>
        <StackPanel Margin="0,28,0,0" Name="body" VerticalAlignment="Top" Height="230">
            <TextBlock Height="100" Name="message" VerticalAlignment="Top" />
            <Image Name="image" Stretch="None" Height="130" Width="400" />
        </StackPanel>
        <StackPanel Name="buttons" Height="55" VerticalAlignment="Bottom" Orientation="Horizontal">
            <!-- Button Height="23" Name="button1" Width="75" Margin="2">Button</Button -->
        </StackPanel>
    </Grid>
</Window>

We can then use ctypes to get at the glass APIs, and set up some re-usable types

which we can then hook into our window (assume we have loaded the XAML into a variable window)

Of course you now need to ensure you have some button or other control that will let you dismiss the window, now you no longer have the kiss of death available at top right.

The ref parameter in the WndProc hook is the reason behind the previous post...

Links for 19-Nov

New from the PDC:

• Windows Identity Framework RTM.
• Silverlight 4 beta.
• Reactive Extensions release (Introduction parts 3,4, another introduction).
• IronScheme 1.0 RC1.

WPF - from C# to F#.

Automating signing of PoSh scripts.

Prefer structured lifetimes – local, nested, bounded, deterministic.

Embedding IronPython in Silverlight.

Mono tools for Visual Studio.

Moonlight futures.

Google's 'go' -- is it the new VB?

Links for 7-Sep

F#

• Composing functions.
• Events and asynchronous workflows (series).
• Custom monads.
• Delayed Maybe monad.
  

Silverlight/Web

• Silverlight <canvas> emulator (follow-up).
• SVG for IE via Flash.
• Silverlight L10n.

PowerShell

• Exploring WMI.
• Formatted dumps of byte arrays.

Misc.

• Ultimate tool list for Windows.
• Exploit analysis plug-in for WinDbg post-mortem work.
• Winforms & WPF data UI without code or XAML.
• Visual Studio ignores some MSBuild conditional imports.
• Unit tests -- definition and best practice.

Links for 24-Aug

F#

• First class events -- creating events; creating and disposing event handlers.
• WPF -- dependency properties, chaining them, commands, and resources.

Smart clients and reverse HTTP.

PowerShell, P/Invoke and AeroPeek -- fun with Add-Type.

Firefox NTLM authentication.

WPF Control verifier.

The first rule of exception handling.

IronRuby & rake for general build automation.

Listing all live instances of a type.

Moonlight 2.0 beta.

Links for 17-Aug

C# -- Four switch oddities.

F# -- Creating WPF dependency properties.

Compiling Python packages into Assemblies.

Better unit tests with Test.Assert(expression).

Links for 19-Jun

The event-based asynchronous pattern -- introduction and implementation.

Interleaving work to keep threads responsive.

PowerBoots 0.2 -- WPF in PowerShell (v1 as well as v2).

Mixing languages -- the right tool for the right job.

Is this assembly built as debug?

The elusive tail opcode in F# -- a cautionary tale about debug builds.

Links for 15-Jun

Three questions for every bug.

The single level of abstraction principle.

andand via monads -- all in C#.

Windows API code-pack -- official .net bindings for shell APIs and more.

WPF Bindings and the current culture -- a problem and a fix.

F# --

• Useful for scripting.
• Units of measure on Parameterized types -- not just for floats.
• Duck typing, structural typing.

jQuery selectors tip -- a simple speed-up

Links for 9-Apr

A bit of a catch-up...

WPF UIs from PoSh.

F# basics -- types.

Principles of software development -- a good checklist.

Microsoft StyleCop for C# 4.3.1.3 now has a Resharper 4.1+ plugin to remove the pain of adopting MSFT's C# coding style.

The Office WPF ribbon -- royalty free license from MSFT.

The WMI team blog.

The magic behind parser combinators.

Java, JRuby and dynamic languages on the Google App Engine.

Links for 9-Feb

WPF Application Quality Guide -- advice and how-to.

The basic syntax of F# -- keywords and constructs.

Recreating the button.

Interop between Java and Scala.

Links for 8-Jan

PoSh -- an effective foreach idiom.

PoSh -- Boots for WPF GUIs (inspired by Ruby Shoes).

C#3 and currying (series).

Ultimate List of Free Windows Software from Microsoft!

Links for 5-Jan

Just a small selection from the last week or so, and not even trying to keep up with PoSh v2CTP3 goodness -- I will be so pleased when that gets to go-live state!

AssemblyInfo.fs usage for F# DLLS and console executables. Note that the ability to default build and revision numbers as in [<assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.*")>] is not provided for you -- time-stamping has to be done externally e.g. by a pre-build step.

Generics in XAML.

Avoiding deadlocks when redirecting stdin/out/err for spawned processes in .Net code.

Speech recognition with .Net 3 and speech synthesis too!

Links for 18-Dec

WPF SDK TestAPI released -- also works with WinForms and Win32.

Silverlight UnitTest framework.

Persistance in WF.

Tracking in WF.

PowerShell WMI explorer.

PoSh : Explore your [Environment].

CAT.NET CTP -- code analysis for various security issues like XSS and SQL injection.

Ja.NET -- Java5 for .Net. I need to check out how well this handles Swing...

Links for 24-Nov

Keeping testers in test.

IronPython and WPF Background Processing.

Calling IronPython Functions from C#.

Why exceptions in attribute constructors are bad -- not that exception throwing constructors are ever good.

Exception free ASP.Net redirection.

W3C Geolocation support for Firefox.

Links for 14-Aug

FxCop for Silverlight How-to.

Recursing on recursion - Continuation passing. 

Curry for beginners (in C#3.0). 

The most important bug fix in .Net3.5sp1

IronRuby+Silverlight+DOM worked example (Flickr viewer).

WPF Toolkit -- off-cycle add-ons.

An interesting idea -- Ruby on the Erlang VM.

Google gets into the crypto business. Why? Because, probably.

Links for 08-08-08

The IronPython compilation sample is now belatedly available, and discussed here.

Making IList<T> implementations more debugger friendly.

PoSh owner's Manual and Toolbox.

IronNails -- Rails like syntax for WPF/Silverlight.

Links for 27-May

What is the future of C#?

PowerShell and WPF parts 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 -- and the rationale for doing this with the language.

The secret of building effective software systems.

Ruby -- 21 tricks, and new Shoes. 

Distributed JRuby.

Links for 20-May

Unit tests as your programming warm-up.

Steve McConnell's Classic Mistakes -- 2008 Edition. 

PowerShell -- using WPF and SOAP-based web services. 

Useful LINQ idioms.

Links for 18-Apr

Standalone Silverlight apps with Mono.

Silverlight & IronRuby using controls part 1, part 2. 

Unit Testing Silverlight. 

WPF custom layouts.