@ Head : VS 10

IntPtr gets operators !!!

bill — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 01:48:27 GMT

This seems so incredibly long overdue, but at last as of .NET 4, IntPtr has + and – operators added to it !!

This means you can now easily write code such as :

Dim ptr As IntPtr

. . . .
ptr += 4

this is great when dealing with offsets etc.

The actual implementation is kind of interesting. Here I’m seeing the implementation as :

Public Shared Operator -(ByVal pointer As IntPtr, ByVal offset As Integer) As IntPtr
Return New IntPtr((pointer.ToInt32 - offset))
End Function

I guess this is because it is the 32 bit version of the library. Hopefully in the 64 bit version it calls on IntPtr.ToInt64 ;)

Windows Virtual PC now on MSDN

bill — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 04:23:01 GMT

If you’ve got Windows 7 installed, the Windows Virtual PC for Windows 7 is now on MSDN subscriber downloads !!!

I had the Release Candidate (RC) installed, so had to uninstall that first and reboot before installing the RTM release. All worked perfectly, and my VPC’s from the RC also are working fine :)

If you need to uninstall the RC you’ll find it listed under the “Programs and Features” window from Control Panel. Click on “View installed updates” top left of window, and you’ll find it listed under “Microsoft Windows”

Updates on the Snippet Editor

bill — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 01:03:56 GMT

First the good news :

The February release of the Snippet Editor has now had 10,000 downloads !

Now for bug fix news:

There were a couple of issues with the paths per language. A problem with Express Editions of Visual Studio occurred due to partial entries in the registry I didn’t for-see. Initial design and testing was done with full versions of Visual Studio, but I want to ensure that it does work with the express versions, that’s why the tool is standalone not an add-in. So the good news is I have fixed those bugs (I think).

If you want those fixes you can use the original source from Feb and just download the updated products.vb file. I’ll probably look at rolling this up into a new release in the not to distant future.

Enjoy :)

Expression 3 is on MSDN

bill — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 08:01:58 GMT

With all the focus on Windows 7 RTM announcements, the availability of Expression 3 on the MSDN site last Thursday may have sneaked under folks radars. For MSND subscribers, grab your copy of Expression 3.

Microsoft: make VB like C#

bill — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:48:24 GMT

I was reading yet another VB versus C# rant: I don’t want to get sucked into wading into that, but I will say that anyone who thinks folks that use VB can’t use C# has really got things back the front. Most people who use VB can read and write C# quite well; they choose VB knowing both. Whereas so many C# developers I’ve met have absolutely no idea about VB or concepts such as declarative event handling etc, etc. For them they don’t have the basis of choice.

The reason VB folk have to read and write in C# is because a lot of SDK’s etc are all in C# originally. Even things like the enterprise library provide source code only in C#; this even after Soma promised to do better in regard to that. So for VB folks there is a real need to learn C#.

The big problem though is if you want to use C# source code in your VB project: you often have to re-write it or separate into different assemblies. That’s not productive. What I want is for VB to like C# and vice versa. I don’t mean make them the same, I mean for them to like each other; to get along well inside the same project. I’d like to be able to add a C# class to my VB project and happily compile it. And I bet some C# folk would love to have some concurrent basic or XML literals in their C# projects without all the current barriers.

Maybe the talk of compilers as a service type thing will give us that true cross language project, where VB and C# like each other so much that they then are free to diverge again :)

Snippet Editor 2.1 screen-cast

bill — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 09:08:31 GMT

I’ve just uploaded a new screen cast:

Snippet Editor Tips and Tricks

Enjoy :)

(oh and don’t forget the “buy me a beer” button)

New release of Snippet Editor

bill — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 17:31:38 GMT

Snippet Editor 2.1 is now released on codeplex:
http://www.codeplex.com/SnippetEditor

Apart from the few minor bug fixes, it includes improved search and now support for Visual Studio 2010 as well as 2008 and 2005.

I’ve also added a “buy me a beer” button to this blog, and on the codeplex site, so if you like the Snippet Editor you can help put a smile on my face :)

The snippet editor remains free: no advertisements, no nag screens.

yep, free as in beer ;)

Enjoy :)

Iterators in VB 10 ?

bill — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 13:56:01 GMT

Although VB 10 won’t have a formal syntax for iterators, it will have all the necessary ingredients to easily write iterators. In VB10 you can use a generic template and multi line lambdas to create iterators.

This iterator in C# :

static public IEnumerable<String> Lines( this TextReader rdr)
{
     String line;
     while ((line = rdr.ReadLine()) != null) {
              yield return line;
     }
}

Can be written as this in VB10:

<Extension()> 
Public Function Lines(ByVal rdr as TextReader) As IEnumerable(Of String)

     Return New GenericIterator(Of String) 
          (Function(ByRef nextItem As String) As Boolean
              nextItem = rdr.ReadLine
              Return nextItem IsNot Nothing
           End Function)

End Function

The above code uses a generic iterator class that accepts a lambda function. The lambda function sets the Current item of the iterator and returns True if MoveNext should be True. The above example is written as an extension method, but you can also use the inner part of the function inline.

For more on using iterators in VB 9 today, as well as the generic class for the above example, see my latest article in Visual Studio Magazine .

VB.Net and splash screens

bill — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:27:39 GMT

One of the nice things about the My application framework in VB.NET is the ability to easily show splash screens. The splash screen is displayed using a separate thread and by default will close when your main form’s Load event is called. There is however a quirk with it sometimes.

Whilst testing, if I launched the application from Explorer, the splash screen would appear in front of the explorer window but the main form behind it. When the splash screen closed, the main form didn’t come to the foreground. This behaviour would depend on the system being tested and seems to only consistently show up when run from a VPC. The fix for this is reasonably simple: you just need to call Activate in your main form’s Load event

   Private Sub Me_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
      Me.Activate()
   End Sub

Kudos to the VB team for the fix :)

When the VB team suggested this fix to me, I could have sworn I had already tried that. I had also looked into the my application framework code and saw it called Activate in it’s handler of the Load. So my first thoughts on it was it was a race condition, and hence I set up a single shot timer to call Activate, the timer being set to trigger a couple of hundred milliseconds after the load event. At first I thought that fixed it, but that was the “sometimes” effect tricking me <g>

Kevin from the VB team suggested I try Activate in the Load event, and sure enough it seems to work *ALL* the time. But this was even more puzzling as to why didn’t my timer approach work. So I tried overriding the OnLoad method :

   Protected Overrides Sub OnLoad(ByVal e As EventArgs)
      MyBase.OnLoad(e)
      Me.Activate()
   End Sub

That actually fails ( yes “sometimes”). But if you change that to:

 
  Protected Overrides Sub OnLoad(ByVal e As EventArgs)
      Me.Activate()
      MyBase.OnLoad(e)
   End Sub

Then it works. So the key is that Activate has to be called before the call to OnLoad completes. Suddenly the pieces of the puzzle all fit together.

What I think is happening is this: The my application framework hooks into the Load event and uses that to dispose of the splash screen. The problem occurs when the splash screen which has the UI input is closed before the call to Activate is made. Because the calling thread doesn’t have the UI Input, SetForeGround window doesn’t work. Based on this hypothesis, I suggested a fix to the WindowsFormsApplicationBase. Currently is has this method in it:

        '''************************************************************************** 
        ''' ;HideSplashScreen
        ''' <summary> 
        ''' Hide the splash screeen.  The splash screen was created on another thread so marshal 
        ''' the call over to it.
        ''' </summary> 
        ''' <remarks></remarks>
        <EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)> Protected Sub HideSplashScreen()
            SyncLock m_SplashLock 'We can get called from two threads at once
               If m_SplashScreen IsNot Nothing AndAlso Not m_SplashScreen.IsDisposed Then 
                    Dim TheBigGoodbye As New DisposeDelegate(AddressOf m_SplashScreen.Dispose)
                    m_SplashScreen.Invoke(TheBigGoodbye) 
                    m_SplashScreen = Nothing 
               End If
               If Me.MainForm IsNot Nothing Then 
                    Call New System.Security.Permissions.UIPermission(UIPermissionWindow.AllWindows).Assert()
                    Me.MainForm.Activate()
                    System.Security.PermissionSet.RevertAssert() 'CLR also reverts if we throw or when we return from this function
               End If 
            End SyncLock
        End Sub 

My suggestion is to activate the main form before disposing of the splash screen :

          <EditorBrowsable(EditorBrowsableState.Advanced)> ProtectedSub HideSplashScreen()    
SyncLock m_SplashLock 'We can get called from two threads at once
IfMe.MainForm IsNotNothingThen     
CallNew System.Security.Permissions.UIPermission(UIPermissionWindow.AllWindows).Assert()                        Me.MainForm.Activate()
                    System.Security.PermissionSet.RevertAssert() 'CLR also reverts if we throw or when we return from this function
               End If
               If m_SplashScreen IsNot Nothing AndAlso Not m_SplashScreen.IsDisposed Then 
                    Dim TheBigGoodbye As New DisposeDelegate(AddressOf m_SplashScreen.Dispose)
                    m_SplashScreen.Invoke(TheBigGoodbye) 
                    m_SplashScreen = Nothing 
               End If
            End SyncLock
        End Sub 

Hopefully that will fix this issue completely.

In the meanwhile, simply call Activate in your main form’s Load event :)

XSD’s in Visual Studio: Past, Present and Future.

bill — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 02:51:36 GMT

When I was going through the snippet editor code to put it on CodePlex, I wanted to grab a screen shot of the snippet schema. immediately I was confronted with there being no visual designer for schemas in VS 2008, but the worse part was I could have sworn there use to be. To clear up that confusion here’s an illustrated history lesson on schema views in Visual Studio.

In earlier versions of Visual Studio the schema designer was a bit like the early dataset designer.

This is Visual Studio 2005 :

It was detailed as far as types and constraints goes but omitted documentation. With complex schemas it was a mess, but you could hide parts.

Then in Visual Studio 2008 they decided to get rid of the schema designer completely !! I’m really not sure the logic on that. There was however a CTP for the new Schema Explorer, and come Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1, the schema explorer was included. (I hope I’ve got that bit of history right)

The Schema explorer gives a nice overview, and provides for navigation but totally lacks real details (not synchronized with the properties window). Sadly for Visual Studio 2008 that’s as best as it gets, the rest is wading through the actual xsd file as xml.

The first CTP of Visual Studio 10, reveals a new designer that can be used in conjunction with the Schema Explorer.

This pretty visual representation is all done in WPF so you can zoom in and out nicely. As well as the ability to easily expand and shrink elements, it’s really nice way to get an overview. You can even turn on documentation so as you can see any comments from the schema:

Although this is very pretty, and a great visual aid, it still doesn’t provide any means to create a schema or edit one… it’s simply a view. Some things I’d like to see improved are :

Provide designer editing and creation of schemas
have an export to .png feature
Ability to fully expand comments for all items. At present only the first two lines are shown and you have to double click on each element to get the comments to fully expand
did I mention editing ?
tear-offs would be nice, such that I could then use the width of the screen (eg: Drag the “Header” element from the above picture to the right, and then it expands over there rather than in situ.)
show restrictions. For example, the SnippetType is restricted to three possible legal values, “Expansion”, “SurroundsWith” and “Refactoring”. To find that out I have to delve into the xsd.
Synchronise with Properties window allowing for more detail to be shown and edited in the Properties window
Provide Copy as Path. The bottom of the screen shows the path of the selected node, but it would be great if you could select to copy that to the clipboard as an XPath. Even cooler if you could choose between XPath, VB XML Axis/Literal sytnax, or XElement syntax (for those poor ol’ C# folks ;) )

The Visual Studio 10 stuff looks promising, but still has a long way to go. (did I mention the lack of editing ?) In the interim it would be nice if there was something, anything ! I’m really not sure why the 2005 xsd designer was dropped. Sure some of it was ugly, especially the way it shows things like the string restrictions, but it was and is less ugly than the XML for that part of the xsd !!

Visually we have progressed... but what about the editing ??

Snippet Editor is now on CodePlex

bill — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 09:13:22 GMT

I’ve just finished uploading the Snippet Editor to CodePlex

http://www.codeplex.com/SnippetEditor

It includes some minor bug fixes from the previous release.

Enjoy :)

And Merry XMas :)

List transactions

bill — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 14:55:53 GMT

From a recent discussion on using lists, and whether or not you can remove items in while iterating, I decided to write an extension that allows you to get a “transaction” for an IList(Of t). This ListTransaction(Of T) caches adds and removes until you call commit (kudos to Duncan for the idea !!). It also implements IDisposable so you can use a using scope, eg:

      Using listTran = mylist.GetTransaction
         For Each item In mylist
            ' other code here
            listTran.Remove(item)
         Next
      End Using

And here’s the implementation:

Module ListExtensions
 
   <Runtime.CompilerServices.Extension()> _
   Function GetTransaction(Of T)(ByVal list As IList(Of T)) As ListTransaction(Of T)
      Return New ListTransaction(Of T)(list)
   End Function
 
 
   Public Class ListTransaction(Of T)
      Implements IDisposable
 
      Private _list As IList(Of T)
      Private _adds As List(Of T)
      Private _removes As List(Of T)
 
      Public Sub New(ByVal list As IList(Of T))
         _list = list
      End Sub
 
      Public Sub Add(ByVal item As T)
         If _adds Is Nothing Then _adds = New List(Of T)
         _adds.Add(item)
      End Sub
 
      Public Sub Remove(ByVal item As T)
         If _removes Is Nothing Then _removes = New List(Of T)
         _removes.Add(item)
      End Sub
 
      Public Sub Commit()
         If _list Is Nothing Then Exit Sub
         If _adds IsNot Nothing Then
            For Each item As T In _adds
               _list.Add(item)
            Next
            _adds = Nothing
         End If
         If _removes IsNot Nothing Then
            For Each item As T In _removes
               _list.Remove(item)
            Next
            _removes = Nothing
         End If
      End Sub
 
      Public Sub Rollback()
         _adds = Nothing
         _removes = Nothing
      End Sub
 
 
      Public Sub Dispose() Implements IDisposable.Dispose
         Commit()
         GC.SuppressFinalize(Me)
      End Sub
 
   End Class
 
End Module

VB Snippet Editor

bill — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 11:42:02 GMT

Over the last week I’ve got a sudden influx of emails about the Snippet Editor. I’m figuring this is stemming from Lisa’s recent blog entry and her tips and trips for VS 2008 presentation :)

Some of the emails have been really nice praise, folks wanting to add some features, a bug on XP 64 (which unfortunately is about the only OS I don’t have in my testing suite), and some general questions around snippets. So I gave this lots of thought and decided to put up a site on CodePlex. This will allow people to add features, work together on bugs, and share discussions around snippets including future directions for the snippet editor.

The new codeplex site will be at http://www.codeplex.com/SnippetEditor

It’s not ready yet, and will probably be a week while I get all the bits together and ensure there’s no rude words in the code comments etc ;) I was hesitant about moving to CodePlex as I was really disappointed how gotdotnet was just closed down and not migrated. And I should add here a word of caution for those in charge should CodePlex go a similar route.. I will travel the continents and track you down and when I find you stare at you for a really long time until you feel uncomfortable !! ;) (Seriously, please don’t close codeplex)

So, all going well, the Snippet Editor will be on CodePlex this time next week. I’ll make sure to post when it’s ready and redirect my current site there. Any suggestions on the open source license eula etc most welcome.

What does VB 10 have ?

bill — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 01:18:10 GMT

To answer what is in VB 10, have a look at the document on the vb futures site. Basically the list is removal for the need of the line continuation character in many places, collection and array initializers, multi statement lambdas, and generic variance.

I decided to look back at my brief wish lists for VB10

VB 10 thoughts Part 1
VB 10 thoughts Part 2
VB 10 thoughts Part 3
VB 10 thoughts Part 4
VB 10 thoughts Part 5
VB 10 thoughts Part 6
VB 10 thoughts Part 7
VB 10 thoughts Part 8
VB 10 thoughts Part 9

Seems I did very poorly. The only match I got was number 6 multi statement lambdas. I should have had generic variance in the list considering that’s something I wanted since I first saw .NET generics although that really is a framework thing not a language thing. The continuation character, collection and array initializers all seem nice, but functionally trivial to void. Ironically, C#. which has many of those things on my list also picked up a couple it didn’t such as dynamic and they implemented optional parameters as they should be. I must admit that hurts, especially as the optional parameters issues was my #1 item.

For some reason in this new era of supposed language parity, I feel short changed :(

D ??

bill — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:56:27 GMT

So if OSLO and the new language for it named “D” are part of Visual Studio, that means we’d have VB, VC++, VC#, and now VD. I wonder if Visual D and OSLO will still let you use Strongly Typed Datasets.

OSLO: for VD with STDs

I can see marketing has been busy ;)