Planet Arslinux

evarlast: C# vNext feature request

2008-05-16T01:36:50+00:00

At Ann Arbor Dot Net Developers meeting last night, Eric Maino was there. I don’t think he meant to open up the giant can of worms that is me when he asked “What kind of things would you like to see in the next version of C#?” Here is my list.

Static Imports
yes like java!

Sometimes extension methods aren’t as readable as just a method call. Ability to import static methods and call them without the class name would be super.
Drop var.
Type inference rules. Can we drop the var? its noise.
var x = 1; x = 1;which of these lines is more concise? At least make it optional. I don’t mind if you want to say var. Just don’t make me do it.
Better type inference
Optional type parameters, since the compiler knows what I mean!
peeps = List(new string[] {”Bob”,”Dorothy”,”Jane”});
This is a List<T>, but I don’t need to say List<string> the type can be inferred via the List<T>(IEnumerable<T>) constructor.
Optional Whitespace Significance
We all use whitespace formatted code anyway. Why not just drop the parenthesis and semicolons and make the whitespace actually mean something. Of course I say “optional” because not everyone will like it. It would be really cool to be able to toggle it throughout a file.
#pragma whitespace significance enable public class Employee public Employee() name = string.Empty hireDate = DateTime.Now public string Name get set public DateTime HireDate get set #pragma whitespace significance disable public GiveRaise() { salary *=1.10; } #pragma whitespace significance enable public Promote() CLevel–
The file would have to end in the same mode in which it were started, or the compiler can figure things out.
A hook into the compiler pipeline
See boo.
A hybrid compiler
At CodeMash, Joe O’Brien and Michael Letterle about how nice it would be to use the better suited language for any given task in .NET. We don’t want separate projects. We don’t want separate netmodules.

I want it right down to partial classes. VB’s XML Literals and late binding are sweet. I want to use those if I need. C#’s everything else are what I prefer to work with.

ReadYourFeed.cs: public partial class ReadYourFeed { Initialize(){     rss.FirstChild.AppendChild(GetGenerator()); } }

ReedYourFeed.vb:
Partial Public Class ReadYourFeed
Public Function GetGenerator()
    Dim sig = <generator>SuperReadYourFeed 2000 1.2.3.4.5</generator>
    Return sig
End Function
End Class

* I don’t know VB. Writing that VB took me much googling

A plugable compiler

Similar to the above with boo, but almost the inverse. I want an open definition for the AST which the compiler uses to generate IL and I want a great API for building this AST myself.

Next, I should be able to plug in my own parser/lexer which builds this AST. So the IL generation from the AST is entirely from the (now more than) C# compiler, but the parser is mine.

This is really an abstraction and opening of the previous step. Instead of just C#/VB, I want it ALL!

Easier method currying.

Dustin Campbell might like writing lots of code to do it in C#. I’m sure he does it all the time, but I’d like to be able to do it in FAR fewer lines of code.

F#’s pipeline operator.

This is more readable
{1..10} |> Seq.fold (+) 0;;
than this
Enumerable.Aggregate(Enumerable.Range(1, 10), (a, b) => a + b);
or this
(from i in Enumerable.Range(1, 10) select i).Sum();
or even this
Enumerable.Range(1, 10).Sum();
Ok, well extension methods sure look a lot like the pipeline operator, so never mind on this request

It seems like I talked about other crazy stuff too, but I don’t recall what things they were.

Hellion Prime: Fraking Apple Users!

2008-05-15T17:51:10+00:00

Somebody brought us a nearly new iMac the other day. The problem description was "cd stuck in the drive". What do we find when we crack open the machine (suction cups, and 30 minutes of swearing at the ineptitude of Apple designers later), and pull the disc out of the drive? A normal CD with a mini disc TAPED TO IT. They wanted to see if they could do that in order to read the mini disc.

The stupid, it BURNS. Or at least I wish it would. Some of these people do not deserve to live.

stonetable: Astronomers Discover Elusive Object

2008-05-14T04:29:58+00:00

NASA is holding a press conference tomorrow afternoon to announce the discovery of an object that astronomers have been hunting for more than fifty years. I’ve seen some wild speculation, ranging from a black hole to evidence of life on Mars. Whatever it is, though, I swear that I had nothing to do with it.

metallikop: Time Tracking With Klok (Adobe AIR)

2008-05-13T15:11:43+00:00

When I did freelance work a few years ago I managed my time with Excel spreadsheets and Notepad. This method works but it’s by no means an elegant way to track time. Adobe’s When I did freelance work a few years ago I managed my time with Excel spreadsheets and Notepad. This method works but it’s by no means an elegant way to track time. Adobe’s AIR runtime has given developers a quick and easy way to write a slew of new apps; some useful, some not so useful.

One that I’ve found extremely useful lately is Klok. For all projects I’m working on at work I’m required to track my time and what I was doing. I used to hate this type of micromanagement but understood the need for billing purposes.

With Klok you create a project (metallikop.com for example), then create sub projects (Design, Blogging, PR, Marketing) and you’re all set. You can set a contact name, email address and phone number for your client create and/or comments for each line item. Once everything is set up you select the project and sub-project from the drop down menu in the title and the clock starts ticking away on the selected project. Klok will export the time sheet to Excel by dragging the project off to the desktop. Honestly, this application makes time tracking considerably easier.

stonetable: Testing WordPress

2008-05-13T14:52:48+00:00

I’m experimenting with Wordpress 2.5 and cross-posting to LiveJournal.

It appears that Wordpress 2.5 and the LiveJournal cross-poster are much improved since the last time I tested them. I’m going to knock around with this for a day and see how it fits.

I’ve ripped out the relevant portions of the LJ theme that I like and applied it to the theme here. I’ll try to keep my tests to this one post so I don’t mess up anyone’s feed.

Update:

Fairly happy with the changes so far. There are things I need to do, blanks that need to be filled, but everything critical is done.

Issues:

The LiveJournal cross-poster doesn’t seem to copy my tags over correctly
There doesn’t seem to be a way of changing the order of widgets in the sidebar. Drag and drop is broken in Wordpress 2.5.1

Hellion Prime: More craziness from Eurocom

2008-05-13T13:06:21+00:00

Eurocom rebadges stuff from Compal and other ODM companies for their boat anchor notebooks. Their stuff is heavy, hot, and only portable if you like hernias. This, however, is taking it to a whole new level. 2.8gHz quad core Xeon with 3 2.5" HDDs for storage. Up to 8GB of ram. 17" display. All of this can be yours for a price of well north of $3000 and a backbreaking 12lbs. Oh, and if the battery will actually last an hour on it, consider yourself lucky. Considering the thing is made entirely out of ABS, its a good thing you CANT carry it far, cause it is going to be a flextaxtic pile of crap.

Oh wait, its not a "laptop". Its a "mobile server". Riiiiiiiiight. Why BUYS these things, seriously?

evarlast: Creation of Open Space

2008-05-12T01:09:30+00:00

via Gregg Newsom

Open Space is an awesome format for meeting and conferencing. The Day Of Dot Net Conferences have been promoting it with varying success.

Personally, I love it when a conference has space set aside for Open Spaces, if the conference isn’t entirely open space format. There are only so many times I can sit through another presentation about something I have seen before. Open Spaces does provide an alternative for us overly selective types.

More importantly, it provides a place for you to get out of it exactly what you put into it. What do I mean by this? How many times have you said “yeah, that would be awesome” to some idea when you were talking with someone at a conference? Open Spaces provides the means to make that idea a reality. Next time this happens to you, please grab that person with whom you were speaking and march directly to the open spaces room and begin working, planning, designing, developing, whatever-ing. Maybe make a pit-stop at the Open Spaces board on the way.

I can’t wait for the upcoming development tools focused open space event at SRT Solutions. I love my tools. I’m passionate about my tools. Like any good craftsman, I have my favorite hammer, my favorite saw, and my favorite drill. I feel crippled without my own tools. Ask a craftsman to build you something and give him unfamiliar second rate tools and see what happens :) You probably will not like the results.

metallikop: My iPhone2 Wishlist

2008-05-10T15:33:48+00:00

I’ve seen a lot more of these lately as the “launch date” for the new iPhone draws closer. I came across Derek Powazek’s list and I couldn’t agree less and felt it was my duty to make a better, more accurate list.

The Likelies

Thicker, heavier, faster, more storage. I’m okay with this even though it’ll make some people cry. I’d rather have a larger battery, GPS, and improved camera then a slimmer lighter phone. I used to carry a blackberry brick and an HTC 8925, the iPhone is light in comparison.
3G. It’s crazy that a phone with all those fancy internets needs to rely on WiFi to make use of the product.
Hardware design tweaks. I don’t care much really. Fix the headphone input please, otherwise it’s fine.
Better battery life. I’ve become accustomed to plugging my phone in every night but a few extra hours wouldn’t hurt.

The Hopefullies

Onboard GPS Receiver. Every phone has one these days, the iPhone needs one and it’ll be complete.
Exchange ActiveSync. I miss this more then anything else on my 8925, it’s necessary for any business user and sometimes I just can’t disconnect.
Uncrippled Bluetooth. I’d like to go to GMaps, find a location, sync it to my GPS device and go, or sync with my computer, or a number of other things. Don’t break my bluetooth please.
Push Email. I’m pretty sure they’ll add this with all the recent rumors of .mac being upgraded. This will be a huge plus.
Fix the camera. I agree with Derek on this, “More resolution, better image quality, faster shutter”, but I don’t need a hardware shutter button, and it won’t happen anyways.

The Who Caresies

Video recording. I don’t care. I guess it’d be nice but I’d never use it.
Rubbery grip. Sorry, not with you on this one. I like the design as is, if I want a rubbery grip I’ll buy a case that has one.
Better earbuds. Apple earbuds have always sucked, I’m sure the new ones will too which is fine since I’ve dropped a good amount of money on picking up some very nice earbuds.

wildbill: Billix 0.20 released…

2008-05-09T18:15:25+00:00

A couple of days ago, I released Billix 0.20. Changelog is as follows:

Removed Ubuntu Feisty (7.04)
Added Ubuntu Hardy (8.04LTS)
Moved Damn Small Linux directory from KNOPPIX to DSL to facilitate customization in the future.
Updated Centos 4 to version 4.6
Updated Centos 5 to version 5.1

Go get it from here.

metallikop: Twitter

2008-05-07T18:14:09+00:00

I’ve been Twitting far more then blogging. If you’re a Twitter user send me a message. (metallikop)

Aaron Thul: Jumbo Frames and Intel

2008-05-06T13:18:10+00:00

I am working on deploying a shiny new iSCSI SAN (Storage Area Network) for EMOL and I have run into a bit of an annoyance. First why does Intel make so many different versions of the Intel PRO/1000 card? We purchased a server with two on-board Intel PRO/1000 cards and added a PCI-X Intel PRO/1000 card with the plan to Ethernet Bond the two on-board cards and use the add-on card for server management.

This is a plan that definitely did not come together. First the main board manufacturer thought it would be a good idea to use two different Intel chips for the two Ethernet controllers. One is an Intel PRO/1000 PL the other is an Intel PRO/1000 PM. The add-on card we purchased is an Intel PRO/1000 PT. So it turns out the Intel cards are far from the same and I am not happy about that. It took me much Internet digging to find this out.

Intel PRO/1000 PM - does not support jumbo frames
Intel PRO/1000 PT - supports jumbo frames in Microsoft Windows operating systems only when Intel PROSet for Windows Device Manager is installed and only up to 9238 bytes.
Intel PRO/1000 PL - support jumbo frames larger than 9238 bytes.

So what are my options? Well I do not run Windows, and I would like to run at a minimum two network ports teamed. Which means now I need to order an additional Ethernet card or a two port Ethernet card. What I do know is it will likely not be a Intel Pro 1000.

stonetable: Tirpy

2008-05-02T08:30:54+00:00

Tired, but happy.

Stopped off at a Barnes and Noble before seeing Iron Man tonight. Not only did we find copies of Weird Tales and Apex Digest (both difficult to find in stores, in my experience) but we saw the Steampunk anthology edited by Jeff & Ann Vandermeer, which was released today, in the wild.

No writing done today, but I’m down to the last scene rewrite for my Sword and Sorceress submission. I expect that to be ready by the end of the weekend.

stonetable: That’s Just How I Roll

2008-04-30T22:08:22+00:00

My first published story, a flash fiction piece titled That’s Just How I Roll, is now available in the May Issue of Static Movement.

Read it, print, frame and hang it on your wall, share it with friends and family, etc. Enjoy.

Hellion Prime: Quit trying to distract me!

2008-04-30T13:41:37+00:00

I know its all the rage for coeds to show skin these days, but come on. It is really hard for me to intelligently explain your problem when you're waving your 38DDs in my face and are damned near trying to poke my eye out with a nipple. The view's nice and all, but not when I'm trying to actually work.

Hellion Prime: Comedy Unobtainium

2008-04-29T02:51:51+00:00

Somebody just pointed me to this link of the Paladin of Shadows series by John Ringo. You too, will be shouting "OH JOHN RINGO NO" by the time you finish the review, likely several times. Warning: the review is pretty graphic, so if things like graphic sex & violence offends you, then dont click it.

I've read all the books, and I enjoyed them in a "check your brain at the door" sort of way. I even told Ringo so in an email, and got a nicely worded thank you in reply.

evarlast: When you don’t know the language…

2008-04-24T19:21:47+00:00

internal static short uiShiftRightBy8(short x)
        {
            short iNew;
            iNew = (short)((x & 0×7FFF) / 256);
            if( (x & 0×8000) != 0)
                iNew = (short)(iNew | 0×80);
            return iNew;
        }

AHHHHHHH!!!!*

Nevermind that this was public even though it was used only once by the class in which it was defined. Nevermind that this was not marked static even though it uses no member functions. (Also nevermind that I made it internal instead of private so I could test it and make sure it was as stupid as I thought.)

When you learn a programming language, even when you can get things done in it, it still adds tremendous value to you as a programmer to READ A FRAKKING BOOK on the language. The above code works, absolutely. It does exactly what the writer intended. When the #1 concern when writing software is “do whatever is needed to ship it now, and you have no time to better yourself” you get this code. IMO maintainability should be #2 concern directly following “does it work?”

I’ve entirely removed the above code and replaced it with the operator and value it implements: >> 8

Yes it really is Shift Right by 8. Yes, someone didn’t know about the >> operator. Yes I wasted time reading code that uses this method. Yes I don’t want to think about the performance characteristic of this in a tight loop in critical systems.

*my coworkers laughed when I said AHHHHHHH!!! outloud. At least bad code provides us with solid entertainment.

matthias

2008-04-24T14:07:15+00:00

Ubuntu 8.04 “Hardy Heron” is officially released. Click the above to get your groove on.

madmanX: Blogging from Birmingham Alabama

2008-04-23T22:01:25+00:00

Well I been in Brimingham Alabama doing engineering support the past couple of days. I guess one of the perks of this soon to be gone job is that I get to at least get out of the office and visit other cities in the country. I have gone to some really nice places that I would have not normally gone too. It feels pretty refreshing to go into a new office and talk to new people and see how they do things, It allows me to get a different perspective on the business. The only downside to these little adventures of mine is I get home sick within the first day or so and miss my wife. It’s bad enough we barely get to see each other with our schedules being so screwed up the way they are. This just adds a little extra layer of stress to things. But as I always say, you have to do what you have to do.

Speaking of jobs, things are looking good as far as job prospects go. I have a few things lining up in company and I started putting feelers out to the outside. I have a feeling that everything is going to end up comming together from all angles at once, and I will be forced to choose. I guess have too many options is better then having none.

evarlast: Speculations about .NET 4.0

2008-04-23T14:35:04+00:00

I found this in my Live Writer drafts. I figured I should send it, since its been a month and I haven’t thought of anything to add to it.

*insert timewarp to March 18th, 2008*

I was at the Visual Studio 2008 launch in Detroit today. This was my 3rd Microsoft Launch event. The first being Visual Studio 2005 and the second being Vista/Office2k7. As a developer the Vista launch was really the .NET 3.0 launch to me.

One thing I’ve learned that I don’t do well and I need to do better is future think. What is next?

ASP.NET 3.5 “extensions” will be known as ASP.NET 4.0
- ASP.NET MVC (see MonoRail)
- ASP.NET Dynamic Data (see Rails scaffolding or MonoRail scaffolding)
- ASP.NET AJAX (browser history, but I expect more here)
- ADO.NET Entity Framework (see NHibernate)
- ADO.NET Data Services (many projects to see here, snooze is one)
- Silverlight Controls for ASP.NET (I expect much more here)
Full development support for Silverlight will ship along with this release.
WPF finally get an editable Grid. It won’t be named DataGrid, DataGridView or GridView(exists in WPF as a ListView mode). It may be named DataViewGrid or GridDataView.
A WPF “Dynamic Data” library complements the ASP.NET extension.
The System.Core.Enumerable class gets a Each extension method. Its name endlessly confuses developers who don’t understand why it wasn’t there in 3.5 and who don’t know why it isn’t ForEach like Array and List<>. Developers start calling Microsoft’s naming difference a “catch up to Ruby”.
A handful of new Workflow activities are released but no one knows what they are, what they do, or how do to use them.
Cardspace continues and adds even easier support for OpenID but no one knows what they are, what they do, or how do to use them.
Like the 3.0 release the languages and compilers don’t change.
a DI/IoC container with a subset of the features of Windsor, Spring.net, StructureMap or even EntLib ObjectBuilder is included!
DLR still won’t ship. No IronPython. No IronRuby. Python and Ruby will remain the most common languages used in demo for Silverlight.
Visual Source Safe is still the recommended version control system if you can’t afford Team Foundation Server. WTF?
There will be some hidden PerfCounter, WMI, awesomeness. It won’t be documented very well.
Hibernate and NHibernate users everywhere are stunned and gape mouthed when they see Entity Framework. Then they fall out of their chair laughing. “We hate maintaining our single HBM files, you want to maintain 3 uglier XML files (CDSL, MSL, SSDL)?” Microsoft answers these cries with “use the designer”, but the power developers want to do things that are only possible in the XML that the designer cannot do.

greenfly: Introduction to Forensics

2008-04-22T22:45:00+00:00

A break-in can happen to any system administrator. Find out how to use Autopsy and Sleuthkit to hit the ground running on your first forensics project. There are certain aspects to system administration that you can learn only from experience. Computer forensics (among other things the ability to piece together clues from a system to determine how an intruder broke in) can take years or even decades to master. If you have never conducted a forensics analysis on a computer, you might not even know exactly where to start. In this guide, I cover how to use the set of forensics tools in Sleuthkit with its Web front end, Autopsy, to organize your first forensics case.