I’m introducing a new pickabar feature…”My New Desktop”. Whenever I find a pic on the internet and set it as my desktop I’m going to post it here as well. No, this is not just an excuse to post something while I fight writer’s block and laziness!
The inaugural desktop pick? Buddy Guy, post induction from Cindy T’s Flickr stream.
Scott Hanselman recently published the 2005 edition of his Ultimate Developer Tool List, which is a great resource for (especially Microsoft) developers. I’ve found links to a bunch of great tools I hadn’t heard about.
I was surprised at the omission of the XmlPreCompiler from the list, though. It’s not a tool that I use very often, but when I have an XML Serialization problem it’s my best ally.
Have you ever run into an exception like:
Error: System.IO.FileNotFoundException: File or assembly name k5gfdivf.dll, or one of its dependencies, was not found.
Which makes you think, “what the heck? I never created any assembly called ‘k5gfdivf’, and I think I would have remembered adding a reference to it.” Don’t worry, you’re not getting forgetful.
When you create the first instance of XmlSerializer for a type the framework dynamically generates custom C# code to map between object<->XML representations of the type. This assembly does the actual work of serializing and deserializing instances of the type. If for some reason the type to be serialized cannot be serialized correctly, the dynamically generated code may contain compilation errors. When the framework goes looking for the compiled assembly, named something like “k5gfdivf” for instance, it doesn’t find it and you get the FileNotFoundException you see above.
Microsoft has released a KB article with instructions on finding compiler errors in the code that XmlSerializer generates, but it requires some manual work. That’s where the XmlPreCompiler (or the original command line version from Chris Sells) comes into play. Run the app, select the assembly in question, and you’ll get a messagebox including the exact compilation error being encountered.
I’d rate it a must have! Maybe it will make the list in 2006?
ScottGu posts about ATLAS, the upcoming AJAX framework from the ASP.NET team:
The popularity of AJAX shows the growing demand for richer user experiences over the web. However, developing and debugging AJAX-style web applications is a very difficult task today. To write a rich web UI, you have to know a great deal of DHTML and JavaScript, and have a strong understanding of all the differences and design details of various browsers. There are very few tools to help your design or build these applications easily. Finally, debugging and testing these applications can be very tricky.
If you’ve paid attention to my GotDotNet submissions you’ll already know how much I enjoy using server side code to generate client side functionality via clientside script. I anticipate a lot of fun applications coming your way from the pickabar factory!
Now when do we get a beta drop?
Two lifelong friends from Queens who flew to the U.S. Virgin Islands to attend a tropical wedding were found fatally shot in a St. Thomas street – just hours after they arrived at the island paradise, police said yesterday…Adding to the mystery, Virgin Islands Police Commissioner Elton Lewis said the slain men still had cash and credit cards on them. “Just judging from that, we might rule out robbery,” he said.
Roberts, a skilled carpenter, rescued his nephews from a house fire that ripped through the family’s home on Dec. 26, 1999, and was praised in The News as a hero.
Of course I’m sure these killings will receive just as much interest as the Natalee Holloway case has…right?