Calling non-automation compatible COM objects from .NET
As part of one of my projects I needed to use Microsoft DIA SDK. In particular, I wanted to retrieve source files checksums stored in PDB files. DIA SDK is a […]
Hacker’s diary
Fragility of modern source code or why semver is evil
TL;DR Dynamic “semver” versioning is evil, because it makes it too easy to break things on a global scale. With semver versioning the builds are not-repeatable: you may get one version […]
Short summary: WCF vs Remoting for Windows services
This is a short summary of differences between WCF and .NET Remoting when they are used to control a Windows service. Complete article is found here: http://www.ikriv.com/dev/dotnet/AspNetCallsWinService/index.php. Complete code examples for WCF and Remoting are […]
C# Null Propagation
It makes things so simple, I really wish other languages had it. Today in five or six places I wrote something like _innerObject?.Dispose(); instead of if (_innerObject != null) _innerObject.Dispose(); […]
WCF named pipes: no security vs transport security
I am making a little excursion into the WCF land: I need to control my Windows Service from my ASP.NET server. While experimenting, I found that new NamedPipeBinding(NetNamedPipeSecurityMode.None) on the […]
JavaScript WTF #1
In ECMA Script 6 toString() function can throw an exception. This makes generating debug output a treacherous minefield. In all other languages I know toString() on built-in objects is safe, and […]
JavaScript WTF #2: the this keyword (part 2)
…Continued from Part 1. Arrow functions ES6 introduces arrow functions, which can take several forms: Besides being a shorter notation for function(), arrow functions have special rule for this. They […]
JavaScript WTF #2: the this keyword (part 1)
Java language specification defines “this” keyword in one sentence. EcmaScript 6 definition of “this” is about a page of pseudo-code spread over several paragraphs, and there is a good reason […]
.NET Framework version hell on build server
TL;DR When building a Visual Studio solution on a build server, make sure that directory C:\Program Files (x86)\Reference Assemblies\Microsoft\Framework\.NETFramework contains reference assemblies for ALL .NET versions targeted by your projects. […]
JavaScript WTF #4: undefined vs null
The forth place in the JavaScript WTF competition goes to the amazingly large number of ways to represent lack of value. Most C-like languages have keyword null that means “no […]