Development on Marko Apfel

Frequently Asked Questions About Given-When-Then

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 08:51:07 +0100

Given–When–Then (GWT) is a simple but powerful format for describing expected system behavior. It is commonly associated with Behavior-Driven Development (BDD) and is particularly useful for writing clear and testable acceptance criteria.

Slicing CRUD-Related Activities into Separate Backlog Items

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 08:05:07 +0200

A common question during backlog refinement is whether closely related CRUD operations should be implemented within a single Product Backlog Item (PBI) or split into multiple work items.

At first glance, grouping create, rename, and delete operations together seems reasonable. They all operate on the same entity and appear to belong to the same feature.

Programming Languages of the Future

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 08:54:07 +0200

Maybe something interesting to aware off - it’s called Atwood’s Law:

“Any application that can be written in JavaScript, will eventually be written in JavaScript.” Jeff Atwood, 2007

In case you ask “Who the fuck is Atwood”: a very well-known IT guru

Modern Collaboration in Software Engineering

Wed, 23 Jul 2025 09:31:07 +0200

Favor Teams over Email

Why email (often) sucks

Starting point: an email that had already been bounced back and forth between several colleagues before finally landing in the Outlook inbox of the author of this message

How to Slice a Feature into Product Backlog Items

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 19:09:07 +0200

Breaking a large feature into smaller Product Backlog Items (PBIs) is one of the central activities of backlog refinement.

The goal is not simply to divide the implementation into smaller technical pieces. A good PBI should describe a meaningful piece of user-facing value, while technical implementation details are usually captured as Tasks underneath those PBIs.

What Is the Recommended Monitor Setup for Software Developers?

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 13:37:07 +0200

What is the recommended monitor setup for software developers?

The recommended monitor setup for software developers often depends on personal preferences, specific job tasks, and available workspace. However, there are a few key guidelines that many developers find useful:

F#, ArcGIS Runtime and error “Cannot create unknown type '{http://schemas.esri.com/arcgis/runtime/2013}MapView'”

Tue, 14 Jul 2015 17:15:00 +0200

By playing with F# and ArcGIS Runtime I tried to re-create a sample C# project with F#.

For the WPF part I used the Visual Studio extension F# Empty Windows App (WPF) and F# Windows App (WPF, MVVM) the NuGet packages FSharp.ViewModule.Core and FsXaml for WPF.

Visual Studio – Getting compilation error “The type 'XAML' is not defined.”

Thu, 09 Jul 2015 06:34:00 +0200

During compilation of the F# Empty Windows App (WPF) I got that error (check the output pane carefully).

image

To solve this issue you have to thrust of the XAML Type Provider of this project. This you can do via the Visual Studio options:

Productive work environments for F# development (under windows)

Sat, 04 May 2013 07:30:00 +0200

IDEs, Editors, ..

Here are my favorites in descend order

Visual Studio Express 2012 for Web yes! - it allows you free F# development, notably for libraries
LINQPad again and again a wonderful tool!
SharpDevelop sometimes a little bit idiosyncratic
Online Scratchpad on TryFSharp.org the fastest start …

Additional resources

Maybe the following packages are necessary or in minimum useful:

Sublime Text 2 – Package installation not possible, no package listed

Wed, 01 May 2013 06:18:00 +0200

Problem

I tried to add the Emmet (fka Zen Coding) package to Sublime Text 2. But by running this “Install Package” (CTRL + SHIFT + p) command

image

no packages were displayed.

SharpDevelop, F#, missing “Send to F# Interactive” context menu

Wed, 01 May 2013 05:15:00 +0200

Situation, Problem

During playing a little bit with these WPF MVC F# projects inside SharpDevelop I stumbled over the situation, that I could not send F# snippets to the interactive window. The menu was not available.

SharpDevelop, F#, “Please ensure that the F# compiler is installed on your computer.”

Wed, 01 May 2013 04:18:00 +0200

Situation

My private machine has Microsoft Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop. This Visual Studio edition doesn’t allow to develop with F#. So I installed additionally SharpDevelop.

But it took longer as expected to get F# projects running in this environment.

Productive Toolset for C# Developer

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 09:28:00 +0200

Programming

Visual Studio
ReSharper
Agent Johnson
Agent Smith
StyleCop for ReSharper
Keymaps
SettingsManager
Git Source Control Provider
Gist
NuGet Package Manager
NDepend
Productivity Power Tools
PowerCommands for Visual Studio
PostSharp
Indent Guides

Entity Framework: Connecting to a mdf user database file via localDB during script execution

Sun, 21 Oct 2012 12:35:00 +0200

Problem

If you run the Generate database from model wizard and execute the generated script the destination database could be the wrong one (for instance master of the SQL Server).

Solution

To use an own mdf attachable user database some connection information must specified during script execution.

Entity Framework, Code First: where is the database?

Sat, 20 Oct 2012 17:26:00 +0200

With Entity Framework 5 in Visual Studio 2012 the code first feature could let you come to the question “Where is the automatically created database located?”

I run in the question after changing the model which throws during the next run this error:

Be careful when Git suppresses bin Folders

Fri, 05 Oct 2012 08:12:00 +0200

Initial situation

Often for Visual Studio projects the typical content of a .gitignore file contains this line

bin or
[B|b]in

It is used to avoid that Git tries to track compile outputs as repository relevant data.

LINQ and ArcObjects

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:20:00 +0200

Motivation

LINQ (language integrated query) is a component of the Microsoft. NET Framework since version 3.5. It allows a SQL-like query to various data sources such as SQL, XML etc.

Like SQL also LINQ to SQL provides a declarative notation of problem solving – i.e. you don’t need describe in detail how a task could be solved, you describe what to be solved at all. This frees the developer from error-prone iterator constructs.

Strange error “argument type ‘lambda expression’ is not assignable to parameter type ‘string’”

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 11:08:00 +0200

During playing with EF and LINQ I run in this UI-error:

argument type ‘lambda expression’ is not assignable to parameter type ‘string’

image

The Compiler themselves states:

Cannot convert lambda expression to type ‘string’ because it is not a delegate type.

Wise settings for Git

Thu, 31 May 2012 11:46:00 +0200

These settings reflecting my Git-environment. It a result of reading and trying several ideas of input from others.

Must-Haves

Aliases

[alias]
 ci = commit
 st = status
 co = checkout
 oneline = log --pretty=oneline
 br = branch
 la = log --pretty=\"format:%ad %h (%an): %s\" --date=short
 df = diff
 dc = diff --cached
 lg = log -p
 lol = log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit
 lola = log --graph --decorate --pretty=oneline --abbrev-commit --all
 ls = ls-files
 ign = ls-files -o -i --exclude-standard

Colors

[color]
 ui = auto
[color "branch"]
 current = yellow reverse
 local = yellow
 remote = green
[color "diff"]
 meta = yellow bold
 frag = magenta bold
 old = red bold
 new = green bold
 whitespace = red reverse
[color "status"]
 added = green
 changed = red
 untracked = cyan

Core

[core]
 autocrlf = true
 excludesfile = c:/Users/<user>/.gitignore
 editor = 'C:/Program Files (x86)/Notepad++/notepad++.exe' -multiInst -notabbar -nosession –noPlugin

Nice to have

Merge and Diff

[merge]
 tool = kdiff3
[mergetool "kdiff3"]
 path = c:/Program Files (x86)/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe
[mergetool "p4merge"]
 path = c:/Program Files (x86)/Perforce Merge/p4merge.exe
 cmd = p4merge \"$BASE\" \"$LOCAL\" \"$REMOTE\" \"$MERGED\"
 keepTemporaries = false
 trustExitCode = false
 keepBackup = false
[diff]
 guitool = kdiff3
[difftool "kdiff3"]
 path = c:/Program Files (x86)/KDiff3/kdiff3.exe
[difftool "p4merge"]
 path = C:/Users/<user>/My Applications/Perforce Merge/p4merge.exe
 cmd = \"p4merge.exe $LOCAL $REMOTE\"

Error while trying to run project: Unable to start program ‘…’. The endpoint was not reachable.

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 10:55:00 +0100

During playing with Entity Framework I got the error:

“Error while trying to run project: Unable to start program ‘’…’. The endpoint was not reachable.

image

By running the project in Visual Studio. Outside VS were no problems.

Simian counts errors in Jenkins dashboard but shows in details “No violation found”

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 16:46:00 +0100

Problem

Jenkins dashboard shows following simian analysis:

But after clicking one item I get:

Installing of SDKs, Visual Studio and additional toolsets on build machines

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 15:07:00 +0100

Last week I get the information directly from Microsoft, that at build machines SDKs must be installed to guarantee that MSBuild works well in some circumstances.

We have the problem, that a self-containing build should include all necessary build artifacts – particularly Silverlight stuff. I tried to encapsulate the special steps in own targets and a build was finally possible (see my former posts). But at local machines without installed Silverlight stuff it gives problems for problems. Because reason of time finally I decide to go the Microsoft way – they break my volition.

Interop effects by resolving and instantiating types with ArcObjects

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 14:10:00 +0100

Problem

this code does not work

Type t = typeof(ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.AppRefClass);
System.Object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

but yet this code

Type t = Type.GetTypeFromCLSID(typeof(ESRI.ArcGIS.Framework.AppRefClass).GUID);
System.Object obj = Activator.CreateInstance(t);

Reason

In the first variant the runtime tries to cast to AppRefClass. This is not possible.

And in the second one, the runtime does not knows anything about AppRefClass. So it leave it as IUnknown.

@Microsoft: please provide universal and professional concepts

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 11:35:00 +0100

Why such constructs are included in the .csproj-Files?

<CodeAnalysisRuleSetDirectories>;c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\\Rule Sets</CodeAnalysisRuleSetDirectories>

<CodeAnalysisRuleDirectories>;c:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Team Tools\Static Analysis Tools\FxCop\\Rules</CodeAnalysisRuleDirectories>

So it every projects needs some manual steps to clean the project file so the solution could be build on a continuous integration server. That annoying!

Toolset agnostic build server and Silverlight projects

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 22:42:00 +0100

Problem

Normally I try to have my continuous integration as most a possible toolset free to ensure that no local stuff could have an impact to my build.

My Silverlight app references a special compile target in a folder outside my developer tree:

Setup license stuff for PostSharp 2.1

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 20:03:00 +0100

Problem

Normally PostSharp runs fine on unattended build servers. So on our global Jenkins continuous integration server PostSharp does the job.

But on my local TeamCity continuous integration server I got the following error:

MSB4067: The element beneath element is unrecognized.

Tue, 08 Nov 2011 11:32:00 +0100

Problem

Our global Jenkins continuous integration server throws this error during compile step. My local TeamCity continuous integration server runs fine. What is the difference.

Background

I integrate some static code analysis steps via MSBuild-targets in the csproj files.

Running StyleCop without an installation to empower continuous integration

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 22:32:00 +0100

Problem

A continuous integration server should only have a minimal toolset installed. This ensures that no unwanted libraries could affect the build and other steps.

Clearly that with this slogan also StyleCop should not be installed to the CI server. But we wanna have this analysis as an part of the whole build.

xUnit runner eats system diagnostic output

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:28:00 +0100

Problem

When using xUnit and constructs like Debug.WriteLine the DbgView-tool does not show the written output anymore.

Solution

Add a new Listener – for example:

Debug.Listeners.Add(new DefaultTraceListener());

NuGet: Update to an older version of a package

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:52:00 +0100

Problem

I must go back to an older package version (from 1.1.0.0 to 1.0.0.0) but the Package Manager Console does not allow this.

With the command

Update-Package EsriDE.Commons.System.Utils -Version 1.0.0.0

I got the error:

Review SmartAssembly from Red Gate

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 14:34:00 +0100

As an GWB-influencer I had the chance to review SmartAssembly.

Because obfuscation is an important part in protecting intellectual property this review chance was a good start for this. The first few clicks show that not only obfuscation could be made with SmartAssembly but also some other very interesting things.

"Failure has occurred while loading a type."

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:08:00 +0200

Motivation

During programming suddenly this error (Failure has occurred while loading a type) was thrown by accessing a artifact of a referenced library.

In such cases I take the assembly fusion logger fuslogvw to search for problems of loading assemblies. Sometimes an old version from a not expected folder is binded. But all bindings were correct.

InternalsVisibleTo, PublicKey and PublicKeyToken

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:35:00 +0200

Intro

If you want to test the internals of a productive assembly you must mark the assembly with the InternalsVisibleTo-attribute. This attribute has only one constructor which needs the name of the testing assembly.

Template Method Pattern and constructors

Sat, 15 Oct 2011 14:18:00 +0200

Motivation

Often you want to have the possibility to call a special abstract or virtual Initialize-method in a constructor of a base class to set individual initializing things in an override of this Initialize-method in a derived class.

Modify properties of “Git Bash Here” shortcut in Explorer and Console Enhancement Project

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 06:10:00 +0200

Essentials

Run the bash for this as administrator. The shortcut is located in the Git installation folder. “%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Git”.

Good Setting for the layout are:

Screnn buffer size
- Width: 160
- Height: 3000
Windows size

Performance-Analyzing of log4net regarding creation of new logger vs. taking an existing one

Tue, 02 Aug 2011 10:49:00 +0200

Motivation

During playing with AOP framework PostSharp I thought about the technique to weave the logger instances inside the code by using the CompileTimeInitialize–method. Unfortunately my logging-stuff must be serializable. This is not given. So I must use the other weaving point and access my Loggers.

Be carefully by using PostSharp regarding license choice

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 11:25:00 +0200

Initial situation

If you download and install PostSharp you run the professional edition in trial mode if you don’t configure additional things – also if you want to run the community edition.

Correcting wrong AssemblyInfo Copyright and Vendor-information

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 09:53:00 +0200

Initial situation

Normally all of our installations are registered to the company name.

But now we have the effect that some (developer) tool seems to overwrite this registry entries. That results in the following:

NuGet-Package-Management mit ArcObjects

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 10:48:00 +0200

Motivation

Wie gehen Sie in dieser Situation vor:

Eine von Ihnen verwendete .NET-Drittbibliothek liegt in einer neuen Version vor und Sie müssen die Abhängigkeiten in all Ihren Projekte aktualisieren.

Je nach Projekt und Notwendigkeit hatten wir bei ESRI Deutschland dafür bisher u.a. folgende Lösungs-Szenarien:

Using NuGet in a MSBuild-target to have the packages at the last stand

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:15:00 +0200

Motivation

Encouraged from the article “Using NuGet without committing packages to source control” I decided to wrap the NuGet-call in a MSBuild target instead of using a pre-build event.

Because we also trigger FxCop and StyleCop via targets this fits better in our project management.

Note to self: Visual Studio makros for build events

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 10:01:00 +0200

About trials, spikes, samples, prototypes and clean code

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 14:38:00 +0200

Writing clean code is only possible if you are known with the uses technology. Often during a development process this level must initially be reached.

To distinguish the levels of understanding I guess separate folders under the DevTree:

Whitepaper “Aufbau eines pragmatisch smarten DevTree“

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 11:46:00 +0200

Motivation

Kommen Ihnen diese Szenarien bekannt vor:

der Build scheitert, weil ein Kollege ein 3rd Party Framework eingeführt hat und nur lokal auf seiner Maschine die benötigten Bibliotheken installiert sind
der Build scheitert weil ein 3rd Party Framework auf einigen Maschinen in anderen Versionen vorhanden ist und sich damit die Datei-Versionen und -Funktionalitäten der Bibliotheken unterscheiden
das Build-Ergebnis unterscheidet sich auf verschiedenen Maschinen weil jeweils andere Toolsets in die kompilierende Umgebung eingebunden sind (Code-Weaver und -Analysierer, die als Plugin in Visual Studio installiert sind)
die benötigten Fragmente für ein aktuell benötigtes MSI-Setup (z.B. PDF-Dokumentationen) liegen in der Verantwortlichkeit eines Kollegen, der diese Dateien auf seinem Laptop hat, mit welchem er gerade unterwegs ist
nach der Inbetriebnahme einer neuen Maschine sind stundenlange Installationsopern notwendig um wieder am Projekt mitarbeiten zu können
die ausgerollte Software läuft beim Kunden nicht, weil Bibliotheken in der Applikation referenziert wurde, welche nicht im Standard-Installationsumfang beim Kunden sind

Root Cause Analysis

Was ist der Grund all dieser und verwandter Probleme?

Let ReSharper and Code Contracts work together

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 23:55:00 +0200

ReSharper by default does not recognize Contract.Requires as an annotation hint, that the proofed condition furthermore is true.

So it comes to the effect, that using the following contract definition causes ReSharper to squiggle the next access and output a wrong hint:

Let ReSharper and xUnit work together

Sun, 05 Jun 2011 13:41:00 +0200

Getting the ressources

First at all download

xUnit
xUnit Contrib ReSharper
This gives you a bridge between ReSharper functionality and your XUnit coding.

Installation und Configuration

Unzip both archives.

xUnit part

Configure the code to use xUnit

Normally I prefer a single checkout point for my developing solution – this whole bundle I name DevTree. One of the top folders in the hierarchy of this DevTree is a lib-Folder. Beneath this folder all of the 3rd party libs which I use in my solution are located – all of them in an own folder. So I copy xunit.dll to a folder <DevTree-Root>\lib\xUnit.

Code Contracts: For unit test a manual rebuild is needed for toggeling “runtime checking”

Sat, 04 Jun 2011 01:19:00 +0200

Toggeling the checkbox Perform Runtime Contract Checking lets run the next application start with the new set option. But for unit test an explicit new build will apply the option for the next run.

Ressourcen für Esri 2011 Präsentationen und Code-Beispiele

Tue, 31 May 2011 15:56:00 +0200

Aufgrund mehrfacher Nachfrage, hier nochmal zusammengefasst die Links zu Präsentationen und Code-Beispielen von Vorträgen und Workshop mit meinem Mitwirken:

Die Sourcen finden sich unter:

Break the mechanism, that GAC-assemblies could only bind to other GAC-assemblies

Tue, 31 May 2011 08:30:00 +0200

Till yet I thought, that if you have an assembly in the GAC all referenced assemblies must also be in the GAC. So a break of this GAC-assembly resolving chain is impossible.

Umfrage-Auswertung zum Workshop “Professionelle Softwareentwicklung mit ArcObjects” auf der ESRI 2011

Fri, 27 May 2011 04:04:00 +0200

Als erstes möchten Jochen und ich uns bei euch Teilnehmern bedanken für das große positive Feedback zu diesem Workshop. Das waren sicher für uns alle 3 sehr spannende Stunden – für euch im technischen Inhalt und für uns in der Frage euren Geschmack zu treffen. Ein derartiger Workshop war eine Premiere für Esri im Rahmen der GIS Konferenz - und eure Einwertung kann man durchaus als einen Arbeitsauftrag an uns auffassen diesbzgl am Ball zu bleiben.

Suppressing Add-in-registration task during build process

Mon, 16 May 2011 07:17:00 +0200

If you develop ArcGIS Add-ins with Visual Studio under limited permissions you get during the build process an error, that the stuff could not be registered.

Normally its enough to run one times this build as an admin. Then all needed information are set and also taken for users with limited access.

Get Keymaps for ReSharper running

Thu, 12 May 2011 06:27:00 +0200

Keymaps for ReSharper is a nice tool and allows the user easily to learn short cuts of ReSharper.

Unfortunately, the last update is from january 2010. So the installation folder of the installing script (Install.Keymaps.for.ReSharper.cmd) is not up to date. If you run it no expected new menu item “Show Keymap” under the ReSharper-menu is listed.

Suppressing FxCop/Code Analysis warnings in Config.Designer.cs of Esri Addins

Wed, 11 May 2011 13:35:00 +0200

Addins in ArcGIS Desktop 10 uses tool generated code of the Config.esriaddinx file.

Have a look at the properties you will see this tool – named ArcGISAddInHostGenerator.

Castle Windsor: order of configurations and resulting resolvings

Tue, 03 May 2011 05:46:00 +0200

If different implementations for the same interface are specified without named keys, then a resolving is made in order of the configurations. So the first fitting implementation is taken.

Different implementations for the same interface is a typical scenario for patterns like “chain of responsibility” and “decorator”. If you want to describe such a chain you could use the next handler as a constructor- parameter in the actual one.

Calling esriRegasm manually (outside an ArcGIS-installation)

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:53:00 +0200

Since ArcGIS 10 during the Visual Studio build an additional target with the execution of a program named esriRegasm is called. Amongst other things this program adds the COM-categories in the registry.

Mercurial behind a proxy

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:57:00 +0100

For getting data with using a proxy simply modify the command with included --config-parameter with proxy-information.

So the original:

hg clone https://ralfwscratchpad.googlecode.com/hg/ ralfwscratchpad

transforms to:

hg --config http_proxy.host=proxy:8080 clone https://ralfwscratchpad.googlecode.com/hg/ ralfwscratchpad

Running CopySourceAsHtml Add-in under Visual Studio 2010

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 10:41:00 +0100

Until now CopySourceAsHtml only supports Visual Studio 2008 out of the box.

But it is no problem to pimp up the config-file for supporting Visual Studio 2010.

Copy all three files to %userprofile%\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Addins
Open CopySourceAsHtml.AddIn in a text editor and change both lines with
<Version>9.0</Version> to <Version>10.0</Version>
Run Visual Studio 2010 and CopySourceAsHtml works fine

Differences by pasting formatted text in Word and OneNote

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:54:00 +0100

By pasting formatted text in Word and OneNote both applications act a little bit different. Meanwhile Word supports RTF-formatting OneNote does not.

OneNote could only handle HTML-formatting.

In combination with presenting source code for Visual Studio the Add-in CopySourceAsHtml is available.

Alternatives for the Snippet Compiler

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 01:32:00 +0100

It seems that the Snippet Compiler is not maintained anymore.

So I need an alternative – also for getting syntax highlighting for code in publications. Preferable with the possibility to conserve this highlighting by copying selections to clipboard. Snippet Compiler does not allows this for selections – only by exporting the whole file content to clipboard with HTML- or RTF-formatting (File > Export > HTML to clipboard respectively RTF to clipboard).

Installation experiences with NDepend under Win7/64 with restricted user permissions

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 19:10:00 +0100

Today Patrick from NDepend gave me a new license for his static code analysis tool NDepend for my fresh machine with Win7/64. This platform is new for me, so some things are different to Win XP. Maybe that till yet some of these things are not well enough understood from me. So I stepped in some traps.

Castle Windsor and .NET Framwork 3.5 Client Profil

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 17:32:00 +0200

Today I have tried to use a Castle Windsor in an project based at .NET Framwork 3.5 Client Profile. This is not possible because somewhere in the Castle Windsor assembly a reference to System.Web is made.

Experiences with the new Add-In concept of ArcGIS 10

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 12:08:00 +0200

Namespaces of components in an Add-In

It seems that there is only one namespace for all components in an Add-In allowed. The namespace is defined over an attribute of the tag <AddIn>. And this tag is allowed only once per config.esriaddinx file.

Set ApartmentState for ArcObjects-logic in separate threads

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:54:00 +0200

Problem context

We use a backgroundworker to load .MXD documents from several places of the system and extract meta data and thumbnails which a GUI component shows in an asynchronous way.

The unit tests for this logic throws an exception during the access the thumbnail:

Explorer context menu to create a blank Visual Studio solution

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 15:25:00 +0200

Starting a new Visual Studio solution through the IDE is often too complex and time wasting.

Other programs allows per default to create a blank document with the explorer context menu. Why not offer this functionality for Visual Studio?

Diverse Shortcuts

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:45:00 +0200

Visual Studio / ReSharper

New to learn or learn

SHIFT + ALT + PgDown/PgUp — R#
Find next/previous error
ALT + PgDown/PgUp — R#
Find next/previous suggestion/hint

Editing

ALT + ENTER — R#, ReSharper.QickFix__
Show quick fixes and content actions
CTRL + D — R#, ReSharper.DuplicateText
Duplicate line or selection
CTRL + K, S — VS, Edit.SurroundWith
Code Snippet Picker (wrap around)
CTRL + ALT + RightArrow/LeftArrow — R#, ReSharper.ExtendSelection
Extends/shrinks selection
CTRL + K, X — VS, Edit.InsertSnippet
Code Snippet Picker (insert)
CTRL + SHIFT + ALT + UpArrow/DownArrow — R#, Move Method (up/down)
Moves method above or down to the previous or next method
CTRL + M, O — VS, Edit.CollapseToDefinitions
Collapses existing regions and types
CTRL + M, L — VS, Edit.ToggleAllOutlining
Fully collapses and expands regions
CTRL + M, M — VS, Edit.Toggle-OutliningExpansion
Collapses and expands actual region
CTRL + M, P — VS, Edit.StopOutlining
Expands regions
CTRL + SHIFT + V — VS, Edit.CycleClipboardRing
Pastes from the Clipboard ring
CTRL + SHIFT + H — VS, Edit.ReplaceInFiles
Replace in files

Window Handling

SHIFT + ALT + ENTER — VS, View.FullScreen
Full screen mode
CTRL + ALT + DownArrow — VS, Window.ShowEzMDIFileList
Lists all open documents
ALT + ENTER — VS
Opens “Properties” dialog
CTRL + TAB — ?
Navigates through recent files

IntelliSense

CTRL + SPACE — VS, Edit.CompleteWord
Completes current word
CTRL + SHIFT + SPACE — ?, Edit.ParameterInfo
Displays method parameter infos
CTRL + J — VS, Edit.ListMembers
Invokes completion list
CTRL + K, I — VS, Edit.QuickInfo
Displays complete declaration

Refactor

CTRL + R, R or F2 — VS, Refactor.Rename
Opens “Rename” dialog
CTRL + R, M — VS, Refactor.ExtractMethod
Opens “Extract Method” dialog
CTRL + R, E — VS, Refactor.EncapsulateField
Opens “Encapsulate Field” dialog
CTRL + R, F — R#, ReSharper.IntroduceField
Introduce Field
CTRL + R, I — VS, Refactor.ExtractInterface
Opens “Extract Interface” dialog
ALT + DEL — R#, ReSharper.SafeDelete
Safe Delete
CTRL + R, P — VS, Refactor.PromoteLocalVariabletoParameter
CTRL + R, V — VS, Refactor.RemoveParameters

Debugging

CTRL + F10 — VS, Debug.RunToCursor
Run to Cursor
SHIFT + F11 — VS, Debug.StepOut
SHIFT + F5 — VS, Debug.StopDebugging
F9 — VS, Debug.ToggleBreakpoint
Set/remove breakpoint
CTRL + F9 — VS, Debug.EnableBreakpoint
Disable/enable breakpoint
CTRL — VS
Make Datatip Transparent

Build

F6 — VS, Build.BuildSolution
Builds all the projects
SHIFT + F6 — VS, Build.BuildSelection
Builds the selected project

SHIFT + ALT + L — R#, ReSharper.LocateInSolutionExplorer
Locate in Solution Explorer
SHIFT + F12 — VS, Edit.FindAllReferences
List of all references for symbol
F12 — VS, Edit.GoToDefinition
CTRL + LMB — R#
Navigates to declaration
CTRL + SHIFT + , — R#, ReSharper.GotoRecentEdits
View recent edits
F8 — ?, Edit.GoToNextLocation
Next item (Task List, Find Results)
CTRL + I — ?, Edit.IncrementalSearch
Activates incremental search
CTRL + - — VS, View.NavigateBackward
Previously edited code
F7 — R#, View.ViewCode/ViewDesigner
Switch to code or design view
CTRL + G — ?, Edit.GoTo
Opens “Go To Line” dialog
SHIFT + ALT + L — R#
Locate in Solution Explorer

Important

CTRL + C — VS/R#, Edit.Copy
Copy line or selection
CTRL + X — VS/R#, Edit.Cut
Cut line or selection
CTRL + ALT + / — R#
CTRL + K, C — VS, Edit.CommentSelection
Inserts // at the beginning
CTRL + ALT + / — R#
CTRL + K, U — VS, Edit.UncommentSelection
Removes the // at the beginning
CTRL + SHIFT + / — ?, Block comment
Inserts /* at the beginning and */ at the end
CTRL + K, D — VS, Edit.FormatDocument
Formats indentation
CTRL + . — VS, View.ShowSmartTag
Open smart tag menu
CTRL + SHIFT + F — VS, Edit.FindInFiles
Find in files
CTRL + 8 — R#, Code analysis on/off
Enable/disable code analysis

Word

ALT + V, U
Full screen

Outlook

CTRL + R
Reply message
CTRL + F
Forward message
CTRL + SHIFT + M
New message
CTRL + K
Check names
CTRL + Backspace
Delete the previous word
CTRL + ENTER
Send message
ALT + J
Move to the Subject field
CTRL + 1
Go to mail
CTRL + 2
Go to calendar
ALT + F4
Close current window

Windows

WIN + Anfangsbuchstabe or CTRL + ESC + Anfangsbuchstabe
Rotiert im expandierten Startmenü zwischen den entsprechenden Treffern
WIN + 1 .. 9
Startet das jeweilige Programm aus der Taskleiste unten – beziehungsweise minimiert es oder stellt es wieder her
WIN + UpArrow / WIN + DownArrow
Maximize current window / Restore down or minimize current window
WIN + LeftArrow / WIN + RightArrow
Dock the current window to the left or right half of the screen
WIN + SHIFT + LeftArrow/RightArrow
Verschiebt das Bild auf den linken bzw. rechten Bildschirm
WIN + HOME
Minimize all but the current window
WIN + SPACE
Makes all windows transparent so you can see through to the desktop
WIN + SHIFT + UpArrow/DownArrow
Maximize vertical size / Restore vertical size
WIN + P
Presentation mode
WIN + X
Mobility centre with enhanced options
WIN + BREAK
Displays system properties
WIN + #
Quicklaunch
WINDOWS + R
Open Run dialog
CTRL + N
Opens a new Explorer window
CTRL + SHIFT + N
Creates a new folder
SHIFT + CTRL + Click at application
Start program in admin mode

Chrome / SRWare Iron

CTRL + PgDown / CTRL + PgUp
Rotiert durch die Reiter
CTRL + 1 to CTRL + 8
Switches to the tab at the specified position number on the tab strip
CTRL + SHIFT + LMB-Click
Open link in new tab and switches to new tab
ALT + HOME
Open homepage in current window
F6
Activate and highlight address bar for typing new stuff
SPACE
Scrolls down
F11
Fullscreen
CTRL + SHIFT + T
Reopens last closed tab
CTRL + W or CTRL + F4
Closes the current tab
CTRL + J
Open download page

Interpretations of F.I.R.S.T.

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:49:00 +0200

Fast
Many per second
Independent
Ability to to run test cases in any order
Isolated
only one aspect per test case –> Failure reasons could better be identified
Repeatable
Execution order does no matter
Self-validating
No manual evaluation required
Small
Easy to understand, evolvable
Transparent
purpose of test case should be clear
Timely
Written before/during code

Event Naming Guidelines

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 08:47:00 +0200

Rules

The following rules outline the naming guidelines for events:

Use Pascal case.
Do not use Hungarian notation.
Use an EventHandler suffix on event handler names.
Specify two parameters named sender and e. The sender parameter represents the object that raised the event. The sender parameter is always of type object, even if it is possible to use a more specific type. The state associated with the event is encapsulated in an instance of an event class named e. Use an appropriate and specific event class for the e parameter type.
Name an event argument class with the EventArgs suffix.
Consider naming events with a verb. For example, correctly named event names include Clicked, Painting, and DroppedDown.
Use a gerund (the “ing” form of a verb) to create an event name that expresses the concept of pre-event, and a past-tense verb to represent post-event. For example, a Close event that can be canceled should have a Closing event and a Closed event. Do not use the BeforeXxx/AfterXxx naming pattern.
Do not use a prefix or suffix on the event declaration on the type. For example, use Close instead of OnClose.
In general, you should provide a protected method called OnXxx on types with events that can be overridden in a derived class. This method should only have the event parameter e, because the sender is always the instance of the type.

from: .NET Framework General Reference - Event Naming Guidelines

Verwenden von partiellen Klassen für COM-Belange

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:16:00 +0200

Motivation

Schon im Whitepaper „Auszeichnung von COM-Kategorien an .NET-Klassen mittels Attributen und deren Verwendung für Setup-Builds“ [1] habe ich deutlich gemacht warum das Verwenden von COM-Registrierungsfunktionen ein suboptimales Programmierpattern ist. Knackpunkt sind die Verstöße gegen SOC (separation of concerns) [2] und SRP (single responsibility principle) [3].

Default installation for developer machines

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 12:00:00 +0200

IDE

Must have

Visual Studio 2008
Visual Studio 2010

Nice to have

Sharp Develop
Eclipse

Editor

Must have

Editor with high functionality and high usability (like WScite, UltraEdit, PSPad, ..)

Nice to have

Microsoft XML Notepad 2007
Notepad++
Windows Live Writer
WScite

Visual Studio Add-Ins

Must have

AnkhSvn
GhostDoc
PowerCommands
PowerToys for Visual Studio
ReSharper
VsCommands

Nice to have

CopySourceAsHtml
Clone Detective for Visual Studio
CR_Documentor, Documentor
Agent Johnson (R# Plugin)
Agent Smith (R# Plugin)
Source Code Outliner
StyleCop for ReSharper (R# Plugin)

Developing Tools

Must have

DbgView
Enterprise Architect
Reflector
WinMerge

Nice to have

DXCore (u.a benötigt für Documentor)
FusLogVw
Microsoft FxCop 1.36
Microsoft FxCop 10
Microsoft Pex
Micosoft StyleCop
NDepend

Other Tools

Must have

CLCL
clip2txt
Launchy
ProcessExplorer
ProcessMonitor
TortoiseSVN
SVNMonitor

Nice to have

CmdHere Powertoy
FeedReader
Network Stumbler
SRWare Iron
TortoiseCVS
TrueCrypt
VLC Media Player
ZoomIt

Quicklaunch

Must have

Shortcut to clip2txt
Shortcut to Explorer as administrative user %windir%\system32\runas.exe /user:<admin-user> “explorer /e,/separate,C:"
Shortcut to (special) home and working directories %windir%\explorer.exe /e,/root,c:\projects \Projects”>\uranus\home$<user>\Projects

Nice to have

No GIS-links
No Office links (only Outlook)

Integrate NUnit in Hudson CI-server

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 15:41:00 +0200

Precondition

Naming

Its a good practice to have a common naming schema for test projects, fixture categories and fixture. Especially to configure automatic runs of unit tests is much more easier with this.

Integrate Simian in Hudson CI-server

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:04:00 +0200

Steps to integrate simian

add simian to VCS
(in our case folder ./trunk/build/simian)
add build step to your Hudson job
(Execute Windows batch command)

use following two commands

.\trunk\build\Simian\bin\simian-2.2.24.exe
 -formatter=xml:.\trunk\bin\Simian.Result.xml
 -excludes=**/*.Test/**/*.cs
 -excludes=**/*.DbFrame/**/*.cs
 -excludes=**/*.DbLayout/**/*.cs
 -excludes=**/*.Designer.cs
 -excludes=**/XServer1\_8.cs
 -threshold=10
 **/*.cs
EXIT 0

Explanation

For better visibility and understanding I have split the first call (simian) over several lines. Needless to say that you must contract all parameters and arguments of the simian call in one line.

Hudson error: could not delete ..config.xml

Tue, 06 Jul 2010 16:44:00 +0200

Today we updated our Hudson CI-server. After changing job-configuration Hudson throws an error, that the config.xml could not be deleted.

But the new entries are correct saved.

Nevertheless such behavior bothers.

The trick was to update also the plugins. After that all works fine again.

Searching the new FxCop-Release (10.0)

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 14:45:00 +0200

Today my FxCop-GUI stated, that a new release is available – but the link to this release is broken.

After googling a little bit i realized, that the new release of FxCop ist actually only included in “Windows SDK for Windows 7.1”.

My own set of SuppressMessage-lines

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 10:35:00 +0200

StyleCop issues

inheritedoc-comment

Using -comment is not recognized by StyleCop. So this needs a suppression:

// <inheritdoc />
[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.StyleCop.CSharp.DocumentationRules",
 "SA1604:ElementDocumentationMustHaveSummary",
 Justification = "InheritDoc")]

FxCop issues

Too few namespaces

[module: SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Design",
 "CA1020:AvoidNamespacesWithFewTypes",
 Scope = "namespace",
 Target = "EsriDE.Core.Service.Logging",
 Justification = "We want to have this namespace, but do not have enough classes to go in it right now to satisfy the rule.")]

ReSharper only supports non static test methods

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Performance",
 "CA1822:MarkMembersAsStatic",
 Justification = "ReSharper could not handle static test methods.")]

No strong name

[assembly: SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Design",
 "CA2210:AssembliesShouldHaveValidStrongNames",
 Justification = "Strong name is not needed for this.")]

Catching general exception

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Design",
 "CA1031:DoNotCatchGeneralExceptionTypes",
 Justification = "We do not know which exceptions could be thrown.")]

Justification for samples and fixtures

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "For fixtures this is OK.")]

Setter but no Getter (for example in IoC or NHibernate-context)

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Usage",
 "CA2227:CollectionPropertiesShouldBeReadOnly",
 Justification = "Setter is needed for nhibernate, otherwise a NHibernate.PropertyNotFoundException will be thrown.")]

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Xyz",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "We only need a setter for setter injection.")]

Instantiation with IoC

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Performance",
 "CA1811:AvoidUncalledPrivateCode",
 Justification = "We need this for unit tests.")]

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Performance",
 "CA1812:AvoidUninstantiatedInternalClasses",
 Justification = "Class would be instantiated by IoC framework.")]

Incorrect naming

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.StyleCop.CSharp.NamingRules",
 "SA1310:FieldNamesMustNotContainUnderscore",
 Justification = "Windows message constants are commonly named as WM\_xxxxx")]

Incorrect casing

[module: SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Naming",
 "CA1709:IdentifiersShouldBeCasedCorrectly",
 Scope = "type",
 Target = "EsriDE.Data.Access.IDbFactory",
 MessageId = "<WrongCasedWord>")]

[module: SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Naming",
 "CA1709:IdentifiersShouldBeCasedCorrectly",
 Scope = "type",
 MessageId = "<WrongCasedWord>)]

Parametername should match base declaration

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Naming",
 "CA1725:ParameterNamesShouldMatchBaseDeclaration",
 Justification = "Rule CA1725 has a bug when inspecting parameters from methods from interfaces. So suppress it with class.")]

Throwing ApplicationException

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.Usage",
 "CA2201:DoNotRaiseReservedExceptionTypes",
 Justification = "ApplicationException is OK.")]

FxCop is too strict

[SuppressMessage("
 Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "We decide that this is OK.")]

[module: SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Scope = "resource",
 Target = "EsriDE.PipelineManagement.Core.Properties.Messages.resources",
 MessageId = "Toolbar",
 Justification = "We decide that this is OK.")]

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "This is by design.")]

Code from untaught colleagues

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "Currently, we do not have enough knowledge or experience to fix this.")]

[SuppressMessage(
 "Microsoft.XYZ",
 "CAxyz:XYZ",
 Justification = "Cowboy-coding colleagues.")]

Specify a project-specific custom dictionary for FxCop build tasks and Visual Studio Team System static code analysis

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 11:27:00 +0200

Using a project-specific custom dictionary for FxCop and FxCop build tasks is very simple. The FxCopCmd call in the FxCop-target offers the parameter /dictionary:<DictionaryName> for that.

But for Visual Studio a little bit more steps are needed. And these steps must me gone for all projects.

Casing of COM-Interop registered components

Tue, 08 Jun 2010 09:54:00 +0200

During a refactoring I realized that renaming of components, which will be registered for COM-Interop, must be done carefully.

In my case i changed the casing of XyzToolbar to XyzToolBar.

At the developing machine everything works fine. But after installing the modified stuff at the production machine, the toolbar was not visible. Using regasm with the new assemblies helped.

Global SVN Ignore Patterns und Zeitstempel-Optionen

Mon, 31 May 2010 09:13:00 +0200

Globale Konfiguration

Die setzt man unter den globalen SVN-Einstellungen.

Diese öffnet man per kontextsensitiven Menü im Explorer:

Global Ignores

Standard

*.o *.lo *.la *.al .libs *.so *.so.[0-9]* *.a *.pyc *.pyo *.rej *~ #*# .#* .*.swp .DS_Store

sinnvoll sind für .NET-Entwicklungen und Visual Studio und ReSharper folgende Ergänzungen

*.suo *.csproj.user */_ReSharper.* *.ReSharper.user */bin */obj *.cache *.gpState

Der oft genannte Vorschlag *bin und *obj ist keine gute Idee da auch Dateien die mit bin enden unterdrückt werden (Something.bin oder Taschendiebin).

Specify a custom dictionary for FxCop and Visual Studio source analysis

Tue, 11 May 2010 17:46:00 +0200

Renaming the default custom dictionary from CustomDictionary.xml to an other name – for instance FxCop.CustomDictionary.xml needs some additional changes to work in involved applications.

Visual Studio Team System code analysis

For Visual Studio Team System code analysis this file should be added as a link to all projects and set to be the Build Action CodeAnalysisDirectory.

Wie spricht man den Lambda-Operator aus?

Wed, 05 May 2010 09:27:00 +0200

Zur Aussprache des Lambda-Operators gibt es unterschiedliche Auffassungen.

Im Englischen:

Func f = x => x * 2;
- ”x goes to x * 2”
- ”x maps to x * 2”
- ”x becomes x * 2”
- ”x induces x * 2”
Func test = c => c.City == “London”;
- “c for which c.City equals London”

Im Deutschen:

Gefahren des “cleanup code refactoring” im Zusammenhang mit P/Invoke und übergebenen Strukturen

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 09:40:00 +0200

Problemkontext

So schön auch das automatische “cleanup code refactoring” von ReSharper ist, im Zusammenhang mit Strukturdefinitionen, die als Übergabe-Parameter für unmanaged Code Aufrufe benötigt werden, lauert eine große Gefahr.

Standardmäßig ist im Profil “Full Cleanup” die Option “Reorder type members” auf “Yes” gestellt.

Remote Debugging mit Visual Studio

Tue, 27 Apr 2010 09:38:00 +0200

Das Debuggen einer Applikation auf einem Rechner ohne installiertes Visual Studio gestaltet sich mit dem Remote Debugging Monitor relativ einfach.

Derartige Konstellationen ergeben sich insbesondere dann, wenn ein Debugging von Anwendungen in Produktiv-Umgebungen notwendig wird.

F# and ArcObjects, Part 3

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:15:00 +0100

Today i played a little bit with IFeature-sequences and piping data. The result was a calculator of the bounding box around all features in a feature class.

Maybe a little bit dirty, but for learning was it OK. ;-)

F# and ArcObjects, Part 2

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 14:49:00 +0100

After accessing one feature now i iterate through all features of a feature class:

open System;;

#I "C:\Program Files\ArcGIS\DotNet";;
#r "ESRI.ArcGIS.System.dll";;
#r "ESRI.ArcGIS.DataSourcesGDB.dll";;
#r "ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase.dll";;
open ESRI.ArcGIS.esriSystem;;
open ESRI.ArcGIS.DataSourcesGDB;;
open ESRI.ArcGIS.Geodatabase;;

let aoInitialize = new AoInitializeClass();;

let status = aoInitialize.Initialize(esriLicenseProductCode.esriLicenseProductCodeArcEditor);;

let workspacefactory = new SdeWorkspaceFactoryClass();;

let connection = "SERVER=okul;DATABASE=p;VERSION=sde.default;INSTANCE=sde:sqlserver:okul;USER=s;PASSWORD=g";;

let workspace = workspacefactory.OpenFromString(connection, 0);;

let featureWorkspace = (box workspace) :?> IFeatureWorkspace;;

let featureClass = featureWorkspace.OpenFeatureClass("Praxair.SFG.BP_L_ROHR");;

let queryFilter = new QueryFilterClass();;

let featureCursor = featureClass.Search(queryFilter, true);;

let featureCursorSeq (featureCursor : IFeatureCursor) = 
 let actualFeature = ref (featureCursor.NextFeature())
 seq {
 while (!actualFeature) <> null do
 yield actualFeature
 do actualFeature := featureCursor.NextFeature()
 };;


featureCursorSeq featureCursor
 |> Seq.iter (fun feature -> Console.WriteLine ((!feature).OID));;

F# and ArcObjects, Part 1

Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:58:00 +0100

After having a first look on F# its time to ask: How could i use F# with ArcObjects.

So my first steps was to do something with a feature in a F# interactive session. And these are my first code lines:

Integrating F# in SharpDevelop

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 13:10:00 +0100

After installing SharpDevelop 4 the F# Interactive could not be activated.

In my case the correct folder for the F# installation must by specified in die application config file. So i opened SharpDevelop.exe.config and set this entry in the appSettings section:

MSB3105: Duplicate ressource parameter

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:17:00 +0100

error MSB3105: The item "BALoginForm.resources" was specified more than once in the "Resources" parameter.
Duplicate items are not supported by the "Resources" parameter.

Reason

We use two custom cultures to divide between UIs for two customers. At the machine with this error only one custom culture was installed.

MSBuild Exec task: using quotes in WorkingDirectory does not work

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 10:01:00 +0100

For a general applicability I tried to specify the WorkingDirectory attribute in a quoted manner:

<WorkingDir>&quot;$(SolutionRoot)\EsriDE.Commons\tools\EsriDE\&quot;</WorkingDir>

<DoubleQuotes>%22</DoubleQuotes>
<WorkingDir>$(DoubleQuotes)$(SolutionRoot)\EsriDE.Commons\tools\EsriDE\$(DoubleQuotes)</WorkingDir>

The Exec task self is

<Exec
 WorkingDirectory="$(WorkingDir)"
 Command="$(ExtractComCategories) $(InputDirectoryArg) $(FilterArg) $(SeparationArg) $(OutputDirectoryArg) $(OutputFileArg) $(OutputFormatArg)" />

Every variant throws during building the exception MSB6003 (The directory name is invalid):

Visual Studio 2005/2008 Code Analysis Error

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:52:00 +0100

After installing VS2005 TE on my machine (which previously runs Visual Studio 2008 TE) all mixed projects (VS2005/VS2008 compatibility with TargetFramework=2.0 and ToolsVersion=2.0 options) thrown an error during compilation:

C:\Program Files\MSBuild\Microsoft\VisualStudio\v8.0\CodeAnalysis\Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.targets(46,4):
error : In order to perform Code Analysis on managed binaries, MSBuild needs to launch FxCop.
MSBuild is unable to locate the FxCop binaries.
Make sure Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers or Visual Studio Team Suite is installed
and run MSBuild from within the "Visual Studio Command Prompt"
or specify the path to FxCop by setting the FXCOPDIR environment variable.

Specifying the FXCOPDIR-variable brings up the next obscure errors.

Stopping a build at the TFS

Thu, 26 Nov 2009 07:54:00 +0100

Open a “visual studio command prompt” and try:

tfsbuild stop https://*****:8143 RXXXXX_Sourcecode Gen_2.6_branch_test_20080827.1

Parsing argument line with a folder-parameter ending with backslash

Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:21:00 +0100

By using the argument line array of Main(string[] args) it is important to know such effect.

If you specify a quoted folder (e.g. "C:\Projects\PDE\PRJ_EsriDE_Common\trunk\code\Commons\bin\Debug\") the ending backslash makes troubles.

My whole argument line (linebreaked for better viewing):

Visual Studio: Find in files with *.xml wildcard does not find all occurrences

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:51:00 +0100

During a refactoring we searched for full type names in our IoC-config files. The filter was setted to *.xml and Visual Studio does not found all occurrences of the search string in these xml-files.

StyleCop throws documentation warning SA1600 for private elements

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:24:00 +0100

if you see the following warnings in your code:

You have two choices:

deactivate the rule but this disables this rule for all documentations – also the wanted
tune the detail settings In the settings editor you see additional options if you select the “Documentation Rules” root node

Using a custom dictionary in code analysis

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:22:00 +0100

Working with Microsoft FxCop

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:06:00 +0100

Run FxCop as a post build event

Since FxCop 1.36 it is possible to include FxCop in a post-build event.

So FxCop runs after compiling in Visual Studio and allows you directly jumping to the warned line.

ReSharper is not available

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 07:23:00 +0100

Today a colleague ask me to help.

On his system all ReSharper menus are grayed out. Also the Visual Studio Add-In Manager does not show this add-in.

He tried:

a new installation: without success,
running with administrative privileges: without success,
looking in event- and application-logs: no entries.

After searching a little bit with old buddy google we found this message: Wild World of Visual Studio – Mysterious Component

SAP.Net.Setup_2.0.msi throws “You must first install the Visual Studio.NET 7.1”

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:29:00 +0100

During installation of the SAP .NET Connector the setup throws this error because no Visual Studio 2003 could be found.

If you only need the assembly sap.connector.dll (for instance in cases of old projects which references this dll) you could ask google for downloading it ;-)

Visual Studio: Building parts of a solution

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 07:10:00 +0100

Often in large solutions I had the problem that a couple of little chances needs building some projects. Unfortunately Visual Studio tends to build more projects than needed.

Formerly I used the configuration manager to deactivate unused projects. This is a overhead which sucks.

Visual Studio Error: The item "*.resources" was specified more than once in the "Resources" parameter.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:58:00 +0100

Full error message in Visual Studio output window:

The item `*.resources` was specified more than once in the "Resources" parameter. Duplicate items are not supported by the "Resources" parameter.

I saw this error on context of custom cultures usage. The compiling machine does not have a project used custom culture registered.

Nachtrag: Casting Anti-Pattern

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:40:00 +0100

Wie so oft im Leben sind manche Dinge auf den zweiten Blick komplexer als sie auf dem Ersten den Anschein haben.

Es kam die Anfrage, ob es nicht doch einen Unterschied zwischen as und is gibt & dann wurden noch ein paar Inputs gefunden, dass im Falle des “Überladens von Cast-Operatoren” mögliche Fallen lauern.

Casting Anti-Pattern

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 12:35:00 +0100

Im unten stehendem Code ist ein Anti-Pattern, welches immer wieder im ArcObjects-Kontext zu beobachten ist.

if (element is IMapSurroundFrame)
{
 IMapSurround mapSurround = ((IMapSurroundFrame)element).MapSurround;
 ..

Es wird eine is-Abfrage gemacht (element is IMapSurroundFrame) und dann ein Stück später der tatsächliche Cast ((IMapSurroundFrame)element).

Visual Studio lists Error: “CA0503 : Additional code analysis warnings or errors cannot be displayed”

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 05:54:00 +0100

This error during compilation annoyed me in a legacy project.

Apparently because of performance issues the Visual Studio development team decided to limit the warnings of code analysis to 200 items.

This behavior could be parameterized under:

Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 compatibility with ReSharper

Wed, 21 Oct 2009 08:57:00 +0200

In our team we have developers with Visual Studio 2005 and 2008. Often we have projects which must be coded by a mixed team.

Visual Studio 2005 and 2008 compatibility for project-files

Normally this is no problem because adding projects in Visual Studio 2005 and manually introducing the ToolsVersion=“2.0” attribute in the new csproj-file allows an coexisting working when using two sln-files for Visual Studio 2005 and 2008.

Catching COM-Exceptions from ArcObjects

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 14:36:00 +0200

to catch the COM-Exception in own applications thrown from the underlaying ArcObjects-Library could be done with:

catch (COMException ComEx)
{
 Console.WriteLine(string.Format("MyCode errored: {0}, Error Code: {1}",
 ComEx.Message, ComEx.ErrorCode));
}

the special error constants could be found under:

NUnit project file cant reference assemblies which are not in subfolders

Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:35:00 +0200

We use a developer tree like

src (contains the master-SLN and other code-stuff)
build (contains tools to build assemblies, code-doku, ..)
bin (central common output-folder for c#-compiler)

Under src normally the <project>.nunit should lay. But this file then references the assembly in a schema like: <assembly path="..\bin\Debug\EsriDE.PipelineManagement.Core.ClassExtensions.Test.dll" >

Multilanguage with C#

Sat, 01 Nov 2008 10:11:00 +0100

The .NET-Frameworks offers a good support for application which needs to be localizable. For each of my C#-projects i create three resources under the properties-folder.

Resource	Description
`Images.resx`	contains images for the application (mostly not needed to be localized, only for simple resource-access)
`Messages.resx`	contains strings of messages for users (such as contents of MessageBoxes)
`Resources.resx`	(normally created from VS by default) contains GUI-relevant stuff (such as label- and button-texts)

For this example we use a simple message text in Messages.resx. The name of the localizable message text is MsgSampleText.

Konfigurationfile für eine Library lesen

Thu, 10 May 2007 16:20:00 +0200

Beim Verwenden des Standard-Mechanismus zum Lesen von Konfigurationsdaten wird immer die config-Datei der EXE gelesen.

Soll eine DLL über eine eigene Konfigurationsdatei verfügen, verwendet man die Klasse ExeConfigurationFileMap.

Beispiel:

 1: ExeConfigurationFileMap ecfm = new ExeConfigurationFileMap();
 2: ecfm.ExeConfigFilename = "MyLibrary.dll.config";
 3: Configuration cfg = ConfigurationManager.OpenMappedExeConfiguration(ecfm, ConfigurationUserLevel.None);
 4: AppSettingsSection ass = (AppSettingsSection) cfg.GetSection("appSettings");
 5: string configValue = String.Empty;
 6: if (aSect != null)
 7: {
 8: configValue = ss.Settings["blabla"].Value;
 9: }

Referenzieren von Assemblys im GAC

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 16:00:00 +0200

Das Referenzieren von Assemblys im GAC, die nicht auf dem .NET-Reiter des Add-Reference-Dialogs erscheinen macht man wie folgt:

Auf den Browse-Reiter wechseln und im File-Name-Feld dann vollen Namen zur DLL im GAC angeben.