We think Reflector is a fantastic tool, and we know you do too. We'd love to hear about the times you've used it to save the day. What were you working on? What happened? Send us your epic tales of .NET Heroism...… Read more
Ben Hall takes a look at a simple add-in to .NET Reflector that helps team development work in a number of ways, and show how useful it can be in understanding how an API to a third-party assembly works. … Read more
Stephen confesses his anger at Visio, which he is having to use all day, every day, in order to design software. Unlike the average 'angry blogger', he offers a constructive solution to some of his gripes that you may download.… Read more
If you are new to using .NET Reflector, or you are wondering whether it would be useful to you, you'll appreciate Jason Crease's quick run through of the basic functionality. This is also available as a video.
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.NET Reflector is almost an intrinsic part of the .NET Framework, a free tool for browsing the contents of a .NET assembly. When Lutz Roeder passed responsibility for development of the code to Red Gate, the team preserved the characteristic minimal look, focussing on updates and code improvements. Then they added a free add-in that allowed it to be accessed from within Visual Studio. Reflector Pro is a paid-for extension that allows Visual Studio users to debug code in .NET Reflector.… Read more
If you are developing a software product, you'll know that the sooner you can get feedback from the users, the better. But, what sort of feedback, which users, and how? If your users have to test your software within their own development environment and workplace, you are presented with a challenge. Stephen explains a practical solution… Read more
Developers can get so used to relying on computers for everything that they can forget how useful it can be in the design process to elicit and refine ideas whilst working in groups, using a sketchbook, pencils and crayons. Sometimes we all need a jolt to force us to take a different approach to solving software design problems.… Read more
If you want to get serious with Unit Testing, then you'll need to understand how to extend the NUnit framework in different ways for your own particular test requirements and how to tailor test behaviour. Test Expert Ben Hall, of the SQL Generator team, shows how it is done, with special reference to the art of testing SQL code.… Read more
Sometimes, silly programs have a less obvious useful purpose. Andrew Clarke takes his classic 'Waffle Generator', and provides it in various forms, including a CSS Stylesheet tester, and as a Generator for SQL Data Generator. The Waffle Generator puts text into your test database!… Read more
Because MSbuild underpins the Visual Studio 'build' process, you can use MSBuild to explore and extend the build process to suit your needs. If you are finding the job of building Microsoft .NET applications tedious , the chances are that there is a way that using 'extended MSBuild' for your automated builds will save you time, effort and code.
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If there is one thing that developers and users always seem to disagree on, it is the relative importance of documentation. We take a look at the whole technology of producing Help and Documentation for tools and applications, and then review one particular product; EC Software's Help & Manua… Read more
If you would like to learn how to build and customize your very own Windows service to retrieve posts from multiple RSS feeds, and then store those posts in a SQL Server database, let John Papa guide you through his tutorial.… Read more
If you're a .NET developer, working with or without a database on the back-end, your world is about to change. The emergence of LINQ and SQLMetal technologies will mark a fundamental change to your development approach to collections, and provide a simpler, more consistent way of accessing your database. Steven McCabe provides what you need to get started.
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With only 24 hrs to go to the release of his brand new C# 2005 CRM application, Mike Bloise encountered severe memory leak issues. This case study describes how he solved them using ANTS Profiler.… Read more
Although FTP is commonly used to transfer files over the Internet, it's somewhat unfriendly to firewalls. Phil Wilson shows you how to create a BITS upload program using C#, which will transfer files over browser ports.… Read more
The business impact of varying page download time has not, until now, been defined. This article provides data that allows website owners to understand the business impact of their web application performance. … Read more
