C++ has deterministic finalization. When you declare a stack-based object, at the end of the scope, the destructor is called before other work is done. I just finished writing a response on this topic for a customer, and thought I'd share my favorite reference on the subject with you:...

Comcast is planning on raising its maximum download speed to 3Mbps. Hope it happens in my neck of the woods...

I've had a couple of questions recently about how to architecture libraries with respect to exception handling, specifically related to exception granualarity. Questions like: Is is okay to define an exception with a return code inside of it? How many exception classes should I have? The first place to start is the Error Raising and Handling...

Apparently, I'm "on the Cluetrain", though strangely, I don't recall boarding, or even buying a ticket. There are some interesting points here, and I do think that VS has focused mostly on the "edit and build" side of software development, without taking a larger view. Will that change in Whidbey? I think you'll have to wait and see.

On Tuesday, I asked a question about whether people keep their form class names and form filenames in sync. I'd like to thank all who responded, and provide a little background on the issue. To do that, I'll have to explain a bit about our internal development a process. Many of you have probably encountered the problem of "feature creep", where...

I'm working on resolving an issue, and the way that we decide depends upon the prevalence of a specific scenario. I'd like to know your opinion on the following Windows Forms scenario. How often do you rename the form class without renaming the file that holds the form class? ie how often do you change "class EmployeeForm" to "class AddressForm"...

With PDC coming up, there have been lots of Microsoft entries about what makes a good presentation, and I'd like to throw my 35 cents into the discussion. Here are three things I like to keep in mind. Why is always more important than what Technical people are smart and used to figuring out things on their own. They can figure out the C# property...

C# Pro is coming soon from Informat

You drive into work in the morning, and as you drive around the garage, you see some green objects blocking a stall at the other end of a row of cars. Your first thought is, "Cool! Health!" (They were egg crates, but the color match was pretty close)

I needed a splash screen for my music player app. I tried a couple of ideas that didn't work very well, but then I hit on the idea of using the image of a CD as the background of the splash screen - and doing a non-rectangular window. I'll start with the splash screen... Conceptually, a splash screen is pretty simple - it's just a form that...

I have a couple of recommendations to make, from my experience buying a used BMW 328i The first is for my broker, Darrel Kempf. Darrel ended up owning a very small car lot (4 cars) when he bought some property a number of years ago, and that somehow turned into a business selling, renting, and brokering cars. Darrel was recommended to us by a...

Part IV of Anders' interview is up.

Thanks for all your comments. On the basis of those comments, we've decided not to change the current behavior. There are two things I'd like to bring out. First, thanks to Jacob for mentioning that you can set the default behavior. One of the problems we have with VS is that there is lots of functionality that people don't know about. I've added...

I've been home sick today, so I didn't get to post this until now. Today is "Talk like a Pirate" day

Today, I accidentally figured out that the "off" button on my XBox isn't just an off button. It's also an on button, and it's one that doesn't eject the disc first, so you don't have to wait for the tray to come out and push it back in.