Saar Carmi

Team System - how to get tf.exe install folder ?

saarc — Mon, 20 Mar 2006 06:48:00 GMT

You can find tf.exe under Visual Studio IDE folder, which is specified under the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\VisualStudio\8.0

value name: InstallDir

So far it seems that the install dir is written to the registry even if only the TFC is installed.

Calling from .Net 1.1 to .Net 2.0

saarc — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 19:49:00 GMT

A process cannot load both .net frameworks 1.1 & 2.0.

Therefore, to call 2.0 object from a 1.1 object, you must have a cross process call. One of the ways (but not the only) to do so, is to host the 2.0 object within COM+ process and expose it as a COM object. To do so, your object must derive Serviced Component and be marked as ComVisible.

Here is a simple example.

Save this as SimpleClient.cs

using System;
using System.Reflection;

public class SimpleClient
{
public static void Main()
{
  Type t = Type.GetTypeFromProgID ("MyObject");
  System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert (t != null);

  object o = Activator.CreateInstance(t);
  Console.WriteLine (Environment.Version.ToString());
  t.InvokeMember ("Increment", BindingFlags.InvokeMethod | BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance, null, o, new object[0]);

}
}

Save this as MyObject.cs

using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.EnterpriseServices;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;

[assembly: ApplicationActivationAttribute(ActivationOption.Server)]
[assembly: ApplicationName ("MyObject")]
[assembly: AssemblyVersion("1.0.0.0")]
[assembly: ApplicationAccessControl(false)]

[System.Runtime.InteropServices.ComVisible (true)]
[Guid("65D66FCF-997E-4737-896D-60EEC0AF0E88")]
public class MyObject : ServicedComponent
{
public void Increment ()
{

System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("COM CALL - " + Environment.Version.ToString());
}
}

Create an snk file using the command "sn -k snk.snk"

Complie & register both source files with the following command lines:

"c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\csc" SimpleClient.cs
"c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\csc" /t:library MyObject.cs /keyfile:snk.snk
"c:\WINDOWS\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\regsvcs" MyObject.dll

Decimal Percision - short code, strange problem

saarc — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:37:00 GMT

http://groups.google.com/group/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/browse_frm/thread/867f655285c0e04d/8a59fb7d2904c775?tvc=1&q=saar+decimal#8a59fb7d2904c775Could anyone help me to understand why in the following code sum1 is different from sum2?
Basically it's the same calculation done. Keep in mind the x is 28 digits so it's within the range of decimal.

decimal x = (-0.0084682975822291150192357277M);
decimal sum1 , sum2;

sum2 = (3500.91M * x) + (x * 3500M + 822m);
sum1 = (3500.91M * x) + (x * 3500M) + 822m;

Console.WriteLine (sum1);
Console.WriteLine (sum2);

------------

Well, the reason is that the decimal type precision s not 28 right to the decimal digit, but 28 digits overall. Thanks for those who answered.

Singletons and inheritance

saarc — Mon, 06 Feb 2006 17:31:00 GMT

Jon Skeet posted an example of Singletons and inheritance.

What do you think about this generic singleton solution? This way you dont have to update the factory method with each subclass creation. It would be neater if the new generics' constraint would support parameters, but you can overcome it with abstract method CreateInstance which returns T.

abstract class DataProvider<T> where T: new()
{
private static T mInstance = new T();

        public T Instance
        {
            get
            {
                return mInstance;
            }
        }

public abstract void Connect();
}

    class Oracle : DataProvider<Oracle>
    {
        public override void Connect()
        {
            Console.WriteLine ("Connecting to Oracle");
        }
    }

    class SqlServer : DataProvider<Oracle>
    {
        public override void Connect()
        {
            Console.WriteLine ("Connecting to Sql Server");
        }
    }

MHO about ANTS

saarc — Fri, 29 Jul 2005 14:35:00 GMT

I have been using ANTS profiler for a while.
There are 3 bullets I must say.

1. I find the new interface very inconvenite:
In the hierarchy view, the windows of the called methods and caller methods
should be placed one above the other and not side by side to allow better
view of methods with long names.

2. The source view must have a Reload button. If you switch to source view
and the ANTS cannot find the source code file, it shows a File Open dialog.
If you accidently press Esc, the is no way to get back to this dialog, unless you
restart ANTS.

3. If A calls C and B calls C, when you look in the hierarchy window for methods A calls,
you see the full cost of C (i.e. calls from A and from C). Why do you have
to switch to source code window to see the specific cost of calling C from A?

Late bound event registration via reflection

saarc — Wed, 23 Feb 2005 18:40:00 GMT

I was asked how to register to an event via reflection.

It is described here

Reactivating the IntelliSense (Code Completion) - after using Resharper

saarc — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 12:36:00 GMT

Reactivating the IntelliSense (Code Completion) after disabling Resharper

I recently installed the Resharper trail version.
When the trail version expires and does not complete the code statement, Visual Studio 2003 does not automatically shows the code completion options instead.

To reactivate the code completion – go to:
Tools mean -> Options -> Text Editor -> C#

and check the first three checkboxes on the right pane.

Server GC configuration

saarc — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 08:27:00 GMT

In .Net Framework 1.1 SP1, the server GC is supported for any type of application by setting the

setting in the applications configuration file

In 1.1 only ASP.NET and COM+ application used the Server GC by default. (on multi processors machines).

In 1.1 SP1, you can use the gcserver flag.

It is NOT recommended nor supported to implement your own host.

Regsvcs error - "Insufficient state to deserialize the object. More information is needed"

saarc — Mon, 14 Feb 2005 11:03:00 GMT

While you run Regsvcs you might get a message saying:

An unknown exception occurred during installation:

1: System.Runtime.Serialization.SerializationException - Insufficient state to deserialize the object. More information is needed.

This might occur because the assembly you are trying to register references another assembly that is missing (could be a versioning problem)

You can use Fusion Log Viewer to determine which assembly is missing.

---

You can also get this message in other situations which are not related to Regsvcs.

Determine whether someone is registered on event

saarc — Wed, 22 Dec 2004 14:01:00 GMT

A friend of mine asked me how would he determine whether a someone is registered on event of a another class.

If you want to check it from inside the class that defines the event, that's pretty easy - just check if the event field is not null.

But, if you want to do it from out side (without having the option to recompile the class that publishes the event), the C# compiler does not let you compile that code. The only way I found to do it, is by using Reflection

Pay attention this is BAD CODING - you are not allowed to access private fields of other classes.

<code>
using System;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Windows.Forms;

public class A
{
public event EventHandler MyEvent;
public void AB()
{
if (MyEvent!= null) //compiles
{}
}

}

public class B
{
public static void MyEventHandler (object source, EventArgs args)
{}
public static void Main()
{
  A a = new A();
  //if (MyEvent!= null) //compilation error
{}

  IsRegistered (a);

  a.MyEvent += new EventHandler (MyEventHandler);
  IsRegistered (a);
}

private static void IsRegistered (A a)
{
  Type t = a.GetType();
  FieldInfo fld =t.GetField ("MyEvent", BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance);
  System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert (fld != null);

  Object o = fld.GetValue (a);
  System.Diagnostics.Debug.Assert (o != null);

  EventHandler eh = (EventHandler)o;
  if (eh == null)
  {
   Console.WriteLine ("no one is registerd");
  }
  else
  {
   Console.WriteLine ("still registered");
  }
}
}

<code>

Setting IIS to support Windows Authentication and Content Expiration by code

saarc — Mon, 29 Nov 2004 07:32:00 GMT

I was wondering how to set the IIS virtual directory to Windows Authentication during the application install time.

Well, here is the code snip.

Using System.DirectoryServices;

const int MD_AUTH_NT = 0x00000004; //Windows authentication schemes available.

DirectoryEntry folderRoot = new DirectoryEntry("IIS://localhost/W3SVC/1/Root/" + virutalDirecty);

folderRoot.RefreshCache();

folderRoot.Properties["AuthFlags"].Value = MD_AUTH_NT; //Windows authentication

folderRoot.Properties["HttpExpires"].Value = "D, 86400"; //Content expiration after 1 day

folderRoot.CommitChanges();

}

ReaderWriterLock - Acquire lock with infinite timeout

saarc — Tue, 19 Oct 2004 05:50:00 GMT

The documantion of the methods AcquireReaderLock and AcquireWriteLock do not include information about how to get infinite timeout.

The information is available in the class's documentation.

Anyway, you can use the value Timeout.Infinite (== -1) for infinite timeout.

Binary Serialization of DataSets in .Net Framework 2.0

saarc — Mon, 20 Sep 2004 08:52:00 GMT

I read Dino Esposito's article about Binary Serialization of DataSets In ADO.NET 2.0.

DataSet serialization is a real pain in the .Net Framework 1.1.

I made a test to check the size and time it take to serialize a DataSet.
The test included memory serialization of the a DataSet with one table and 20,000 rows.

I tested the serialization with inserted rows.

The tests used BinaryFormatter and was run on framework version 2.0.40607.85.

Here are the results:

.Net framework 1.1
5,220,304 bytes , about 14.3 seconds

.Net framework 2.0 with RemotingFormatter = SerializationFormat.Xml :
5,800,442 bytes , about 13 seconds

.Net framework 2.0 with RemotingFormatter = SerializationFormat.Binary :
1,727,292 bytes , about 1 minutes and 18 seconds

------

It seems that SerializationFormat indeed saves network traffic, but the problem is that it take too much time to create the serialization stream. There was no real performance change with unchanged rows (after calling to AcceptChanges).

Do I miss anything?

Here is the test code:

using System;

using System.Data;

using System.IO;

using System.Runtime.Serialization;

using System.Runtime.Serialization.Formatters.Binary;

class Class1

{

[STAThread]

static void Main(string[] args)

{

//Create a dataset with a scheme

DataSet ds = new DataSet();

DataTable tbl = ds.Tables.Add ("tbl");

tbl.Columns.Add ("a", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("b", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("c", typeof(string));

tbl.Columns.Add ("d", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("e", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("f", typeof(string));

tbl.Columns.Add ("g", typeof(Byte));

tbl.Columns.Add ("y", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("i", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("j", typeof(string));

tbl.Columns.Add ("k", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("l", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("m", typeof(string));

tbl.Columns.Add ("n", typeof(int));

tbl.Columns.Add ("o", typeof(string));

tbl.Columns.Add ("p", typeof(DateTime));

tbl.Columns.Add ("q", typeof(DateTime));

ds.RemotingFormat = SerializationFormat.Xml;

//Load rows into dataset

for (int i = 0; i < 20000; i++)

{

ds.Tables["tbl"].Rows.Add (new object[] {

0,1,"a",2,3,"ab",4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,"abcd",DateTime.Now,DateTime.Now});

}

MemoryStream ms;

BinaryFormatter bf = new BinaryFormatter();

//Record the start time

DateTime s = DateTime.Now;

for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)

{

//Serialize the dataset into memory

using (ms = new MemoryStream())

{

bf.Serialize (ms, ds);

Console.WriteLine (ms.Position);

}

//Record the end time

DateTime e = DateTime.Now;

Console.WriteLine (e-s);

Console.WriteLine (System.Environment.Version.ToString());

}

Microsoft .Net on the Beach

saarc — Wed, 08 Sep 2004 18:28:00 GMT

Microsoft Israel is having another .Net event.

I'll be there.

GetCurrentProcess - Performance Issue

saarc — Sun, 05 Sep 2004 15:27:00 GMT

I used the following code line to get the process name. (Our application calls that line once in each execution).
System.Diagnostics.Process.GetCurrentProcess().ProcessName

Out client installed the application on two machines:
This first one is Compaq dual process. It takes about 0.3 seconds to run that line.

The other machine is a 4 CPU partition of Unisys machine. On that machine it takes between 1 to 50 seconds to execute that code.

I could find what causes that difference.