Software Geek

I just finished the Cross Platform.NET on Silverlight talk at DevWeek. Demos can be downloaded from http://www.interact-sw.co.uk/downloads/DevWeek2008XPlatDemos.zip

I’m all done at DevWeek for this year. But if you want to hear more about Silverlight, I’ll be teaching Pluralsight’s Applied Silverlight course in London later this month - running from 31st March. (And the following week I’ll be teaching our Applied WPF course, also in London.)

If a type can’t be loaded for some reason during a call to Module.GetTypes(), ReflectionTypeLoadException will be thrown. Assembly.GetTypes() also throws this because it calls Module.GetTypes().

The Message for this exception is “One or more exceptions have been thrown while loading the types” or “Unable to load one or more of the types in the assembly”, which doesn’t seem very descriptive. But, the exception actually provides more info that that. Just get the LoaderExceptions property of the ReflectionTypeLoadException instance. That will give an array of the exceptions caught while loading all of the types from the module. If the exceptions are due to an a

OK, another reason to hate computers.

1. Radio bites that it uses a crapy HTML interface to type in entries. I just lost another log entry because I accidentally doubled clicked a link on my desktop and POW!

2. I can’t convince my Linksys WAP11 router to let FTP (as a client) work. Still can’t quite understand this posting that should theoretically help.

3. My friend that is hosting my site to be can’t get Win2K’s server to actually allow a non-admin FTP only account to login through FTP… that’s useful.

Ugh…

Say you’ve just installed some assemblies from a third party and now you’re seeing a MissingMethodException, MissingFieldException, or TypeLoadException (during the run of an application using those assemblies). Below are the common causes.

Loading failures
First, check for assembly binding failures by getting the Fusion log. Look for the assembly containing that method/field/type or assemblies containing types referenced by it. If an assembly failed to load, use the instructions at the same link to help resolve that issue.

Unexpected assembly version loaded
But, if that’s not the problem, turn on the Fusion log for everything - not just failures - and check to see if the wrong version of those assemblies is being loaded. Look at the display names requested. Are any requesting outdated versions, even after policy has been applied (see further down in the log for the post-policy display name)? If so, you may want to recompile part of your app so that it has current references.

Loaded from unexpected path
If that doesn’t help, run filever.exe on the file at the path it was loaded from. You can get that from the loaded modules list in a debugger. It’s also the last path listed in the Fusion log, for a successful log (if it’s in the GAC, no path is listed). Make sure it is the same path as you would expect.

Not in this version of the assembly
Next, run ildasm.exe on the file at the path it was loaded from at runtime. Make sure that the method/field/type is there and is defined how you would expect it. Maybe the file has changed, adding or removing methods or the like, but the assembly version and location have stayed the same.

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ok… this may be against blog-ettiquete… Windows Media 9 released today… coolest player feature - the ability to have a minized player appear in your taskbar… I appologize in advance it the mention of this has offended, angered, or otherwise pissed you off… now, get over it!

And if Don likes it, it can’t be all bad.

A few months ago, Alex Barnett excitedly told me about a project he was working on with Pablo Castro , of the Microsoft SQL Server team. Like most things brilliant and game-changing, their invention is shockingly simple. As Alex explained it, project codename “Astoria ” would enable anyone to expose (and query/update) a SQL Server database, in the cloud, via a REST API…yup, simple URLs…over HTTP.

“Wait a second. Wait a second. Wait a second,” I said, shaking my head and playing for time to catch up and catch on as Alex sat there, his eyes alive with creative energy. “Are you telling me your program allows me to query and potentially update a database in the cloud as easily as I can now query one directly, using my query editor? And my queries will be expressed with something like http://foo/bar/blah… ?” He nodded, “Yes.”

I GET it. I can REST.

Several weeks after our initial meeting, Alex and I sat down with Pablo , Taylor , Dave , and Bob to discuss the possibility of using a snapshot of our beta social bookmarking solution, Microsoft.Community Tagspace , as a sample dataset for the unveiling of Astoria, at Mix07. On Monday, Pablo did just that.

Ooooh, I feel like the cat presenting its prey to its favorite humans on their back porch…

Click Here , for more information about Astoria, examples using a snapshot of the Tagspace store, links to documentation, downloads, videos and, other goodies. Alex rocks.

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Tagspace * is a social bookmarking service for software professionals** that encourages sound sleep and sweet dreams by enabling you to be better informed, better connected, and more productive. The more you use Tagspace, the more you’ll wonder how you survived for so long in the cramped quarters of your Web browser’s Favorites folder.

WARNING: TAGSPACE IS ADDICTIVE. REPEATED USAGE MAY CAUSE INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY.
*Tagspace has been shown to be effective in helping to prevent and reduce memory decay.
**No animals or software engineers were harmed in the making or testing of Tagspace.

For more information about Tagspace, see:

Screencast (direct stream): intro2tagspace.wvx Screencast (on MSN Soapbox): intro2tagspace.wmv Text Overview: Tagspace Beta Refresh Overview
Product Roadmap: Microsoft.Community Today and Tomorrow   (…because this is just the beginning.

Live Chat (Help Desk) ServerAdd Live Chat to your web site and Convert More Sales! Jerry Messenger is Jabber based, fully customizable solution for your site.www.j-LiveSupport.com

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Tagspace: In the News
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At Mix08 , several people asked me about the possibility of creating a single source base for both WPF and Silverlight.  The scenario folks had in mind was to provide a reach solution with Silverlight that hits *ALL* possible users while also offering a really rich solutions for some users on full WPF (.NET Framework 3.0 or 3.5). 

This is a clear benefit of the Microsoft Ux platform.. We have worked hard to get a smooth continuum between WPF and Silverlight… Basically if it works in Silverlight you should be pretty sure it will work on WPF. 

I was chatting David Anson (one of the developers of the Silverlight 2 controls) and he mentioned that the shipping versions of ListBox and ScrollViewer were written this way!   That is right, to test out the continuum message, David built ListBox and ScrollViewer for Silverlight in such a way that the run (and past unit tests) on both WPF and Silverlight.  

Now, in and of itself, this is not all that interesting, because WPF already has a ListBox and ScrollViewer, but it does serve as a nice test case to demonstrate how you can build controls and applications that work on both Silverlight and WPF. 

Because we shipped the source and unit tests for the Silverlight controls, you can check this out yourself ! 

In addition, David did a nice blog detailing the work he did and why and posted the test project you can try out as well. 

On a related note, be sure to check out the final step of ScottGu’s Silverlight 2 tutorial…  Notice how easy it is for him to make a WPF application out of it.

Profiles are an important part of the upcoming Java EE 6 platform. This blog entry discusses the subject at great length as well as its current state, all by a current member of this expert group.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techtarget/tsscom/blogs/~3/240130039/thread.tss

Following the same theme as the Java IDE shootout held in Germany in 2007, a new event will be held in Italy this year showcasing the latest advancements in Java IDE’s. This post presents a summary of the event.

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techtarget/tsscom/blogs/~3/244457031/thread.tss