I got today back on an old controls assembly.  I am using DevExpress controls for more than a year.  But there are still some forms using my old control library.  It would have been a mess cleaning up this old directory, until i realized that this could be done very easily using NDepend.

I loaded the assemblies and used the dependency matrix to find out where the controls are used.

Especially the “Remove Empty… Rows and columns”   gave me a quick overview of controls which still where used on some forms and should have been replaced by other ones.

Furtermore i looked – just for fun – at the “abstractness versus instability” graph created by NDepend.  I took a screenshot:

As you can see, it ain’t looking good.  When i started developing this application, i never heard of abstractions and instability was my middlename. Well… None of my assemblies are in “zone of uselessness” (upper right corner), but i know the “zone of pain” very well.

The numbers aren’t lying:

Application Metrics

Number of IL instructions: 1006520
Number of lines of code: 121799
Number of lines of comment: 22251
Percentage comment: 15
Number of assemblies: 11
Number of classes: 849
Number of types: 896
Number of abstract classes: 2
Number of interfaces: 10
Number of value types: 4
Number of exception classes: 0
Number of attribute classes: 0
Number of delegate classes: 0
Number of enumerations classes: 33
Number of generic type definitions: 36
Number of generic method definitions: 5
Percentage of public types: 86,27%
Percentage of public methods: 80,31%
Percentage of classes with at least one public field: 2,23%

I know i can do better  :-)

Problem

I set a breakpoint and my debugger is not stopping at the breakpoint.  Debug is configured in the Web.Config:

<compilation debug="true">
    <assemblies>

My assembly is compliled in Debug mode:

Solution

The last thing to check is of cource the Project Properties. 

Go to the tab “Web”, just below Signing.

You will see at the bottom a section Debuggers.

Activate the ASP.NET checkbox and your breakpoints will halt your running code again.

Microsoft support can be found here for some common problems: INFO Common Error When you Debug ASP.Net Applications in Visual Studio .NET and especially here: PRB: Visual Studio .NET Debugger Does Not Stop on Breakpoints When You Debug ASP.NET Pages

Frameworks are THE way to develop web sites today.  In the PHP world there are several alternatives.

Today I received an error on the (new?) web site of Azur.be. 

Apparently they are using Symfony.  I didn't knew it so I looked it up.

Symphony provides an architecture, components and tools for developers to build complex web applications faster. Choosing symfony allows you to release your applications earlier, host and scale them without problem, and maintain them over time with no surprise.

Sounds a lot like a framework I am using a lot lately.  :-)

I know people die.  That is the way of live when you are old.
But life can be cruel. 

There are no words when thing like this happen. Therefore I dedicate this (short) blog post to Patrick Tisseghem (+ 3 september 2008). 

I wish lots of strenght to his family, friend and co-workers.  

I was surfing today and I noticed that some web sites of big companies where using .Net.
This doesn't mean that .Net is there main technology, but the extension is at least used in the URL...

McAfee

They use it in the FAQ's... here

Fabricom GTI (Suez)

At their main page: http://www.fabricom-gti.com

Dell

At their main site...  http://www.dell.com

Yahoo

Probably they are not really using .Net, but it is a .Net file on there domain anyway...
On this survey link: http://surveylink.yahoo.com/wix/p0473306.aspx

Defragment from time to time your disk.

(22% free space)

Problem

When i clicked on the properties of the Database, I got this error on 2 of my Microsoft SQL Server 2005 databases.

TITLE: Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

Cannot show requested dialog.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

Cannot show requested dialog. (SqlMgmt)

Property Owner is not available for Database '[myDatabaseName]'. This property may not exist for this object, or may not be retrievable due to insufficient access rights.  (Microsoft.SqlServer.Smo)

For help, click: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink?ProdName=Microsoft+SQL+Server&ProdVer=9.00.3042.00&EvtSrc=Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.Smo.ExceptionTemplates.PropertyCannotBeRetrievedExceptionText&EvtID=Owner&LinkId=20476

Cause

I have restored this databases in the past from other server's backup, and my original login is apparerently not available on target server.

Solution

You can fix it with 'sp_changedbowner sa'.

update:
I removed '2005' the subject of this post because you can have this error message on the Newer SQL Server 2008 also.

update 2:
The syntaxt to use in SQL Server Management Studio is:

use myDBName
EXEC sp_changedbowner 'sa'

A few days ago I received my NDepend license. 

What is NDepend

On their web site (http://www.ndepend.com), it states that :

NDepend is a tool that simplifies managing a complex .NET code base.

So in other words, (also on the web site)

Architects and developers can analyze code structure, specify design rules, plan massive refactoring, do effective code reviews and master evolution by comparing different versions of the code.

Out of my experience, I know - I really know - that bad designed software is a nightmare to maintain.  Worsted of all is that most of the time is it horribly coded and badly documented.  I've done seen in the past, and I am still struggling today.  It's easy to guess where the problems are, or how you could make the application better.  Because guessing is most of the time not the proven to be good, scientists created something like "metrics". 

Metrics measure your software, code base or even your software design.  NDepend uses these metrics and also the dependencies between your assemblies to tell you more about your application.

More about NDepend later!

Everyone knows that I am a "defragmentation-tool user".  Yes, I defragment my drives regularly.  And yes, I am convinced that it helps to keep my PC up and running.  (No, I do not want to reinstall my PC every few months.)

You should definitely check out the new tool from Piriform (the company that created CCleaner and Recuva...), it is called Defraggler!

It doesn't seem the fastest tool on the market, but it has a nice features.

E.g.  You can defragment a file or all files in a Folder.  How cool is that?  I always wondered if deframentation of one file would speed up its loading time.  Or image you have a folder with files that are regularly updated, you might be interested in defragmenting this folder, but leaving the rest of your disk alone.  Of course you can defragment your freespace too.

Altough it is a release candidate, it seems a very decent and stable tool.  And the best of all, it is free for personal and corporate use.  (yes, defragmentaion runs on Windows Server 2003) . 

Hooray!

I know that IT people and programmers struggle searching fonts with a zero (0) that differs from a 'o' (or O).  Very handy to show license key's with 0 (zeroes).

What would you think of this font?

The Raize Font is a clean, crisp, fixed-pitched sans serif screen font that is much easier to read than the fixed pitched fonts that come with Windows. Ideally suited for programming, scripting, html writing, etc., the Raize Font can be used in any IDE or text editor.

Oh by the way, it's free!

http://www.raize.com/DevTools/Tools/RzFont.asp