Christmas Trees in WPF, 2016 Edition
Last year, I wrote about making Christmas Trees in WPF using FSharp.ViewModule.  At the time, I was excited being able to demonstrate how FSharp.ViewModule could make typical MVVM much more functional feeling.  This year, for my F# Advent Calendar contribution, I want to demonstrate how Gjallarhorn.Binding can serve as a replacement, and help create a WPF application with a design that is clean, functional, and most importantly, simple.
This post will modernize the Christmas Tree application from last year, improving it, and highlighting the differences between a classic MVVM approach to WPF and a more functional approach.  While reading through the post from last year would add context, it’s completely optional.
Christmas Trees in WPF using FSharp.ViewModule
As my contribution to the F# Advent Calendar this year, I thought I’d write a bit about one approach I often use to create WPF user interfaces in a functional style – mixing MailboxProcessor with FSharp.ViewModule.
This post will illustrate using a pair of MailboxProcessor instances mixed with FSharp.ViewModule to construct a simple application.  In the spirit of F# Advent, our application will be a small drawing application that allows us to place and decorate Christmas trees.
Slides and Code from “Using C#’s Async Effectively”
The slides and code from my talk on the new async language features in C# and VB.Net are now available on https://github.com/ReedCopsey/Effective-Async
Performance and Optimization Isn’t Evil
Donald Knuth is a fairly amazing guy. I consider him one of the most influential contributors to computer science of all time. Unfortunately, most of the time I hear his name, I cringe. This is because it’s typically somebody quoting a small portion of one of his famous statements on optimization: “premature optimization is the root of all evil.â€
I mention that this is only a portion of the entire quote, and, as such, I feel that Knuth is being quoted out of context. Optimization is important. It is a critical part of every software development effort, and should never be ignored. A developer who ignores optimization is not a professional. Every developer should understand optimization – know what to optimize, when to optimize it, and how to think about code in a way that is intelligent and productive from day one. Read more
C# Performance Pitfall – Interop Scenarios Change the Rules
C# and .NET, overall, really do have fantastic performance in my opinion. That being said, the performance characteristics dramatically differ from native programming, and take some relearning if you’re used to doing performance optimization in most other languages, especially C, C++, and similar. However, there are times when revisiting tricks learned in native code play a critical role in performance optimization in C#.
I recently ran across a nasty scenario that illustrated to me how dangerous following any fixed rules for optimization can be…
Async CTP Refresh for Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Released
The Visual Studio team today released an update to the Visual Studio Async CTP which allows it to be used with Visual Studio SP1. This new CTP includes some very nice new additions over the previous CTP. The main highlights of this release include:
- Compatibility with Visual Studio SP1
- APIs for Windows Phone 7
- Compatibility with non-English installations
- Compatibility with Visual Studio Express Edition
- More efficient Async methods due to a change in the API
- Numerous bug fixes
- New EULA which allows distribution in production environments
Anybody using the Async CTP should consider upgrading to the new version immediately. For details, visit the Visual Studio Asynchronous Programming page on MSDN.
ConcurrentDictionary<TKey,TValue> used with Lazy<T>
In a recent thread on the MSDN forum for the TPL, Stephen Toub suggested mixing ConcurrentDictionary<T,U> with Lazy<T>. This provides a fantastic model for creating a thread safe dictionary of values where the construction of the value type is expensive. This is an incredibly useful pattern for many operations, such as value caches.
C# 5 Async, Part 3: Preparing Existing code For Await
While the Visual Studio Async CTP provides a fantastic model for asynchronous programming, it requires code to be implemented in terms of Task and Task<T>. The CTP adds support for Task-based asynchrony to the .NET Framework methods, and promises to have these implemented directly in the framework in the future. However, existing code outside the framework will need to be converted to using the Task class prior to being usable via the CTP.
C# 5 Async, Part 2: Asynchrony Today
The .NET Framework has always supported asynchronous operations. However, different mechanisms for supporting exist throughout the framework. While there are at least three separate asynchronous patterns used through the framework, only the latest is directly usable with the new Visual Studio Async CTP. Before delving into details on the new features, I will talk about existing asynchronous code, and demonstrate how to adapt it for use with the new pattern.
C# 5 Async, Part 1: Simplifying Asynchrony – That for which we await
Today’s announcement at PDC of the future directions C# is taking excite me greatly. The new Visual Studio Async CTP is amazing. Asynchronous code – code which frustrates and demoralizes even the most advanced of developers, is taking a huge leap forward in terms of usability. This is handled by building on the Task functionality in .NET 4, as well as the addition of two new keywords being added to the C# language: async and await.
