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…

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About Big-O Notation – The good, the bad, and the confusing

Often, prior to using a specific algorithm, it helps to understand information about how the algorithm scales.  In order to document this, computer science has borrowed a notation from mathematics called Big-O notation.

Understanding Big-O notation is critical in making good decisions about algorithms or libraries used to implement routines.  However, there is often a lot of misunderstanding about what it means, and I frequently see this used as justifications for poor decisions.

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Visual Studio 2010 Beta

Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2010 Beta to the public at large.  Now we just have to wait for the final release…