Enum extensions

Sharing these Enum extension methods I wrote yesterday.

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace Nitin.Spike.EnumExtensions
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            const Colors someColor = Colors.Red;
            string description = someColor.Description();
            if (someColor.HasDescription())
            {
                if (someColor.HasDescription("indicates stop", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Works");
                }
            }
        }
    }
    public enum Colors
    {
        [Description("Indicates Stop")]
        Red,
        [Description("Indicates Nothing")]
        Blue,
        [Description("Indicates Go")]
        Green
    }
    public static class EnumExtensions
    {
        public static string Description(this Enum someEnum)
        {
            var memInfo = someEnum.GetType().GetMember(someEnum.ToString());

            if (memInfo != null && memInfo.Length > 0)
            {
                object[] attrs = memInfo[0].GetCustomAttributes(typeof(DescriptionAttribute),false);

                if (attrs != null && attrs.Length > 0)
                    return ((DescriptionAttribute)attrs[0]).Description;
            }
            return someEnum.ToString();
        }
        public static bool HasDescription(this Enum someEnum)
        {
            return !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(someEnum.Description());
        }
        public static bool HasDescription(this Enum someEnum, string expectedDescription)
        {
            return someEnum.Description().Equals(expectedDescription);
        }
        public static bool HasDescription(this Enum someEnum, string expectedDescription, StringComparison comparisionType)
        {
            return someEnum.Description().Equals(expectedDescription, comparisionType);
        }
    }
}

High Speed Internet

The first time I connected to internet was some 9 years back, I got my own internet connection around 8 years back, and at that point of time I used to get 56 Kbps speed, and today I have a 512 Kbps line.

Is this speed enough for me? Hell no.. why not? because even today I can’t watch my videos directly off the web. Although I can watch low quality videos online, but now I want HD quality. I wonder if I will ever be satisfied with my connection.

WPF Converter values

I posted this at stackoverflow : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3204422/wpf-corelating-multibindings-and-converters-values

The problem was how do you handle indexes when your converter value array is of large size. I thought over it and come up with this:

https://www.assembla.com/code/TechnologyAndMe/subversion/nodes/ConverterValues
(Download complete source using a SVN client from http://subversion.assembla.com/svn/TechnologyAndMe/ConverterValues/)

So now all you have to do is :

Here Prop1,Prop2,Prop3 are the actual values that you want to pass to the converter, Value1, Value2, Value3 are just ids for Properties below them. Now in the converter, just use my BoundValues class and accessing the properties become as easy as saying :

public object Convert(object[] values, Type targetType, object parameter, CultureInfo culture)
{
 var boundValues = new BoundValues(values);

 return string.Format("{0} {1} {2}", 
  boundValues["Value1"], boundValues["Value2"], boundValues["Value3"]);
}

Where BoundValues["Value1"] returns value of Prop1, so now I no longer have to worry about managing the sequence of bindings in my XAML.

Generic Singleton

****

What was I thinking, if I use any regular class here, it will not be singleton as you could always new() up an instance.

****
Once and for all, I am going to settle with this implementation of singleton.

https://www.assembla.com/code/TechnologyAndMe/subversion/nodes/Singleton
(Download complete source using a SVN client from http://subversion.assembla.com/svn/TechnologyAndMe/Singleton )

Singleton is now as easy as:
var instance = Singleton<SomeOtherClass>.Instance;

Agile Estimation

I have created this document describing how to estimate for agile projects :
http://docs.google.com/View?id=dm24bwn_37hkjw97ff

Please provide your feedback and you are more than welcome to contribute your ideas/experiences.

Downside of LINQ

 

1. Operators like Orderby are greedy, when used execution is no longer lazy.
2. You have to pay more attention to LINQ queries for remote data
3. If you use Count on LINQ query and also use the same query in foreach, then you end up iterating over the dataset twice.
4. no edit and continue support
   

Why should you use LINQ

What are the benefits of using LINQ?

• Lazy evaluation
• Parallel execution using PLINQ
• Abstraction – declarative – only tells what is required, not how to get it
• Because of extension methods – you can apply LINQ on anything
• Works with any LINQ provider