programing bananas

Filtering server-side

2010-09-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Here comes the server-side filtering. It translates the JSON model from the previous article in a server-side expression tree. Here's the link:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/cs/json-filtering2.aspx

Filtering client-side

2010-09-09T12:29:00.000-07:00

I have a new job, so I have some new projects. The base application coded here is a database administration application with a web interface. A kind of ORM that allows the user to add and edit entities from the web.

Given my background, the first idea that came to my mind is how well it would map the whole thing on NHibernate (http://www.nhforge.org/). With a simple dynamic administration section generated over the NHibernate mappings. Everything would be really easy. This will require setting some filtration in an easy to use web UI.

As this is a great story to publish, I've decided to write it on a public platform. Hope you all enjoy it:

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/scripting/json-filtering.aspx

New Visual Studio out, but old one sucks

2010-04-13T06:39:00.000-07:00

Sometimes using VS as a development medium is a really bad decision:

Lets say that we have an application like a map, with tons of images in some folder. When you open such an application, the VS will index all the images, and it does it in the nastiest way possible. The pc is trying to cope with that amount of information and it freezes for some tens of seconds. I would have thought that being a developer at Microsoft one would learn about background loading, but NO!

So, good luck Microsoft with the new VS (launched yesterday), because the current one, surely sucks!

Development and estimation

2010-03-22T02:30:00.000-07:00

In programming, a good developer is not necessarily a good coder but an organized one. So estimations are really important in this business; a good estimation is the difference between a happy client and an angry one. I usually use a simple rule: the quickest time multiplied by 2; also I know people who multiply it by 1.5 or use the medium time and add some days to it.

And here comes the Murphy's law: no matter how many estimations you give (and how accurate they will be) all the projects will be started on the same day.

... and last week I gave 4 estimations :)

Facebook photo tagging

2010-03-17T02:19:00.000-07:00

Photo tagging is this simple! Doing it involves less code that I ever imagined - luckily there is jquery to help - and it really adds complexity and usability to a website.

See more info here and here.

And a sample:

There is a new CAPTCHA in town

2010-03-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

Introducing the new CAPTCHA application: AdCaptcher.

Theory: this could be a smart move for your website: now we don't loose users over that nasty CAPTCHA image. Now we can have some beautiful images instead.

Practice: wasn't CAPTCHA meant to be difficult to read? For a bot at least. Isn't it easier to loose the CAPTCHA in first place? Apparently not! Well, I guess if you build a better bot the solution is to get an idiot CAPTCHA. Better than nothing.

Be safe, use CAPTCHA!

Extensie pt Chrome - Calendar Ortodox

2010-02-14T10:21:00.000-08:00

Prima mea extensie pt Chrome este un calendar ortodox. Si nici nu a fost prea complicat; oricine cu ceva cunostiinte de html si javascript se poate descurca de minune. Am folosit jquery ca sa pastrez codul cat mai simplu de citit :) si evident, un pic de studiu mai intai; si aici nu ma refer la site-ul celor de la google, ci la extensiile deja instalate pe calculatorul meu; se gasesc la "C:\Documents and Settings\stefan\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Extensions" in cazul meu.

Pentru cei interesati, iata si adresa extensiei: https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/ddfjjoicgpclomekkhjjklfonmcpfekc Astept pareri si/sau sfaturi.

Application Pool Recycle - Bug or Feature

2009-12-20T23:37:00.000-08:00

Recently I solved a strange bug in our CMS application. We load our domain at Init time – using some xml. So, the first time the app run, it run perfectly; but after recycle, some assemblies could not be found in the AppDomain. I did some googling and I found this link: http://www.chrisvandesteeg.nl/2006/06/15/appdomain-recycle-different-from-real-restart/

It seems that IIS does not load the assemblies that aren’t used in a previous session. This is an undocumented optimization “feature” that cannot be turned off. For the moment I’ll check it as a feature, but I guess, as more and more people start using dependency injection, this will become surely a bug. :)

The domain

2009-10-31T01:22:00.000-07:00

So I've set the environment. It's time to set the work model. Because I like monkeys and monkeys love bananas, I will start from the banana entity. Bananas are fruits and usually fruits stay in trees. So here's my model. Of course, I have to keep my data in a db, so all my entities must have Ids:


public enum FruitType {
    Banana,
    Mango,
    Orange
}

public class Fruit {
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public FruitType Type { get; set; }
 
    public int TreeId { get; set; }

    public Tree Tree { get; set; }
}

public class Tree {
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public IList<Fruit> Fruits { get; set; }
 
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

So this is my domain from now on. I have a simple enum and two entities in a one to many relationship. Simple enough!

Monkey ingredients - how to create a programming blog

2009-10-18T02:37:00.000-07:00

This should be a programming post but I know how hard is to set up the blog enviroment even for a programmer. So I choose to present the steps I took to create this blog.

After creating the blog and choosing a nice template for it, I had to add the syntax highlighting javascript. I usually use the one by Alex Gorbatchev. It's really simple, here you can find a sample how to configure and use it with Blogger: http://mlawire.blogspot.com/2009/07/blogger-syntax-highlighting.html

Make sure put the script in the <pre class="brush:js"> tag. And make sure that the <pre> tag has the correct class. Here is a list of the corresponding classes for each programming language. Olso make sure that you chage the < with < and > with >.

That's all.

My first programming blog

2009-10-16T01:41:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Andrei Ignat, here goes my first attempt to have a programming blog.