Frederic Torres Blog

Customizing an ASP.NET MVC app with a dynamic language

2012-01-02T21:36:00.001-05:00

Overview
I like to configure and extend application or service written in C# by using a dynamic language. This form of architecture allows to create customizable application, and the customization is simple, immediate and clean.

Goal
In this post I am going to show how to build customizable ASP.NET MVC application and the nice syntax obtained.
This is just a prototype to showcase my idea.

In my project I created a folder Dictionary, which contains Python and PowerShell files. For now we will focus on the Python files.

The file App.py contains one Python dictionary with 2 entries. As you may reconized this file is also JSON compatible and even if you do not know Python, it is easy to read and understand.

Dic = {

    "ApplicationTitle"   : "My Customized App Title",
    "ApplicationVersion" : 1.2
}

In my view, I reference the entries this way.

    AppTitle:@ViewBag.ApplicationTitle 
AppVersion:@ViewBag.ApplicationVersion

In my C# controler the only change is the base class.

public class HomeController : Dynamic4MVC.ControllerExtended {

}

So far the App.py file is just a static configuration file.

I added a new entrie named SupportedDays. This entry is a list of string and it is initialized by invoking the function GetSupportedDays(). Now that's where using a dynamic language versus an XML file becomes interesting, because we can execute code to initialize data, when the Python file is loaded.

def GetSupportedDays():
    return ["Monday", "Wednesday", "Friday"]

Dic = {

    "ApplicationTitle"   : "My Customized App Title",
    "ApplicationVersion" : 1.2,
    "SupportedDays"      : GetSupportedDays()    
}

In my view, I reference the entry SupportedDays this way.

SupportedDays:
    @foreach (var d in ViewBag.SupportedDays) {
        @: @d,
    }

We can go a little bit further, by implementing our own class, instantiating objects and invoke methods. The method ToString() will be automatically invoked by the Razor engine.

class User(object):

    def __init__(self, userName):
        self.UserName = userName

    def ToString(self):
        return "user:%s" % self.UserName

Dic = {
    "Users" : [ 
           User("FTorres"), 
           User("RDescartes")
    ]
}

In my view, I reference the entry Users this way.

@foreach (var u in ViewBag.Users) {
        @: User:@u
}

Conclusion
At this point we can build a nice DSL (Martin Fowler called them Internal DSL) dedicated to the customization of the application.

Python syntax is clean and succinct, and IronPython being a .NET language, there is no integration problem and it is fast. Mixing C# 4.0 and IronPython, is easy and very powerful. It is possible to do it with .NET C# 2.0/3.5 with a little bit more difficulties.

JavaScript is also a possibilty with the Jurassic runtime which is slow compared to the JavaScript runtime in Chrome or IE9, though speed is not really a problem here.

Mixing C# and PowerShell v 2 is easy, but the API is kind of ugly and cannot leverage the dynamic feature of C# 4.0 out of the box, like with IronPython. I had to write some internal wrapper described in my post Running PowerShell from C# with a hint of dynamic. With PowerShell v 3, the problem should be solved.

Depending of your type of application, you may have to cache the dictionary in the Session object, the Application object or your mem cache, because loading and evaluating IronPython or PowerShell code is slow.

Obviously, those who hate dynamic languages will find this post awful. A more valid question is to ask is: Is it reasonable to ship on a product machine code in a text file?

To this question I generally find more Pros than Cons. That's just me.

The source code is on github at DynamicCsToPowerShell-Library

Running PowerShell from C# with a hint of dynamic

2011-12-30T22:42:00.019-05:00

This is an adaptation of my post Running JavaScript from C# with a hint of dynamic using PowerShell.

Here is a sample using the default api, to execute a powershell code snippet and then access a global variable defined in the PowerShell world from C#.

var script = @" $i1 = 123 ";            
var ps = PowerShell.Create();
ps.AddScript(script);
ps.Invoke();            

int i1 = (int)ps.Runspace.SessionStateProxy.GetVariable("i1");

Assert.AreEqual(123, i1);

What bother me the most is the line 6. Here is the same code using the library DynamicCsToPowerShell.

var script = @" $i1 = 123 ";

var dpsc = DynamicPowerShellContext.Create().Run(script);

int i1 = dpsc.i1;

Assert.AreEqual(123, i1);

Now compare line 6 from code snippet 1 and line 5 of code snippet 2. The goal of the library DynamicCsToPowerShell is to provide this kind of syntax.

Loading A Configuration File Defined With PowerShell
Here is a script that implements a .NET hashtable in PowerShell. This can be viewed as a simple configuration file.

# An Hashtable in PowerShell
$Dic = @{

    a = 1
    b = 2
    c = 3
}

Here is how to load, access and use the hashtable.

[TestMethod]
public void Dictionary_IntLoadFromFile() {
            
    var ps1ConfigFile = @"..\IntDictionary.ps1";
    var dpsc          = DynamicPowerShellContext.Create();
    dpsc.LoadFile(ps1ConfigFile).Run();

    Assert.AreEqual(3, dpsc.Dic.Count);

    Assert.AreEqual(1, dpsc.Dic["a"]);
    Assert.AreEqual(2, dpsc.Dic["b"]);
    Assert.AreEqual(3, dpsc.Dic["c"]);

    Assert.AreEqual(6, dpsc.Dic["a"] + dpsc.Dic["b"] + dpsc.Dic["c"]);
}

First accessing the hashtable's elements is direct. But we can also execute operations on the elements without having to cast to the right type as shown in line 14.
Obviously we are in the world of Dynamic Languages, so if you have a type mismatch, this will give a run time error.

DynamicCsToPowerShell wraps Array and Hashtable from the PowerShell world into a special object that allow this syntax. Array nested in Hashtable or Hashtable nested in array are supported.

At this point I did not find any out of the box syntax, to support this clean syntax, like it is possible with IronPython. Talking with Doug Finke who is a PowerShell specialist, he mentioned that with PowerShell v 3 we should be able to do it.

Advanced Configuration File With PowerShell
The ideas behind using a dynamic language to implement a configuration file are:

Using anything but XML
Having an IDE that will understand JSON, JavaScript, IronPython or PowerShell
Executing code when the config file is loaded.

Here I have the same PowerShell hashtable, but the value of the key c is set by the execution of the function F1(), when the script is executed.

function F1([int] $i1, [int] $i2) {             

 return $i1 + $i2;
}
$Dic = @{

 a = 1  
 b = 2 
 c = (F1 2 1)
}

Conclusion

When writing highly customizable application using this technique opens the door to more possibilities with less effort as the dynamic language provides the environment to formalize the customization. We can build our own DSL in the dynamic language.

I do not find PowerShell as elegant as IronPython or JavaScript, but we can obtain the same result.

The source code is on github at DynamicCsToPowerShell.

How to deploy a phone gap app to your iOS device

2011-11-06T22:25:00.013-05:00

Because it is a pain in the Axx, to deploy a phonegap app from xCode 4.x to my device, I grabbed few screen shots, for next time.

Disclamer: I am just a Microsoft/Windows/.Net guy building iOS applications. I am trying to make things easier for me and maybe for you. This probably is incomplete, but if you are new to this world, this should help you a little.

You need to register to the iOS dev program to apple.
Install xCode 4
Install Phone Gap
I already created the certificate stuff, which I do not remember exactly.how I did this.
On the apple site (see url below in screen shot), you must register yourself and your device(s).

To create your new project in xCode follow Get Started Guide from PhoneGap site.

What I am going to cover here, is how to generate and install the magic key, so xCode will deploy the app to your device.

Generate the app key from the apple web site

Create a new app

Enter the name of your app, this must be the same name as the xCode project name

Select the device you wish to deploy to. Your device must be registered in the apple web site.

Use the certificate you created before

Enter an app's description

Here is the magic key

Download the provisioning file

Find the provisioning file in the finder, from chrome you can just click Show in finder.

Open xCode and in the Windows menu, select Organizer

Drag and drop the file into the Provisioning section. Looks like you have to drop it twice

Once in the LIBRARY and once in the DEVICES section.

Open the PList file of your application

Enter the code in the property Bundle identifier

If your device is plugged to your mac, you can now select to run the application on the device and click run.

ASP.NET projet will not start due to daylight savings time

2011-11-06T16:45:00.001-05:00

On saturday november 7 around 1:30 AM, I was working on HTML5 development using Visual Studio and a regular ASP.NET project.

Out of the blue the application refuse to start (using Cassini) and I get this error message

Server Error in '/' Application.

Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: utcDate

Description: An unhandled exception occurred during the execution of the current web request. Please review the stack trace for more information about the error and where it originated in the code. 

Exception Details: System.ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: utcDate

Source Error: 

An unhandled exception was generated during the execution of the current web request. Information regarding the origin and location of the exception can be identified using the exception stack trace below.

Stack Trace: 


[ArgumentOutOfRangeException: Specified argument was out of the range of valid values.
Parameter name: utcDate]
   System.Web.HttpCachePolicy.UtcSetLastModified(DateTime utcDate) +3192626
   System.Web.StaticFileHandler.ProcessRequestInternal(HttpContext context, String overrideVirtualPath) +1130
   System.Web.DefaultHttpHandler.BeginProcessRequest(HttpContext context, AsyncCallback callback, Object state) +347
   System.Web.CallHandlerExecutionStep.System.Web.HttpApplication.IExecutionStep.Execute() +8920324
   System.Web.HttpApplication.ExecuteStep(IExecutionStep step, Boolean& completedSynchronously) +184

Version Information: Microsoft .NET Framework Version:4.0.30319; ASP.NET Version:4.0.30319.225

After a little bit of google, I concluded it was about some .NET assembly which had a problem with their timestamp. Since I know we were switching daylight savings time,
I was pretty sure that rebooting the machine will do it.

Well No. may be I should have waited until 02:00 AM the official time change.

So I set the time on my Windows to one hours back and then every thing works.

Conclusion
Dealing with Time zones and day light time saving is always a B-ATCH.

quota_exceeded_err with Safari Mobile

2011-11-06T16:33:00.000-05:00

When using html5 local storage on Safari Mobile (iOS 5), I got this error
quota_exceeded_err 22 out of the blue on one specific web site I was working on.

Turning the Safari settings private browsing off, solved the problem.

Google will not tell me the all story for now.
I am not the only one with this problem.

This may save somebody few hours of debugging.

JavaScriptDemoer

2011-11-05T13:22:00.006-04:00

When I presented at the BOSTON .NET user group and last week at Code camp my talk "JavaScript in 60 minutes for C# developers", I had a lot questions about the tool I used to do the presentation. People were intrigued, so I made it public.

JavaScriptDemoer is a windows application to demo JavaScript and/or C# source code live.
Each page displays:

A slide written with the MARKDOWN language
An optional C# program, that must compile and may produce a console output.

.NET 4.0 must be installed.

A JavaScript program that must compile and may produce a console output.

JavaScriptDemoer comes with nodejs 0.5.10 windows version

More information and the source code is on github JavaScriptDemoer

Listening to the Ruby Show and JavaScript Show

2011-10-22T23:32:00.003-04:00

I used to listen to the Ruby Show hosted by Peter Cooper Jason Seifer and switched few months ago to the JavaScript Show which is awsome.

Listening to theses two, I was surprised by the relations between the Ruby and Python communities. See, I am a .NET developer, that wrote a little bit of Python in the past and now more JavaScript.

I am aware of these wars of religion between programmers, but I thought Ruby people were nice.

This inspired me.

Running my HTML5 iPhone app web page demo in Safari Mobile

2011-10-12T23:10:00.000-04:00

May be a little bit confusing at first

Try this url to understand

Chaka web page demo

New England Code Camp 16 - October 29

2011-10-02T21:09:00.004-04:00

New England Code Camp 16 will be saturday October 16.

I will present my talk "JavaScript in 60 minutes for C# developers" revised to fit in 60
minutes, hopefully.

JavaScript is everywhere desktop, laptop, phone, tablet, server side applications,
and even in some database engines.
It’s time to learn “The World’s Most Misunderstood Programming Language”.
I will go over some of the JavaScript language features using C# samples as starting point,
to show the simplicity and potential of the language.

Slide of the v1: here.

I am going to have to learn to read Objective C

2011-09-25T16:30:00.078-04:00

Developing with MonoTouch, will require you to at least learn how to read Objective C.
The reason why is that most of the documentation and samples are written in Objective C.
With the latest MonoDevelop+XCode 4.1, interface builder will generate Objective C code, that will be parsed by MonoDevelop and converted into C# for MonoTouch.

Reading Objective C, is therefore handy and required.

If you wrote C or C++ in the past, it is not the end of the world.
If you did not, it is going to feel weird.

Here is a little Objective C sample generated by Interface Builder and its translation in C#.

The h file.

@interface Test4ViewController : UIViewController {
  IBOutlet UITextField *text1;
  IBOutlet UITextField *text2;
}
- (IBAction)copy:(id)sender;
@end

The m file.
An extension m file, contains the code. Generally we use c or cpp extension.

@implementation Test4ViewController
  - (IBAction)copy:(id)sender {
    [text2 setText:[text1 text]];
  }
@end

In C# h files do not exist, in Objective C they still do. The @interface keyword defines
the interface of the class. The properties and signature of the methods are part of the @interface.
The implementation is located in the @implementation block. The sequence :(type)name defines a parameter in a method. Calling a method or an expression needs to be enclosed in []. That is the basic to read

The C# code

class  Test4ViewController : UIViewController {
  UITextField text1;
  UITextField text2;
  IBAction copy(id sender){
    text2.setText(text1.text);
  }
}

Subclassing an array in JavaScript

2011-09-17T23:52:00.032-04:00

To implement the following C# code in JavaScript, the more common solution is to subclass an array, which comes with few problems.

public class PersonList : List<Person> {
    public string Name;
    public PersonList(string name){
        this.Name = name;
    }
    public int GetSumYears() {
        var total = 0;
        foreach (var p in this)
            total += p.BirthDate.Year;
        return total;
    }
}

Among other thing a bug in IE8. I personally focus on ECMAScript 5, so this is not my concern for this post, I also want to use ECMAScript 5, property get.

A blog post by Juriy Zaytsev, How ECMAScript 5 still does not allow to subclass an array will tell you every thing about it.

I also like to mention a post from Andrea Giammarchi Habemus Array ... unlocked length in IE8, subclassed Array for every browser, which proposes a solution to implement a Stack object which I re-used to implement my List() object.

This post is my implementation of the C# List<T> in JavaScript. First here is the kind of code I want to be able to write.

The source code is now part of my library fJs.lib on github.

var l = new List();
for(var i=0; i<5; i++){
    l.add(i);
}
l.addRange(5, 6, 7, 8, 9);
print(l.toString()); // 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

l.removeAt(0);
l.remove(9);
print(l.toString()); // 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

var l2 = l.filter(function(v){ return v % 2 == 0; });
print(l2.toString()); // 2,4,6,8

var l3 = l.map(function(v){ return v*v; });
print(l3.toString()); // 1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,81

print(l instanceof List);  // true
print(l instanceof Array); // true

My first idea was to start with something like that

function List() {
    var
        _list = [];

    _list.add = function(v){
        this.push(v);
    }
    return _list;
}
var l = new List();
print(l instanceof Array); // true
print(l instanceof List);  // false

But the object returned by the List() constructor is not an instance of List, which is confusing. So I re-used the Stack implementation of Andrea Giammarchi which solve this problem. Creating the object is a little bit more complex, but then adding the methods remain simple.Here is the List object properties and methods.

List
  properties:
     count
  method:
 
     add
     addRange
     all
     any
     concat
     contains
     exists
     findAll
     findIndex
     remove
     removeAll
     removeAt
     reverse
     
     filter
     map

The source code

Here is the source code with some unit tests. I ran the code on NodeJS.

//
// Class List a match for the C# .NET List<T> - Frederic Torres 2011
// Mit Style License
//
// based on
// - Andrea Giammarchi's Stack
//      http://webreflection.blogspot.com/2008/05/habemus-array-unlocked-length-in-ie8.html
// - How ECMAScript 5 still does not allow to subclass an array
//      http://perfectionkills.com/how-ecmascript-5-still-does-not-allow-to-subclass-an-array/
//
var List = (function(){
    var
        MAX_SIGNED_INT_VALUE = Math.pow(2, 32) - 1;

    function __isFunction(f) {

        return typeof f === 'function';
    }
    function __toUint32(value) {

        return value >>> 0;
    }
    function __isInt(v){

        return String(__toUint32(v)) === v;
    }
    function __removeAt(that, index) {

        that.splice(index ,1);
    }
    function _list(length) {

        if (arguments.length === 1 && typeof length === "number") {
            this.length = -1 < length && length === length << 1 >> 1 ? length : this.push(length);
        }
        else if (arguments.length) {
            this.push.apply(this, arguments);
        }
        Object.defineProperty(this, "count", {

            get: function(){ return this.length; },
        });
    }
    function _array() { };
    _array.prototype           = [];

    _list.prototype            = new _array();
    _list.prototype.length     = 0;

    _list.prototype.toString   = function () {

        return this.slice(0).toString();
    }
    _list.prototype.add = function (v) {

        this.push(v);
    }
    _list.prototype.addRange = function () {
        var i;
        for(i=0; i < arguments.length; i++)
            this.add(arguments[i]);
    };
   _list.prototype.clear = function (v) {

        this.length = 0;
    }
   _list.prototype.removeAt = function (index) {
        if(this.count==0)
            throw new Error("Cannot removeAt from empty List");

        if(index>=0 && index < this.count)
            __removeAt(this, index);
        else
            throw new Error("invalid index "+index+" for List");
    }
   _list.prototype.remove = function (val) {
        var
            elementRemoved = 0,
            index = this.indexOf(val);

        if(index===-1)
            return 0;

        while(index!==-1){
            __removeAt(this, index);
            elementRemoved++;
            index = this.indexOf(val);
        }
        return elementRemoved;
    }
    _list.prototype.contains = function (val) {

        return this.indexOf(val) !== -1;
    }
   _list.prototype.concat = function (l) {
        var
            i;
        for(i in this)
            if(__isInt(i))
                this.add(l[i]);
    }
   _list.prototype.findIndex = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("exists() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if((__isInt(i))&&(lambda(this[i])))
                r.add(i);

        return r;
    }
   _list.prototype.exists = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("exists() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if((__isInt(i)) && (lambda(this[i])))
                return true;

        return false;
    }
   _list.prototype.removeAll = function (lambda) {
        var
            goOn = true,
            i;

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("exists() requires a function as parameter");

        while(goOn){
            goOn = false;
            for(i in this){
                if((__isInt(i)) && (lambda(this[i]))) {
                    __removeAt(this, i);
                    goOn = true;
                    break;
                }
            }
        }
    }
   _list.prototype.all = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("exists() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if((__isInt(i)) && (!lambda(this[i])))
                return false;
        return true;
    }
   _list.prototype.any = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("exists() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if((__isInt(i)) && (lambda(this[i])))
                    return true;
        return false;
    }
    _list.prototype.reverse = function () {
        var
            values = [],
            i;

        for(i in this)
            if(__isInt(i))
                values.unshift(this[i]);

        this.clear();

        this.push.apply(this, values);
    }
   _list.prototype.filter = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("filter() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if(__isInt(i))
                if(lambda(this[i]))
                    r.add(this[i]);
        return r;
    }
    _list.prototype.findAll = function (lambda) {
        // Just to have the same .net method
        return this.filter(lambda);
    }
   _list.prototype.map = function (lambda) {
        var
            i,
            r = new List();

        if(!__isFunction(lambda))
            throw new Error("map() requires a function as parameter");

        for(i in this)
            if(__isInt(i))
               r.add(lambda(this[i]));
        return r;
    }
    _list.prototype.constructor = _list;
    return _list;
})();

The unit tests.

For now it is the unit tests of the poor until I include this in my own JavaScript library and probably add it on github.

function isNodeJs() {
    return (typeof require === "function" && typeof Buffer === "function" && typeof Buffer.byteLength === "function" && typeof Buffer.prototype !== "undefined" && typeof Buffer.prototype.write === "function");
}
function print(s){
    console.log(s);
}

if(isNodeJs()){

    var Assert = {
        isTrue      : function(e){ if(!e) throw new Error("IsTrue failed"); },
        isFalse     : function(e){ if(!!e) throw new Error("IsTrue failed"); },
        areEqual    : function(v1,v2){ if(v1!==v2) throw new Error("expected:"+v1+" is not equal to actual:"+v2); }
    }

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.areEqual(3, l.count);
    Assert.areEqual("1,2,3", l.toString());

    var l = new List();
    Assert.areEqual(0, l.count);
    l.add(1);
    l.add(2);
    l.add(3);
    Assert.areEqual("1,2,3", l.toString());
    Assert.areEqual(3, l.count);

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    l.removeAt(1);
    Assert.areEqual(2, l.count);
    Assert.areEqual("1,3", l.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.areEqual(1,l.remove(2));
    Assert.areEqual(2, l.count);
    Assert.areEqual("1,3", l.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 1, 1);
    Assert.areEqual(3,l.remove(1));
    Assert.areEqual(2, l.count);
    Assert.areEqual("2,3", l.toString());

    var l1 = new List(1, 2, 3);
    var l2 = new List(4, 5, 6);
    l1.concat(l2);
    print(l1.toString());
    Assert.areEqual("1,2,3,4,5,6", l1.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.isTrue(l instanceof List);
    Assert.isTrue(l instanceof Array);

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4);
    var ll = l.filter(function(v){ return v % 2 == 0; });
    Assert.areEqual("2,4", ll.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4);
    var ll = l.map(function(v){ return v*v; });
    Assert.areEqual("1,4,9,16", ll.toString());

    var l = new List();
    l.addRange(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.areEqual("1,2,3", l.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    l.clear();
    Assert.areEqual(0, l.count);
    Assert.areEqual("", l.toString());
    l.add(1);
    Assert.areEqual("1", l.toString());
    Assert.areEqual(1, l.count);
    l.addRange(2, 3, 4);
    Assert.areEqual("1,2,3,4", l.toString());

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.isTrue(l.contains(2));
    Assert.isFalse(l.contains(12));

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3);
    Assert.isTrue( l.exists(function(v){ return v == 2;  }));
    Assert.isFalse(l.exists(function(v){ return v == 12; }));

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);
    l.name='fred';
    Assert.isTrue ( l.all(function(v){ return v > 0;  }));
    Assert.isFalse( l.all(function(v){ return v > 5;  }));

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);
    l.name='fred';
    Assert.isTrue ( l.any(function(v){ return v > 0;  }));
    Assert.isFalse( l.any(function(v){ return v > 15;  }));

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);
    Assert.areEqual( "1,3,5,7,9", l.findIndex(function(v){ return v % 2 == 0; }).toString() );

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10);
    l.removeAll(function(v){ return v % 2 == 0; });
    Assert.areEqual( "1,3,5,7,9", l.toString() );

    var l = new List(1, 2, 3, 4, 5);
    l.reverse();
    Assert.areEqual( "5,4,3,2,1", l.toString() );

    print("---------------------");
    var l = new List();
    for(var i=0; i < 5; i++){
        l.add(i);
    }
    l.addRange(5, 6, 7, 8, 9);
    print(l.toString()); // 0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9

    l.removeAt(0);
    l.remove(9);
    print(l.toString()); // 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8

    var l2 = l.filter(function(v){ return v % 2 == 0; });
    print(l2.toString()); // 2,4,6,8

    var l3 = l.map(function(v){ return v*v; });
    print(l3.toString()); // 1,4,9,16,25,36,49,64,81,81

    print(l instanceof List);  // true
    print(l instanceof Array); // true

}

Lessons learned porting C# code from Windows to MacOS and iOS

2011-09-05T19:46:00.006-04:00

I started porting C# code to MacOS and iOS and found some interesting problems, how to correct them or what best practices to follow, to have the same code running correctly on all operating systems. I will use this post to gather all my findings.

NewLine
You probably know that text file line separator on Windows are defined as CR+LF and on MacOS are defined as LF. The property System.Environment.NewLine will return the right value, but. Look at this code below

var t = b.ToString();

if(t.EndsWith(System.Environment.NewLine))

    t = t.Substring(0, t.Length-2);

I supposed that the length of NewLine is always 2. Wrong. Here is the right way.

var t = b.ToString();

if(t.EndsWith(System.Environment.NewLine))

    t = t.Substring(0, t.Length-System.Environment.NewLine.Length);

TEMP Folder
When I need to create a temporary file, I always used the following

var t = b.ToString();

var fileName  = String.Format(@"{0}\DSSharpLibrary_UnitTests.txt", Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP"));

Well this code does not work on MacOS, but you can use the following code which will work on Windows, MacOS and iOS.

var t = b.ToString();

var fileName  = String.Format(@"{0}DSSharpLibrary_UnitTests.txt", System.IO.Path.GetTempPath());

Note that GetTempPath() will return a '\' at the end in Windows or a '/' at the end on MacOS. Do not prefix your file name with any slash.

My first phone application with jQuery Mobile and Chaka

2011-07-30T00:59:00.240-04:00

Introduction

Chaka, is an extension to jQuery Mobile to be able to develop HTML5 applications with Visual Studio 2010.

Developing HTML5 applications with jQuery Mobile give you a lot, but there are few things that you have to manage on your own.

How to organize your Html and JavaScript files
Concept of code behind with events as seen in Win Form or ASP.NET
JavaScript syntax verification before execution (Google Closure Compiler)
F5 run and debug
Writing your application in CoffeeScript rather than JavaScript
DEBUG or RELEASE mode (In RELEASE mode html, js, css files are minified and the number of js files is reduced)
Publishing the application to the web in RELEASE mode
Remote debugging with jsconsole.com for instance
PhoneGap integration

These are things that Chaka bring to the table.

I intend to release it, on github at some point, it is still in prototype mode.

The main idea is to use Visual Studio and click File -> New -> Project. Select Chaka Project.
The project will come with: a main page, an about page, an options page and from there you can add your own pages from a template and start coding away.
Press F5 and start running and debugging your HTML5 application with Chrome or FireFox. then use the Visual Studio 2010 Publish feature, to publish your app to the web via FTP.
Then yo can run it from all devices supported by jQuery Mobile.

A First Application

The application is a restaurant tip calculator and total bill divider.

The splash screen: The splash screen will only work on iOS.

The main page:

Let's enter an amount and press done

Here the results

The about page:

The Visual Studio Project

In Visual Studio the project looks like this

The pages folder contains for each page of the application an Html file and a JavaScript file.

Here is the file aboutPage.html.
The page id is aboutPage and it contains an ok button named butOK.
This is strictly jQuery Mobile syntax except that the html is in its own file.

<div data-role="page" data-theme="a" id="aboutPage">
 <div data-role="header">
  <h1>Tip Calculator</h1>
 </div>
 <div data-role="content">
        <div align="center">
            <div id="aboutText"></div>
        </div>
        <div data-role="fieldcontain">
            <ul id="lvDeviceInfo" data-role="listview" data-theme="a" data-inset="true">
            </ul>
        </div>
        <div align="center">
            <a id = "butOK" data-role="button"  style=" width:80px;" >OK</a>
        </div>
    </div>    
</div>

Code Behind
Here is the JavaScript Code behind from file aboutPage.js.
The file contains a class aboutPage which will automatically inherit from a Chaka.Page. A Chaka.Page expose methods and properties, for example the property Application which returns the Application instance.
I implemented the event Page_Load which will be called when the page load.
To get or set control value, you can use jQuery or you can use some method from the Chaka.Page, because JQuery Mobile control behave differently than the regular HTML controls.
I also implemented the event butOK_Click, which be called when the user click the OK button.

function aboutPage(){

    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ///
    this.Page_Load = function(event, ui){
        var
            aboutText = this.getControl("aboutText");

        // Inherited
        this.setListViewWithDeviceInformation("lvDeviceInfo");

        aboutText.html(this.ABOUT_TEXT);
    }
    /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
    ///
    this.butOK_Click =  function(control){

        this.Application.mainPage.show();
    }
    this.ABOUT_TEXT = '\
    <i><b>Tip Calculator</b></i>\
 is an HTML5 jQuery Mobile sample application developed with the Chaka Framework and Visual Studio 2010.\
<br /><br />\
See <a rel=external href="http://frederictorres.net/chaka/">Chaka</a> web site for details.\
<br /><br />\
Chaka (C) Torres Frederic 2011\
';
}

The Application class
A JavaScript Application class must be defined in the file app/app.main.js. The Application class will automatically inherit from the Chaka.Application class.

In the constructor the class calls the base method initializePage() to pass the name and the class type for each page. The application instance can be refered by using the global variable MyApp. Each Chaka page can reference the application by using the property Application.

The Application instance allows to access each page by its name. See event butOK_Click above, how we go back to the main page when the user click ok.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
///
function Application() {
    var
        $base = this;

    $base.initializePages(
        {
            mainPage    : mainPage ,
            aboutPage   : aboutPage,
        }
    );
}

Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running

2011-07-29T20:37:00.001-04:00

I got this error on Windows 2008 64b, after some automatic updates.

Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running

Try to start the Windows Event Log service, you may get this error

Windows could not start the Windows Event Log service on Local Computer.
Error 2: The system cannot find the file specified.

To fix this: run regedit.exe and goto to the entry

HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog

There should be an empty Parameters, just rename it to _Parameters.
The service should start now.

Calling the base constructor in JavaScript

2011-07-21T22:22:00.004-04:00

I thought that in JavaScript while implementing inheritance, it was not possible to call the code in the base constructor like you can do in most object oriented language.

I was wrong. The class Employee constructor, call the constructor of the class Person,
using the call() method. That is how you call any base method that has been overridden.

function Person(lastName, firstName){

    this.LastName   = lastName;
    this.FirstName  = firstName;

    this.getFullName = function(){

        return this.LastName + " " + this.FirstName;
    }
}
function Employee(firstName, lastName , company){

    // Call the constructor of the base class
    Person.call(this, firstName, lastName);

    this.Company = company;

    this.getFullName = function(){

        return Employee.prototype.getFullName.call(this) + 
               " " + this.Company;
    }
}
Employee.prototype = new Person();

var fred = new Employee("Torres", "Frederic", "ACompany" );

console.log(fred.getFullName());

Running JavaScript, CoffeeScript from Visual Studio 2010

2011-07-15T20:32:00.000-04:00

Running JavaScript, CoffeeScript from Visual Studio 2010

As part of of my library DynamicJavaScriptRunTimes.NET, I created a Visual Studio 2010 extension to run JavaScript and CoffeeScript programs.

Here is the video

Static Member In JavaScript

2011-07-12T21:46:00.002-04:00

I did not realize until recently that you can create static member for your custom classes in JavaScript.

JavaScript: You can do so much with so little.

// Class Person
function Person(lastName, firstName){

    this.LastName   = lastName;
    this.FirstName  = firstName;

    this.getFullName = function(){

        return this.LastName + " " + this.FirstName;
    }
}
// Static member of the class Person
Person.create = function(lastName, firstName){
    return new Person(lastName, firstName);
}

var p1 = new Person("Torres","Frederic");
print(p1.getFullName());

var p2 = Person.create("Torres","Frederic");
print(p2.getFullName());

Running JavaScript from C# with a hint of dynamic

2011-06-30T00:21:00.001-04:00

The Noesis JavaScript.NET run-time is probably the fastest run-time that you can use from C# on Windows so far. The reason why, it uses Google V8 2.2 engine from 09/2010 (remark:this project seems to have been abandoned by its author :<) .

The Jurassic JavaScript run time is not as fast, but because written in C# provides better integration with the .NET world, if you really need it.

But both run-times do not let you access JavaScript objects and arrays in the C# world using the dynamic syntax available in JavaScript.

Here is a sample from the Noesis codeplex web site

JavascriptContext context = new JavascriptContext();

context.SetParameter("console", new SystemConsole());
context.SetParameter("message", "Hello World !");
context.SetParameter("number", 1);

string script = @"
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        console.Print(message + ' (' + i + ')');
    number += i;
";

context.Run(script);

Console.WriteLine("number: " + context.GetParameter("number"));

Using the dynamic feature of C# 4.0 and my library DynamicJavaScriptRunTimes.net, You can write the same code this way

dynamic jsContext = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                          new JavascriptContext()
                    );                                               
jsContext.message = "Hello World !";
jsContext.number = 1;

string script = @"
    var i = 0;
    for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        console.log(message + ' (' + i + ')');
    number += i;
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Console.WriteLine("number: " + jsContext.number);

JavaScript array are translated into .NET array and JavaScript object are translated into .NET Dictonary<string, object>. The method jsContext.Array() is a helper to create an array in a JavaScript like syntax, inspired by DynamicSugar.Net.

array:
How to create an array in C#, modify it in JavaScript and then read it back in C#.

dynamic jsContext   = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                           new JavascriptContext()
                      );
jsContext.a = new object [] { 1, 2, 3 };  // Regular Syntax
jsContext.a = jsContext.Array( 1, 2, 3 ); // My Syntax

string script = @"
    a.push(4);
";
            
jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual(4, jsContext.a.Length);

for(var i=0; i < jsContext.a.Length; i++)
    Assert.AreEqual(i+1, jsContext.a[i]);

Objects:
As you can see nested objects and arrays are supported. The [ ] syntax to access a property is also supported.

dynamic jsContext = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                          new JavascriptContext()
                    );
string script = @"
    Configuration =  {
        Server   :    'TOTO',
        Database :    'Rene', 
        Debug    :    true, 
        MaxUser  :    3, 
        Users    :    [
            { UserName:'rdescartes'    ,FirstName:'rene'      ,LastName:'descartes'     }, 
            { UserName:'bpascal'       ,FirstName:'blaise'    ,LastName:'pascal'        }, 
            { UserName:'cmontesquieu'  ,FirstName:'charles'   ,LastName:'montesquieu'   } 
        ]
    }
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual("TOTO"      , jsContext.Configuration.Server);
Assert.AreEqual("Rene"      , jsContext.Configuration.Database);
Assert.AreEqual(true        , jsContext.Configuration.Debug);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext.Configuration.MaxUser);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext.Configuration.Users.Length);
Assert.AreEqual("rdescartes", jsContext.Configuration.Users[0].UserName);

Assert.AreEqual("TOTO"      , jsContext["Configuration"]["Server"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Rene"      , jsContext["Configuration"]["Database"]);
Assert.AreEqual(true        , jsContext["Configuration"]["Debug"]);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext["Configuration"]["MaxUser"]);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext["Configuration"]["Users"].Length);
Assert.AreEqual("rdescartes", jsContext["Configuration"]["Users"][0].UserName);

More Objects
We can also create objects from C#, pass them to the JavaScript run-time and then access the objects again. The method jsContext.Object() is a helper method inspired by DynamicSugar.Net to create object in a JavaScript like syntax or pass a POCO.

Note: Objects and arrays are not passed by reference. The data is copied from one world to the other.

dynamic jsContext   = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                            new JavascriptContext()
                      );
                      
jsContext.i = jsContext.Object(
    new {
        a = jsContext.Object( new { LastName="Torres", Age=46 } ),
        b = jsContext.Object( new Person("Ferry", 47) ),
    }
);
string script = @"
    var p1 = {
        Name : i.a.LastName,
        Age  : i.a.Age
    }
    var p2 = {
        Name : i.b.LastName,
        Age  : i.b.Age
    }
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext.p1.Name);
Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext.p1["Name"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext["p1"]["Name"]);

Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext.p1.Age);
Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext.p1["Age"]);
Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext["p1"]["Age"]);

Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext.p2.Name);
Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext.p2["Name"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext["p2"]["Name"]);

Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext.p2.Age);
Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext.p2["Age"]);
Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext["p2"]["Age"]);

More Samples

Assert.AreEqual(
    "Fred",
    jsContext.Run(@"
        function Person(firstName){ this.FirstName = firstName; }
        (new Person('Fred'))"
    ).FirstName
);

////////////////////////////////////////////

DateTime refDate = new DateTime(1964, 12, 11, 01, 02, 03);

string script = @"
    var O2 = {
                F2: function(pInt,pDouble,pString,pBool,pDate) { 
                        return ''+this.Internal+'-'+pInt+'-'+pDouble+'-'+pString+'-'+pBool+'-'+formatDateUS(pDate);
                },
                Internal:1
                }
";

jsContext.Load("format", Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

jsContext.Run(script);

var expectedF2 = "1-1-123.456-hello-true-12/11/1964 1:2:3";
var f2Result   = jsContext.Call("O2.F2", 1, 123.456, "hello", true, refDate);

Assert.AreEqual(expectedF2, f2Result);

The DynamicJavascriptContext class

/// <summary>
/// Run the script and return the last value evaluated. Executing a declaration function
/// or a global object literal, will load the function or object in the JavaScript context.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="script"></param>
/// <returns>
/// </returns>
public object Run(string script);

/// <summary>
/// Load a JavaScript text file or text ressource in the JavaScript context
/// </summary>
/// <param name="name">The name without the .js extension</param>
/// <param name="assembly">The assembly is loading a ressource</param>
public void Load(string name, Assembly assembly = null);

/// <summary>
/// Execute a javascript global function or method
/// </summary>
/// <param name="functionName">the function name</param>
/// <param name="parameters">The parameters</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Call(string functionName, params object[] parameters);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make date compatible with the JavaScript
/// run time. Jurassic date are not .net datetime and need a convertion
/// </summary>
/// <param name="o"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Date(DateTime d){);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make array compatible with the JavaScript run time.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="array"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object array(params object [] array);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make a JavaScript object compatible with the JavaScript run-time
/// </summary>
/// <param name="netObject"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Object(object netObject);

Conclusion

DynamicJavaScriptRunTimes.net

Add a nice syntatic sugar layer to execute JavaScript code from C#
Support 2 JavaScript run-times: Noesis and Jurassic
Part of the source code is a CoffeeScript v 1.1.1 compiler and run-time.
Available on github

Editing and running CoffeeScript on Windows

2011-06-27T00:33:00.003-04:00

Using my work with Noesis JavaScript.Net, I created a CoffeeScript compiler and runtime command line application for Windows, this will require .NET 4.0. I also created a Syntax Highlighter for the editor ConTEXT.

I can write and run CoffeeScript scripts in a simple IDE.

Here is the video

I will be adding the sources code to github account soon.

Embedding JavaScript in a C# application (Part I)

2011-06-26T11:43:00.005-04:00

Embedding JavaScript in a C# application or service

Why would you want to do that?

Configuration (my post about that with IronPython)

JSON over XML to implement configuration file.
Configuration file implemented with a dynamic language can execute code.
Configuration file can contain object instances.

Plug-in architecture

Plug-ins can be updated with notepad on the fly or not

Script-able applications

Implementation

For now I am using the JavaScript run-time Noesis JavaScript.NET which use Google V8 v 2.2.
I wrote a library which I may name DynamicJavaScript.Net, which allow to access the JavaScript objects and arrays using the dynamic feature of C# 4 (see my post here).

A simple configuration file in JavaScript

function User(userName, firstName, lastName) { 

    this.UserName  = userName;
    this.LastName  = lastName;
    this.FirstName = firstName;
}
var Configuration = {

    Server  : 'TOTO',
    Database: 'Rene',
    Debug   : true,
    Users   : [
        { 
            UserName : 'bpascal', 
            FirstName: 'blaise', 
            LastName : 'pascal' 
        },
        new User('cmontesquieu', 'charles', 'montesquieu')
    ]
}

The C# source code to load the configuration

dynamic csContext = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                              new JavascriptContext()
                        );

csContext.Run(System.IO.File.ReadAllText("configuration.js"));

var server  = csContext.Configuration.Server;
var databse = csContext.Configuration.Database;
var debug   = csContext.Configuration.Debug;

for(var i=0; i<csContext.Configuration.Users.Length; i++) {

    var userName  = csContext.Configuration.Users[i].UserName;
}

Running JavaScript from C# with a hint of dynamic

2011-06-23T23:55:00.116-04:00

JavascriptContext context = new JavascriptContext();

context.SetParameter("console", new SystemConsole());
context.SetParameter("message", "Hello World !");
context.SetParameter("number", 1);

string script = @"
    var i;
    for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        console.Print(message + ' (' + i + ')');
    number += i;
";

context.Run(script);

Console.WriteLine("number: " + context.GetParameter("number"));

Using the dynamic feature of C# 4.0 and my library DynamicJavaScriptRunTimes.net, You can write the same code this way

dynamic jsContext = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                          new JavascriptContext()
                    );                                               
jsContext.message = "Hello World !";
jsContext.number = 1;

string script = @"
    var i = 0;
    for (i = 0; i < 5; i++)
        console.log(message + ' (' + i + ')');
    number += i;
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Console.WriteLine("number: " + jsContext.number);

dynamic jsContext   = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                           new JavascriptContext()
                      );
jsContext.a = new object [] { 1, 2, 3 };  // Regular Syntax
jsContext.a = jsContext.Array( 1, 2, 3 ); // My Syntax

string script = @"
    a.push(4);
";
            
jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual(4, jsContext.a.Length);

for(var i=0; i < jsContext.a.Length; i++)
    Assert.AreEqual(i+1, jsContext.a[i]);

Objects:
As you can see nested objects and arrays are supported. The [ ] syntax to access a property is also supported.

dynamic jsContext = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                          new JavascriptContext()
                    );
string script = @"
    Configuration =  {
        Server   :    'TOTO',
        Database :    'Rene', 
        Debug    :    true, 
        MaxUser  :    3, 
        Users    :    [
            { UserName:'rdescartes'    ,FirstName:'rene'      ,LastName:'descartes'     }, 
            { UserName:'bpascal'       ,FirstName:'blaise'    ,LastName:'pascal'        }, 
            { UserName:'cmontesquieu'  ,FirstName:'charles'   ,LastName:'montesquieu'   } 
        ]
    }
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual("TOTO"      , jsContext.Configuration.Server);
Assert.AreEqual("Rene"      , jsContext.Configuration.Database);
Assert.AreEqual(true        , jsContext.Configuration.Debug);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext.Configuration.MaxUser);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext.Configuration.Users.Length);
Assert.AreEqual("rdescartes", jsContext.Configuration.Users[0].UserName);

Assert.AreEqual("TOTO"      , jsContext["Configuration"]["Server"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Rene"      , jsContext["Configuration"]["Database"]);
Assert.AreEqual(true        , jsContext["Configuration"]["Debug"]);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext["Configuration"]["MaxUser"]);
Assert.AreEqual(3           , jsContext["Configuration"]["Users"].Length);
Assert.AreEqual("rdescartes", jsContext["Configuration"]["Users"][0].UserName);

dynamic jsContext   = new DynamicJavascriptContext(
                            new JavascriptContext()
                      );
                      
jsContext.i = jsContext.Object(
    new {
        a = jsContext.Object( new { LastName="Torres", Age=46 } ),
        b = jsContext.Object( new Person("Ferry", 47) ),
    }
);
string script = @"
    var p1 = {
        Name : i.a.LastName,
        Age  : i.a.Age
    }
    var p2 = {
        Name : i.b.LastName,
        Age  : i.b.Age
    }
";

jsContext.Run(script);

Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext.p1.Name);
Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext.p1["Name"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Torres", jsContext["p1"]["Name"]);

Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext.p1.Age);
Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext.p1["Age"]);
Assert.AreEqual(46, jsContext["p1"]["Age"]);

Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext.p2.Name);
Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext.p2["Name"]);
Assert.AreEqual("Ferry", jsContext["p2"]["Name"]);

Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext.p2.Age);
Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext.p2["Age"]);
Assert.AreEqual(47, jsContext["p2"]["Age"]);

More Samples

Assert.AreEqual(
    "Fred",
    jsContext.Run(@"
        function Person(firstName){ this.FirstName = firstName; }
        (new Person('Fred'))"
    ).FirstName
);

////////////////////////////////////////////

DateTime refDate = new DateTime(1964, 12, 11, 01, 02, 03);

string script = @"
    var O2 = {
                F2: function(pInt,pDouble,pString,pBool,pDate) { 
                        return ''+this.Internal+'-'+pInt+'-'+pDouble+'-'+pString+'-'+pBool+'-'+formatDateUS(pDate);
                },
                Internal:1
                }
";

jsContext.Load("format", Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly());

jsContext.Run(script);

var expectedF2 = "1-1-123.456-hello-true-12/11/1964 1:2:3";
var f2Result   = jsContext.Call("O2.F2", 1, 123.456, "hello", true, refDate);

Assert.AreEqual(expectedF2, f2Result);

The DynamicJavascriptContext class

/// <summary>
/// Run the script and return the last value evaluated. Executing a declaration function
/// or a global object literal, will load the function or object in the JavaScript context.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="script"></param>
/// <returns>
/// </returns>
public object Run(string script);

/// <summary>
/// Load a JavaScript text file or text ressource in the JavaScript context
/// </summary>
/// <param name="name">The name without the .js extension</param>
/// <param name="assembly">The assembly is loading a ressource</param>
public void Load(string name, Assembly assembly = null);

/// <summary>
/// Execute a javascript global function or method
/// </summary>
/// <param name="functionName">the function name</param>
/// <param name="parameters">The parameters</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Call(string functionName, params object[] parameters);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make date compatible with the JavaScript
/// run time. Jurassic date are not .net datetime and need a convertion
/// </summary>
/// <param name="o"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Date(DateTime d){);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make array compatible with the JavaScript run time.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="array"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object array(params object [] array);

/// <summary>
/// Helper function to make a JavaScript object compatible with the JavaScript run-time
/// </summary>
/// <param name="netObject"></param>
/// <returns></returns>
public object Object(object netObject);

Conclusion

DynamicJavaScriptRunTimes.net

Add a nice syntatic sugar layer to execute JavaScript code from C#
Support 2 JavaScript run-times: Noesis and Jurassic
Part of the source code is a CoffeeScript v 1.1.1 compiler and run-time.
Available on github

JavaScript run-times performance on Windows V1

2011-06-23T10:15:00.002-04:00

I was looking for a JavaScript run time that I could embed in my C# applications. I have done that in the past with IronPython. I tried different implementations written in C# and then I decided to try all executables on my Windows XP machine that could run JavaScript from a command prompt.

All tests were executed on my Windows XP Dell Inspiron 6400.

The source code:

function Fibonnaci(n){
    var
        previous = -1,
        result   =  1,
        sum;

    for(var i=0; i < n+1; i++){

        sum      = result + previous;
        previous = result;
        result   = sum;
    }
    return result;
}

var expectedValues = [ 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144, 233, 377, 610, 987, 1597, 2584, 4181, 6765, 10946, 17711, 28657, 46368, 75025, 121393, 196418, 317811, 514229, 832040, 1346269, 2178309, 3524578, 5702887, 9227465, 14930352, 24157817, 39088169, 63245986, 102334155, 165580141, 267914296, 433494437, 701408733, 1134903170, 1836311903, 2971215073, 4807526976, 7778742049, 12586269025, 20365011074, 32951280099, 53316291173, 86267571272, 139583862445, 225851433717, 365435296162, 591286729879, 956722026041, 1548008755920, 2504730781961, 4052739537881, 6557470319842, 10610209857723, 17167680177565, 27777890035288, 44945570212853, 72723460248141, 117669030460994, 190392490709135, 308061521170129, 498454011879264, 806515533049393, 1304969544928657, 2111485077978050, 3416454622906707, 5527939700884757, 8944394323791464, 14472334024676220, 23416728348467684, 37889062373143900, 61305790721611580, 99194853094755490, 160500643816367070, 259695496911122560, 420196140727489660, 679891637638612200, 1100087778366101900, 1779979416004714000, 2880067194370816000, 4660046610375530000, 7540113804746346000, 12200160415121877000, 19740274219868226000, 31940434634990100000, 51680708854858330000, 83621143489848430000, 135301852344706760000, 218922995834555200000];

print('Running...');
var startTime = new Date().getTime();

for (var t = 0; t < 10000; t++) {

    for (var i = 0; i < 100; i++) {

        var v = Fibonnaci(i);
        if(v !== expectedValues[i])
            throw new Error('Unexpected value ');
    }
}
var endTime = new Date().getTime();
var time    = (endTime - startTime)/1000;
print('Duration:' + time);

JavaScript Runtimes

nodeJs 0.2.6 - JavaScript Runtime:V8

Duration:0.4 s

Noesis.Javascript 0.4 - JavaScript Runtime V8 for .NET Release mode x86 .NET 4.0

Duration:0.4 s

PhantomJs v1.1.0 - JavaScript Runtime:JavaScriptCore (with JIT compiler).

Duration:0.5 s

Jurassic v2.1 - JavaScript Runtime:.NET Implementation

Duration:8.9 s Release mode x86 .NET 3.5
Duration:7.7 s In the silverlight application from http://jurassic.codeplex.com

IronJS v0.2 - JavaScript Runtime:.NET Implementation - Release mode x86 .NET 4.0

Duration:8.5 s

JSDB - 10.6.21.0 - JavaScript Runtime:Mozilla SpiderMonkey

Duration:10.8

Microsoft JScript

Duration:13.3 s

Jint - JavaScript Runtime:.NET Implementation Release mode x86 .NET .NET 3.5

Duration:255.3 s

Embeding a JavaScript run-time in a C# application

Here we have 4 choices, Jint does not use the DLR and you can tell. IronJS and Jurassic are very close.
I had some bizarre issues with compiling my IronJS solution (I had each time to rebuild my solution to see my changes). Anyway it is difficult to beat Noesis.Javascript which use V8.

There is another solution Microsoft JScript.NET, the JScript that came with .NET and that nobody is using. I will have to try.

JavaScript run-times performance on Windows

2011-06-18T19:02:00.124-04:00

Following the mention of this post on the javascriptshow.com, I replaced my first benchmark with the V8 Benchmark Suite - version 6, Peter and Jason were right my own benchmark was not good enough.

The first version of this post is there.

Richards
DeltaBlue
Crypto
RayTrace
RegExp
Splay

Final Scores

About the score: bigger is better!

JavaScript Engine                                     Score
-------------------------------------------------------------
NodeJs 0.4.6            V8                             4148
Noesis 0.4              V8 + x86 NET 4.0               2454
PhantomJs 1.1.0         JavaScriptCore - JIT compiler  1688
IronJS  0.2             x86 .NET 4.0                     62
Jurassic 2.1            x86 .NET 3.5                     51
Microsoft Jscript 5.7                                    40
Jint                    x86 .NET 3.5                   killed after one hour
JSDB 10.6.21.0          SpiderMonkey                   out of memory - Execution error


nodeJs 0.4.6 - V8
===================================
Start...Thu Jun 23 2011 02:18:08 GMT+0000 (EST)
Crypto: 4906
DeltaBlue: 7980
RayTrace: 6720
RegExp: 1707
Richards: 5175
Splay: 2192
----
Score (version 6): 4148
Duration:15.506

Noesis.Javascript 0.4 - V8 + x86 .NET 4.0
===================================
Start...Wed Jun 22 2011 22:32:57 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Crypto: 3604
DeltaBlue: 3937
RayTrace: 3763
RegExp: 1180
Richards: 3195
Splay: 1084
----
Score (version 6): 2454
Duration:17.067

This is an older version of V8 and this is why it is slower than nodejs.

PhantomJs v1.1.0 - JavaScriptCore with JIT compiler
===================================
Start...Wed Jun 22 2011 22:29:25 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Duration:0
Crypto: 2278
DeltaBlue: 1514
RayTrace: 2617
RegExp: 559
Richards: 2017
Splay: 2269
----
Score (version 6): 1688


Jurassic v2.1 - .NET Implementation x86 v 3.5
===================================
 Start...Wed Jun 22 2011 22:18:30 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
 Crypto: 57.7
 DeltaBlue: 54.4
 RayTrace: 29.9
 RegExp: 33.8
 Richards: 66.0
 Splay: 86.5
 ----
 Score (version 6): 51.3
 Duration:263.796875

 http://jurassic.codeplex.com

IronJS v0.2 - .NET Implementation x86 v 4.0
===================================
Start...Wed, 22 Jun 2011 22:34:25 GMT-04:00
Crypto: 83.23
DeltaBlue: 61.34
RayTrace: 20.01
RegExp: 38.03
Richards: 74.74
Splay: 201
----
Score (version 6): 62.26
Duration:275.141

Still not bad for an implementation written by one person.
http://ironjs.wordpress.com

JSDB - 10.6.21.0 - Mozilla SpiderMonkey
===================================
Start...Wed Jun 22 2011 23:08:51 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)
Crypto: 142
DeltaBlue: 155
RayTrace: 110
RegExp: 126
Richards: 161
out of memory - Execution error in C:\FredericTorres.Net.Src\JS\Benchmark\all.js.

http://www.jsdb.org

Microsoft JScript 5.7
===================================
Start...Wed Jun 22 22:23:17 EDT 2011
Crypto: 80.8
DeltaBlue: 44.5
RayTrace: 62.7
RegExp: 91.4
Richards: 44.3
Splay: 4.75
----
Score (version 6): 40.4
Duration:194.328


Jint - JavaScript Runtime:.NET Implementation x86 v 3.5
===================================
After one hour I killed the program.

http://jint.codeplex.com

JavaScript Runtimes

Here we have 4 choices, Jint does not use the DLR and you can tell. IronJS and Jurassic are very close.
I had some bizarre issues with compiling my IronJS solution (I had to rebuild my solution to see my changes). Anyway it is difficult to beat Noesis.Javascript which use V8.

I started writing some C# code to be able to write and read JavaScript objects from/to Noesis JavaScript.net context object using the dynamic feature of .NET 4.0. I will be blogging about this in the future. The code looks like this:

dynamic jsContext   = new DynamicJavascriptContext(new JavascriptContext());            

jsContext.message   = "Hello World !";
jsContext.number    = 1;            
jsContext.array     = DS.List(1, 2 , 3);
jsContext.instance  = DS.Dictionary( new { b = 2 } );
jsContext.instance2 = DS.Dictionary( new { a = 1, b = 2 } );
                       
string script = @"
    number           = 123;
    instance['a']    = 1;
    instance['Date'] = new Date();                
    instance2['a']   = 123;
    console.log('Hello log ');
    console.log('array.length:'+array.length);
                
    array.push(4);
    for(var i=0; i<array.length; i++)
        console.log(array[i]);
";

jsContext.Run(script);            

Console.WriteLine("number: "        + jsContext.number       );
Console.WriteLine("instance: "      + jsContext.instance     );
Console.WriteLine("instance.a: "    + jsContext.instance.a   );
Console.WriteLine("instance.b: "    + jsContext.instance.b   );
Console.WriteLine("instance.Date: " + jsContext.instance.Date);
Console.WriteLine("instance2.a: "   + jsContext.instance2.a  );
Console.WriteLine("array:"          + jsContext.array.Length );
Console.WriteLine("array[3]:"       + jsContext.array[3]     );

There is another solution Microsoft JScript.NET, the JScript that came with .NET and that nobody is using. I will have to try.

Top 7 Reasons To Learn JavaScript

2011-06-15T20:59:00.038-04:00

7 - Because nobody does

Did anybody read a book about JavaScript?

The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language
Well it's time now.

6 - JavaScript is like VISA: Accepted Everywhere

No religion wars - No my language is better than your language
Every body does it.

5 - HTML 5 is a cross-platform application thing

JavaScript was and is the programming language of the web
Laptop, Desktop, NetBook, Phone, Tablet

jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch

IE9/IE10, Chrome10, FireFox4, Safari5, Opera11
It's not fully there yet, but it's coming.

What about Windows 8?

Look what's coming in more distant future

Device APIs and Policy Working Group

4 - To build server side applications

http://nodejs.org
http://www.phantomjs.org
http://www.jsdb.org
http://www.mongodb.org

Looking for a library: http://microjs.com/

3 - JavaScript is a dynamic and functional language

Dynamic Languages are fun
Write powerfull, small and readable source code

2 - JavaScript is now fast

The new generation of JavaScript engines are really fast

Company     Browser  JavaScript Engine HTML Rendering Engine
-------------------------------------------------------------
Google      Chrome   V8                 Web Kit
Apple       Safari   Nitro              Web Kit
Mozilla     FireFox  JägerMonkey        Gecko
Microsoft   IE       Chakra             Trident/MSHTML
Opera       Opera    Carakan            Presto

1 - We can get rid of the Ugly parts

Once you understand JavaScript, it is easier to only use the good parts
Yes, JavaScript is full of WTF!
Any good C++, Java, C#, VB, Pascal programmer can write good JavaScript code

What Can We Learn From Python And JavaScript While Programming in C#

2011-06-04T19:14:00.002-04:00

What can we learn from

Python and JavaScript

while programming in C# 4.0?

Introduction

Who I am?

First Name: Frederic
Last Name:  Torres
Web Site:   http://www.FredericTorres.net
State:      Massachusett

I have been writing code since MS-DOS 2.0 on different continents.
I write code in C# by day and in Python or JavaScript by night.

What about you ?

Python, everyone.
- IronPython 2.7 and tools for Visual Studio 2010 has been released.
We all known JavaScript, right!
- The World's Most Misunderstood Programming Language
Douglas Crockford Web site about JavaScript

Why am I here?

Dynamic Languages - Python, Ruby, JavaScript.

    - Source Code Length

    - Readability

Python and Ruby

The Pythonic way (Python Secret Weblog)
Ruby is designed to make programmers happy

Peter Norvig from Google wrote a spell checker in 21 lines in Python How to Write a Spelling Corrector

import re, collections

def words(text): return re.findall('[a-z]+', text.lower()) 

def train(features):
    model = collections.defaultdict(lambda: 1)
    for f in features:
        model[f] += 1
    return model

NWORDS = train(words(file('big.txt').read()))

alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

def edits1(word):
   splits     = [(word[:i], word[i:]) for i in range(len(word) + 1)]
   deletes    = [a + b[1:] for a, b in splits if b]
   transposes = [a + b[1] + b[0] + b[2:] for a, b in splits if len(b)>1]
   replaces   = [a + c + b[1:] for a, b in splits for c in alphabet if b]
   inserts    = [a + c + b     for a, b in splits for c in alphabet]
   return set(deletes + transposes + replaces + inserts)

def known_edits2(word):
    return set(e2 for e1 in edits1(word) for e2 in edits1(e1) if e2 in NWORDS)

def known(words): return set(w for w in words if w in NWORDS)

def correct(word):
    candidates = known([word]) or known(edits1(word)) or known_edits2(word) or [word]
    return max(candidates, key=NWORDS.get)

Is there anything we can learn from programming Python and JavaScript and apply it in C#?
- This is the question I have been thinking about.
- And it is not just me!

A different way to code in C#

Is there a different way to write code in C# in the air?
3 Samples

ASP.NET MVC Syntax (Microsoft Product)

routes.MapRoute(
   "Default", // Route name
   "{controller}/{action}/{id}", // URL with parameters
   new { controller = "Home", action = "Index", id = UrlParameter.Optional } 
);

Massive and Dapper : 2 small ORMs
- Written in less than 400 lines of code each
- Written by Rob Conery and Sam Saffron (from Stack Overflow)
- Have been talked about on the hanselminutes podcast.

// Massive Syntax
var table = new Products();
table.Update( new { ProductName = "Chicken Fingers" } , 12);

var resultSet1 = persons.All(columns: "*", where: "ID >= @0", args: 1);
foreach(var p in resultSet1)
    Console.WriteLine(String.Format("ID:{0}, Name:{1}, {2}", p.ID, p.LastName, p.FirstName));                

//

The Dapper library and reflection.

Web Matrix (Microsoft Product)

How did I got involve in this

The more experienced with Dynamic Languages, the more you will miss their syntaxes working in C#.
Is there anything that we can do with?
- Reflection
- Generics
- Anonymous types
- Extension method
- Lambda expression/statment
- The keyword params
- The keyword dynamic and the class DynamicObject

DynamicSugar.Net

http://www.DynamicSugar.Net
- A library providing methods and classes inspired by the dynamic languages Python and JavaScript
- To write shorter and more readable source code in C# 4.0
- On GitHub.com
- On NuGet.org

It's all about Syntactic sugar.

Let's Start...

What can we learn about formatting string from JavaScript?

In `C#`

var firstName = "Fred";

Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Hello {0}",firstName));

In JavaScript

In JavaScript you may find this, which is not standard, but generally implemented via extension methods.

var firstName = "Fred";

print(String.format("Hello {0}",firstName));

print("Hello {0}".format(firstName));

print("Hello {firstName}".format( { firstName:"Fred" } ));

- Demo

What can we learn about formatting string from Python?

class Person(object):

  def __init__(self, name, age):
    self.Name = name
    self.Age  = age

  def Format(self, myFormat):
      return myFormat.format(**self.__dict__)

#######################################

p = Person("Fred", 45)
print p.Format("Name={Name}, Age={Age}")

- Demo

Object Literals [ ]

Python's List

i = 3

if i in [1,3,5]:
    print "in the list"

JavaScript's Array

This code is not standard JavaScript. The method Contains() and In() are
defined before this code as extension methods.

var i = 3;

if([1,3,5].Contains(i))
    console.log("in the list")

if(i.In([1,3,5]))
    console.log("in the list")

- Demo

What about a function returning multiple values?

What Python's syntax can say about that?

def ComputeValues(value):
    return True, 2.0*value, "Hello"

ok, amount, message = ComputeValues(2)

print ok:{0}, amount:{1}, message:{2}".format(ok, amount, message)

More about this

def ComputeValues(value):
    return True, 2.0*value, "Hello"

ok, amount, message = ComputeValues(2)

print "ok:%s, amount:%s, message:%s" % (ok, amount, message)


values = ComputeValues(2)

print "ok:%s, amount:%s, message:%s" % (values[0], values[1], values[2])

What JavaScript's syntax can say about that?

function ComputeValues(value) {

    return { ok:true, amount:2.0*value, message:"Hello" };
}

var r = ComputeValues(2);

print("ok:"             + r.ok);
print("amount:"         + r.amount);
print("message:"        + r.message);

- Demo

Object Literals { }

Passing a populated dictionary to a function very common in Dynamic Languages.
In Python and Ruby, there is a dedicated syntax just to do that.

This allow to pass an unlimited number of argument in very clear way, by defining the name and the value of each argument.

JavaScript - an Ajax call with jQuery.

$.ajax( 
    {
        type    : "POST",
        url     : "some.php",
        data    : "name=John&location=Boston",
        success : function(msg){ alert( "Data Saved: " + msg ); }
    }
);

Python

def MyFunction(**context):

    if context["debug"]:
        print "Debug on"

    if "America" in context["continent"]:
        print context["continent"]

MyFunction( debug=True,  continent="North America" )
MyFunction( debug=True,  continent="South America" )
MyFunction( debug=False, continent="Europe"        )

With C# 4.0

Named parameters allow a similar syntax,
The number of arguments is limited and have to be predefined.

void MyFunction(bool debug, string continent){
  // code
}

MyFunction(false, "Europe");

MyFunction(debug:false, continent:"Europe");

- Demo

Conclusion

There are a lot of good concepts in Dynamic Languages
- JavaScript is everywhere
- Learn it
  - Douglas Crockford Web site about JavaScript
C# is becoming more and more dynamic
- More API are going to using these new language Constructs.
  - ASP.NET MVC, Web Matrix.
- C# 5 will have a REPL (Read, Eval, Print, Loop)
- C# 5 will have Eval() method (this should not be good)
2 Urls:
- http://www.FredericTorres.Net
- http://www.DynamicSugar.Net

Trailing Comma and Internet Explorer 8

2011-05-15T01:20:00.000-04:00

I thought that JavaScript was supporting trailing comma as more language do now.
Well no do not use it. Internet Explorer does not break but will add an undefined extra element. Chrome, FireFox and Safari will not.

var l = [1,2,3,];
print(l.length);
for(var i=0; i<l.length; i++){
    print(""+i+"="+l[i]);
}

Function returning multiple values in C# and Tuple

2011-05-08T20:15:00.062-04:00

With DynamicSugar, I proposed a way for function to return multiple values by combining the dynamic keyword and anonymous type. Because anonymous type are internal it is necessary to use an extra step implemented by the method DS.Values().

static dynamic ComputeValues(int value){

    return DS.Values( new { returnValue = true, amount = 2.0 * value, message = "Hello" } );
}

var r = ComputeValues(2);
Console.WriteLine("returnStatus:{0}, amount:{1}, message:{2}", r.returnValue, r.amount, r.message);

//

Yesterday while presenting my talk "What can we learn from Python and JavaScript while programming in C# 4.0?" at code camp CC15 (MA)

Somebody suggested that using C# 4.0 Tuple could be a solution that would offer type checking and intellisense. So today I tried. Tuple do provide a solution for a function to return multiple values, with type checking and intellisense. But there is no way to name the values. We have to stick with Item1, Item2, Item3, which is not as expressive as name like amount or message.

public static Tuple<bool, double, string> ComputeValuesTuple(int value) {

    return new Tuple<bool, double, string> (true, 2.0*value, "Hello");
}

var t = ComputeValuesTuple(2);
Console.WriteLine("returnStatus:{0}, amount:{1}, message:{2}", t.Item1, t.Item2, t.Item3);

//

If type checking is a requirement this is actually not a bad solution.

Ruby is so cool, with its blocks

2011-04-29T22:24:00.000-04:00

Ruby is so cool, with its blocks

[1, 2, 3].each do |i|
    print i
end

Here is what can be done with C#, LINQ and DynamicSugar.net


DS.List(1, 2, 3).ForEach(i => {

    Console.WriteLine(i);
});

The Rise of the Micro-ORM or How C# is also a Dynamic Language

2011-04-22T22:32:00.116-04:00

It starts with Hanselminute episode the Rise of the Micro-ORM with Sam Saffron and Rob Conery.

Sam Saffron wrote the micro-ORM Dapper and Rob Connery wrote the micro-ORM massive. Both ORMs are written in less than 400 lines of C# code.

What is interesting to me is how they both used constructs borrowed from Dynamic Languages to write their ORM and making the same point I made by writing DynamicSugar.net

Both ORM use
- Anonymous Type to pass nicely a series of name/value.
- The keyword dynamic and the class Expando to deal with the passed anonymous types as well as the accessing the data returned by SELECT statments

Massive Sample:

//
var dog = connection.ExecuteMapperQuery<dog>("select Age = @Age, Id = @Id", new { Age = (int?)null, Id = guid });
//

Massive Sample:

// 
var newID = table.Insert(new {CategoryName = "Buck Fify Stuff", Description = "Things I like"});
//

In Massive code, the anonymous types are converted into dictionaries using reflection like in DynamicSugar.net.

Dapper is about performance and therefore does not use reflection to access the properties of the anonymous types. Instead cached Dynamic Methods containing specific generated IL
allow to extract the information. That sounds complex, but it is not to bad.
See file SqlMapper.cs method CreateParamInfoGenerator().

For DynamicSugar.net I like to get rid of reflection to access anonymous types, in the same way. But before using IL, I tried using Expression Trees which I got working, and then I discovered FastReflection which provided exactly what I needed including the caching. I did have a problem with a property containing a generic type and therefore I decided to keep reflection for the first version.

How to Write a Spelling Corrector? From Python to C# with Dynamic Sugar

2011-04-17T00:26:00.028-04:00

There is a famous Python code sample named How to Write a Spelling Corrector?, written by Peter Norvig in 21 line of code (No counting the white line).

And different people have written their own version in different languages, see at the end of the Norvig's page, including 3 different versions written in C# by Lorenzo Stoakes.

I thought it would interresting to see what kind of result we could get using C# and Dynamic Sugar.net.

My C# version is 69 lines of code including white line, the Norvig's version is 30 lines. A ratio of 2.3 which is actually pretty good, it tells me that using DynamicSugar.net allowed me to reduce the number of line.
Counting line is definitely not a very relevant indicator except that it give you a ball park.

So here it is

First the python code

import re, collections

def words(text): return re.findall('[a-z]+', text.lower()) 

def train(features):
    model = collections.defaultdict(lambda: 1)
    for f in features:
        model[f] += 1
    return model

NWORDS = train(words(file('big.txt').read()))

alphabet = 'abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz'

def edits1(word):
   splits     = [(word[:i], word[i:]) for i in range(len(word) + 1)]
   deletes    = [a + b[1:] for a, b in splits if b]
   transposes = [a + b[1] + b[0] + b[2:] for a, b in splits if len(b)>1]
   replaces   = [a + c + b[1:] for a, b in splits for c in alphabet if b]
   inserts    = [a + c + b     for a, b in splits for c in alphabet]
   return set(deletes + transposes + replaces + inserts)

def known_edits2(word):
    return set(e2 for e1 in edits1(word) for e2 in edits1(e1) if e2 in NWORDS)

def known(words): return set(w for w in words if w in NWORDS)

def correct(word):
    candidates = known([word]) or known(edits1(word)) or known_edits2(word) or [word]
    return max(candidates, key=NWORDS.get)

My C# code

class SpellCorrector {

    Dictionary<string, int> DWORDS;
    const string            ALPHABET = "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz";

    public SpellCorrector() {

        DWORDS = this.Train(this.Words(System.IO.File.ReadAllText("big.txt")));
    }
    List<string> Words(string text) {

        return Regex.Matches(text.ToLower(), "[a-z]+").ToList();
    }
    Dictionary<string, int> Train(List<string> features) {

        var model = new Dictionary<string, int>();
        foreach (var f in features)
            model[f] = model.Get(f, 0) + 1;
        return model;
    }
    class StringPair {

        public string a, b;
    }
    List<string> Edits1(string word) {
            
        var splits     = DS.Range(word.Length+1).Map(i => new StringPair { a = word.Slice(0,i), b = word.Slice(i) } );
        var deletes    = splits.Map(s => s.a + s.b.Slice(1));
        var transposes = splits.Map(s => s.b.Length > 1 ? s.a + s.b[1] + s.b[0] + s.b.Slice(2) : "**");
                    
        var replaces = new List<string>();
        foreach (var s in splits)
            foreach (var c in ALPHABET)
                if(s.b.Length>0)
                    replaces.Add(s.a + c + s.b.Slice(1, -1));

        var inserts = new List<string>();
        foreach (var s in splits)
            foreach (var c in ALPHABET)
                inserts.Add(s.a + c + s.b);
            
        return deletes.Add(transposes).Add(replaces).Add(inserts);
    }
    List<string> KnownEdits2(string word) {

        var l = new List<string>();
        foreach(var e1 in this.Edits1(word))
            foreach(var e2 in Edits1(e1))
                if(this.DWORDS.ContainsKey(e2))
                    l.Add(e2);
        return l;
    }
    List<string> Known(List<string> words){

        return words.Filter(w => this.DWORDS.ContainsKey(w));
    }
    public string Correct(string word){

        var candidateWords = this.Known(DS.List(word));
        if(candidateWords.Count==0)
            candidateWords = this.Known(this.Edits1(word));
        if(candidateWords.Count==0)
            candidateWords = this.KnownEdits2(word);
        if(candidateWords.Count==0)
            candidateWords = DS.List(word);

        return this.DWORDS.Max(candidateWords);         
    }
}

Browser Benchmarks on my Windows XP 32b - Safari 5.0.4 FireFox 4.0 Opera 11.10 - IE 8 - Chrome 10

2011-04-12T21:24:00.032-04:00

Machine:Dell Inspiron 6400, running Windows XP.

BenchMarks: SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark

Chrome 10	397.8ms +/- 1.7%
FireFox 4.0	417.6ms +/- 3.4%
Opera 11.10	440.8ms +/- 5.7%
Safari 5.0.4	591.4ms +/- 5.5%

The smaller the faster.

BenchMarks: V8 Benchmark Suite - version 6

Chrome 10	5871
FireFox 4.0	2483
Opera 11.10	2587
Safari 5.0.4	1843

The higher the better.

BenchMarks: My Fibonaci Non Recursive benchmark

Here is the result in seconds.

Browser	Execution Time	Performance Compared To Chrome
IE 9	7.3	9.1 slower
Safari 5	4.3	5.4 slower
Opera 11	4.5	5.6 slower
Firefox 4	3.6	4.5 slower
Chrome 10	0.8	same

The smaller the faster.
Now I know why I prefer Chrome.

JavaScript Engine Performance: IE 9.0, Safari 5.0, Chrome 10.0, FireFix 5.0, Opera 11.

2011-03-25T21:55:00.079-04:00

Which one of this JavaScript engine is the fastest?
This test worth only what is worth as it only execute a very limited subset of the JavaScript language, but it should give us a first indication.

This is my first test, I will replace the test code with something more demanding in the future.

First the source code

function print(s){
    var oldValue = jQuery("#Output").val();
    oldValue    += "\r\n" + s;
    jQuery("#Output").val(oldValue);
}
function Fibonnaci(n){

    var previous = -1;
    var result   =  1;

    for(var i=0; i < n+1; i++){

        var sum  = result + previous;
        previous = result;
        result   = sum;
    }
    return result;
}
function Test() {
    try {
        print("Running...");

        var startTime = new Date().getTime();

        for (var t = 0; t < 1000; t++) {

            for (var i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {

                var v = Fibonnaci(i);
            }
        }
        var endTime = new Date().getTime();
        var time = (endTime - startTime)/1000;
        print("Duration:" + time);
    }
    catch (ex) {
        alert(ex);
    }
}

Here is the result in seconds.

Browser	Execution Time	Performance Compared To Chrome
IE 9	7.3	9.1 slower
Safari 5	4.3	5.4 slower
Opera 11	4.5	5.6 slower
Firefox 4	3.6	4.5 slower
Chrome 10	0.8	same

Now I know why I prefer Chrome.

DynamicTextFileManager

2011-03-15T22:52:00.000-04:00

Playing again with the C# 4.0 DynamicObject class. The class DynamicTextFileManager provides a different way to read and write text files.

var path       = String.Format(@"{0}\DynamicTextFile", Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP"));
dynamic dtfm   = new DynamicTextFileManager(path, "txt");

dtfm.MyNewFile = "Hello World"; // Write "Hello World" in the file %TEMP%\DynamicTextFile\MyNewFile.txt

string s       = dtfm.MyNewFile; // Read the content of the file %TEMP%\DynamicTextFile\MyNewFile.txt

Function returning multiple values in C#

2011-03-12T23:24:00.244-05:00

I always like the Python feature allowing functions to return multiple values. Behind the scene it is just about returning a list. But the Python syntax provides the perfect amount of syntactics sugar.

def ComputeValues():
    return 1, 2.0, "Hello"

a, b, c = ComputeValues()

print a, b, c

JavaScript also provides a interesting and different solution, may be not as good as Python, by returning an instance.

function ComputeValues(){

    return { returnValue:1, amount:2.0, message:"Hello" };
}
var r = ComputeValues();
print("returnValue:"    + r.returnValue);
print("amount:"         + r.amount);
print("message:"        + r.message);

In C#, I hate declaring ref and out parameters, they require more line of code, make code more difficult to read and create side effects (functional programming).

I came up with one solution with .NET 3.5 3 months ago, which I never liked. While working on the post Nice syntax to read JSon in C#, which is based on new C# 4.0 class DynamicObject, I saw a solution. The DynamicObject allows to implement among other things what is called in Ruby method_missing and in Python getattr().

I came up with different syntaxes in the past weeks, including one using an infinite list of optional parameters, but I finally settled with passing an anonymous type.

Here a sample:

// Here is a function returning 3 values
static dynamic ComputeValues() {
                        
    return DS.Values( new { a=1, b=2.0, c="Hello" } );
}
// Here is how to use the results
static void MultiValuesSample() {
                        
    var values = ComputeValues();
    Console.Write(values.a);
    Console.Write(values.b);
    Console.Write(values.c);
}

And there is no need to cast values

static void MultiValuesSample() {
                        
    var values = ComputeValues();
    int a      = values.a;
    double b   = values.b;
    string c   = values.c;
}

Wait a minute why not use this syntax?

// Here is a function returning 3 values

static dynamic ComputeValues() {
                        
    return new { a=1, b=2.0, c="Hello" };
}

If the caller and callee are located in different assembly, the anonymous type will not be accessible by the caller because an anonymous type is defined as internal. The function DS.Values() return an instance of the class DynamicSugar.MultiValues which takes care of the problem.

Why not use the Expando Object? The Expando Object works but does not allow to defines the values in one expression. The Expando Object would require one statement per name/value.

The MultiValues class is part of my library Dynamic Sugar # available soon on codeplex.com and as
a NuGet package.

Nice syntax to read JSon in C#

2011-03-12T13:47:00.073-05:00

I am working on a prototype involving MongoDB and HTML5, so it is going to be a lot about JavaScript.
So I want to able to define my configuration files in JavaScript/JSON, rather than using IronPython, like I did in the past. I turned to Json.NET to parse the JSon and came up with this idea.

My JSON File

{
  'Name'    : 'Apple',
  'Expiry'  : '2000-01-02T00:00:00.000Z',
  'Price'   : 3.99,
  'Quantity': 123,
  'Sizes'   : ['Small','Medium','Large']
}

My C# Syntax to get access to the properties of my instance

dynamic config  = new JSonConfiguration(JSon_TestString);

    DateTime expiry = config.Expiry;
    string name     = config.Name;
    double price    = config.Price;            
    int quantity    = config.Quantity;
    string size0    = config.Sizes[0]; 
  
    int? quantity2  = config.Quantity2;

If a property does not exist the value returned is null. Date are supported as described, as you may not know JSON does not support Date, so they is no real standard.
While I was at it I also added this syntax:

dynamic config  = new JSonConfiguration(JSon_TestString);

    DateTime expiry = config["Expiry"];
    string name     = config["Name"];
    double price    = config["Price"];
    int quantity    = config["Quantity"];
    string size0    = config["Sizes"][0];

    int? quantity2  = config["Quantity2"];

The class JSonConfiguration, does not support nested objects, it is just a simple config file reader.
Here is the magic class.

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using DynamicSugarSharp;
using System.Dynamic;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Linq;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Converters;

public class JSonConfiguration : DynamicObject {

        JObject _jSonObject = null;

        public JSonConfiguration(string json){

            _jSonObject = JObject.Parse(json); 
        }
        public override bool TryGetIndex(GetIndexBinder binder, Object[] indexes, out Object result){
            
            return __TryGetMember(indexes[0].ToString(), out result);
        }
        public override bool TryGetMember(GetMemberBinder binder, out object result) {
            
            return __TryGetMember(binder.Name, out result);
        }
        private bool IsDate(string s) {

            // "2000-12-15T22:11:03.055Z"
            var rx = @"^""\d{2,4}-\d{1,2}-\d{1,2}T\d{1,2}:\d{1,2}:\d{1,2}.*Z""$";
            return System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex.IsMatch(s,rx);            
        }
        private bool __TryGetMember(string Name, out object result) {

            result = _jSonObject[Name];

            if(result!=null){

                if(IsDate(result.ToString())){ // Date

                    result = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DateTime>(result.ToString(), new IsoDateTimeConverter());
                }
            }
            return true;
        }
    }

Dynamic Sugar # Library's Format Method - Another Sample

2011-03-11T22:27:00.010-05:00

Here is another example of the Dynamic Sugar # Library's Format Method.

First we have 2 classes, which overrides the ToString() method and use the Format method as defined as an extension method.
The ToString() method from class Person, will invoke the property DrivingLicenses which will trigger the ToString() method of the class License.
This example shows how the method Format(), format List<T>.

You can see my screencast.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using DynamicSugarSharp;

namespace ScreenCastConsole {

    public class License {

        public DateTime Date;
        public string   Type;

        public override string ToString() {
            return this.Format("Type:{Type} - Date :{Date:yyyy-MM-dd}");
        }
    }
    public class Person {

        public string        LastName  { get; set; }
        public string        FirstName { get; set; }
        public DateTime      BirthDate { get; set; }
        public List<License> DrivingLicenses = null;

        public override string ToString() {
            var format = @"
Name            :{LastName}, {FirstName}
BirthDate       :{BirthDate:yyyy-MM-dd}
DrivingLicenses :{DrivingLicenses}        
";
            return this.Format(format);
        }
    }
    public static class ExtensionMethods {

        public static string Format(this Person person, string format, params object[] args) {
            return ExtendedFormat.Format(person, format, args);
        }
        public static string Format(this License person, string format, params object[] args) {
            return ExtendedFormat.Format(person, format, args);
        }
    }
    class Program {

        static void Main(string [] args) {

            var p = new Person(){
                LastName        = "TORRES",
                FirstName       = "Frederic",
                BirthDate       = new DateTime(1964, 12, 11),
                DrivingLicenses = DS.List(
                    new License() { Date = new DateTime(1983, 1, 2), Type = "Cars"      },
                    new License() { Date = new DateTime(1985, 4, 5), Type = "MotoBike"  }
                )
            };
            Console.WriteLine(p.ToString());            
            Console.WriteLine("Hit enter to end the application");
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
}

Here is this output

Name            :TORRES, Frederic
BirthDate       :1964-12-11
DrivingLicenses :[Type:Cars - Date :1983-01-02, Type:MotoBike - Date :1985-04-05]

Hit enter to end the application

Dynamic Sugar # Library's Format Method

2011-03-09T22:27:00.000-05:00

Dynamic Sugar # Library provides methods and functions inspired by the dynamic/functional language Python to write more readable code in C#.
My favorite method is the static member Format, which also can be turned into an extension method to be assigned to any class.

It first started with this Python code:

class Person(object):

  def __init__(self, name, age):
    self.name = name
    self.age  = age

  def Format(self, format):
      return format.format(**self.__dict__)

p = Person("Fred", 45)
print p.Format("name={name}, age={age}")

With reflection and extension methods, I obtained this code, which I like.
You can define how to format the value of the properties (see the property BirthDay below).
And the method know hows to output nicely List<T>, Dictionary<K,V> and Array.

Person p = new Person() {

    LastName        = "TORRES"  ,
    FirstName       = "Frederic",
    BirthDay        = new DateTime(1964,12, 11),
    DrivingLicenses = DS.List("Car", "Moto Bike")
};
Console.WriteLine( // Call 4 properties in the format
    p.Format("FullName:'{LastName},{FirstName}', BirthDay:{BirthDay:MM/dd/yyyy}, DrivingLicenses:{DrivingLicenses}")
);

//

Here is the output

FullName:'TORRES,Frederic', BirthDay:12/11/1964, DrivingLicenses:["Car", "Moto Bike"]

You can also format based on a dictionary, like this

var format = "LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}, Age:{Age:000}";

var Values = new Dictionary<string, object>() {

    { "LastName" , "TORRES"   },
    { "FirstName", "Frederic" },
    { "Age"      , 45         }
};
Console.WriteLine(ExtendedFormat.Format(format, Values));

And while I was at it, I added support for the ExpandoObject, which make this kind of simple formatting more concise

var format    = "LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}, Age:{Age:000}";
            
dynamic bag   = new ExpandoObject();
bag.LastName  = "TORRES";
bag.FirstName = "Frederic";
bag.Age       = 45;
            
Console.WriteLine(ExtendedFormat.Format(format, bag));

//

Tracing Program Execution, My Dream Came True

2011-02-27T23:20:00.072-05:00

Tracing, has been an obsession of mine for a long time. Why? Because I want to be ready when a customer calls and says that the application crashed and just before displayed:

"Object reference not set to an instance of an object"

How can you troubleshoot this or any form of unexpected error? If you do not have a backup plan. Installing any debugging tools on a customer production server is generally a no-no.

What I want is to be able to turn a switch and ask the customer to redo the same scenario,
but this time we are going to record in a file

All the method calls with all the parameters values
All the exceptions and where they were caught or raised.
All information that the developer, saw as important to troubleshoot the application

In 1998, with VB6 I used a custom tool that would insert in the source code

Error handlers for each method, and trace the error
At the top of each method a call to a specific function passing the class name, the method name and the parameters values.

Around 2005 I wrote the same thing in C#, and thanks to reflection it was easier and the source code needed in each method was smaller. But I still had to insert myself call to trace methods and exceptions.

AOP
I knew about AOP (Aspect Oriented Programming), and I knew it was the solution, but I did not find a framework simple enough that could do what I wanted. I knew about the Spring.net framework and Unity and Castle Windsor dependency injection framework to support some level of AOP. But they require to use interfaces and virtual methods all over the place.

I knew that the company preemptive.com has some kind of solution, I never looked at it.

I think that the library used by Code Contract to inject code in an assembly after compilation is available to anybody, if you look for it.

This week, I listened to DotNetRocks episode 640 Gael Fraiteur is Still PostSharp!.

Well PostSharp is what I was totally looking for.

I installed it and the Trace sample works great, but this information displayed is not that fantastic.

Starting with the sample I wrote my own Aspect, that is the word, to implement tracing to a file the way I want it. Among other thing, when parameters of type Array, List<T> and Dictionary<K,V> are used the content is traced, the return value of each function is also traced. And every thing with the right indentation.

The Trace
Here is a screenshot of fLogViewer.net viewing a trace file. As you can see parameters name and value are part of the trace. Dictionary content are defined with { } and list or array are defined with [ ] (I like Python). Exception caught or un caught will be traced.

The Source code
All you need to do is to applied one attribute to a class, this is the magic of PostSharp and set a logger instance.

using DynamicSugarSharp;

[Tracer]
class TracedClass {

  // code here
}

static void Main(string[] args) {

  Tracer.Logger = new CachedTextFileWriter();
}

The FullTraceAttribute Attribute require an object implementing the ILogger interface,
to start tracing. The class CachedTextFileWriter implement tracing to a file.
A file is created in the %TEMP% folder based on the name of the executing program or you can set the property FileName. Writing to the file is temporarily cached to avoid writing to the disk too often and slow down too much the application. Now be aware that when the trace is on this will slow down the application.

Using Tracing with ASP.NET (MVC or not)

In the past I used my own manual AOP to implement tracing for ASP.NET application. When I was troubleshooting a problem there was most likely one user on the production system. So every thing worked out great. But it is not thread safe. Now creating a thread safe singleton to be used under the ASP.NET framework should be possible.

Dynamic Sugar Sharp Library

I made my FullTrace Attribute part of the Dynamic Sugar Sharp Library as I will release it soon on codeplex.com.

To use the attribute you must

Download and install PostSharp. To get a community free license click on

The Start Menu -> PostSharp -> PostSharp User Option
Request a free license

Reference the assembly PostSharp.dll.
Reference the assembly DynamicSugarSharp.dll
Mark you classes with the attribute[DynamicSugarSharp.FullTrace]

Dynamic Puzzle in C#

2011-02-19T00:32:00.024-05:00

I was designing an API using the dynamic keyword influenced by the ASP.NET MVC router API and I faced a run time error that I could not explain. In the end I turned this into a C# puzzle question.

Step 1

Create a console application and paste this code in the Program.cs namespace.

public class MyClass {



    public static string GetID(dynamic d) {



        return d.ID;

    }

}

class Program {



    static void Main(string [] args) {



        var o = new { ID = "123" };

        Console.WriteLine(MyClass.GetID(o));



        Console.ReadLine();

    }

}

Run the application. The application displays 123.

Step 2

Add a new class library project, move the class MyClass in the library. Reference the library. Run the application. An exception will be raise by the line "return d.ID;".

Explain why ?

Beautifull

The watch window tell me that my instance d has an ID property and the exception tell me it does not.

Initializing a Dictionary of List with the Dynamic Sugar library in C#

2011-02-13T02:04:00.003-05:00

The Dynamic Sugar Sharp library is all about syntactic sugar. Here is one example.

I want to initialize a Dictionary containing a key and a List.

In standard C#

var dic1 = new Dictionary<string, List<int>>() { 

  { "L1" , new List<int>() { 1,2,3 } },
  { "L2" , new List<int>() { 1,2,3 } },
};

In C# with Dynamic Sugar

var dic2 = DS.Dictionary(
                
  L1:DS.List(1,2,3),
  L2:DS.List(1,2,3)
);

Fibonnaci() - JavaScript (Node.Js v.0.2.6) versus C# 4.0 on Windows XP 32b

2011-02-12T01:16:00.000-05:00

In my previous post I compared the speed of execution of Python, Ruby and JavaScript V8 computing the Fibonnaci() function written in iterative mode.
The speed of JavaScript V8, is so incredible that I tried comparing it against C#.
In this sample, C# is twice faster but still, this explain why JavaScript and Node.js
are so popular.

JavaScript V8 tested on Node.js

function Fibonnaci(n){

    var previous = -1;
    var result   =  1;

    for(var i=0; i < n+1; i++){

        var sum  = result + previous;
        previous = result;
        result   = sum;
    }
    return result;
}

console.log("Node.js "+new Date());

for(var t=0; t < 1000; t++){

    for(var i=0; i < 1000; i++){

        var v = Fibonnaci(i);
    }
}
console.log(new Date());

C# .NET 4.0 x86

static long Fibonnaci(long n){

    long previous = -1;
    long result   =  1;
    for(var i=0; i < n+1; i++){
        long sum  = result + previous;
        previous = result;
        result   = sum;
    }
    return result;
}
static void Main(string[] args) {

    Console.WriteLine("C# 4.0 {0}", DateTime.Now);

    for(var t=0; t < 1000; t++){

        for(var i=0; i < 1000; i++){

            var v = Fibonnaci(i);
        }
    }
    Console.WriteLine("{0}", DateTime.Now);
    Console.ReadLine();
}

The results

JavaScript
Sat Feb 12 2011 06:04:11
Sat Feb 12 2011 06:04:17
6 seconds

C#
2/12/2011 1:10:53 AM
2/12/2011 1:10:56 AM
3 seconds

Speed of execution of the Fibonnaci() in Python v2.7, Ruby v1.9.2 and JavaScript (Node.Js v.0.2.6)

2011-02-12T00:56:00.000-05:00

This week i was writing some JavaScript running on Node.JS (Windows XP 32B), to generate data to be saved in MongoDB once the script is executed in MongoDB console.

I was creating 1 million invoices like the one below generating random date, random number of items (max 10) and pulling customers and products information out of lists randomly.

It was so fast, I thought there was something wrong with my code. Well there was nothing wrong
with my code JavaScript V8 is just super fast.

This is the JSon of a typical invoice generated once in MongoDB.

{
"InvoiceID"     : 5000,
"Customer"      : { "Name" : "Hot Stuff Foods", "ID" : 22 },
"ArchiveDate"   : "Tue May 20 2008 00:00:00 GMT-0400 (Eastern Daylight Time)",
"Date"          : "Sat Feb 12 2011 00:29:08 GMT-0500 (Eastern Standard Time)",
"TotalInvoice"  : 188.11,
"Status"        : "Unknown",
"Items" : [
        {
                "Product" : {
                        "Name"  : "CHI-CHI'S Con Queso",
                        "Price" : 1.3,
                        "ID"    : 2
                },
                "Price"     : 1.3,
                "Quantity"  : 8,
                "TotalItem" : 10.4
        },
        {
                "Product" : {
                        "Name"  : "Di Lusso Mediterranean Mixed Olives",
                        "Price" : 8.99,
                        "ID"    : 182
                },
                "Price"     : 8.99,
                "Quantity"  : 9,
                "TotalItem" : 80.91
        },
        {
                "Product" : {
                        "Name"  : "CHI-CHI'S Fiesta Sweet Corn Cake Mix",
                        "Price" : 8.9,
                        "ID"    : 56
                },
                "Price"     : 8.9,
                "Quantity"  : 2,
                "TotalItem" : 17.8
        },
        {
                "Product" : {
                        "Name"  : "CHI-CHI'S Fiesta PlatesT Creamy Chipotle Chicken",
                        "Price" : 7.8,
                        "ID"    : 12
                },
                "Price"     : 7.8,
                "Quantity"  : 1,
                "TotalItem" : 7.8
        },
        {
                "Product" : {
                        "Name"  : "CHI-CHI'S Fiesta Sweet Corn Cake Mix",
                        "Price" : 8.9,
                        "ID"    : 56
                },
                "Price"     : 8.9,
                "Quantity"  : 8,
                "TotalItem" : 71.2
        }
        ]
}

So I decided to compare Python, Ruby and JavaScript using Fibonnaci() in iterative mode.

Python

import datetime

def Fibonnaci(n):
    previous = -1
    result   =  1
    for i in range(n+1):
        sum         = result + previous
        previous    = result
        result      = sum
    return result

print "Python %s" % datetime.datetime.now()

for t in range(100):
    for i in range(1000):
        v = Fibonnaci(i)

print  "%s" % (datetime.datetime.now())

Ruby

def Fibonnaci(n)
    previous = -1
    result   =  1
    for i in (1..n)
        sum         = result + previous
        previous    = result
        result      = sum
    end
    result
end

p "Ruby #{Time.now}"
for t in (1..100)
    for i in (1..1000)
        v = Fibonnaci(i)
    end
end
p "#{Time.now}"

JavaScript V8 tested on Node.js

function Fibonnaci(n){

    var previous = -1;
    var result   =  1;

    for(var i=0; i < n+1; i++){

        var sum  = result + previous;
        previous = result;
        result   = sum;
    }
    return result;
}

console.log("Node.js "+new Date());

for(var t=0; t < 100; t++){

    for(var i=0; i < 1000; i++){

        var v = Fibonnaci(i);
    }
}
console.log(new Date());

The results

I must be doing something wrong with my Ruby code. I do not understand why it is so slow.
But the speed of execution on JavaScript with V8 is incredible.

Python
2011-02-12 00:51:50
2011-02-12 00:52:03
13s

Ruby
2011-02-12 00:48:38
2011-02-12 00:49:24
46s

Node.js
Sat Feb 12 2011 05:50:50
Sat Feb 12 2011 05:50:50
1s

Install Node JS On Windows 2008 and Windows XP

2011-02-05T11:43:00.000-05:00

Installing Node JS on Windows 2008 and XP, took me some time and a lot of Googling.
Plus, if you are like me: not a Linux and Cygwin guy, that's even more a challenge.
Anyway I was able to make it.

Here is a summary:

Remarks: On Windows XP thing are simpler, I will mention step that can be skipped for Windows XP. Different version of node.js seems to have different problems. So first I will install and compile node-v0.2.0.
At the of the post I will show how to download and compile node-v0.2.6.
At this time 2011/2/5, I have problems building v0.3.x. I decided not to look into it.

This post is based on information I gathered on the following blog posts and my own experiments:

- Step by step instructions to install NodeJS on Windows
- Node.js on Windows 7 under Cygwin, "FixImage error 13" problem
- cyg-apt

Installing cygwin.com

- Goto http://www.cygwin.com/ and download setup.exe
- Run setup.exe as an administrator

- Filter on python and install all from the python section

- Filter on make and install all from the devel section

- Filter on G++ and install all from the devel section

- Filter on wget and install all from the devel section

Update file rebaseall (Not need for XP)
- With an editor open the file "C:\cygwin\bin/bin/rebaseall"
- Goto line 83 and comment line TmpDir="${TMP:-${TEMP:-/tmp}}"
- Add this line: TmpDir="/tmp"

- Goto line 110 and add this extra filter
-e '/\/sys-root\/mingw\/bin/d'

Run rebaseall (Not needed for XP)
- open a command prompt as administrator
- goto C:\cygwin\bin
- run ash.exe
- enter: rebaseall -v
- quit ash anyway you can (click the close icon)

Get the source code of node.js v0.2.0
- Open the Cygwin console
- Run this batch file as administrator C:\cygwin\Cygwin.bat
- type:pwd [enter]
- You should be located in your folder folder /home/ftorres which is on the disk C:\cygwin\home\ftorres
- To download source code and compile Node.js enter the following command

     wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-v0.2.0.tar.gz
     tar xvf node-v0.2.0.tar.gz
     cd node-v0.2.0/
     ./configure
     make
     make install

- To check that node js has been built enter
   C:\>node --version

Testing helloWorld.js
- from http://nodejs.org/ download the hello world sample
- save it to a file in the current directory
- run node.exe HelloWorld.js
- Enter the following url in any browser http://127.0.0.1:8124

Get the source code of node.js v0.2.6

- Open the Cygwin console

- Run this batch file as administrator C:\cygwin\Cygwin.bat

- type:pwd [enter]

- You should be located in your folder folder /home/ftorres which is on the disk C:\cygwin\home\ftorres

- To download source code and compile Node.js enter the following command

wget http://nodejs.org/dist/node-v0.2.6.tar.gz

tar xvf node-v0.2.6.tar.gz

cd node-v0.2.6/

./configure --without-ssl

make

make install

- To check that node js has been built enter

C:\>node --version

Issue with DNS

I tried to write a program that was downloading an rss feed and was faced with DNS error.

I find this post Getting Started with Node.js on Windows from Matthew Podwysocki,
which had the solution.

with the notepad create the file C:\cygwin\etc\resolv.conf and paste the following:

nameserver 8.8.8.8
nameserver 8.8.4.4

The Dynamic Sugar Library

2011-01-30T00:32:00.283-05:00

The Dynamic Sugar Library provides methods, functions and classes inspired by the dynamic language Python and JavaScript to write more readable code in C#.

It's all about Syntactic Sugar. Obviously this is based on my own taste.

Is it syntactic saccharin? You decide!

Some extensions method to the class List<T> are borrowed from the javascript library underscore.js.

But Why?

To make C# code shorter, simpler and cleaner.

Let's look at a first example - Formatting string

Let's format a string

// Regular syntax
var s = string.Format("[{0}] Age={1:000}", "TORRES", 45);

// Dynamic Sugar syntax
var s = "[{LastName}] Age={Age:000}".Format( new { LastName="TORRES", Age=45 } );

//

The new Format() method support the following as parameter any POCO object, Anonymous Type, IDictionary<K,V>, ExpandoObject and DynamicSugar.DynamicBag.

Let's look at a second example - How to instanciate, populate and use a List<T>

Let's check if one value exist in a list.

// Regular syntax
List<int> someIntegers = new List<int>() { 1, 2, 3 };
int i                  = 2;
if(someIntegers.Contains(i)){

    Console.WriteLine("2 is in the list");
}

Here is the syntax with DynamicSugar

int i = 2;
if(i.In(DS.List( 1, 2, 3 ))){

    Console.WriteLine("2 is in the list");
}

Let's look at a third example - How to instanciate, populate and pass a dictionary to a method


void InitializeSettings(IDictionary<string, object> settings){
            
}

// Regular syntax
InitializeSettings( new Dictionary<string, object>() {
    { "UserName", "RRabbit"  },
    { "Domain"  , "ToonTown" },
    { "UserID"  , 234873     }
});

// Dynamic Sugar syntax
InitializeSettings( DS.Dictionary( new {
    UserName = "RRabbit" ,
    Domain   = "ToonTown",
    UserID   = 234873
}));

Let's look at a forth example - Function returning multiple values

A C# function can only return one value, but with Dynamic Sugar we can change that.

// Here is a function returning 3 values using Dynamic Sugar
static dynamic ComputeValues() {
                        
    return DS.Values( new { a=1, b=2.0, c="Hello" } );
}

// Here is how to use the results
static void MultiValuesSample() {
                        
    var values = ComputeValues();
    Console.Write(values.a);
    Console.Write(values.b);
    Console.Write(values.c);
}

Extension Methods For Classes

Format() Method

Extend any class with the method Format(), and start formating string using the properties name of the class. Post fix the name with ":format" and format the value of the property.
The method knows how to format the following types: List<T>, array, Dictionary<K,V> and user custom types.
You can also call member function with no input parameters.
The method fall back on the String.Format(), so you can also combine "{0}" in the format.

Person p = new Person() {

    LastName        = "TORRES"  ,
    FirstName       = "Frederic",
    BirthDay        = new DateTime(1964,12, 11),
    DrivingLicenses = DS.List("Car", "Moto Bike")
};
Console.WriteLine( // Call 4 properties in the format
    p.Format("FullName:'{LastName},{FirstName}', BirthDay:{BirthDay:MM/dd/yyyy}, DrivingLicenses:{DrivingLicenses}")
);
Console.WriteLine( // Call a method in the format
    p.Format("LoadInformation:{LoadInformation()} ")
);

Output:
FullName:'TORRES,Frederic', BirthDay:12/11/1964, DrivingLicenses:["Car", "Moto Bike"]
LoadInformation:Information

Static Members

Range()

Instead of writing this

for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
                
    Console.WriteLine(i);
}

Write that

foreach(var i in DS.Range(5)){

    Console.WriteLine(i);
}

// Definition
public static List<int> Range(int max);
public static List<int> Range(int max, int increment);
public static List<int> Range(int start, int max, int increment);

List() Method

To quickly create a List<T>.

var l1 = DS.List(1, 2, 3, 4);
var l2 = DS.List("A", "B", "C");

Dictionary() Method

To quickly create a IDictionary<String, Object>.

var d1 = DS.Dictionary( LastName:"Pascal", FirstName:"Blaise" );

Extension Methods For All Types

In() Method

The in operator in Python, is translated with an extension method named In() available to all the types in the .NET framework. It is may be a little bit pushy.
You must implement the method

public override bool Equals(object obj);

for your custom classes to be able to use the function In().

Here is what you can write :

int i = 1;

if(i.In(1,2,3)){

}

List<int> l = DS.List(1,2,3);

if(i.In(l)){

}

var state = "good";

if(state.In("good","bad","soso")){

}

enum CustomerType {

  Good,
  Bad,
  SoSo
}

var customerType = CustomerType.Good;

if(customerType.In(CustomerType.Good, CustomerType.SoSo)){

}

Dictionary() Method

The Dictionary() is an extension method that can be applied to any POCO.
This is the equivalent of the Python __dict__ member.

// Extension method for the class Person
public static IDictionary<string,object> Dictionary(this Person person, List<string> propertiesToInclude = null) {
    return DynamicSugar.ReflectionHelper.GetDictionary(person, propertiesToInclude);
}
// Usage
Person p = new Person() {

  LastName  = "TORRES",
  FirstName = "Frederic",
  BirthDay  = new DateTime(1964, 12, 11)
};
foreach(var k in p.Dictionary()){

  Console.WriteLine("{0}='{1}'", k.Key, k.Value);
}

Extension Methods For List<T>

All methods return a brand new List<T>.

Map() and Format() Method

The method Map() allow to process each element of a list and return a new list of the same type.
The method Format() for a List<T> allow to format a list into a string.

// Compute the square values of a list

var l = DS.List(1,2,3,4).Map( e => e*e );
Console.WriteLine(l.Format()); // => 1, 4, 9, 16

var l2 = DS.Map( DS.Range(10), e => e*e );
Console.WriteLine(l2.Format("'{0}'", ",")); // => '0','1','4','9','16','25','36','49','64','81'

//

Inject() Method

Inject() inspired by Ruby. The function re-uses the .NET Aggregate() function.
Yes, it is not exactly the same, as the end result type must be the same as the type of the list.

// Sum the values from 0 to 4

var l = DS.Range(5).Inject( (v,e) => v += e ) ;
var l = DS.List(0,1,2,3,4).Inject( (v,e) => v += e ) ;

Filter() Method

Filter is the same as FindAll(), I just prefer Filter().

var l = DS.Range(10).Filter(e => e % 2 == 0);
Console.WriteLine( l.Format() );

Map() Method

This map function can only return a list of same type, after all C# is not Python.

string MyConst = "Hi ";
var l          = DS.List("fred", "joe", "diane").Map(e => MyConst + e));
// => ["Hi fred", "Hi joe", "Hi diane"]

ToFile() and FromFile() Methods

To write and read List<T> from a text file where T is a value type.

var l1        = DS.Range(10);
var fileName  = @"{0}\DSSharpLibrary_UnitTests.txt".format(Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP"));

l1.ToFile(fileName, true);

var l2        = DS.FromFile<int>(fileName);

DS.AssertListEqual(l1, l2);

Include() Method

var l1 = DS.Range(10);

if(l1.Include(5)){

}
if(l1.Include(1, 2, 3)){

}
if(l1.Include(DS.List(1, 2 , 3))){

}

Without() Method

Borrowed from underscore.js.

var l1 = DS.Range(10);            
var l2 = l1.Without(0, 2, 4, 6, 8);
var l3 = l1.Without(DS.List(0, 2, 4, 6, 8));
Console.WriteLine(l2.Format()); // => 1, 3, 5, 7, 9
Console.WriteLine(l3.Format()); // => 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

First(), Last(), Rest(), IsEmpty() Methods

Borrowed from underscore.js.

var l1 = DS.Range(10);            

while(!l1.IsEmpty()){

    var first = l1.First();
    var last  = l1.Last();
    l1        = l1.Rest();
}

Identical() Methods

var l1 = DS.Range(10);            
var l2 = DS.Range(10);            

if(l1.Identical(l2)){

}

Pluck() Methods

Borrowed from underscore.js.

var people = DS.List(
    new Person() { LastName = "Descartes",   FirstName = "Rene",          BirthDay = new DateTime(1596,3,31) },
    new Person() { LastName = "Montesquieu", FirstName = "Charles-Louis", BirthDay = new DateTime(1689,1,18) },
    new Person() { LastName = "Rousseau",    FirstName = "JJ",            BirthDay = new DateTime(1712,3,31) }
);
Console.WriteLine(people.Pluck<int, Person>("Age").Format()); // => 415, 322, 299 in 2010          

//

Reject() Methods

Borrowed from underscore.js.

// Remove some elements based on an lambda expression
Console.WriteLine(
            DS.Range(10).Reject(e => e % 2 == 0).Format()
        ); // => 1, 3, 5, 7, 9

Class RazorHelper - An easy way to use the Microsoft Razor Template Engine outside of the MVC framework

The Razor helper class does the following:

Simplify the execution of Razor templates
Compiled and cache templates in memory
Implement the concept of bag populated from any .NET POCO, Anonymous Type or ExpandoObject to pass variables to be rendered in the template.

See unit tests from usage samples

string BAG_TEMPLATE = @"
var @bag.Class = {
    ID          : @bag.ID,
    LastName    :'@bag.LastName',
    FirstName   :'@bag.FirstName',
    
    Execute: function(i){
        
    }
}
";
dynamic bag   = new ExpandoObject();
bag.LastName  = "DESCARTES";
bag.FirstName = "Rene";
bag.Class     = "User";
bag.ID        = 1234;

using (var r = new RazorHelper()) {

    var t = r.Run("JavascriptTemplate", BAG_TEMPLATE, bag);
}

What is QuickUnit.net ?

2011-01-27T21:55:00.003-05:00

May 2007.

QuickUnit.net is unit test framework of another kind. The key idea was to define test case input and output values as .NET attributes in the source code itself.

It was inspired by the post Annotating Your Code with Simple Tests from Leon Bambrick in may 2007.

QuickUnit.net was an experiment and because .NET attribute only support array of value type, building complex set of input and output data was not feasible.

The main feature still worth looking at it.

QuickUnit.net is written in C# 3.5 with samples in C# and VB.NET.

Download the source code.

Unit Testing IsALeapYear() Function

Assign the .NET attribute TestMethod to the method, define the expected value and the parameter set.

///  
/// Is Year a leap year? 
/// 
 
/// The year in question///  
/// true if year is a leap year. false otherwise 
///  
[
    TestMethod( true  , 2000 ),
    TestMethod( false , 1900 ),
    TestMethod( true  , 1996 ),
    TestMethod( false , 2003 ),
    TestMethod( false , 1973 ),
    TestMethod( false , 1971 )
]
public  static  bool  IsALeapYear(int  year) {

    return  (((year % 4) == 0) && ((year % 100) != 0)) || ((year % 400) == 0);
}

Command Line Parameters

QuickUnit.net's tests can be executed by using the QuickUnit.net Console.

QuickUnit.net.Console.exe -a MyAssembly.dll [-class classname1,classname2] [-method methodname1,methodname2] [-logo false] [-pause true]

The exit code returns the number of error. During the build process, execute your QuickUnit.net unit tests before calling your unit tests implemented with an xUnit framework.

Unit Testing FullName Property

Here we test a property and also define the parameter set for the class constructor.

[TestClass()]
public  class  CPerson  {

    private  string       _LastName;
    private  string       _FirstName;
    
    public  CPerson(string  firstName, string  lastName) {
    
        this .FirstName  = firstName;
        this .LastName   = lastName;        
    }
    
    ///  
    /// Gets the full name. 
    /// 
 
    /// The full name. 
    [
        QuickUnit.Net.TestProperty("Joe Smith" , new  object [] { "Joe" , "Smith"  }) , 
        QuickUnit.Net.TestProperty("John Doe" ,  new  object [] { "John" , "Doe"   })
    ]
    public  string  FullName {
    
        get  { return  this .FirstName + " "  + this .LastName; }
    }
}

Unit Testing AgeAt() Function

This example shows how to define the type of the parameters used when it is not infered.

///  
     /// If person was born on birthdate,'s their age, in whole years at atDate? 
/// 

/// The birth date./// At date./// Age in years (floored)
[
    TestMethod(43, new  object [] { "12/11/1964"  , "07/01/2007"  }),
    TestMethod(50, new  object [] { "12/11/1964"  , "07/01/2014"  }),
    TestMethod(15, new  object [] { "10/29/1992"  , "07/01/2007"  }),
    TestMethod(16, new  object [] { "10/29/1992"  , "07/01/2008"  }),
    TestMethod( 9, new  object [] { "01/29/1998"  , "07/01/2007"  }),
    TestMethod(10, new  object [] { "01/29/1998"  , "07/01/2008"  }),
]
public  int  AgeAt(DateTime birthDate, DateTime atDate) {

    System.TimeSpan TS = new  System.TimeSpan(atDate.Ticks-birthDate.Ticks);
    return  Convert.ToInt32(TS.TotalDays/365.25);
}

Expect an Exception

This example shows how to define the type of the parameters used when it is not infered.

[
    TestMethod(EX.EXCEPTION, typeof (System.DivideByZeroException ), new  object [] { 64, 0 } ),
    TestMethod( 3, new  object [] {  6, 2 } ),
    TestMethod(32, new  object [] { 64, 2 } )
]
public  int  DivInt(int  a, int  b) {

    return  a / b;
}

Pass an array

This example shows how to define the type of the parameters used when it is not infered.

[
    TestMethod(    3, new  object [] { new  int [] { 1,      2            } } ),
    TestMethod(11100, new  object [] { new  int [] { 100, 1000, 10000     } } ),
    TestMethod(  -10, new  object [] { new  int [] {  -1,   -2,    -3, -4 } } )
]
public int SumIntArray(int [] intValues) {

    int  a = 0;

    foreach  (int  i in  intValues) {

        a += i;
    }
    return  a;
}

Default and specific constructor value

[TestClass(new  object [] { 1 })] // Default constructor value
public  class  TestClassIntegerUnitTest  {

    private  int  _InitializedValue = -1;
    
    public  TestClassIntegerUnitTest(int  initializedValue) {
    
        this ._InitializedValue = initializedValue;
    }
    
    [
        TestMethod(1, new  object [] {} ), // Use the default constructor parameter value
        TestMethod(2, new  object [] {} , new  object [] {2}) // Define a constructor parameter value
    ]
    public  int  InitializedValue() {
    
        return  this ._InitializedValue;
    }
}

Testing the function IsInArray()

[
    // Value not in the array ignore case or not
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "Z" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "Z" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , false  } ),
    
    // Value in the array ignore case or not
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , false  } ),
    
    // Value in the array if ignore case
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { "a" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "a" ,  new  string [] { "A" , "B"  , "C"  } , false  } ),
    
    // Value in the array if ignore case - variant
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , "C"  } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , "C"  } , false  } ),
    
    // Value not in a empty array  ignore case or not
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] {                } , false  } ),
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { "A" ,  new  string [] {                } , true   } ),
    
    // Null value not in the array ignore case or not
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { null , new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , "C"  } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(false , new  object [] { null , new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , "C"  } , false  } ),
    
    // Null value in the array case ignore case or not
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { null , new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , null } , true   } ),
    TestMethod(true ,  new  object [] { null , new  string [] { "a" , "B"  , null } , false  } ),
    
    // We do not pass an array, we pass null ignore case or not
    TestMethod(EX.EXCEPTION, typeof (System.NullReferenceException ),  new  object [] { "A" ,  null  , true    } ),
    TestMethod(EX.EXCEPTION, typeof (System.NullReferenceException ),  new  object [] { "A" ,  null  , false   } ),
]
public  static  bool  IsInArray(string  value, string [] values, bool  ignoreCase) {
    
    if  ( (ignoreCase) && (value!=null ) ) value = value.ToLower();
    
    foreach  (string  ss in  values) {
    
        string  s = ss;
        
        if  ( (ignoreCase) && (s!=null ) ) s = s.ToLower();
        
        if  (s == value) {
        
            return  true ;
        }
    }
    return  false ;
}

HiShort()

[
    TestMethod(  0,     0),
    TestMethod(  0,     1),
    TestMethod(  0,     2),
    TestMethod(  0,     4),
    TestMethod(  0,     8),
    TestMethod(  0,    16),
    TestMethod(  0,    32),
    TestMethod(  0,    64),
    TestMethod(  0,   128),
    TestMethod(  1,   256),
    TestMethod(  2,   512),
    TestMethod(  4,  1024),
    TestMethod(  8,  2048),
    TestMethod( 16,  4096),
    TestMethod( 32,  8192),
    TestMethod( 64, 16384),
    TestMethod(127, 32767)
]
public  static  int  HiShort(short  number) {

    return  (number >> 8) & 0xff;
}

Fibonacci()

[
    TestMethod(      0 ,  0 ),
    TestMethod(      1 ,  1 ),
    TestMethod(      1 ,  2 ),            
    TestMethod(      2 ,  3 ),
    TestMethod(      3 ,  4 ),
    TestMethod(      5 ,  5 ),
    TestMethod(     55 , 10 ),
    TestMethod(    610 , 15 ),
    TestMethod(   6765 , 20 ),
    TestMethod( 832040 , 30 )
]
public  static  int  Fibonacci(int  n){
    switch (n){
        case  0 : return  0;
        case  1 : return  1;
        default  : return  Fibonacci(n-1) + Fibonacci(n-2);
    }
}

fLogViewer.net

2011-01-26T22:51:00.011-05:00

Overview

fLogViewer.net is a free Windows program which allows one to view large log text files with color coding and filtering. fLogViewer.net is the replacement of fLogViewer.com.

Download fLogViewer.net v 1.37 FredericALTorres@gmail.com Screencast

Features

Dynamically updates the display when the file changes. (Support IIS log file)
Support large files up to 4GB while not using too much memory. Load a 1 Gb text file with 15.6 millions lines using about 172 Mb of memory.
Support color coding based on keywords or regular expressions.
Support filtering based on keywords, regular expressions or IronPython plug-ins.
Support searching based on keywords or regular expressions.
Export in HTML format using the user defined colors.
Automatically archive and zip file.
Drag and drop text and zip files (automatically unzip the zip file content).
Special plug-in to visualize CSV, TAB separated and W3C Extended Log File (IIS log file).
Write your own plug-in to process the selected text in C#, VB.NET or IronPython.
Write your own plug-in to view the selected line in C#, VB.NET or IronPython.
View and monitor the local event viewer logs.
View remote file via http.
Support of Unicode and Windows code pages.
Require .NET 2.0 and no install. Download and run fLogViewer.net.exe

ScreenShots

Data Processing Plug-In

Plug in written in IronPython, can be defined to process the selected rows of the file. Save the .py file in the folder %APPDATA%\fLogViewer.Net\PlugIns and start fLogViewer.net.

import  sys
 import  clr
 import  System

 class  PlugIn:

      def  __init__( self):
         self. PlugInType     =  "OnSelection"
         self. Text           =  "&Export As HTML (IronPython)"
         self. UserMessage    =  "Exporting As HTML"
         self. Extensions     =  ""

      def  Open( self,  fileName,  backGroundColor,  textGroundColor,  font):
         self. FileName =  "%s\\ExportedAsHTML.html"  %  ( System. Environment. GetEnvironmentVariable("TEMP"),  )
         self. handler  =  open( self. FileName,  "w")
         self. handler. write("<HTML><TABLE''''>\\n"  %  ( backGroundColor,  ))
         return  True

      def  Close( self):
         self. handler. write("</TABLE></HTML>\\n")
         self. handler. close()
         return  self. FileName

      def  Execute( self,  line,  textGroundColor):
         line =  line. replace("&mp;",  "&")
         line =  line. replace("&gt;",  ">")
         line =  line. replace("&lt;",  "<")

         self. handler. write("<TR><TD nowrap><FONT'Courier''>"  %  ( textGroundColor,  ))
         self. handler. write("\\n")
         self. handler. write( line)
         self. handler. write("\\n")
         self. handler. write("</FONT></TD></TR>")
         self. handler. write("\\n")
         return  True

Filter Plug-In

Filter can be written as an IronPython Plug in.

import  sys
 import  clr
 import  System
 
 class  PlugIn: 
 
      def  __init__( self): 
         self. PlugInType     =  "Filter" 
         self. Text           =  "Error Filter Plug In" 
         self. UserMessage    =  "" 
         self. Extensions     =  "" 
         
      def  Open( self): 
         return  True
         
      def  Close( self): 
         return  True
         
      def  Execute( self,  line): 
         return  line. find("[ERROR]")  !=  - 1

What people said about fLogViewer

fLogViewer was part of the Scott Hanselman's 2005 and 2006 Ultimate Developer and Power Users Tool List. Scott's comment:Great freeware highlighting log viewer for large log files. 2006 2005

...But those of us stuck on Windows would usually prefer some sort of GUI tool.
fLogViewew fits into this niche nicely. It's a MDI program wirtten in VB6, but seems to be plenty fast.

Features include color-coding (done by looking for keywords in the lines of the log), the smarts to monitor log files and refresh them on the fly (even with IIS's caching scheme), and a variety of filtering and export options...

Mike Gunderloy's NewsLettter.

Thanks for developing flogviewer, it is a great help for me. If it wouldn´t be freeware I even would pay for it. ;-)
Jens. M.

LogViewer - Great freeware highlighting log viewer for large log files.

Scott Galloway's Possibly the ultimate developer tools list.

Je m'étais débrouillé avec fLogViewer (freeware:http://www.flogviewer.com). Bon, il faut définir soi-même les filtres mais c'est un outil très puissant... Unknown

Hej! Jeg kan stærkt anbefale dette freeware program til at læse diverse logfiler med.

Det kan bla. opdatere logfilerne dynamisk mens de er åbne, hvilket er super til f.eks. troubleshooting osv. :)
... Hent programmet fLogViewer her: http://www.flogviewer.com

Peter Schmidt

Since we do not speak Danish at fLogViewer.com, we hope this comment is good.

I've posted about baretail previously as a tail program for Windows, but now I see there is a similar tool with some more functionality to it. fLogViewer picks up and runs with the "Windows way" by taking a simple tool and putting more and more features onto it (note: Yes, I am fairly sarcastic there, but the features are appreciated nonetheless!). I kinda like this tool, although the necessity of an install and the way it uses some older system files than what I have on my XP system anyway are detractors to replacing baretail with fLogViewer.

Michael L. Dickey

I had been searching for a free logfile viewer supporting filtering and coloring for a while.
I finally found flogviewer: free, support regexp based filtering, and regexp line coloring. All I need to dive into those 80mb logfiles.
Although not perfect (I find it a bit slow for logfile of 80mb), it does the job really well.

Thibault Barrere

We are developing a consumer device with an embedded ARM microcontroller.
Our prototype system has a very simple ASCII serial trace output. In order to confirm reliability of the product, it must be run for long periods and trace logs taken for subsequent analysis. I have found that flogviewer is ideal not only for this, but also for real time analysis of the trace output. From experience, most terminal emulators have problems with large log files, in particular if one attempts to look at the trace history. However, by viewing the trace log file with flogviewer, the problems are significantly reduced.
Furthermore, filters can be used to look at particular traces in real time.
All in all flogviewer is an excellent tool for our purposes.
Hope that´s OK and many thanks for a great tool.
Cheers.

Lisa Kingscott.

A Tail with more power in its tip than the original has in 'full length'. Powerful filter options, together with extensive highlighting options and scripting support will make sure you will spot just those lines in your logs that matter to you. Even if the structure of your logfiles varies.

Ruud, NL

I stumbled over flogviewer a few years ago on a post by Scott Hanselman.
I was looking for a freeware logviewer which would give me the possibility to
adapt it's color-highlighting to my differing needs.
Flogviewer is an awesome piece of software which helped me a lot in my daily routines and
in tracking down probs on my servers.

Great job Fred. Thanks a lot for your great work.

Ralf R, Germany.

License

You must read the following license agreement before installing fLogViewer. By doing so, you indicate your acceptance of what is written here.

fLogViewer.net (the SOFTWARE) is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind, including, but not limited to, implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. 

In no event shall the author be liable for any damages to hardware or loss of data whatsoever arising out the use of (or inability to use) the SOFTWARE even if advised of the possibility.

fLogViewer.net is free.

Installing and using fLogViewer signifies acceptance of these terms and conditions of the license. If you do not agree with the terms of this license you must remove fLogViewer files from your storage devices and cease to use the product.

Roy Osherove's String Calculator Kata - My third try with video

2011-01-19T22:14:00.000-05:00

My third take at the Roy Osherove's String Calculator Kata. The video is on youtube here.

The class.

/// 
/// http://www.osherove.com/tdd-kata-1/
/// 

class Calculator {

    public static int Add(string numbers) {
        
        if(numbers=="") return 0;

        var delimiters = new string[1] { "," };
        delimiters     = DetermineDelimiters(ref numbers);
        numbers        = numbers.Replace("\n",delimiters[0]);
        var values     = Split(numbers, delimiters);

        return SumValues(values);        
    }

    private static int SumValues(string[] values) {
        var sum = 0;
        foreach (var v in values) {

            if (String.IsNullOrEmpty(v.Trim())) throw new ArgumentException();
            var num = int.Parse(v);
            if (num >= 1000) num = 0;
            if (num < 0) throw new ArgumentException();
            sum += num;
        }
        return sum;
    }
    private static string [] DetermineDelimiters(ref string numbers) {

        var delimiters = new string[1] { "," };

        if (numbers.StartsWith("//[")) {

            int posLF  = numbers.IndexOf("\n");
            delimiters = numbers.Substring(3, posLF - 4).Replace("]", "").Split('[');
            numbers    = numbers.Substring(posLF + 1);
        }
        else if (numbers.StartsWith("//")) {

            delimiters[0] = numbers[2].ToString();
            numbers       = numbers.Substring(4);
        }
        return delimiters;
    }
    // 2 functions to split based on a string
    // or a string array
    static string[] Split(string value, 
                          string [] splitingWords) {
 
        return value.Split(splitingWords, StringSplitOptions.None);
    }
    static string [] Split(string value, 
                           string splitingWord){
 
        return value.Split(new string[] { splitingWord }, StringSplitOptions.None);
    }    
    
}

Pythonistas, rubyists, I thought they were friends!

2011-01-15T01:57:00.000-05:00

Interresting reflection about Ruby.

What pythonistas think of ruby ?

The RubyShow PodCast - Python Edition

Reading an Rss feed with argotic

2011-01-12T23:42:00.000-05:00

Findind an example on how to read a rss feed and access the encoded content was a pain.
Looks like the web is all about writing feed but not about reading one.

So here it is.


private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string url  = @"http://feeds.feedburner.com/cenedella?format=xml";
    SyndicationResourceLoadSettings settings = new SyndicationResourceLoadSettings();                       
            
    RssFeed feed = RssFeed.Create(new Uri(url), settings);
                        
    foreach(var i in feed.Channel.Items) {

        var title   = i.Title;
        var date    = i.PublicationDate;
        var content = GetBlogPostContent(i, true);
    }
}
private string GetBlogPostContent(RssItem i, bool removeHtml){

    string content = null;
                
    foreach(ISyndicationExtension s in i.Extensions) {

        if(s is SiteSummaryContentSyndicationExtension){

            SiteSummaryContentSyndicationExtension ss = s as SiteSummaryContentSyndicationExtension;                    
            var t                                     = ss.Context.Encoded;
            content                                   = System.Web.HttpUtility.HtmlDecode(t);
            if(removeHtml)
                content = Regex.Replace(content, "<[^>]*>", "", RegexOptions.Compiled);
        }
    }
    return content;
}

Roy Osherove's String Calculator Kata - My first version

2011-01-08T22:48:00.000-05:00

I recently heard about programming kata. So I tried Roy Osherove's String Calculator Kata .

This was my first time and will try it probably more because I like to make it into a video.

The class.


/// 
/// http://www.osherove.com/tdd-kata-1/
/// 

class Calculator {

    private static string[] Split(string value, string [] splitingWords) {

        return value.Split(splitingWords, StringSplitOptions.None);
    }
    private static string [] Split(string value, string splitingWord){

        return value.Split(new string[] { splitingWord }, StringSplitOptions.None);
    }
    private static bool IsNumber(string n) {
        int a = 0;
        return int.TryParse(n, out a);
    }        
    public static int Add(string numbers) {

        string delimiter    = ",";
        string[] delimiters = null;

        if (numbers.StartsWith("//[")) {
                                
            var newLinePos  = numbers.IndexOf("\n");
            delimiters      = numbers.Substring(3, newLinePos - 4).Replace("[", "").Split(']');
            numbers         = numbers.Substring(newLinePos + 1);
        }
        else if (numbers.StartsWith("//")) {

            var newLinePos = numbers.IndexOf("\n");
            if (newLinePos == -1) throw new System.FormatException(String.Format("Invalid custom delimiters in expression '{0}'", numbers));
            delimiter = numbers[newLinePos - 1].ToString();
            numbers   = numbers.Substring(newLinePos + 1);
        }

        numbers = numbers.Replace("\n", delimiter);

        if (numbers.Contains(delimiter + delimiter))
            throw new System.FormatException(String.Format("Invalid expression '{0}'", numbers));

        string[] values;

        if (delimiters != null) {
            values = Split(numbers, delimiters);
        }
        else if (delimiter.Length > 1) {
            values = Split(numbers, delimiter);
        }
        else {
            values = numbers.Split(delimiter[0]);
        }
        int sum    = 0;
        var negativeNumbers = "";

        foreach (var i in values) {

            if ((i != "") && (int.Parse(i) < 0)) {
                negativeNumbers += i + ",";
            }
            if ((i != "") && (int.Parse(i) >= 1000)) { 
            }
            else {
                sum += int.Parse(i == "" ? "0" : i);
            }
        }
        if(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(negativeNumbers))
            throw new System.ArgumentException(String.Format("negatives not allowed '{0}'", negativeNumbers));

        return sum;
    }
}

The unit tests.


[TestClass] 
public class CalculatorUnitTests {
        
    [TestMethod] public void Add_EmptyString() {

        Assert.AreEqual(0, Calculator.Add(""));
    }
    [TestMethod] public void Add_1() {

        Assert.AreEqual(1, Calculator.Add("1"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_1Coma2() {

        Assert.AreEqual(3, Calculator.Add("1,2"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_1Coma2Coma3() {

        Assert.AreEqual(6, Calculator.Add("1,2,3"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_1Coma2Coma3Coma4() {

        Assert.AreEqual(10, Calculator.Add("1,2,3,4"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_1NewLine2Coma3() {

        Assert.AreEqual(6, Calculator.Add("1\n2,3"));
    }
    [TestMethod, ExpectedException(typeof(System.FormatException))]
    public void Add_InvalidFormatMissingParameter() {

        Calculator.Add("1,\n");
    }       
    [TestMethod] public void Add_CustomDelimiter() {

        Assert.AreEqual(3, Calculator.Add("//;\n1;2"));
    }
    [TestMethod, ExpectedException(typeof(System.ArgumentException))]
    public void Add_OneNegativeNumber() {

        Assert.AreEqual(3, Calculator.Add("-1"));
    }
    [TestMethod, ExpectedException(typeof(System.ArgumentException))]
    public void Add_OnePositiveOneNegativeNumber() {

        Assert.AreEqual(3, Calculator.Add("1,-1"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_NumberGreaterThan1000() {

        Assert.AreEqual(2, Calculator.Add("2,1000"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_CustomStringDelimiter() {

        Assert.AreEqual(6, Calculator.Add("//[***]\n1***2***3"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_MultipleCustomStringDelimiter() {

        Assert.AreEqual(6, Calculator.Add("//[*][%]\n1*2%3"));
    }
    [TestMethod]
    public void Add_MultipleCustomStringDelimiterOfSizeGreaterThan1() {

        Assert.AreEqual(6, Calculator.Add("//[***][%%%]\n1***2%%%3"));
    }

    public CalculatorUnitTests() { } private TestContext testContextInstance; public TestContext TestContext { get { return testContextInstance; } set { testContextInstance = value; } }
}

Different way to loop through a list of number in C#

2011-01-08T22:39:00.000-05:00

As I work more and more in a TDD or almost TDD way, I strive to write more concise and clear unit tests. For what ever reason i find the first way to loop clearer to read and faster to type.

 foreach(var i in Range(16)) {
 
     l.Measures.Current.Tracks[0].Steps[i].Set(100);
 }
 
 for(int i=0; i<16; i++) {
 
     l.Measures.Current.Tracks[0].Steps[i].Set(100);
 }
    
 Here is how to loop with an increment of 2.

 foreach (var i in Range(16, 2)){
 
     l.Measures.Current.Tracks[0].Steps[i].Set(100);
 }

Here is the function Range (v 1)

///   
 /// Return a list of integer from 0 to max-1  
 /// 
  
 /// The maximum number of integer to return ///   
 public  IEnumerable  Range(int  max)
 {
     return  Range(max, 1);
 }
 ///   
 /// Return a list of integer from 0 to max-1 with an increment  
 /// 
  
 /// The maximum number of integer to return /// The increment ///   
 public  IEnumerable  Range(int  max, int  increment)
 {
     return  Range(0, max, increment);
 }
 ///  
 /// Return a list of integer from start to max-1 with an increment  
 /// 
 
 /// The start value /// The max value /// the increment ///  
 public  IEnumerable  Range(int  start, int  max, int  increment)
 {
     int  i = start;
     while  (i < max)
     {
         yield  return  i;
         i += increment;
     }
 }

PowerShell color coding for Visual Studio 2010

2011-01-08T22:37:00.000-05:00

I updated my Visual Studio extension TextHighlighter and added support for PowerShell and Cmd files. .Cmd file edited in Visual Studio 2010 will have the same color coding as a .Bat file.
In summary the TextHighlighter extension provides color coding in Visual Studio 2010 for:

.Ini file
.Txt and .Log files based on customizable regular expressions
- Ship with special rules to visualize MSBuild log file
.Bat and .Cmd files
.Ps1 file (PowerShell)

Multi line strings and commenst are not supported. I cannot figure out how to do this in the TokenTagger class method GetTag().
Help wanted

To install the extension in Visual Studio, Click menu Tools -> Extension Manager. And enter the keyword TextHighlighter in the search for the gallery.

The PDDLA Programming Language - LIB.EAO file

2011-01-08T22:25:00.001-05:00

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure UserPause();

    touche := LireTouche();
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure Screen.Clear();

    Efface(0,0,MaxX,MaxY,Noir);
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure Screen.PrintXY(Entier x,y Chaine text);

    TexteGraphique(x, y, cyanClair,text);
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure GlobalVariables.Initialize();

  *
  * Toutes les variables declarees dans cette procedure sont globales par
  * rapport au niveau precedent seulement.
  *
  DeclareVariableGlobale;

  Entier Noir           := 0;
  Entier Bleu           := 1;
  Entier Vert           := 2;
  Entier Cyan           := 3;
  Entier Rouge          := 4;
  Entier Magenta        := 5;
  Entier Marron         := 6;
  Entier GrisClair      := 7;
  Entier GrisFonce      := 8;
  Entier BleuClair      := 9;
  Entier VertClair      :=10;
  Entier CyanClair      :=11;
  Entier RougeClair     :=12;
  Entier MagentaClair   :=13;
  Entier Jaune          :=14;
  Entier Blanc          :=15;

  Entier Vrai           := 1;
  Entier Faux           := 0;
  Entier touche;

  Entier ToucheRCH      := 13;
  Entier ToucheBCK      := 8;
  Entier ToucheESC      := 27;
  Entier ToucheSPC      := 32;

  Entier MaxX           := 640-1;
  Entier MaxY           := 480-1;

  Chaine strGras[2]     := "&G";
  Chaine strNormal[2]   := "&N";
  Chaine strCentre[2]   := "&Z";
  Chaine strOmbre[2]    := "&S";
  Chaine strOmbre2[3]   := "&S~";

  Chaine texte_bas_1  [80] ;
  Chaine texte_bas_2  [80] ;
  Chaine texte_bas_3  [80] ;
FIN;

The PDDLA Programming Language

2011-01-08T22:23:00.000-05:00

*******************************************************************************
*
* PRODIDACT Language Auteur - PDDLA
*
* This is a sample of the PRODIDACT programming Language created
* to develope multi-media MS-DOS applications. The language was
* created by Frederic Torres in 1990 and used in numerous applications
* up to 1993. The run time was written in Turbo Pascal/Borland Pascal.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*
* The PDDLA Programming Language
* ------------------------------
* The language was a simple structured programming language inspired by the
* PASCAL language. All the reserved keywords are in French.
* The language execution was based on an interpreter.
*
*
* Language
* - - - - -
*
* Though, it was inspired by PASCAL there was some differences.
*
* - No user function.
*
* - Variable Scope: Local variables were actually available to any sub
*   procedures called. This is bizarre and a probably not a good idea.
*   But this is how I implemented the variable/memory manager.
*   At the end of a procedure all local variables would be discarded.
*   It was also possible to declare global variables.
*
* - Array: There was no array, but array could be simulated using the
*   & macro concept as implemented in the dBASE language. See below in
*   this file.
*
* - Procedure Pointer/Delegate: It was possible to simulate procedure
*   pointer/delegate using the & macro concept.See below in this file.
*
* - Object Orientation: The language was not object oriented, but allowed
*   the char '.' in procedure and variable name. Therefore creating the
*   illusion of some kind of object orientation.
*
* - Debugger: There was no debugger, but a real time tracing mode at the
*   top of the screen.
*
* - Source code overlay:It was possible to load and un load dynamically
*   source code. The reason why is that we had only 640 Kb of memory.
*
* - String could has predefined max length to save memory.
*
*
* Multi media support: (Obvisouly in 2010 this sound lame, but it was in 1990).
* - - - - - - - - - -
*
* - Keyboard and mouse
* - 16 colors PCX image
* - Amimation (list of images displayed in loop)
* - Hypertext file (basically it was simple HTML file)
* - Special text display and menu in form of comic strip
* - Customizable font.
* - Virtual memory manager to save and restore screen area.
*
*
* Integrity
* - - - - -
*
* The source files can be encrypted before shipping. Applications shipped
* could not be altered all image files, hypertext files and dictionary
* definition files would be verified at the starting time. If a change was
* detected the application would not start.
*
*******************************************************************************

* Include the file Lib.EAO
$I Lib

*******************************************************************************
** Procedure Debug (AKA Main)
**
Procedure DEBUT;

    GlobalVariables.Initialize;
    Chemin("images",""); * Define the sub paths where to the pcx images

    Screen.Clear;
    Screen.PrintXY(0, 0, "Hello World - Press SPACE to continue");
    Image("VOITURE1", 200, 200);
    UserPause;

    Screen.Clear;
    Array.Demonstration;
    UserPause;

    Screen.Clear;
    ProcedurePointer.Demonstration;
    UserPause;

    Screen.Clear;
    RunModule("MyModule", "PrintThis");
    UserPause;

    HyperTexte("HyperText.HT", "Page1");
    UserPause;
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure Array.Demonstration;

    Chaine MSG_0 := "message 1"; * declare a string
    Chaine MSG_1 := "message 2";
    Chaine MSG_2 := "message 3";
    Entier i     := 0;

    TantQue i<=2 Faire * While loop

        Chaine s  := "MSG_" + Chaine(i);
        Chaine ss := &s;
        Screen.PrintXY(0, i * 14, ss);
        i := i + 1;
    Fin;
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure ProcedurePointer.Demonstration;

    Chaine s := "MyProcedure";
    &s; * Call procedure MyProcedure indirectly
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure MyProcedure;

    Screen.Clear;
    Screen.PrintXY(0,0,"My Procedure");
    UserPause;
Fin;

*******************************************************************************
**
**
Procedure RunModule(Chaine m,p)
  ChargeModule(m) * Load module
  &p;             * Execute procedure name contained in variable p
  DeChargeModule  * Unload module
FIN;

See file LIB.EAO

DrumsLoopMe Demo

2011-01-08T22:20:00.000-05:00

DrumsLoopMe is wav file editor and loop maker specialized in working with real drums live sample.
DrumsLoopMe was written in 1996 in Delphi 32b.

fLogViewer.net Demo

2011-01-08T22:17:00.000-05:00

fLogViewer.net is a free Windows program which allows one to view large log text files with color coding and filtering.

fLogViewer.net is the replacement of fLogViewer.com.

Dynamically updates the display when the file changes. (Support IIS log file)
Support large files up to 4GB.
Support color coding based on keyword or regular expression.
Support filtering based on keyword, regular expression or IronPython plug-in.
Support searching based on keyword or regular expression.
Export in HTML format using the user defined colors.
Automatically archive and zip file.
Drag and drop text and zip files (automatically unzip the zip file content).
Special plug-in to visualize CSV, TAB separated and W3C Extended Log File (IIS log file).
Write your own plug-in to process the selected text in C#, VB.NET or IronPython.
Write your own plug-in to view the selected line in C#, VB.NET or IronPython.
View and monitor the local event viewer logs.
View remote file via http.
Require .NET 2.0 and no install. Download and run fLogViewer.net.exe.

Extended the .NET string.format() Part II

2011-01-08T22:15:00.000-05:00

I updated my ExtendedFormat class to support a dictionary, so one can write the following code:

 static  void  Main(string [] args) {
 
     string  format                       = "LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}, Age:{0}" ;
     Dictionary <string , object > Values = new  Dictionary ();
     Values["LastName" ]                  = "TORRES" ;
     Values["FirstName" ]                 = "Frederic" ;
 
     Console.WriteLine(ExtendedFormatNamespace.ExtendedFormat.Format(format, Values, 45));
 }

Extended the .NET string.format()

2011-01-08T22:10:00.000-05:00

Introduction
Inspired by Python, I wanted to extend the .NET string.format() method so I can write the following C# code.

public  class  Person  {
 
     public  string    LastName;
     public  string    FirstName   { get ; set ; }
     public  int       Age         { get ; set ; }
     public  DateTime  BirthDay    { get ; set ; }
 }

static  void  Main(string [] args) {
 
     var  person = new Person () { LastName = "TORRES" , FirstName = "Frederic" , Age = 45, BirthDay = DateTime .Parse("1964-12-11" ) };
 
     Console.WriteLine(person.Format("{0} LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}" , DateTime .Now));
}

Without the extension method.

class  Program  {
 
     static  void  Main(string [] args) {
 
         var  person = new  Person () { LastName  = "TORRES" ,  FirstName = "Frederic" , Age = 45, BirthDay  = DateTime .Parse("1964-12-11" ) };
 
         Console.WriteLine(ExtendedFormat.Format(person, "LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}" ));
 
         // Combine extended and default mode 
         Console.WriteLine(ExtendedFormat.Format(person, "{0} LastName:{LastName}, FirstName:{FirstName}" , DateTime .Now));
     }
 }

The ExtendedFormat.Format() fall back on the string.Format() method and therefore it is 100% compatible. Basically The ExtendedFormat.Format() add the tag {property-name} to call a property or field of the instance passed.
I also added the ability to call a function with no parameter with the syntax{MyFunction()}.

Next Steps
I will look at different template class in Python. I sometime need a little bit more for than just the simple format.
I will add the source code to codeplex.com.

Something The C# Compiler Will Let You Do

2011-01-08T21:20:00.000-05:00

While writing unit tests, I shoot myself in the foot trying the re use an already declared int.
I am surprise that the C# compiler will let you do this.
The result is that we will only loop once in the first loop.

        static  void  LoopIssue()
         {             
             for  (int  i = 0; i < 5; i++){
 
                 Console .WriteLine("i:{0}" , i);
 
                 for  (i = 0; i < 10; i++){

                     Console .WriteLine("   i:{0}" , i);
                 }
             }            
         }

Looping through an array in Javascript

2011-01-08T21:19:00.000-05:00

A little bit confused with Javascript array. I was.

Mastering Javascript Arrays

function  LoopingTroughArray() {
 
     var  Values = ["A" ,"B" ,"C" ];
                                 
     for  (var  i = 0; i < Values.length; i++) {  // Solution 1 
 
         alert(Values[i]);
     }
                 
     for  (var  index in  Values) { // Solution 2 
 
         alert(Values[index]);
     }
                 
     jQuery.each(Values,         // Solution 3 with jQuery 
                 function (index, value){ 
                     alert(value); 
                     // return true;  same as continue 
                     // return false; same as break 
                 } 
     );
     // The array method forEach is supportted in FireFox but not in Internet Explorer. 
 }
 
 function  FilteringAnArray() {
 
     var  Values    = [1,2,3];
     var  NewValues = jQuery.map( Values,
                                 function  (value){
                                     if  (value > 2)                                
                                         return  value;                                
                                     else 
                                         return  null ; // remove the item from the array 
                                 }
     );
     alert(NewValues.valueOf());
 }
 
 function  ChangingTheContentOfAnArray() {
 
     var  Values    = [1,2,3];                                
     var  NewValues = jQuery.map( Values,
                                 function (value){                                 
                                 return  value*2;
                                 }
     );
     alert(NewValues.valueOf());                
 }
 
 function  LoopingTroughAnObjectProperties() {
 
     var  Person = {
         LastName:   "Descartes" ,
         FirstName:  "Rene" 
     }
                 
     jQuery.each(Person,
         function (key, value){ 
             alert(key+"=" +value);
         }
     );                
 }

Code Contrat Cheat Sheet

2011-01-08T21:17:00.001-05:00


class  CodeContratCheatSheet  {
 
     public int Value { get ; set ; }
         
     [ContractInvariantMethod ]
     private void RationalInvariant(){
 
         Contract .Invariant( this .Value > 0 );
     }
 
     public int VerifyInputParameter(int  a){
             
         Contract .Requires ( (a > 0) && (a < 100) );
         Contract .Ensures  ( a > 0 );
         Contract .Ensures  ( Contract .Result<int >() > 0 );
 
         return  1;
     }
 
     public void VerifyDataInInputOutputParameterOfTypeList(List <int > L){
 
         Contract .Requires( Contract .ForAll( L, l => l > 0 ) );             
         Contract .Ensures ( Contract .ForAll( L, l => l > 0 ) );
     }
 
     public void VerifyOutputParameters(out  int  i){
 
         Contract .Ensures(Contract .ValueAtReturn<int >(out  i) > 0 );
         i=1;
     }
 
     public List <int> VerifyDataInListReturned(){
         Contract .Ensures( Contract .Result<List <int >>().Count > 1 );
         Contract .Ensures(
             Contract .ForAll(
                 0, Contract .Result<List <int >>().Count,
                 index => Contract .Result<List <int >>()[index] > 0
                 )
         );
             
         List <int > l = new  List <int >();
         l.Add(1); l.Add(2); l.Add(3);
         return  l;
     }
 }

Implementing a simple configuration file in Python for a C# application - Part III

2011-01-08T21:15:00.001-05:00

In this post I want to make my user description richer and for this I going to implement a class with 3 attributes UserName, LastName and FirstName.
Now my Users attribute from my Configuration dictionary is a list containing 3 instances of the class User.
You can even write some code to test the Python indepently of the C#.

"""
     Configuration of my application
 """ 
 class User(object): 
 
      def  __init__( self,  userName,  lastName,  firstName): 
         self. UserName   =  userName
         self. LastName   =  lastName
         self. FirstName  =  firstName
         
      def  __str__( self):  # Same as C# ToString() 
         return  "UserName:%s, LastName:%s, FirstName:%s"  %  ( self. UserName,  self. LastName,  self. FirstName) 
         
 
  Configuration =  { 
     "Server"     :    "TOTO", 
     "Database"   :    "Rene", 
     "Debug"      :    True, 
     "MaxUser"    :    3, 
     "Users"      :    [ 
                         User("rdescartes"    ,"rene"      ,"descartes"     ), 
                         User("bpascal"       ,"blaise"    ,"pascal"        ), 
                         User("cmontesquieu"  ,"charles"   ,"montesquieu"   ) 
                     ] 
 } 
 
 # Code for quickly testing the user class. This Python code will work with IronPython or the C Python.
 if  __name__ == "" : 
     u =  User("rdescartes"    ,"rene"      ,"descartes"     ) 
     u =  User("bpascal"       ,"blaise"    ,"pascal"        ) 
     u =  User("cmontesquieu"  ,"charles"   ,"montesquieu"   ) 
     print  u

How to read this configuration variables in C# 4.0.

static void Demo() {
 
     ScriptRuntime  PythonScriptRuntime = Python .CreateRuntime();
     dynamic        PythonScript        = PythonScriptRuntime.UseFile("Configuration3.py" );
 
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Server" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Database" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Debug" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["MaxUser" ]);
 
     foreach (var u in PythonScript.Configuration["Users" ]){
     
         // Force to convert the User instance into a string which will call __str__ 
         Console .WriteLine((string )u);
     }                                       
     foreach (var u in PythonScript.Configuration["Users" ]){
         
         Console .WriteLine(u.UserName);
     }
     Console .ReadLine();
 }

Implementing a simple configuration file in Python for a C# application - Part II

2011-01-08T21:14:00.000-05:00

In this post I going to use a Python dictionary to store my configuration variables:

"""
Configuration of my application
""" 
Configuration =  { 
"Server"     :    "TOTO", 
"Database"   :    "Rene", 
"Debug"      :    True, 
"MaxUser"    :    3, 
"Users"      :    ["rdescartes",  "bpascal",  "cmontesquieu"] 
}

How to read this configuration variables in C# 4.0.

static void Demo() {
 
     ScriptRuntime  PythonScriptRuntime = Python .CreateRuntime();
     dynamic        PythonScript        = PythonScriptRuntime.UseFile("Configuration2.py" );
 
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Server" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Database" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["Debug" ]);
     Console.WriteLine(PythonScript.Configuration["MaxUser" ]);
 
     foreach (string u in PythonScript.Configuration["Users" ]){
 
         Console .WriteLine(u);
     }                                    
     Console .ReadLine();
 }

Implementing a simple configuration file in Python for a C# application

2011-01-08T16:44:00.000-05:00

Combining IronPython and C# can bring very interresting things. For example implementing configuration. In this first post I am implementing a configuration file by using IronPython global variables. I am using C# 4.0 which make things easier but this can be done with C# 2.0.

The configuration file Configuration1.py.

 """
     Configuration of my application
 """ 
 Server      =    "TOTO" 
 Database    =    "Rene" 
 Debug       =    True
 Users       =    ["rdescartes",  "bpascal",  "cmontesquieu"]

How to read this configuration variables in C# 4.0.

 static void Demo() {
 
     ScriptRuntime  PythonScriptRuntime = Python.CreateRuntime();
     dynamic        PythonScript        = PythonScriptRuntime.UseFile("Configuration1.py" );
 
     Console .WriteLine(PythonScript.Server);
     Console .WriteLine(PythonScript.Database);
     Console .WriteLine(PythonScript.Debug);
 
     foreach (string u in PythonScript.Users){
 
         Console .WriteLine(u);
     }                                    
     Console .ReadLine();
 }

You will need to install IronPython 2.6 For .NET 4.0 and reference the following assemblies:

IronPython.dll
Microsoft.Dynamic.dll
Microsoft.Scripting.dll

Here are the namespaces used:

using  Microsoft.Scripting.Hosting;
using  IronPython.Hosting;
using  Microsoft.Scripting;

Bat File Syntax Highlighter For Visual Studio 2010

2011-01-08T16:39:00.000-05:00

I created an extension for Visual Studio 2010 to display batch files (.bat) with syntax highlighting.

The colors can be configured by editing a Python file named COLORS_DEFINITION.py.

 BAT_COLORS_DEFINITIONS =  { 
     "Keyword"        :  "Blue",             # Echo, Copy any Bat keyword 
     "Comment"        :  "Green",            # rem 
     "Param"          :  "Brown",            # /b /s 
     "Label"          :  "Darkmagenta",      # label 
     "EnvVar"         :  "MediumPurple",     # %TEMP% 
     "Redirection"    :  "Red",              # > and >>  
     "Default"        :  "Black" 
 }

Download the extension at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/6706b602-6f10-4fd1-8e14-75840f855569

Text File Syntax Highlighter For Visual Studio 2010

2011-01-08T16:37:00.000-05:00

I created an extension for Visual Studio 2010 to display .txt and .log file with colors. Based on a simple rule the line is displayed in full in a specific color.

The colors can be configured by editing a Python file named COLORS_DEFINITION.py. If the line contains the string defined in ColorDefinition or if the line matches the regular expression the color is selected. To get the regular expression to work you will need to install IronPython 2.6 for .NET 4.0. in the default folder (%PROGRAMFILES%\IronPython 2.6 for .NET 4.0).

The rules are evaluated from top to bottom, we stop at the first one that match. You can add as many rules as you want.

COLORS_DEFINITIONS =  { 
     "txt":  [  # Color definition for .txt file 
         ColorDefinition (  "[WARNING]"                ,"DarkGoldenrod"         ), 
         ColorDefinition (  ".*\\[ERROR\\].*Minor.*"   ,"Salmon"        ,  True ),         
         ColorDefinition (  ".*\\[ERROR\\].*"          ,"Red"           ,  True ), 
         ColorDefinition (  "[INFO]"                   ,"Blue"                  ), 
         ColorDefinition (  "[PASSED]"                 ,"Green"                 ), 
         ColorDefinition (  ""                         ,"Black"                 )  # The last item is the default color 
     ] 
 }

Download the extension at http://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/6706b602-6f10-4fd1-8e14-75840f855569

Once you ran the install, start Visual Studio 2010, click on the menu Tool Extension Manager, selection the extension and click Enable.
Restart Visual Studio 2010.

To change the colors edit the file

%userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\Extensions\TextHighlighterExtension\COLORS_DEFINITION.py

with Visual Studio. Once done, restart Visual Studio.

To get PYTHON syntax highlighting see IronPython tools for Visual Studio.

C# function returning multiple values

2011-01-08T16:25:00.000-05:00

Python functions can return multiple values.

 class  MultiValueFunctionExperiment(object): 
 
      def  MyFunctionWithMultiValues(self): 
         return 1, 2, "Toto"
 
      def  Demo(self): 
         a, b, s =  self. MyFunctionWithMultiValues() 
         print  a
         print  b
         print  s
 
 e =  MultiValueFunctionExperiment() 
 e. Demo()

I like to do the same in C#. Here is the syntax I came with by using a class named MultiValue.


 class  MultiValueFunctionExperiment  {
 
     private MultiValue MyFunctionWithMultiValues() { 
 
         return new MultiValue().Add(1).Add(2).Add("Toto");
     }
     public void Demo() { 
 
         MultiValue mv = MyFunctionWithMultiValues();
         int a         = mv.Value<int >();
         int b         = mv.Value<int >();
         string s      = mv.Value<string >();
 
         Console.WriteLine(a);
         Console.WriteLine(b);
         Console.WriteLine(s);
     }
 }

Here is the class MultiValue


 class MultiValue  { 
 
     List<object > _values;
 
     public MultiValue(){
 
         _values = new  List<object >();
     }
     public MultiValue Add(object  i) { 
 
         this ._values.Add(i);
         return  this ;
     }
     public T Value<T>() { 
 
         T i = (T)this ._values[0];
         this ._values.RemoveAt(0);
         return  i;
     }
 }

IDisposable+Using keyword in Python

2011-01-08T16:17:00.000-05:00

In Python the keyword with match the C# keyword using. The method __exit__() match the method Dispose(). But a method __enter__() is required. The __enter__() simply returns the instance itself.

class  MyClass: 
 
      def  __init__( self): 
         print  "Initializing..." 
 
      def  __enter__( self): 
         print  "Entering..." 
         return  self
 
      def  __exit__( self,  type,  value,  traceback): 
         print  "Exiting..." 
         return  False # Do not swallow raised exception 
 
      def  Run( self): 
         print  "Running" 
 
 def  Main(): 
 
      with  MyClass()  as  e: 
         e. Run() 
 
  Main()

IDisposable+Using keyword in Python, another implementation using inheritance

2011-01-08T16:08:00.000-05:00


class  IDisposableBaseClass: 

def  __enter__( self): 
print  "Entering..." 
return  self

def  __exit__( self,  type,  value,  traceback): 
self. Dispose() 
return  False

class  MyClass( IDisposableBaseClass): 

def  __init__( self): 
print  "Initializing..." 

def  Dispose( self): 
print  "Exiting..." 

def  Run( self): 
print  "Running" 

def  Main(): 

with  MyClass()  as  e: 
e. Run() 

Main()

Dependency Injection C# vs Python

2011-01-08T01:34:00.000-05:00

Just to make sure I understand the dependency injection concept, I wrote a little simple showing 2 highly coupled classes and the loosely coupled solution in C# and in Python.

Highly Coupled Dependency in C#

Because the classes Invoice and SaleTaxe are Highly Coupled and the class SaleTaxe use the DB class to read the sale taxe from the database, it is impossible to unit test the Invoice class without an SaleTaxe instance and a database.

public class SaleTaxe {

        private Decimal _Value = 0;

        public SaleTaxe() {

            _Value = DB.Read("SaleTaxe");
        }
        
        public Decimal Value {
            get { 
                return this._Value;
            }
        }
    }

    public class Invoice {

        private SaleTaxe  _SaleTaxes          = null;
        private Decimal   _AmountBeforeTaxe   = 0;

        public Invoice(decimal amountBeforeTaxe) { 

            _SaleTaxes        = new SaleTaxe();   // << HighlyCoupledDependency
            _AmountBeforeTaxe = amountBeforeTaxe;
        }

        public Decimal TotalAmount {
            get { 
                return this._AmountBeforeTaxe + (this._AmountBeforeTaxe * this._SaleTaxes.Value / 100);
            }
        }
    }

Loosely Coupled Dependency in C#To implement a loose coupling we are using an interface.

public interface ISaleTaxes {

        decimal Value { get; }
    }

    public class SaleTaxes : ISaleTaxes {

        private Decimal _Value = 0;

        public SaleTaxes() {

            _Value = DB.Read("SaleTaxe");
        }

        public Decimal Value {
            get { 
                return this._Value;
            }
        }
    }

    public class Invoice {

        private ISaleTaxes  _SaleTaxes          = null;
        private Decimal     _AmountBeforeTaxe   = 0;

        public Invoice(decimal amountBeforeTaxe, ISaleTaxes saleTaxes) { 

            _SaleTaxes          = saleTaxes;
            _AmountBeforeTaxe   = amountBeforeTaxe; // << LooseCoupling
        }

        public Decimal TotalAmount {
            get { 

                return this._AmountBeforeTaxe + (this._AmountBeforeTaxe * this._SaleTaxes.Value / 100);
            }
        }
    }

Unit TestingNow we can create a class SaleTaxesForTesting just for unit testing.

class SaleTaxesForTesting : DependencyInjection.LooseCoupling.ISaleTaxes {

            public Decimal Value {
                get {
                    return 10;
                }
            }        
        }

        [TestMethod]
        public void LooseCouplingDependency_TotalAmount() {
            
            DependencyInjection.LooseCoupling.Invoice i = new DependencyInjection.LooseCoupling.Invoice(1, new SaleTaxesForTesting());
            Assert.AreEqual(1.10M, i.TotalAmount);            
        }

And now in PythonIn Python there is no need to create the interface. Any instance referencing another is loosely coupled. See Uncle Bob's SOLID principal.

class SaleTaxes:

    def __init__(self):

        self.Value = DB.Read("SaleTaxe")

class Invoice:

    def __init__(self, amountBeforeTaxe, saleTaxes):

        self.AmountBeforeTaxe   = amountBeforeTaxe
        self.SaleTaxes          = saleTaxes

    def TotalAmount(self):

        return self.AmountBeforeTaxe + (self.AmountBeforeTaxe * self.SaleTaxes.Value / 100.0)

# Unit Tests

class SaleTaxesForTesting:

    def __init__(self):

        self.Value = 10

class UnitTests(unittest.TestCase):

    def test_LooseCouplingDependency_TotalAmount(self):

        i = Invoice(1, SaleTaxesForTesting())
        self.assertEqual(1.10, i.TotalAmount())

ASP.NET form authentication, cookie encryption and IIS7

2011-01-06T22:58:00.000-05:00

With IIS7 the encryption key, to encrypte the ASP.NET form authentication cookie is by default
re-generated every time IIS start or every time the application process is recycled
(when the application pool is recycled). My guess is that IIS6 uses a static encryption key.

Thefore if your application is trying the decrypte a cookie saved before the last recycling
the method FormsAuthentication.Decrypt() will raise the following Exception

System.Security.Cryptography.CryptographicException: Padding is invalid and cannot be removed.
One solution is to add your own machine key in the web.config file in the section <system.web>.

<machinekey decryption="AES"
  decryptionkey="04BCBB3929F44DE6B7C0DD5C4A992A24E0E05565D5A718B59C3..." 
  validation="SHA1" 
  validationkey="40107878EFF79547946F85EE34808A7BDB9B7CB0EC2184029F1..."
>

You can google machinekey generator to find online application that will generate the xml for you:

SyntaxHighlighter Syntax

2011-01-06T22:24:00.001-05:00

For this blog I am going to use the javascript library SyntaxHighlighter
from alexgorbatchev.com 3.0.83.

The goal of this post is to remember me how to include source code in others posts.

JavaScript

function helloSyntaxHighlighter()
{
 return "hi!";
}

function helloSyntaxHighlighter()
{
 return "hi!";
}

Python

def helloSyntaxHighlighter(self):
  return "hi!";

Ruby

def helloSyntaxHighlighter()
  "hi!"
end

XML

Frederic Torres Blog

Customizing an ASP.NET MVC app with a dynamic language

AppTitle:@ViewBag.ApplicationTitle AppVersion:@ViewBag.ApplicationVersion

Running PowerShell from C# with a hint of dynamic

How to deploy a phone gap app to your iOS device

ASP.NET projet will not start due to daylight savings time

quota_exceeded_err with Safari Mobile

JavaScriptDemoer

Listening to the Ruby Show and JavaScript Show

Running my HTML5 iPhone app web page demo in Safari Mobile

New England Code Camp 16 - October 29

I am going to have to learn to read Objective C

Subclassing an array in JavaScript

Lessons learned porting C# code from Windows to MacOS and iOS

My first phone application with jQuery Mobile and Chaka

Event Log service is unavailable. Verify that the service is running

Calling the base constructor in JavaScript

Running JavaScript, CoffeeScript from Visual Studio 2010

Static Member In JavaScript

Running JavaScript from C# with a hint of dynamic

Editing and running CoffeeScript on Windows

Embedding JavaScript in a C# application (Part I)

Running JavaScript from C# with a hint of dynamic

JavaScript run-times performance on Windows V1

JavaScript run-times performance on Windows

Top 7 Reasons To Learn JavaScript

What Can We Learn From Python And JavaScript While Programming in C#

What can we learn from

Python and JavaScript

while programming in C# 4.0?

Introduction

Who I am?

What about you ?

Why am I here?

Dynamic Languages - Python, Ruby, JavaScript.

Python and Ruby

A different way to code in C#

How did I got involve in this

DynamicSugar.Net

Let's Start...

What can we learn about formatting string from JavaScript?

In C#

In JavaScript

What can we learn about formatting string from Python?

Object Literals [ ]

Python's List

JavaScript's Array

What about a function returning multiple values?

What Python's syntax can say about that?

More about this

What JavaScript's syntax can say about that?

Object Literals { }

Conclusion

Trailing Comma and Internet Explorer 8

Function returning multiple values in C# and Tuple

Ruby is so cool, with its blocks

The Rise of the Micro-ORM or How C# is also a Dynamic Language

How to Write a Spelling Corrector? From Python to C# with Dynamic Sugar

Browser Benchmarks on my Windows XP 32b - Safari 5.0.4 FireFox 4.0 Opera 11.10 - IE 8 - Chrome 10

JavaScript Engine Performance: IE 9.0, Safari 5.0, Chrome 10.0, FireFix 5.0, Opera 11.

DynamicTextFileManager

Function returning multiple values in C#

Nice syntax to read JSon in C#

Dynamic Sugar # Library's Format Method - Another Sample

Dynamic Sugar # Library's Format Method

Tracing Program Execution, My Dream Came True

Dynamic Puzzle in C#

Step 1

Step 2

Beautifull

Initializing a Dictionary of List with the Dynamic Sugar library in C#

Fibonnaci() - JavaScript (Node.Js v.0.2.6) versus C# 4.0 on Windows XP 32b

The results

Speed of execution of the Fibonnaci() in Python v2.7, Ruby v1.9.2 and JavaScript (Node.Js v.0.2.6)

The results

Install Node JS On Windows 2008 and Windows XP

The Dynamic Sugar Library

But Why?

Extension Methods For Classes

Static Members

AppTitle:@ViewBag.ApplicationTitle
AppVersion:@ViewBag.ApplicationVersion

In `C#`