Derik Whittaker

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• Simple extension methods to help with Asserting values

  In the past I have written about the Fail Fast principle.  This is a principle I try to live my development life by.  I would rather explicitly check for possible failure points then have a runtime error crop up.  In the past when writing... Posted Apr 10 2008, 07:49 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 4 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, Featured

• Sorting List's the .Net 3.5 Way

  This post is another in the recent string of How-to's. But it is just so hard to resist. .Net 3.5 has so many cool features, it is just fun to explore them all. Ok, so here is the issue we are going to solve today. We have a list of entities and we... Posted Mar 28 2008, 09:09 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, HowTo, Linq, Lambda

• Why using the index for data retrieval is evil

  Today I was refactoring some sql procs along with the corresponding .net code that called the procs. My primary focus was to implement some new business rules (ways to get totals) in the proc.  In doing so, I completely re-wrote the proc.  In... Posted Dec 28 2007, 01:26 PM by Derik Whittaker with | with 5 comment(s) Filed under: Development, .Net, Opinion, Best Practice, Rant

• Taking the MCTS Test 70-536 -- That Sucked....

  So today I finally took the first test on the path to getting my MCTS Cert. This was the 70-536 test which is the first test in their new series for .net developers. Yea, I passed the first one, that SUCKED. I, along with the others on my team have been... Posted Sep 02 2007, 09:28 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 66 comment(s) Filed under: .Net, Opinion, Certification

• My Thoughts on Microsoft Expressions Blend

  Lately I have been playing around with Microsoft Expression Blend. Expression Blend is a product that allows for the creation of XAML based Windows client (not its only use, but what I am using it for). You can find more information about it here at its... Posted Aug 05 2007, 07:16 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 2 comment(s) Filed under: Development Tools, .Net, WinForms, Opinion

• Switch Statements with Enums best practice

  Over the years I have come to the conclusion when working with switch statements that switches on enum values, a DEFAULT block MUST be required. Not only should it be required, I think it should throw a developer exception. *** NOTE *** My stance on this... Posted Jun 26 2007, 07:08 AM by Derik Whittaker with | with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Development, Methodology, .Net, Opinion, Best Practice