CodeSmith 2.6 (Freeware) Still Available

CodeSmith, which many of us depend on, has become a commercial tool, and I wish them plenty of success with that. Every development group should have it in its arsenal of tools.

But for those of us not able to authorize a corporate purchase, the freeware version is still available. It's just a little hard to find.

VS 2003 Property Expansion in Debugger Windows Bug

I found a solution on the web to an obscure bug in VS 2003, and since the solution was many Google pages deep I thought I'd post it here.

People working with VS 2003 solutions with multiple projects sometimes encounter a bug where the property expansion of objects viewed in the debugger windows no longer works. The object may or may not have a plus sign when viewed in the Watches, QuickWatch, or Locals window, but if you click the plus sign, it merely disappears. The properties of the object are not displayed and there is no easy way to inspect them. This seriously impairs the debugger's usefulness as a tool.

The root cause of this is having a project in your solution that doesn't have any classes. Build projects and catchall projects with non-code items often fit the bill. Adding a dummy class -- just a skeletal declaration -- makes the problem go away.

Computer Recycling Collection Event

If you live in Hamilton County and you've been accumulating bits of old computers because you're too conscientious to throw their lead-ridden carcasses into the dumpster, this is for you:

HCDOES Solid Waste Management Division is once again hosting a computer recycling event. The 6th Annual Computer Recycling Collection Event will be held July 11– 16, 2006 at Technology Recycling Group located in St. Bernard, Ohio. All businesses, schools, and non-profits must pre-register for the event. Residents do not need to pre-register. The registration deadline is June 9, 2006. Hamilton County Residents only.
http://www.keepcincinnatibeautiful.org

Client-side C#

I've always had a soft spot for "little" languages and the translators that read them. "Little" languages typically compile to source code in some other language rather than to an executable. The first one of these I encountered was RPG/free, Paul Conte's innovative free-form, arbitrarily-long-variable-name version of RPG (so old at this point that I couldn't even find a link.)

I was reminded of this when I encountered Script#, by Nikhil Kothari. Quite simply, it allows you to write C#, complete with classes, inheritance, and strong typing, and then compile it into javascript. Because the source code is C#, you have the use of all the intellisense and other support in Visual Studio, as VS reflects on the core sscorlib assembly.