The new C# code generators at work
If you struggled with INotifyPropertyChanged implementation in C#, you may like my new C# Code Generator (C# 9.0) generating the property implementation in a partial class (see docs). This new strategy for generating code is important because it generates the code in real-time in Visual Studio but also when compiling from the CLI. Also, they do not require no runtime dependency, as everything is just done at build time. https://www.nuget.org/packages/SpeedyGenerators/ Sources and docs here: https://github.com/raffaeler/SpeedyGenerators HTH
Simple Guide On Effective Use Of Parallel Programming For C# In A Managed Code Environment:
Parallel programming in C# uses a variation of Managed Threading, that relies on PLINQ, Expression Trees, The Barrier Class, Thread Class, BackgroundWorker Class, SpinWait Struct, SpinLock Struct, and Thread-Tracking Mode for SpinLock. The reason is that it's faster to use the environment to determine how many cores / threads are available, as to not starve the device of resources, which at that point, you have to use the BackgroundWorker Class to manage each task you've created. Often in this scenario, you can end up with a deadlock condition, because you have more than one task trying to access a shared resource. It's much easier and faster to split up each task, ONLY using byte arrays, assigning each task individual byte arrays to sort / parse, encrypted or not, with the Stream class, or a sub variation of that Class, and then when each task finishes, they all finish at different times, but the shared resource is divided up into portions, so that they will only be able to fill one area of that array. The reason why Barrier is used in this situation, is it forces each one to wait until all the tasks are finished, or until they all ARRIVE at the same place, which solves one timing issue, yet it might create another where there's a bit of a timing mismatch if your estimates are wrong, you overshoot or undershoot I mean. At the very end, you can use a separate process to just COPY from each individual array, without a deadlock scenario occurring. The only issue, is you have to estimate how many threads are available ahead of time, and you can't use every single thread, yet you're going to have to divide a single resource between all those threads. Beforehand, you have to verify if it's a waste of time to use more than one thread. The reason why I say this, is that a lot of people use reference types, not knowing they are immutable, and they take a huge / massive performance hit because of this. Often you have to convert strings into byte arrays, or use a pre-initialized character array at the start of the program, which contains the Unicode values that you want to recast individually as strings, and then use a byte array as an INDEX or a placeholder, of a Unicode character array. If you’re not encrypting the byte arrays, or using them for text parsing, which byte arrays tend to be best in high throughput scenarios, than integer arrays will suffice. The index can be scrambled based on how you want to represent that one string, though it's smarter to only cast a new reference type when you want to display text on the screen. If you spend too much time manually parsing using built-in libraries, it's REALLY SLOW. A byte array is better to use than an integer array in this sort of situation. You might have to create separate indexes with a byte array representing a set of binary flags, to determine whether each one is a letter, number, symbol, etc, or how you want to classify each one based on the code chart that you're using. You would be better off in that situation to just use right shift / left shift / XOR, etc, to set the flags. Then you have something which is also very fast, and almost equivalent to a Barrel Shifter, given C# does not allow you to use pointers, as it's managed code / a managed environment. All the Boolean Logical Operators with Compound Assignment rely on pre-initialized Cast Expressions of Integer Literals, Bitwise and Shift Operators, combined with Lambda Expressions, and Operator Overloading. The purpose of the Shift Operators is to mask / pad the bits of one byte value with zeroes, so that your Cast Expression Of An Integer Literal, which serves at the mask, always gives you a fixed / deterministic result, when used in conjunction with Boolean Logical Operators, especially if the value is smaller than 8-bits / a single byte, or you're dealing with a larger array has to represent a flag "register" with a size of ( 2 ^ 8 ) 256 bits, which is basically a Double-Word: "Microsoft Learn - Boolean logical operators - AND, OR, NOT, XOR - Compound assignment" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/boolean-logical-operators#compound-assignment" "Microsoft Learn - Bitwise and shift operators (C# reference)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/bitwise-and-shift-operators" "Microsoft Learn - Operator overloading - predefined unary, arithmetic, equality and comparison operators" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/operator-overloading" "Microsoft Learn - Lambda expressions and anonymous functions" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/lambda-expressions" "Microsoft Learn - Integral numeric types (C# reference) - Integer literals" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/builtin-types/integral-numeric-types#integer-literals" "Microsoft Learn - Type-testing operators and cast expressions - is, as, typeof and casts - Cast expression" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/operators/type-testing-and-cast#cast-expression" "Microsoft Learn - Deserialization risks in use of BinaryFormatter and related types" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/serialization/binaryformatter-security-guide" "Microsoft Learn - BinaryReader Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.binaryreader?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Stream Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.stream?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - StreamWriter Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.streamwriter?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - StreamReader Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.streamreader?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - File and Stream I/O" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/io/" "Microsoft Learn - Pipe Functions" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/ipc/pipe-functions" "Microsoft Learn - System.IO.Pipes Namespace" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.io.pipes?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Custom Partitioners for PLINQ and TPL" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/custom-partitioners-for-plinq-and-tpl" "Microsoft Learn - Expression Trees" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/advanced-topics/expression-trees/" "Microsoft Learn - Build expression trees" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/advanced-topics/expression-trees/expression-trees-building" "Microsoft Learn - Translate expression trees" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/advanced-topics/expression-trees/expression-trees-translating" "Microsoft Learn - Execute expression trees" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/advanced-topics/expression-trees/expression-trees-execution" "Microsoft Learn - System.Windows.Threading Namespace" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.threading?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - System.Threading Namespace" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - System.Threading.Channels Namespace" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.channels?view=netcore-3.0" "Microsoft Learn - System.Threading.Tasks Namespace" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.tasks?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Timer Class (System.Timers)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.timers?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Timer Class (System.Threading)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.timer?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - DispatcherTimer Class (System.Windows.Threading)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.threading.dispatchertimer?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Dispatcher Class (System.Windows.Threading)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.windows.threading.dispatcher?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - Threads and threading" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/threads-and-threading" "Microsoft Learn - Using threads and threading" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/using-threads-and-threading" "Microsoft Learn - Introduction to PLINQ" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/introduction-to-plinq" "Microsoft Learn - Task Parallel Library (TPL)" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/task-parallel-library-tpl" "Microsoft Learn - Lambda Expressions in PLINQ and TPL" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/lambda-expressions-in-plinq-and-tpl" "Microsoft Learn - Multithreading in Windows Forms Controls" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/winforms/controls/multithreading-in-windows-forms-controls" "Microsoft Learn - Managed threading best practices" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/managed-threading-best-practices" "Microsoft Learn - Parallel programming in .NET: A guide to the documentation" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/" "Microsoft Learn - Thread Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.thread" "Microsoft Learn - BackgroundWorker Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.componentmodel.backgroundworker" "Microsoft Learn - Synchronizing data for multithreading" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/synchronizing-data-for-multithreading" "Microsoft Learn - Overview of synchronization primitives" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/overview-of-synchronization-primitives" "Microsoft Learn - Environment.ProcessorCount Property" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.environment.processorcount" "Microsoft Learn - Managed threading best practices - Number of Processors" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/dotnet/netframework-1.1/1c9txz50(v=vs.71)#number-of-processors" "Microsoft Learn - lock statement - ensure exclusive access to a shared resource" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/csharp/language-reference/statements/lock" "Microsoft Learn - Reliability Best Practices" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/framework/performance/reliability-best-practices" "Microsoft Learn - BackgroundWorker Component Overview" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/winforms/controls/backgroundworker-component-overview" "Microsoft Learn - How to: Run an Operation in the Background" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/desktop/winforms/controls/how-to-run-an-operation-in-the-background" "Microsoft Learn - Thread-safe collections" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/collections/thread-safe/" "Microsoft Learn - Threading objects and features" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/threading-objects-and-features" "Microsoft Learn - Barrier" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/barrier" "Microsoft Learn - Barrier Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.barrier?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - SpinWait" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/spinwait" "Microsoft Learn - SpinWait Struct" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.spinwait?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - SpinLock" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/spinlock" "Microsoft Learn - SpinLock Struct" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.spinlock?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - How to: use SpinLock for low-level synchronization" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/how-to-use-spinlock-for-low-level-synchronization" "Microsoft Learn - How to: Enable Thread-Tracking Mode in SpinLock" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/threading/how-to-enable-thread-tracking-mode-in-spinlock" "Microsoft Learn - Chaining tasks using continuation tasks" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/standard/parallel-programming/chaining-tasks-by-using-continuation-tasks" "Microsoft Learn - Interlocked Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.interlocked?view=netframework-4.0" "Microsoft Learn - TaskFactory Class" -> "https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/api/system.threading.tasks.taskfactory?view=netframework-4.0"The most interesting C# / .NET blogs and websites
Let's take a look at the list of information sources that can be useful for the C# / .NET developers. Our list includes blogs, repositories with source code, standards and accounts of developers who covers the deep aspects of the C# and .NET. Blogs .NET Blog Link: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/ It's an official blog from Microsoft about .NET, and languages and technologies related to this platform. Do you want to know about https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/performance-improvements-in-net-6/? Or maybe you want to see https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/whats-new-in-fsharp-6/? Would you like to read about https://devblogs.microsoft.com/dotnet/welcome-to-csharp-10/? You are welcome! .NET Core Tutorials Link: https://dotnetcoretutorials.com/ I'm not a regular reader of this blog. However, I want to recommend it to you. There was a time when I could find useful information on the topic of security there (about the OWASP Top 10 and C#). In my opinion, you can also find something interesting / useful there. Programming stuff Link: http://sergeyteplyakov.blogspot.com/ This is the blog of https://twitter.com/STeplyakov, who is currently working at Microsoft. The blog is only in Russian and has not been updated for a long time, but there is a lot of interesting material in it. So, if you have not heard about this blog and your language proficiency allows you to get familiarize with it, don't miss the opportunity. Habr.com Link (C# hub): https://habr.com/ru/hub/csharp/ Link (.NET hub): https://habr.com/ru/hub/net/ It's a good source of technical articles. The website is especially popular in the Russian-speaking community. This website has an English version (C# hub: https://habr.com/en/hub/csharp/, .NET hub: https://habr.com/en/hub/net/), but there are fewer articles published there. Again, if the knowledge of language allows you to read articles in the original, I recommend reading the Russian version of website. PVS-Studio blog Link: https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/csharp/ Let me introduce you to our blog. Here, you can find articles on various topics: on code quality, on bugs found in open-source projects, on the specifics of C# / .NET. Here are some examples of publications: https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/csharp/0865/ https://pvs-studio.com/en/blog/posts/csharp/0852/ The sources of .NET You can't do without source files when you want to better understand what is happening "under the hood" of a particular system. For example, do you want to improve your understanding of how types from the standard library work? The source code of https://referencesource.microsoft.com/ and https://github.com/dotnet/runtime will help you to do that. Do you want to dig deeper into the compiler? No problem - here is the https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn at your service. Do you need to look inside the build system? Here you go - the https://github.com/dotnet/msbuild code is also open-source. By the way, if you are interested in build processes, you may also find https://msbuildlog.com/ useful. It's a tool that allows you to work with MSBuild build logs in a convenient format. If you want to know about other components of .NET: NuGet, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core or something else - it's worth looking for sources in https://github.com/dotnet. Standards Sometimes, the source code is not enough and you have to dig deeper into the https://github.com/dotnet/runtime/blob/main/docs/project/dotnet-standards.md. I especially like the standard that defines https://www.ecma-international.org/publications-and-standards/standards/ecma-335/. It can be handy when you want to better understand what is happening in the IL code. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_CIL_instructions may be also useful. It can refresh your memory if you have forgotten something. Twitter accounts I suddenly discovered Twitter from a new angle. This is both a source of useful and interesting information, and a place where you can ask / discuss something. It's a platform where people will help you or explain you something. Let me show you a few Twitter accounts that I follow. Maybe you will find them interesting as well: https://twitter.com/badamczewski01 https://twitter.com/okyrylchuk https://twitter.com/konradkokosa https://twitter.com/EgorBo https://twitter.com/maoni0 You can also follow https://twitter.com/_SergVasiliev_, so you won't miss anything interesting. 😉 Conclusion I hope this article helped you find some new sources of useful information. Where do you check out the latest news and updates? Please, share in the comments! Who knows, maybe you will help someone discover new platform that they needed so badly.
