Just like a belated Christmas! So many toys in each! It’s going to shake up the computing world!
Happy Coding!
Be forewarned people! Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 RC2 is apparently on its way out. I just tried to look at the COM API for VS05 and it is NOT to be found!!! Virtualization is going to be built-in to Microsoft Windows Server 2008 so I’m guessing that they want people to migrate.
Microsoft doesn’t always communicate their visions clearly (take .Net for instance). The Microsoft Live Platform is another one of Microsoft’s great visions that encompass so much that it’s difficult to understand it in its entirety. There is just so much great stuff that it’s confusing to know how you can apply it to what you’re doing. Over the course of the past two months, Microsoft has put together some great MSDN Webcasts that really explain what makes up the Windows Live Platform and how you can take advantage of it. These Webcasts are level 300 courses and are understandably web developer oriented. The audio is not great but the information in them is invaluable!!!! Just go to the MSDN Webcast site and look for “Windows Live Platform Technical Drilldown”. There are four parts. Enjoy!
Happy Coding!
In a recent class I was taking, Jeffery Richter was teaching another class next door. My instructor was commenting on how good Jeffery’s Threading class was. And one of the things he shared from that class was about Singleton initialization. Most of the time when you see singletons you see them build as follows:
public class Singleton1
{
private Singleton1 instance;
private Object lockObject = new object();
private Singleton1() { }
public Singleton1 Instance
{
get
{
if (instance == null)
{
lock (lockObject)
{
if (instance == null)
{
instance = new Singleton1();
}
}
}
return instance;
}
}
}
Sometimes you get a bit more advanced version of the same thing:
public class Singleton2
{
private Singleton2 instance;
private Mutex mut = new Mutex();
private Singleton2() {}
public Singleton2 Instance
{
get
{
if (instance == null)
{
mut.WaitOne();
if (instance == null)
{
instance = new Singleton2();
mut.ReleaseMutex();
}
}
return instance;
}
}
}
There is also another way that we often see, and Jeffery feels is a much better and safer approach:
public class Singleton3
{
private Singleton3 instance = new Singleton3();
private Singleton3() { }
public Singleton3 Instance
{
get
{
return instance;
}
}
}
He feels that the first two techniques could possibly fail or cause contention. However, the third technique is guaranteed by how the framework loads the class definition. I prefer this method and it is also less code.
Happy Coding!
NetworkWorld ran an article that gives you a brief but good rundown on what’s new in VS2008. Well worth the 2 min you’ll spend reading it.
Folks, the waiting is OVER! VS 2008 is now RTM in all of is glorious editions! Even the Express editions!! And those are FREE!!!!!!
John Howell 