an empty place v3.5

Our lives are a culmination milestones, first times if you will. These first times are what prepare us for the next steps in our lives. We are who we are because of these. As parents we unwittingly embed our children with these milestones and the need to collect more by cataloging first coos, first teeth, first steps, etc... Looking back on our lives we recount our firsts and major achievements as being milestones to establish ourselves as adults. When I look back on my life I see several different categories ranging from personal to professional with many markers in each. On the professional side, I see that I have been working in one form or another since I was 14 and from Taco Bell to today I have tried dilligently to move forward and I think I have done a decent job at it.

On that note, two years ago today I offically started working for my current employer and have been very happy. While the pay is not phenomenal (though better than my last) the team I am on is great. Our work is not necessarily revolutionary but it is groundbreaking in our industry nonetheless. And even though I am no longer working on tracking systems or automatic identification systems anymore (watch for an open source version, I'm getting the itch and my NDA is up), I am still able to work on some exciting technology.

I have been branching out into web apps on the side for the past year (nothing that has hit the web, very soon, I promise) so I can't help but wonder if this is merely a diversion or if it will become the next milestone that I will look back on. Hindesight.

Last night, Thing One hit a milestone. For the first time he told me I didn't have to tuck him in. What a friggin kick in the nutts! There I am, standing in front of his room like I've done for the past eleven years and he says, "night dad, you don't have to tuck me in tonight." He might as well have kicked me in the nutts and said, "oh damn bitch, I missed!" A knot formed in my throat and I played it off but it really kinda made me sad. Little bastard gettin tucked in tomorrow night. Fer realz. Anyway, my little Thing is growing up [shyuddup pervert] and there's nothing I can do about it. 'bout friggin time!

It was incredibly difficult to get on the treadmill this morning. This past week has been difficult as far as training goes. I just can't seen to get the drive I had a year ago. Managing both a restrictive eating plan as well as an exercise routine seems daunting to say the least. Absolutely everything seems to get in the way and for the past three weeks now I have had an insatiable appetite. I just can't seem to get full. My stomach will, at times, physically feel like it is going to burst and I will still be famished. Its bizaar, I can't remember ever being this hungry. And this only weakens my willpower. But I've lost 5 pounds since last Monday so that isn't too bad I guess.

Talks have started again regarding medicating Thing Two. My argument against it is simple, he should be taught that a pill will not solve his problems. My mother insists that he is the spitting image of me and the way I acted as a child and I've learned to control the impulsive behavior, loud out bursts, hypertensive behavior, and emotional state a good 90% of the time. No, I am not where I think I should be in life but you know what, humility is a gift.

M's argument is manifold and envolves me getting medicated as well. She believes that it will only help him (and me). This is a tough one for me, I loath the thought of dependance and it kills me to think that I may be making a choice for Thing Two that will adversely shape his ability to stand on his own. But then, if I don't do it, will he turn out like me?

See Sharp Dot Net Two Point Oh has only recently been released officially and there are already talks about the features to be in Three Point Oh. Even though I have not been able to dig into the lastest virgin, err... I mean, version, I do have some beefs about what I've heard has been added. Using the MSDN and ONDotNet articles regarding C# 2.0 I am going to lay out my own opinions below. But before we get into that let me preface my opinions by stating: I fully realize these language additions are not required. I don't have to use them. I can ignore them. Unfortunately though, other people can and will use them, so I am required to learn and understand them.

Why am I so opinionated about these changes? Because some of them just don't make sense. There are three factors of performance when considering any developmental task: Development, Runtime, Maintenance. Will speeding up any of those three hurt any of the others. I feel some of the additions will seriously hurt in the maintenance area. YMMV.

I am not describing what these functions do, I am sharing my opinion about them. For more information I would suggest the previously linked articles and personal experience. I feel that even though I have no experience with 2.0, my extensive 1.1 and a decade plus of software development experience is enough to allow for the following interpretations. I fully expect my opinions to change as my experience with these additions increases. You can skip to the bottom to see what I think should be added to the language, framework, and IDE.

Partial Types
Basically, you can define a class or structure across multiple pages. You could do this in C++ and I've collaborated on a couple projects in the past with a guy that loved doing this and I've always hated it. I just hate the thought of having to manage multiple files for one class (forms and their associated resources excluded). Really, to each his own and I do feel you really shouldn't rely on the IDE too much so I see this as an acceptable addition to the overall .Net development experience. People have different organizational requirements and goals so I have no real problem with this. And I should note, having dealt with classes automatically generated by the IDE based on WSDL files, I see a very crucial need for this feature.

Static Classes
To me, this where the onus of responsibility gets obscured. One of the many things I learned from the illustrious Chief Software Architect (L-3 AR) and all around incredible guy, Bill Hertz, was that the compiler should not be relied upon to detect coding mistakes. It seems to me, that's all this feature does. If you can't keep your own developers from adding non static methods to a properly documented class intended for it, what makes you think you can stop them from removing the static clause and doing it anyway? This hardly seems like a useful addition to the language.

Global Namespace Qualifier
Well, its definitely a good thing, but I don't care for the syntax. I can deal with that though. On the up side, I have never encountered a need for it as I have never had to deal with a class written at the global level.

namespace MyApp
{
class MyClass
{
   public void MyMethod()
   {
      ::MyClass obj = new ::MyClass();
      obj.MyMethod(); // Traces "Hello" instead of recursion
   }
}
}

public class MyClass
{
public void MyMethod()
{
   Trace.WriteLine("Hello"); 
}
}

It just doesn't feel like good programming to do something like this without a good reason. I just can't find that reason.

Property and Index Visibility
Yeah, I really like this one. This one is a good one and one that I wish I had access to now. I can see many uses for a public get or set and a protected opposite. Sure, the property can be readonly publicly, but I should be able to write to it internally. This is a good one.

Anonymous Methods
I am going to hold off on my evaluation of this until I can actually see it in action. At first I had a knee-jerk reaction to it. I didn't like the idea of it. I still don't, but I want to give it a chance before I slam it. For now I will just say, I don't see what I gain from this addition.

Generics
This is probably the best feature in the next version. Excellent.

Iterators
I don't know enough about this yet and will be spending more time to figure out how to best implement it, but at first glance, it looks promising.

And now on to the Three Point Oh language additions.

MSDN and CodePost have pretty good descriptions of the pending feature additions.

Implicit Type Declarations
Even though (thankfully) these are to be local only, it is assinine letting the compiler decide the appropriate datatype for a particular variable. I just can't believe this is a proposed "feature". Take this for instance:

 // x is not local and is defined outside
 // the scope of the mthod calling this loop
 for(var i = 0; i < x; i++) { // do stuff }
 for(var i = 0; i > x; i--) { // do stuff }

Will the compiler be smart enough to match the datatype of 'x'? I hope so, if x is a long and it types i as an integer, this is going to have some serious implications. And before you say "but this will help with database access where you don't always know... blah blah blah". Go to hell. Try doing your damn job.

Object Initializers
This one isn't too bad really, it is a kind of shorthand that will allow a little less redundant coding, provided you have properties defined for the fields you want to assign:

 public class Point
 {
     int x, y;
     public Point(int x, int y)
     {
         this.x = x;
         this.y = y;
     }

     public int X { set { this.x = value; } }
     public int Y { set { this.y = value; } }
 }

 Point p = new Point { X = 1, Y = 1 };
 Point q = new Point(1, 1);

I don't know yet, I can see where this can be handy, but you have to know the class. If the property is readonly, this won't work. What happens if I want to require that both x and y are initialized by the caller? This feature will allow me to ignore this requirement.

Anonymous Types
Another brain dead concept, only this time, we're combining Implicit Types with Object Initializers and this is what the children look like:

 var x = new { Name: "Jim Bob", Number: -1 };

I see nothing but chaos coming from this mess.

Extension Methods
To me, this just defeats the purpose of subclassing. And how does this inherit anyway?

Lambda Expressions
To me, I think these will only confuse the code further but I want to understand it better before I slam it too hard.

LINQ
Now, this one I do like. And I do understand that many of the previous features that I see as boneheaded are used to make this possible.

And now for what I would like to see in the language.

foreach Indexing
In PHP you can iterate through a collection like

 foreach(items as value)

Which will return each value in the items collection. C# does this and it works just fine.

 foreach(items as index=>value)

Now this will not only give you the value, but also the index or key of that value in the items collection. This would be very useful.

Unfortunately, I've run out of time. I will add to this though; count on it!

Holy crap! I've become a fat lazy bitch! Last summer I weighed, at my smallest, 168 pounds and I worked out like mad. I weighed this morning at 214. 45 pounds in eight months, that can't be healthy. In my waist-line's defense, I've been under a great deal of stress, haven't been sleeping, and gorge myself with all kinds of garbage. After getting winded moving a single peice of furniture less than 100 feet last night I decided it was time to get back in shape.

I'm not so embarrased about my clothing being tighter or being less attractive naked; I was out of breath and on the verge of another asthma attack moving less than 100 pounds. That's embarrassing. Last summer I repacked my 100 pound canvas heavy bag to just over 200 pounds (after restitching some of the seams to reinforce it), tossed it on my shoulder and navigated the living room, dinning room, and office into my weight room. Yeah, it was a little clumsy, but I did it and didn't even break a sweat. I took a look at that bag last night and the dust it has gathered and decided to make a change.

I've been working out almost regularly all along but the intensity has become nonexsistant and my diet has gone to hell. The plan was to get up this morning and work out for an hour, take The Things to The Pit and then run for an hour. Not getting up with the alarm killed that plan. I've gotta do something, summer is coming and I want to have the energy to not only make it to the beach but also enjoy being there. So let's call this week a trial week and fine tune a good system. At lunch I am going to run hard for an hour then tonight I'll work out and run. Hopefully I can get back into the morning wokout routine so I don't feel compelled to do it half-assed at lunchtime anymore. We'll see how it pans out.

I am finally in a good QA cycle and can take a breath. She Wants Revenge is back in town next week and I really want to go, we'll see what happens. Yesterday afternoon Mike mentioned something about a headline on CNN ("Woman takes sleeping pills, cooked and ate") and how misleading it was. Apparently, she was not the victim of cannabilism but sleep eating. Very disappointing.

Mike mentioned another headline and I completely misunderstood it until I read the article last night. Drug trial goes terribly wrong, six men in intensive care. I thought it meant that during a drug trial (as in, some dealer being prosecuted) six men got sick in the court room. Figuring either a poison/anthrax/delay tactic I looked it up when I got home. Very disappointing.

I have an opportunity this summer to spend a week at a friend's ranch in Washington (the state not the capitol or Denzel), a week in North Carolina with my inlaws (whom I like and are on good terms with), or work on purchasing a new house for $350k. The idea of the house is quickly fading so I am left with the first two options and not going to NC is out of the question. I wonder what will happen this summer.

I suppose it is getting to be time to start running around screaming and waving our hands in the air. Nope, its not even Friday night. We've got the Bird Flu (now showing in a cat near you) [Future Crisis], AQ Khan, Retarded kids are getting kicked out of movie theaters, and Assault Drones in Arkansas.[via The Raw Feed]. I don't know about you but I am thinking The End Times™ are Here.