Category Archives: Software Development

iPad – The rise of the naturalistic user interface

Apple’s iPad applications make use of real-world objects in their user interfaces: books, newspapers, address books. What is it about the iPad that makes it a good platform for this kind of UI?

Also posted in Graphics, Usability, iPhone | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Where’s my window?

Where’s my window gone? I’m sure I left it around here somewhere…

Also posted in Windows | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Why the Peggle mobile experience beats GTA

Peggle and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars. Two fantastic and very different iPhone games, but how is your enjoyment of them affected by the platform on which they run?

Also posted in Gaming, Usability, iPhone | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Beware of using stack-based COM objects from .NET

COM objects that don’t have the expected lifetime can cause chaos when combined with .NETs garbage collection system.

Also posted in .NET, COM, Debugging, WinDbg | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

A WPF custom control in F#

What F# language and syntax features are required to implement a fundamentally object-oriented WPF custom control?

Also posted in .NET, F#, WPF, Windows | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Don’t do anything in DllMain… Please

Thinking of adding some code to your DLLs DllMain function? STOP!

Also posted in Debugging, Uncategorized, Windows | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Generating and plotting random numbers

An example of generating random numbers in F# and visualising their distribution using the WPF charting control.

Also posted in .NET, F#, Finance, Visual Studio, WPF | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Programming is like a bad analogy

The joy of programming can be a difficult thing to describe. I take a look at some of the bizarre things people have compared it to.

Also posted in Rant | Tagged | 4 Comments

Pinned DataTips in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2

I’ve just noticed a nice little feature in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2: pinned DataTips. Values displayed in the debugger as you hover over a variable can now be pinned in place and remain aligned with the source. They can even have annotations added… Tasty!

Also posted in Debugging, Usability, Visual Studio | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Comparing lambdas in C++ and F#

Lambdas in C++ and F#: compare and contrast.

Also posted in F#, Visual Studio | Tagged , | Leave a comment