Blog by Joel Fjord�n a.k.a. Will o Wisp

MSBuild 4 Fails Building Device Projects Outside Visual Studio 2010

Joel Fjord�n — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 07:45:25 GMT

I recently wrote a blog post about a workaround for building .NET Compact Framework (Smart Device) projects in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2.

This workes perfectly fine when building it inside Visual Studio 2010, but when building it from the command line using MSBuild 4.0 it fails, complaining about not finding the GetDeviceFrameworkPath in the Microsoft.CompactFramework.Build.Tasks. This has to do with an error in the configuration file for MSBuild.

The solution is to edit the msbuild.exe.config file in the [Windows]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.21006 folder and to remove the binding redirect for Microsoft.CompactFramework.Build.Tasks to version 10.0.0.0, which does not exist yet.

Lines to remove:

TestDriven.NET Complains About Apartment State Not Being STA in Visual Studio 2010

Joel Fjord�n — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 16:14:04 GMT

Today I installed TestDriven.NET version 3 Alpha which works great in Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, except for one thing. Many tests failed due to an InvalidOperationException being thrown, stating that the calling thread must be STA.

I know that I had configured the apartment state to STA in the NUnit config file corresponding to the NUnit project file (or assembly). TestDriven.NET states that it defaults to run with STA as apartment state, but still it complained about not being STA.

The solution for me was to explicitly add the RequiresSTA attribute to the class being tested. The RequiresSTA attribute can be added to individual test methods, an entire test fixture or the whole assembly.

Making Visual Studio 2010 Perform Better in VMWare.

Joel Fjord�n — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:22:55 GMT

Are you experiencing very bad performance, crashes or painting problems when running Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2 in a virtual machine, like VMWare? I did experience this in VMWare, e.g. VS 2010 crashed when creating new projects, painting problems in the new project dialog, etc.

I found this blog post describing the issue and a workaround that not only is specific for Visual Studio 2010, but for all WPF application.

Simply disable hardware acceleration by creating a registry value HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DisableHWAcceleration, as a DWORD with a value of 1.

Open and Build .NET Compact Framework Projects in Visual Studio 2010

Joel Fjord�n — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 16:00:25 GMT

.NET Compact Framework (Smart Device) projects are still not supported in Beta 2 of Visual Studio 2010, but there is a workaround until support is added in the final version.

Things to change in VS 2008 .NET Compact Framework (Smart Device) projects to make them load and build in VS 2010 while still targeting the .NET Compact Framework.

1) Edit the project file (*.csproj) for your smart device project.

2) Make sure the ToolsVersion attribute is set to 4.0.

3) Remove the ProjectTypeGuids property item from the main property group.

4) Both PlatformFamilyName and PlatformID are important for the project to correctly target the .NET Compact Framework.

5) Change the import item for the Compact Framework build task to specify the location of the Microsoft.CompactFramework.CSharp.targets file. Either hard-code the path in the task or add the path to a property item in the main property group and reference that in the import item.

Example #1:

Example #2:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5

6) Remove the import tasks for older versions of the .NET Compact Framework or configure them correctly.

7) Copy the "Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets" file from [Windows]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5 to [Windows]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.21006.

8) Reload the project. It might still ask for a conversion but this time it will load the project correctly.

Things to change in VS 2010 project files, targeting .NET 3.5, to make them target the .NET Compact Framework 3.5.

1) Replace the MSBuild project task targeting the .NET Framework to the one targeting the .NET Compact Framework, i.e. Microsoft.CompactFramework.CSharp.targets. Either hard-code the path in the task or add the path to a property item in the main property group and reference that in the import item.

Example #1:

Example #2:

C:\Windows\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5

2) Add the following property items to the main property group:
WindowsCE
E2BECB1F-8C8C-41ba-B736-9BE7D946A398

3) Copy the "Microsoft.CompactFramework.Common.targets" MSBuild .NET Compact Framework target file, from [Windows]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v3.5 to [Windows]\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v4.0.21006:

4) Reload the project.

Support is Coming for DXCore 9.1.3

Joel Fjord�n — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 08:07:03 GMT

DevExpress recently released new versions of DXCore, CodeRush & Refactor, where they have a new versioning and installation structure.

A new version of Code Style Enforcer is on the way, with support for the latest DXCore. The only difference, really, is the installation path of the CSE plug-in, so until I've fixed this you can simply copy the DX_CodeStyleEnforcer DLL from the "C:\Program Files\Code Style Enforcer" folder, to the DXCore plug-ins folder located in something like "Documents\DevExpress\IDE Tools\Community\PlugIns".

Sony Sucks When It Comes to Support and Guarantee for Playstation 3

Joel Fjord�n — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 11:41:46 GMT

I write this to inform you all about my experiences with the horrible Sony support in Sweden. It all started when the blueray drive in my one year old PS3 (40 Gb) stopped reading blueray discs, games and movies. I then contacted the support in order to try to get it fixed, guarantee or no guarantee. After some phone calls, which by the way cost about 1$ per minute, and a lot of e-mails, I understood that they were not interested in trying to find a solution, and I was told that a simple diagnose would probably cost more than a new console. I know for sure what the problem is, so why not simply exchange the drive or let me buy it as a replacement part so that I could replace it myself?!

The problem with the blueray drive is so very common, that I really think Sony should extend the guarantee period for these units, or at least try to be a little more professional in handling these issues. If you google for this problem you will find hundreds of hits in forums and YouTube also has an insane number of videos where people show you how to try to fix it or exchange it.

This blog article, that describes my experiences with Sony in more detail, is unfortunately in Swedish, but I guess you can always use a translation tool if you're interested in reading more about it.

Quick Navigation in CodeRush

Joel Fjord�n — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 09:11:07 GMT

A lot of Resharper people are complaining about the lack of CTRL + T (Go to type) feature in CodeRush, but I can now happily announce that a similar feature does exist.

The feature is called QuickNav in CodeRush and it must be manually configured in the DevExpress Options menu. Below the IDE category, you'll find Shortcuts where it's possible to change the key combination for a certain Command or add new ones. In order for the QuickNav to work optimal for both finding types and members to Shortcuts must be added.

I've mapped the "Go to type" feature to "CTRL + T", with QuickNav as command and AllTypes, , AllVisibilities, CurrentSolution as parameters (note the empty members param).

In order to get the "Go to member" feature, I've mapped it to "CTRL + ." with QuickNav as command and AllTypes, AllMembers, AllVisibilities, CurrentFile as parameters.

New Version Finally Here!

Joel Fjord�n — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:37:44 GMT

The new Code Style Enforcer version is 2.2.10.

New Features

� Settings file and default location for custom rules is changed to the user's documents folder. UAC should no longer be an issue.

� Rules are now only enforced for C# and VB projects/documents.

� Possible to activate/deactivate Code Style Enforcer for each individual project in a solution.

Bug Fixes

� Method parameters are now checked for violations again.

� Implicit and explicit cast operators no longer report invalid violations.

New Version on its Way!

Joel Fjord�n — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 13:20:25 GMT

It's been way to long since I released a new version of Code Style Enforcer, but now I've finally took the time to get back into the code.

A new version can be expected really soon, it will mainly contain some fixes for reported bugs, e.g. invalid violations reported for implicit and explicit cast operators, and similar things.

I'm also going to have a look at the UAC issue and change where settings and rules are stored, since now it happens below the Program Files folder, which is no good.

Stay tuned!

There is no Virus!

Joel Fjord�n — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:57:22 GMT

Today when I got back home from work I saw that Avast updated its virus definitions, so now it doesn't report a virus/worm anymore.

I must say that Avast took this false positive very seriously, since they fixed it within 24 hours.

Happy Enforcing!