Why do I keep getting exception code e0434352?

If you want to know how to debug CLR exceptions using cdb then read this post.



Exception code e0434352 is the exception code used internally by the CLR to represent most exceptions(*).



Regardless of if you throw a System.NullReferenceException or a System.ArgumentException in C#, you'll throw a SEH exception e0434352 under the covers.



A fun way to validate this theory is to watch what happens to the CLR exceptions settings in cdb. Fire up cdb, and see the state of clr exceptions:

0:000> .shell -ci "sx" findstr clr
 clr - CLR exception - second-chance break - not handled
clrn - CLR notification exception - break - handled
.shell: Process exited 

Now, set the exception handler for exception number e0434352 and recheck the value of the clr exception handler:

0:000> sxe e0434352
0:000> .shell -ci "sx" findstr clr
 clr - CLR exception - break - not handled
clrn - CLR notification exception - break - handled
.shell: Process exited 

Armed with this knowledge I expect this post makes more sense.



NitPickers Corner:

(*) I know of at least Divide by Zero not using this exception code.

Using NUnit to explore static field initialization

Given the following code:

class Constants
{
    public static readonly Constants Instance = new Constants();
    public static readonly string ApplicationName = "ig2600";
    public readonly string CachedClassName;

    public Constants()
    {
        CachedClassName = GetQualifiedClassName("Constants");
    }

    public static string GetQualifiedClassName(string className)
    {
        return string.Format("{0}::{1}", ApplicationName, className);
    }
}

Which of the below tests pass?

[TestFixture]
public class TestConstants
{
    [TestFixture]
    public class TestConstants
    {
        [Test]
        public void TestOne()
        {
            Assert.That(Constants.Instance.CachedClassName, Is.EqualTo("ig2600::Constants"));
        }

        [Test]
        public void TestTwo()
        {
            Assert.That(Constants.Instance.CachedClassName, Is.EqualTo("::Constants"));
        }
    }
}

Not sure? Download the code with mercurial from  https://bitbucket.org/idvorkin/ig2600_blog, then fire up VS and NUnit, and look at the StaticFieldMystery project.

Four Visual Studio Extensions You Need To Be Using

I spend a lot of time in Visual Studio and these extensions  make visual studio even more awesome.  If you haven't used VS to install  extensions, it's  trivial.  Follow along by doing:



Tools -> Extension Manager -> Online Gallery -> Search



Here are the extensions  I use, and strongly recommend you try. I have seen no adverse problems from running any of these extensions.  Here are the extensions I use: 



Productivity Power Tools (by Microsoft; free): 

For VS2010: Adds a Solution Navigator,  a better Solution Explorer,  and cool tabs features like pinning and color coding by project. 



For VS2012: I haven't explored yet, but will update





PowerCommmands  Visual Studio (by Microsoft, free): 

For VS2010 Only: Several random features, the ones I really enjoy are Open Commmand Prompt here and Open Containing Folder.



NuGet Package Manager (by Micosoft, free): 

A package manager for .net. Say you want to use an open source library in your VS project, you open package manager and say Install-Package . With that the project you requested along with it's dependancies are downloaded and liked to your project. Must have when working with popular .net projects.





Resharper (by Jetbrains, 199$) This is "the" extension for visual studio. If you haven't used it, get the trial, I suspect you'll conclude it's worth paying for.  Resharper has several strong refactorings, plugins to fix stylecop errors, and first class support for running NUnit. 





VSVim (by Jared Parsons, free)

If you don't love VI you skip this.  If you love VI you get a fifth must use extension.  VsVim gives VI keybindings to visual studio. It's being actively developed and gets better every release. 



Again, I strongly recommend if you use Visual Studio that you try out these extensions right now, trust me, it’s worth the effort.

SSDs rock - but not for the reasons you think

I bit the bullet and picked up an SSD. It's expensive, but it had some surprising benefits. The normally quoted benefit is speed - which I really don't notice. Most operations went from some annoying amount of time, to some other annoying amount of time. I did notice two things:



1) Silence:  I'm so used to hearing my laptop harddrive I couldn't figure out what I was missing - there is no more annoying grindings; clicking or whirring.



2) Coolness: SSD's run cooler - which means less spinning fan, which means more silence



UPDATE: The most valuable thing about the SSD is the harddrive doesn't die when I drop the laptop, if you don't have an SSD in your laptop it's totally worth it!





(Update: A short,  highly entertaining talk about SSDs - mostly for servers here)