Category / Languages

.NET Class Libraries: Application Settings, Config-File October 23, 2011 at 14:53

I’m getting to a point where my programming limitations (skill-wise) is in the subtleties of different languages and platforms rather than general concepts, algorithms and design. It is a nice feeling to feel proficient in what you do, but oh so frustrating when you stumble on the small exceptions and querks in a langue or platform. This weekend it was C# and .NET Class Libraries. Apparently, class libraries ignore the LIB.dll.config file. It retains the default values it was compiled with, no matter what you write in the file, or if it’s even there. Very frustrating when you writing a plug-in architecture with configurable plug-ins. Not to mention all the time spent trying to figure out why the damn plug-in wouldn’t accept my changes in the config file.

So now you know! The application settings model does not work with Class Libraries. You can still use them in design time, but once you ship, the content of the config file will not matter. If you want your class libraries to be configurable, you have to roll your own. I’m suggesting reading and parsing the application config file, since it is there anyway -just do it your self. If I bother to do it myself for my application, I’ll try to write a general wrapper class and publish it here.

Bit Viewer: New Release 1.1.4312 October 22, 2011 at 19:39

New release of Bit Viewer, the small Windows programs that offer easy conversion between Decimal, Hexadecimal and binary. This new release treats blank strings in the input-boxes as value zero.

The program is released under GPL2 and source code as well as executable can be downloaded from the Bit Viewer project page.

Bit Viewer – version 1.1.4263 (first official release) September 4, 2011 at 00:38

I recently started doing a lot of low level programming in C. I wrote a small desktop application to help with conversions between hexadecimal, decimal and binary formats. It also allows for some simple visualization of the bit-pattern. The program is released under GPL2 and source code as well as executable can be downloaded from the Bit Viewer project page.

Password Generator – version 1.1.4255 August 27, 2011 at 00:05

A second release has been made, available on the project web page.

Password Generator project page

New Features:

  • You can now save settings (pattern and output file) to file for repeated use.
  • Help document can be accessed through the GUI-version.

 

Password Generator – First Release August 23, 2011 at 23:28

A couple of years back I forgot my password to one of my True Crypt volumes. I remembered approximately what the password was but couldn’t figure out the exact one. In order to help me brute-force my way into the encrypted volume, I wrote a small program to generate all possible combinations from what I remembered about the password.

I have now finally gotten around to publish the source code and binaries. It is released under GPL2, so please enjoy.

Password Generator project page