The Old New Thing

C# nested classes are like C++ nested classes, not Java inner classes

August 1, 2006 Aug 1, 2006 08/1/06
Raymond Chen
When you declare a class inside another class, the inner class still acts like a regular class. The nesting controls access and visibility, but not behavior. In other words, all the rules you learned about regular classes also apply to nested classes. The keyword in an instance methods of a class (nested or not) can be used to access ...

Christmas gift idea for your favorite glasses-wearing geek

July 31, 2006 Jul 31, 2006 07/31/06
Raymond Chen
Yes, I'm talking about Christmas gifts (or "winter solstice gifts" if you prefer) in July. I'm one of those people for whom buying Christmas gifts is a brain-wracking ordeal, and I'm always on the lookout all year round for the "perfect gift". Last Christmas, a friend of mine gave me a micro-fiber lens-cleaning cloth that comes in a pouch you...

Just because I don't write about .NET doesn't mean that I don't like it

July 31, 2006 Jul 31, 2006 07/31/06
Raymond Chen
Some people have inferred that I don't write about .NET because I don't like it. That's not true. I use it myself. The reason I don't write about .NET is because I'm not an expert on it and there are plenty of other .NET blogs out there, written by people who are actual experts. (Such as Maoni Stephens, whose little finger contains more ...

The Seattle Monorail has two trains, and they collided

July 28, 2006 Jul 28, 2006 07/28/06
Raymond Chen
Murphy's Law vindicated again. The Seattle Monorail has two trains, and last year they managed to collide. To get this to happen was particularly tricky, since the trains run on separate tracks, and there is only one spot on the entire line where a collision could occur—and they found it. You can read about it in this Associated Press ...

The efficiency of ordinal-based imports while still being name-based

July 28, 2006 Jul 28, 2006 07/28/06
Raymond Chen
Reader Tom brought up the interesting point that ordinal-based imports are slightly faster than name-based, though not by much. But if even that tiny fraction of a percentage bothers you, you can still get the benefits of ordinal-based imports while still being name-based. People are more familiar with the first half of the "rebase and bind...

Names in the import library are decorated for a reason

July 27, 2006 Jul 27, 2006 07/27/06
Raymond Chen
When I wrote that the symbolic name for the imported function table entry for a function is called , the statement was "true enough" for the discussion at hand, but the reality is messier, and the reason for the messy reality is function name decoration. When a naive compiler generates a reference to a function, the reference is decorated in...