The art of simplicity

With the 17.12 version of Visual Studio 2022 there comes a feature that I was waiting to be added for a long time(and with long I really mean long). Of course you are wondering what feature I'm talking about. Let me first set the scene by showing you the class I want to debug: I created a small Calculator example. Notice that I'm using 2 different syntaxes(the regular syntax and expression-bodied method). This is not an accidental inconsistency from my side as you’ll see later. Now what if I wanted to debug the return values of these functions. Before the latest Visual Studio update I typically used a temporary variable to inspect the return values or took a look at the Autos window or the Watch window. With this release, you finally see the return statements inline in the editor window. Here is an example where I added the breakpoint at the end of the function: Unfortunately this doesn’t work (yet?) when using the expression-bodied method syntax, this is because ...

New features keeps getting added to C#. With the release of C# 13 as part of .NET 9, you can now use the implicit index operator, ^ , to initialize a collection in reverse order. Before C# 13, you had to index elements from the front when using an object initializer. With the introduction of this operator, you get better readability and it  can help avoid potential off-by-one errors. More information What's new in C# 13 | Microsoft Learn

A utonomy in software design refers to the ability of a system or component to operate independently, making decisions and performing tasks without requiring other components or systems. Autonomy goes hand in hand with loose coupling , limiting the number of dependencies between components. These concepts are crucial for creating systems that are resilient, adaptable, and capable of handling complex tasks in dynamic environments. But could we apply the same concepts outside software design? Let's find out... Some observations If I showed you the following component diagram; what would be some observations, you could make?   Here are some of mine: Information is flowing up from components B, C and D to A. Probably there is some centralized decision making where most of the power is residing in component A. There is a high dependency on component A inside the system. Although without extra details we can misinterpret this diagram, but the risk exists that the co...

Today I investigated an issue we had in one of our build pipelines. For an unknown reason the build suddenly started to fail. In the build logs we found the following error message: ============================================================================== Generating script. Arguments passed sanitization without change. Formatted command: . 'D:\b\2\_work\135\s\Certificates\Import-PfxCertificate.ps1' -PfxFilePath ***2024.pfx -Password *** ========================== Starting Command Output =========================== "C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\powershell.exe" -NoLogo -NoProfile -NonInteractive -ExecutionPolicy Unrestricted -Command ". 'D:\b\2\_work\_temp\e3fa7d9e-bd6e-490f-8f71-182a958e03d7.ps1'" Importing store certificate 'D:\b\2\_work\135\s\Certificates\***2024.pfx'... Exception calling "Import" with "3" argument(s): "The profile for the user is a temporary profile. ...

Today I was in a meeting with 2 colleagues where we were discussing a specific solution. We were investigating which component had dependencies on which other component to find a way to simplify the architecture and limit the number of dependencies. After the meeting I wondered if Github Copilot could help. I opened the solution in Visual Studio and tried a first prompt: Create me a mermaid diagram showing all projects with their dependencies That didn’t resulted in what I hoped for. By default Visual Studio doesn’t automatically include context. Let’s fix that by adding @workspace: That look’s promising! Let’s copy the result over to a mermaid visualizer tool: Exactly what I was looking for. Nice!

I have been in a leadership role for many years and had the opportunity to follow multiple leadership trainings. These trainings all agree that good leadership does not come from a Command & Control mindset. Despite this knowledge I still see some leaders fall back to this mindset. They rely heavily on authority, directives, and the carrot-and-stick approach—rewarding compliance and punishing deviation. While these tactics may yield short-term results, they fail to unlock the true potential of individuals and teams. While authority, directives, and the carrot-and-stick approach may yield short-term results, they fail to unlock the true potential of individuals and teams. I believe in another model where leaders start from a Trust & Inspire mindset. The core idea is to move away from the traditional Command & Control approach by focusing on empowering and inspiring individuals rather than directing and managing them through authority and compliance. Remark: One ...