I just wanted to give my RSS people a heads up. Some time in the next few months I will be shutting down my old feed URL.
My new URL is:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/JustinKohnen
Please switch over when you get a chance. I'd hate to lose you as a reader.
Kindest Regards,
Justin Kohnen, Geek
Just the other day I was talking with a coworker about ASP.NET Themes. We were addressing a question about putting multiple Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) into a theme.
Unless you do something special, ASP.NET Themes adds a link reference to every CSS file in the theme directory. We were fine with this behavior even if the styles weren't used by the page, but what about all the background images defined in the style sheets?
Here's where we asked the question "When do browsers download images defined in Cascading Style Sheets?"
Both Internet Explorer 7 and FireFox 3.0 do not download an image unless the style is used on an element of the page.
Consider a style sheet called style.css which containes
.image
{
background:transparent url(testImage.png);
}
If you have a html file which contains:
<html>
<head>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen, projection" href="style.css">
</head>
<body>
<p>Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>
There will be two requests to the server: html, and css
If you have a html file which contains:
<html>
<head>
<link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" media="screen, projection" href="style.css">
</head>
<body class="image">
<p>Hello World</p>
</body>
</html>
There will be three requests to the server: html, css, and png
I tested using FireFox 3.0 with FireBug (HEH HEH, FIRE!), and Internet Explorer 7 and Fiddler.
I wanted to save this tip for later but I think it's too important to hold back. The one action of attaching to a process will save you minutes, that's right MINUTES, in your daily tasks.
You might have noticed in my last post about Keyboard Shortcuts I never mentioned the F5 key. That's because I never use it.
The F5 key is commonly used to "Start Debugging." Let's take a moment to walk thru what happens when you press F5. (Or click the green play button, or thru the menu Debug > Start Debugging)
The F5 Way Now, lets assume you want to debug some new administrative feature you've added to your web application. After all of the "F5" steps, most likely you:
Now, lets assume you have a bug in your code. Your next step might be:
So, how can "Attach to process... " save you minutes? By not repeating the Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth steps from above.
Here is the process I use:
Once per day:
That's right, I usually only do these 5 steps once a day.
Now, I write my new administrative feature. Then, it comes time to test my changes.
<note>
This is where my first three common "walks" of my last post become important.
</note>
Lets assume there is a bug in my new code. (I know it's hard to believe, but just for giggles lets assume.)
By using "Attach to Process..." we save ourselves repeatedly launching and closing the browser, the login process, and the preliminary navigational steps to get to the code we want to test. These actions which took minutes and were repeated with every "F5" now are only done once.
I'm a developer that cannot code without music. Euro Dance Techno from di.fm is this ninja's weapon of choice. I don't think I could work for a company that didn't let me have my headphones.
Just the other day I can across a remix of "Still Alive" from the credits of "Portal" the video game. (Part of The Orange Box).
I wanted to give a shout out to Raddox for his mix, and let others know about some of his other awesome work. Namely, "I'll Follow You There," and the amazing "When I Was a Child."
Happy coding to all.
I've thought for a while about what tip I wanted to start with. I decided to begin with the keyboard because I'll mention what shortcuts I use in all future tricks.
I don't want to get into a debate of which is better "the keyboard" or "the mouse", (personally I use one to compliment the other) but there are a some things about your keyboard and Visual Studio (VS) that can shave a few seconds off your common daily tasks. I like to call these two tips "VS Keyboard Shortcuts" and "Walking the Menus."
Everyone should know Visual Studio IDE largely relies on the Command Pattern. Nearly every action in VS can be performed by a command, and most Add-ins rely on the command pattern too.
What does this give us? Two words: "Keyboard" "Shortcuts." You can essentially tie any command (save, build, copy) to a key combination. These settings are controlled in the keyboard options dialog.
Tools > Options > Environment > Keyboard
In this dialog you can lookup all the commands, and assign key combinations to them.
If you see a command with a comma (',') in it, this means you pause.
For example "Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K" means hit "Ctrl+K" pause hit "Ctrl+K" again. Or, hold down the "Ctrl" key and hit the "K" key twice.
Some of the most common VS shortcuts I use are:
| Ctrl+X | Cut |
| Ctrl+C | Copy |
| Ctrl+V | Paste |
| Ctrl+Z | Undo |
| Ctrl+Shift+Z | Redo |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Ctrl+G | Go to line |
| Ctrl+Shift+B | Build Entire Solution |
| Ctrl+K, Ctrl+K | Add/Remove Bookmark |
| Ctrl+K, Ctrl+P | Go to Previous Bookmark |
| Ctrl+K, Ctrl+N | Go to Next Bookmark |
| Ctrl+M, Ctrl+O | Collapse all (regions, methods, etc.) |
| Ctrl+M, Ctrl+P | Expand All (regions, methods, etc.) |
| Ctrl+M, Ctrl+M | Collapse/Expand Current |
| Ctrl+K, Ctrl+C | Comment out Current Line or Selection |
| Ctrl+K, Ctrl+U | Uncomment Current Line or Selection |
| F9 | Add/Remove a breakpoint on the current line |
Most of the common commands appear in the menus for quick reference.
Some general non-VS shortcuts I also use:
| Alt+Tab | Switch windows. |
| Ctrl+Right Arrow | Jump one "word" to the right |
| Ctrl+Left Arrow | Jump one "word" to the left |
| Ctrl+Shift+Right Arrow | Un/Highlight one "word" to the right |
| Ctrl+Shift+Left Arrow | Un/Highlight one "word" to the left |
Now, spend a few minutes exploring your menus and context menus. Look at all those commands and command categories. (Most having an underlined letter)
Using your Alt key and those underlined letters you can "walk the menus."
When you hit Alt, the menu bar gets focus. Use the letter shortcuts (the underlined letter) to select the action you want. This keeps you from taking your hands off your keyboard to grab the mouse to click the menus.
Some of my common "walks" are:
| Alt, B, U | Build Current Project (the project containing the document your working on) |
| Alt, D, P | Attach the VS Debugger to a Process |
| Alt, D, D | Detach the VS Debugger from all Processes |
| Alt, W, L | Close all Documents/Tabs |
The first three don't seem like much, but I'll explain how valuable they are in a later post.
The process of taking your hand off your keyboard home row, grabbing the mouse, dragging to target, clicking (repeated clicking if you have bad aim), and moving your hand back to the home row takes valuable seconds. Why not save them by learning a keyboard trick or two?