2009-04-27

Tech: Developing C# on 64bit - A little debugging tip

History
A very long time ago I started my development carreer with Basic on a C64. Later on, my first real debugging experience was with Amiga- and Gfa Basic. Both allowed my to change my code during the debugging session which was, especially in larger projects, of some great help - and of course I was finally able to try the one or other thing while in debugging mode. Later on, doing my Visual Basic development, I was able to go on in enjoying this way of development.
Today
With Java and C# this way of development ended - so my thoughts and experience. I read that debugging and changing code should work at least in C# but have never been able to do so...
Some months ago I figured out why - and felt like a perfect idiot, especially since I pointed out some years ago in a developer forum (I think Skype) that - on 64bit systems - there is a border to cross.
The tip
If you develop on a 64bit system, VS 2005 / 2008 per default turns the platform target (Properties-Build) to Any CPU for C#. This consequently does result in you not being able to debug and code the same time.
If you do not code something doing 64bit operations or is in need of 64bit only compiled libraries, you might want to change the platform target to x86. The result is - back in debugging and coding business...
Well, sometimes it is as easy as this to make a developer happy 8-)
Question to Microsoft
When can I debug & code in both environments? 64bit debug & code only doesn't work - yet?

2009-04-22

TECH: A possible but strange IE8 Tab performance issue solution

While searching for a solution to IE8's obvious tab 'performance' issue, I stumbled upon the an article of Ed Bott http://www.edbott.com/weblog/?p=2443&cpage=2.

I tried it and partially it worked out - so maybe you experienced the same issue and search for a solution, this might help you as well.