Rob Janssen

The Fall and Rise of SVG

Sometime in 1998, a former co-worker who had gone to work at Adobe came by my office at Bertlesmann to inform me of a brand new technology that she knew would excite me: PGML, or “Precision Graphics Markup Language.” This was the Adobe flavor of XML for Vector Graphics.

Six Essential Tips For Async - Introduction

If you understand the basic flow of control in an async method, then those three points all fall naturally into place. This first introduction video explains that control flow. Slides and source code are available on Lucian's blog.

Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal

What text books tell you about inheritance in OOP is wrong

I received an email from one of my students asking for a design advice. He is working on an application used by a sports team manager, where they can create, edit and delete players, teams and coaches. So, the design that my student had in mind is something like this UML diagram:

Const vs Static vs Readonly in C# Applications

Just last week I had a new-to-ASP.NET developer (we'll call him Roger) ask me to explain what the difference was between a variable declared as const variable and that same variable declared as static readonly.

The 5 Laws of Software Estimates

Estimates are typically a necessary evil in software development.

Why you should understand (a little) about TCP

This isn’t about understanding everything about TCP or reading through TCP/IP Illustrated. It’s about how a little bit of TCP knowledge is essential. Here’s why. When I was at the Recurse Center, I wrote a TCP stack in Python (and wrote about what happens if you write a TCP stack in Python).

An Open Letter to Developers Everywhere (About Cryptography) · GitHub

Please check your code to ensure you're not making one of the following mistakes related to cryptography. If you're looking for cryptography right answers, check out the linked gist.

Patronizing Passwords

We all know that moment. You register for a new service, type in your chosen password, but can’t get in. Your password could very well be secure, but the opinionated service you’re trying to use disagrees.

Magic Methods in C#

This Read-It-Later-list is just that, bookmarks of stuff I intend to read or have read. I do not necessarily agree with opinions or statements in the bookmarked articles.

This list is compiled from my Pocket list.