Another example of using extension methods to improve the readability of your code. Version 4 of the .NET Framework introduces a new Tuple type; or rather, a set of Tuple types with different numbers of generic parameters. Tuples represent an ordered set of values, and are first-class features in some languages, particularly functional ones such as F#, which can return multiple values from a function, as in this example (which requires the PowerPack DLL): let success, value = TryParse ... [Read more]

I was working on an Azure utility with Johan on Friday, which had to deal with the XML responses provided by the Service Management REST API. XML like this: <HostedServices xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/windowsazure" xmlns:i="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"> <HostedService> <Url>https://management.core.windows.net/GUID/services/hostedservices/foo</Url> <ServiceName>foo</ServiceName> </HostedService></Host ... [Read more]