So, it ain't "technical"...

...it's a gripe.

I recently ran into a situation where I needed to interface to a Win32 API style dynamic link library (DLL). Since most of the work I do is in a managed environment, I had to write a way to "thunk" into this older library.

I first wrote an Active Template Library (ATL) COM wrapper for the library but because of even more aggravating reasons, I had to abandon that project. I've written literally dozens of these ActiveX server wrappers for calling older code from .NET so I assure you, the aggravation factor was high.

So, the next best thing is to access this older DLL using the platform invoke (P/Invoke) mechanism of the .NET runtime. Being a typical programmer and laziness being truly a virtue in our profession, I didn't want to write all the P/Invoke function signatures by hand. Not to mention all the constants and enumeration declarations.

So, I finally decided to drop $60 on a tool that I'd seen a while back called the "P/Invoke Wizard". Since I have all the source to the target DLL, it'd be easy, right?

WRONG!

I go ahead and do the online purchase (from another software professional) and expect to be emailed my registration key. Only to discover, at the end of the purchase that they will email my registration code in 1 to 2 days after some one verifies the purchase.

Are you fucking kidding me? How hard is it to do online credit validation these days? So, I get to wait until "whomever" at that office decides to send an email.

The tool itself is very useful, I'm certainly not bitching about that. I'm not even bitching that it could take 1 to 2 days to get my registration code (although, that is a bit of an annoyance). What I am bitching about is the fact that I didn't know about the 1 to 2 day delay until after the purchase was completed.

Bitch fest off now... Just needed to vent a bit.

Uh... What's this blog thingy?

OK, you've got me. I've been a total slacker on this blogging shit.

I read the blogs of friends and continuously marvel at the amount of creativity and thought they put into those blogs. Me, on the other hand... Nada, zip, nothing.

I have no excuses, I don't have to be creative - most of my content is technical. I do have new things to post, I've been working with Windows Communication Foundation of late and have learned considerably more about the Microsoft patterns & practices Enterprise Library. My development project has upgraded to the Enterprise Library 3.1 (previously we were using 2.0).

Stay tuned, I'll eventually say something interesting.