MDS Software Blog

C# Data Structures
 (Thu, 17 May 2012 19:49 +0100)
I use this all the time when programming and figure it would be useful to duplicate it here: Array - represents an old-school memory array - kind of like a alias for a normal type[] array. Can enumerate. Can't grow automatically. I would assume very fast insertion and retriv. speed. ArrayList - automatically growing array. Adds more overhead. Can enum., probably slower than a normal array but still pretty fast. These are used a lot in .NET List - one of my favs - can be used with generics, so you can have a strongly typed array, e.g. List<string> . Other than that, acts very much like ArrayList . Hashtable - plain old hashtable. O(1) to O(n) worst case. Can enumerate the value and keys properties, and do key/val pairs. Dictionary - same as above only strongly typed via generics, such as Dictionary<string, string> SortedList - a sorted generic list. Slowed on insertion since it has to figure out where to put things. Can enum., probably the same on retrieval since it doesn't have to resort, but deletion will be slower than a plain old list. I tend to use List and Dictionary all the time - once you start using them strongly typed with generics, its really hard to go back to the standard non-generic ones. There are lots of other data structures too - there's KeyValuePair which you can use to do some interesting things, there's a SortedDictionary which can be useful as well. Source: "Sam Schutte", stackoverflow.com

Roomba 'Stuck' and creeping towards the base?
 (Wed, 16 May 2012 20:30 +0100)
So I moved the schedule on my Roomba to a few hours earlier to reflect my change in working hours when I noticed that at around 4/5pm it would edge towards the base but seem afraid to proceed any closer to it. I cleaned it and restarted it (the cause of... Read More (392 Characters)

Working Out How Long The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool Takes
 (Wed, 16 May 2012 20:29 +0100)
Recently I noted that the Windows MSRT can take an exceptionally long time on slower devices (i.e. Netbook computers), but I never seemed to be able to know exactly how long it would take. It turns out every time the MSRT tool runs it modifies (by appen... Read More (301 Characters)

Letter To Harvester
 (Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:03 +0100)
So I realised I am old enough now that I can pretty much give constructive feedback to any organisation I am a customer of (and that the people reading my letters are probably just as bored of receiving mundane e-mails from customers as any other person). ... Read More (2349 Characters)

Amazon.co.uk Free MP3 Downloads
 (Sun, 4 Mar 2012 12:35 -0000)
In a similar vein to my Amazon.co.uk Free Kindle Books - Excluding "Classics" ... Read More (411 Characters)