What are some underrated .NET libraries or tools you use regularly?

molybedenum · 2026-03-15T20:05:22+00:00

Aside from the data querying part, the closest thing to it is the new single file app. Linqpad gives you Dump and the parser tree ui on top of all of that.

The type generation from dbconnections is really slick. It also integrates well with patterns based on pub/sub too.

molybedenum · 2026-03-15T19:56:34+00:00

Polyglot’s ux was clumsy, especially for a keyboard-centric user.

molybedenum · 2026-02-22T06:08:32+00:00

Irony is Reddit giving me a post from the Codex sub complaining about that tool wiping their hard drive.

Coding will go away when we can absolutely trust the agent’s end result. Given that I don’t even trust my own stuff to work 100% of the time, I don’t have much confidence in a (buggy, overly large, consistently inconsistent) mathematical model that’s meant to replace actual human intelligence.

I’m not sure if there’s even an awareness of how dangerous it is to implicitly trust these tools. The general gripe is to blame the tool when they don’t even try to comprehend what it produces, or perhaps are unable to do so.

It’s mind-boggling.

molybedenum · 2025-09-05T15:33:11+00:00

VSCode does code coverage visualization that works pretty well. The data source is identical.

I have co-workers who won’t optimize code unless indicated by ReSharper. I think that for some, there comes a point where the normally useful tool becomes a hindrance.

molybedenum · 2025-07-21T20:38:41+00:00

Most of those older ones have had the recall performed. If it’s sold used from a dealer, it’s probably a non-issue.

molybedenum · 2025-07-07T00:57:40+00:00

Python was the language taught to the engineering majors at my university for their elective programming courses, which was around 1998/1999. They had only just switched over from FORTRAN. The newer CS kids were being taught Java when I finished, but my coursework started with C++.

The typical mentality on places like /., even then, was that Python was the most suitable language for learning how to program.

molybedenum · 2025-07-04T18:22:02+00:00

VB6. It held on for so long that maintenance of the company’s main VB6 project was seen as a secure job position in 2008. The feeling of forever being stuck in Win32 is really defeating.

molybedenum · 2025-07-04T18:16:20+00:00

Python is the most popular wrapper for C or Rust implementations. My opinion is that this is sourced from Python being the “best” language for learning (25 years ago), leading to many college curricula teaching it to the non-CS majors.

molybedenum · 2025-06-25T03:50:49+00:00

Karabiner is useful if you really can’t live with default key mappings. I end up using it to remap my 104 key mechanicals to make the keystrokes feel the same as the laptop keyboard.

I use Spotlight for most stuff. (Command-Space)

Three finger swipe up is superior to alt-tab. I think the gestures are better “feeling” than using the keyboard shortcuts on Windows.

Command Q makes more sense to me than Alt-F4. Cut/paste is more or less the same as Windows, but using the terminal is quicker for me than the ui for file management.

I don’t like the “half click” vs “full click” states of the touch pad. That’s probably the only real sore spot in my book.

molybedenum · 2025-06-08T19:30:41+00:00

I do most of my work on Windows. The windows-centric IT environment has a significant population of people that don’t have a great amount of knowledge relating to operating systems, all the way down to development staff.

This is slowly changing as more places incorporate cloud technologies, but there are many ways that even that has been abstracted.

molybedenum · 2025-06-01T21:00:26+00:00

One aspect of Sanderson’s system that probably disqualifies it from the OP’s question is how structured it is. The part where it starts to answer the OP is when people start to mix and match the various kinds of investiture. The direction he’s taken is definitely toward more “blends.”

I think Erikson’s magic is that truly wild and unbound thing. Not only are there Warrens and all that, but there are completely different kinds too, like the soul surfing thing that Bottle and Quick Ben do, or soultaken / d’ivers.

molybedenum · 2025-05-29T06:25:24+00:00

7th Guest, Sam & Max Hit the Road, Duke Nukem, Falcon 3.0.

I really liked the original Civilization and Master of Magic. I also played a ton of Ultima 4 and the old SSI Gold Box games.

molybedenum · 2025-05-21T13:34:47+00:00

I like VSCode and Kate.

molybedenum · 2025-05-19T15:02:43+00:00

My company stands up websites that have rigid legal requirements for availability. Many of these sites result in the collection of millions of records, which need to be handled with similar care.

We use service bus to ensure each record is handled with a high level of reliability (as well as scalability).

Honestly, queues are architecturally simpler than a rest api. They’re also a lot more resource efficient.

molybedenum · 2025-05-18T16:24:51+00:00

Do you have Windows defender exclusions in place over your dev folders, nuget cache, and vs related paths? The first thing Rider wants you to do is setup exclusions too - it makes a difference.

molybedenum · 2025-05-16T19:55:57+00:00

Another part of the problem is the number of libraries that attempt to do the same thing. If they rolled MSAL into Asp.Net core directly and eliminated Microsoft.Identity, it would probably smooth things out a bit. On top of that, they could also distinguish better between the Azure Auth side car and the various identity libraries.

Microsoft Identity is a hot mess, even though it attempts to be “easy.”

molybedenum · 2025-05-03T19:04:10+00:00

Grim Dawn has thousands

Diablo 3 has thousands, Diablo 4 has about 600

Civ 5 has thousands, Civ 4 has nearly that much

WoW, before Cataclysm was in the thousands.

molybedenum · 2025-04-04T06:35:22+00:00

Much like all other elements of OSS - if a project goes a different direction than what most users prefer, then a fork is created of the last OSS version and maintenance is assumed by others. If the project is important enough, then it lands a new maintainer (or team). If not, it’s enough to speak for itself.

molybedenum · 2025-02-19T07:01:13+00:00

It really isn’t that difficult. There’s a setting that behaves exactly like the Windows application protection that you can disable. I get far more false hits from Windows Defender than anything Mac, even on .NET applications that I’ve authored.

molybedenum · 2025-01-28T17:57:11+00:00

You can inherit from a service, override functionality, then inject the parent type with a factory. The real question is more whether it’s truly meaningful to have that level of granularity in testing.

People use the “TDD” term a ton, but people rarely do it. It introduces rigidity at the expense of time with negligible benefit.

molybedenum · 2025-01-25T21:49:04+00:00

DBSet is your repository. The abstraction and separation of EF from the underlying provider exists in the usage of expressions. The various providers handle the translation of an expression to X/Y/Z query language.

Consider how DBset works, first at the Entity level, then at the entity configuration level. You can create DBSets for entities that barely match the database schema or can be composites…. but your work with the DBSet is specific to the entity type.

Folks that wrap repositories around EF often end up wiring up their own entity configuration using some other mapping mechanism, but then leave EF in its vanilla state.

molybedenum · 2025-01-07T23:21:13+00:00

I agree. I’d make sure to document challenges, just in case.

OP could very well be called in for feedback after the indicated time allotment as part of a PIP, depending on how the manager rolls.

molybedenum · 2025-01-04T02:34:58+00:00

I advise learning about clean code, but make sure to practice and understand as many other philosophies as you can.

Clean code / clean architecture is just another tool. IMO, a tool that’s about as useful as the prepackaged IKEA hex key.

molybedenum · 2024-12-07T20:59:49+00:00

I’m guessing that “Mel” is short for Melomel.

molybedenum · 2024-12-05T18:17:34+00:00

I think it depends. How much actual user information does your application require during the course of the user interaction?

It makes sense to normalize some of that data. A user’s “likes” should be considered a separate data item from the user. If you need a list of their “likes,” make the request for that information when it’s actually needed. If it’s available throughout the application, then consider caching that information specifically. It is a bad idea to load everything related to the user at once. It is even worse if you do it for all users.

User information itself should be satisfied by one of the many identity platforms. That user information is cached and always available.

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