I’m thinking about trying to use FxCop to analyze ASP.NET assemblies. Are there any rule libraries for FxCop that are designed to enforce correctness in ASP.NET projects? Should I be analyzing the temporary ASP.NET assemblies as well as the code-behind assemblies? I know FxCop was intended more for library designers and enforcing API correctness, but just because something was designed for a different purpose has never stopped me before. I know in Michael Fanning’s Tech-Ed 2003 talk on FxCop when analyzing ASP.NET was mentioned he said something like “you might see a lot of strange results that you might want to take with a grain of salt” - in other words “don’t go there”.
I’m currently reading SSCLI Essentials by David Stutz et. al. which I borrowed of Dominic - I’ve found it good so far. The writing is precise and compact without being boring (although I started reading the book for the first time at 3:30 AM and found the GDB traces a little soporific). Needless to say I haven’t found the book as “stimulating” as some others have (read the second customer review…go on).
There has not been a single comment posted relating to the shortcomings I percieved in the async callback facilities in ASP.NET 2.0. Either I did a poor job of explaining the problems, no problem really exists, or people aren’t that worried. The sample I put on gotdotnet contrasting the ASP.NET 2.0 approach with ASMX(s) and the WebService DHTML Behavior has also fared poorly in the download count. I think a winforms demo of how to centre a form on the screen that was released on the same day is doing better. I guess it is hard to know what people will find interesting. I’ve softened my stance on the async callbacks - they will probably be sufficient in very simple cases. I will probably stick to the existing approach using ASMX(s) and the WebService behavior.