Scott Hanselman

I was talking to Tara and we were marveling that in in 1997 15% of Americans had Passports. However, even now less than half do. Consider where the US is physically located. It's isolated in a hemisphere with just Canada and Mexico as neighbors. In parts of Europe a 30 minute drive will find three or four languages, while I can't get to Chipotle in 30 minutes where I live.

A friend who got a passport and went overseas at age 40 came back and told me "it was mind-blowing. There's billions of people who will never live here...and don't want to...and that's OK. It was so useful for me to see other people's worlds and learn that."

I could tease my friend for their awakening. I could say a lot of things. But for a moment consider the context of someone geographically isolated learning - being reminded - that someone can and will live their whole life and never need or want to see your world.

Travel of any kind opens eyes.

Now apply this to technology. I'm a Microsoft technologist today but I've done Java and Mainframes at Nike, Pascal and Linux at Intel, and C and C++ in embedded systems as a consultant. It's fortunate that my technology upbringing has been wide-reaching and steeped in diverse and hybrid systems, but that doesn't negate someone else's bubble. But if I'm going to speak on tech then I need to have a wide perspective. I need to visit other (tech) cultures and see how they live.

You may work for Microsoft, Google, or Lil' Debbie Snack Cakes but just like you should consider getting a passport, you should absolutely visit other (tech) cultures. Travel will make you more well-rounded. Embrace the ever-changing wonders of the world and of technology. Go to their meet-ups, visit their virtual conferences, follow people outside your space, try to build their open source software, learn a foreign (programming) language. They may not want or need to visit yours, but you'll be a better and more well-rounded person when you return home if you're chose to be technology tourist.

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I've blogged at length about the great open source project called "Polly"

• NuGet Package of the Week: Polly wanna fluently express transient exception handling policies in .NET?
• Adding Cross-Cutting Memory Caching to an HttpClientFactory in ASP.NET Core with Polly
• The Programmer's Hindsight - Caching with HttpClientFactory and Polly Part 2
• Adding Resilience and Transient Fault handling to your .NET Core HttpClient with Polly

and I've blogged about "Try .NET" which is a wonderful .NET Core global tool that lets you make interactive in-browser documentation and create workshops that can be run both online and locally (totally offline!)

• Introducing the Try .NET Global Tool - interactive in-browser documentation and workshop creator

If you've got .NET Core installed, you can try it in minutes! Just do this:

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-try
dotnet try demo

Even better, you can just clone a Try .NET enabled repository with markdown files that have a few magic herbs and spices, then run "dotnet try" in that cloned folder.

What does this have to do with Polly, the lovely .NET resilience and transient fault handling library that YOU should be using every day? Well, my friends, check out this lovely bit of work by Bryan J Hogan! He's created some interactive workshop-style demos using Try .NET!

How easy is it to check out? Let's give it a try. I've run dotnet tool install --global dotnet-try already. You may need to run update if you've installed it a while back.

git clone https://github.com/bryanjhogan/trydotnet-polly.git
dotnet try

That's it. What does it do? It'll launch your browser to a local website powered by Try .NET that looks like this!

Sweet! Ah, but Dear Reader, scroll down! Let me try out one of the examples. You'll see a Monaco-based local text editor (the same edit that powers VS Code) and you're able to run - and modify - local code samples IN THE BROWSER!

Here's the code as text to make it more accessible.

RetryPolicy retryPolicy = Policy.Handle<Exception>()
    .Retry(3, (exception, retryCount) =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{exception.GetType()} thrown, retrying {retryCount}.");
    });

int result = retryPolicy.Execute(() => errorProneCode.QueryTheDatabase());

Console.WriteLine($"Received a response of {result}.");

And the output appears below the sample, again, in a console within the browser:

System.Exception thrown, retrying 1.
System.InsufficientMemoryException thrown, retrying 2.
Received a response of 0.

You can see that Polly gives you a RetryPolicy that can envelop your code and handle things like transient errors, occasional flaky server responses, or whatever else you want it to do. It can be configured as a policy outside your code, or coded inline fluently like this.

NOTE the URL! See that it's a .MD or Markdown file? Try .NET has a special handler that reads in a regular markdown file and executes it. The result is an HTML representation of your Markdown *and* your sample, now executable!

What's the page/image above look like as Markdown? Like this:

# Polly Retries Part 2

### Retrying When an Exception Occurs
The Polly NuGet package has been added and we are going to use the Retry Policy when querying database. 
The policy states that if an exception occurs, it will retry up to three times.

Note how you execute the unreliable code inside the policy. `retryPolicy.Execute(() => errorProneCode.QueryTheDatabase());`


``` cs --region retryIfException --source-file .\src\Program.cs --project .\src\PollyDemo.csproj 
```

#### Next: [Retrying Based on a Result  »](./retryIfIncorrectStatus.md) Previous: [Before You Add Polly «](../lettingItFail.md)

Note the special ``` region. The code isn't inline, but rather it lives in a named region in Program.cs in a project in this same repository, neatly under the /src folder. The region is presented in the sample, but as samples are usually more complex and require additional libraries and such, the region name and project context is passed into your app as Try.NET executes it.

Go check out some Try .NET enabled sample repositories. Just make sure you have the Try .NET global tool installed, then go clone and "dotnet try" any of these!

• https://github.com/bryanjhogan/trydotnet-polly
• https://github.com/dotnet/try-samples (there's like 5 sample areas in here, do "dotnet try" in the different directories!)

If you're doing classwork, teaching workshops, making assignments for homework, or even working in a low-bandwidth or remote environment this is great as you can put the repositories on a USB key and once they've run once they'll run offline!

Now, be inspired by (and star on GitHub) Bryan's great work and go make your own interactive .NET documentation!

Sponsor: Like C#? We do too! That’s why we've developed a fast, smart, cross-platform .NET IDE which gives you even more coding power. Clever code analysis, rich code completion, instant search and navigation, an advanced debugger... With JetBrains Rider, everything you need is at your fingertips. Code C# at the speed of thought on Linux, Mac, or Windows. Try JetBrains Rider today!

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I've blogged about Patching the new Cascadia Code to include Powerline Glyphs and other Nerd Fonts for the Windows Terminal but folks have asked very specifically, how do I make my prompt look like that?

Step One - Get the Terminal

Get Windows Terminal free from the Store. You can also get it from GitHub's releases but I recommend the store because it'll stay up to date automatically.

Note that if you were an early adopter of the Windows Terminal and you've released updated beyond 0.5, I'd recommend you delete or zero-out your profiles.json and let the Terminal detect and automatically recreate your profiles.json.

Step Two for PowerShell - Posh-Git and Oh-My-Posh

Per these directions, install Posh-Git and Oh-My-Posh. This also assumes you've installed Git for Windows.

Install-Module posh-git -Scope CurrentUser
Install-Module oh-my-posh -Scope CurrentUser

Run these commands from PowerShell or PowerShell Core. I recommend PowerShell 6.2.3 or above. You can also use PowerShell on Linux too, so be aware. When you run Install-Module for the first time you'll get a warning that you're downloading and installing stuff from the internet so follow the prompts appropriately.

Also get PSReadline if you're on PowerShell Core:

Install-Module -Name PSReadLine -AllowPrerelease -Scope CurrentUser -Force -SkipPublisherCheck

Then run "notepad $PROFILE" and add these lines to the end:

Import-Module posh-git
Import-Module oh-my-posh
Set-PoshPrompt -Theme Paradox 

Now that word Paradox there is optional. It's actually the name of a theme and you can (and should!) pick the theme that makes you happy and use that theme's name here. I like Agnoster, Paradox, or Fish, myself. Read more over here. https://github.com/JanDeDobbeleer/oh-my-posh

Step Two for Ubuntu/WSL

There's a number of choices for Powerline or Powerline-like prompts from Ubuntu. I like Powerline-Go for it's easy defaults.

I just installed Go, then installed powerline-go with go get.

sudo apt install golang-go
go get -u github.com/justjanne/powerline-go

Add this to your ~/.bashrc. You may already have a GOPATH so be aware.

GOPATH=$HOME/go
function _update_ps1() {
    PS1="$($GOPATH/bin/powerline-go -error $?)"
}
if [ "$TERM" != "linux" ] && [ -f "$GOPATH/bin/powerline-go" ]; then
    PROMPT_COMMAND="_update_ps1; $PROMPT_COMMAND"
fi

GOTCHA: If you are using WSL2, it'll be lightning fast with git prompts if your source code is in your Ubuntu/Linux mount, somewhere under ~/. However, if your source is under /mnt/c or /mnt anywhere, the git calls being made to populate the prompt are super slow. Be warned. Do your Linux source code/git work in the Linux filesystem for speed until WSL2 gets the file system faster under /mnt.

At this point your Ubuntu/WSL prompt will look awesome as well!

Fonts look weird? Uh oh!

Step Three - Get a better font

If you do all this and you see squares and goofy symbols, it's likely that the font you're using doesn't have the advanced Powerline glyphs. Those glyphs are the ones that make this prompt look so cool!

At the time of this writing there is active talk of getting Powerline and other Nerd Fonts into Cascadia Code, the new font that ships with Windows Terminal. In the short term, you can get a forked version of Cascadia Code called Delugia Code and download that.

Cascadia Code has been updated with a PL (Powerline) Glyph version! Go get it at https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code/releases and change the fontFace in your settings.json to "Cascadia Code PL"

"fontFace":  "Cascadia Code PL"

Remember also you can get lots of Nerd Fonts at https://www.nerdfonts.com/, just make sure you get one (or generate one!) that includes PowerLine Glyphs.

Have fun!

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I thought this was an interesting and subtle bug behavior that was not only hard to track down but hard to pin down. I wasn't sure 'whose fault it was.'

Here's the story. Feel free to follow along and see what you get.

I was running on Ubuntu 18.04 under WSL.

I made a console app using .NET Core 3.0. You can install .NET Core here http://dot.net/get-core3

I did this:

dotnet new console
dotnet add package Humanizer --version 2.6.2

Then made Program.cs look like this. Humanizer is a great .NET Standard library that you'll learn about and think "why didn't .NET always have this!?"

using System;
using Humanizer;

namespace dotnetlocaletest
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
             Console.WriteLine(3501.ToWords()); 
        }
    }
}

You can see that I want the app to print out the number 3051 as words. Presumably in English, as that's my primary language, but you'll note I haven't indicated that here. Let's run it.

Note that app this works great and as expected in Windows.

scott@IRONHEART:~/dotnetlocaletest$ dotnet run
3501

Huh. It didn't even try. That's weird.

My Windows machine is en-us (English in the USA) but what's my Ubuntu machine?

scott@IRONHEART:~/dotnetlocaletest$ locale
LANG=C.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=

Looks like it's nothing. It's "C.UTF-8" and it's nothing. C in this context means the POSIX default locate. It's the most basic. C.UTF-8 is definitely NOT the same as en_US.utf8. It's a locate of sorts, but it's not a place.

What if I tell .NET explicitly where I am?

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");
    Console.WriteLine(3501.ToWords()); 
}

And running it.

scott@IRONHEART:~/dotnetlocaletest$ dotnet run
three thousand five hundred and one

OK, so things work well if the app declares "hey I'm en-US!" and Humanizer works well.

What's wrong? Seems like Ubuntu's "C.UTF-8" isn't "invariant" enough to cause Humanizer to fall back to an English default?

Seems like other people have seen unusual or subtle issues with Ubuntu installs that are using C.UTF-8 versus a more specific locale like en-US.UTF8.

I could fix this in a few ways. I could set the locale specifically in Ubuntu:

locale-gen en_US.UTF-8
update-locale LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Fortunately Humanizer 2.7.2 and above has fixed this issue and falls back correctly. Whose "bug" was it? Tough one but in this case, Humanizer had some flawed fallback logic. I updated to 2.7.2 and now C.UTF-8 falls back to a neutral English.

That said, I think it could be argued that WSL/Canonical/Ubuntu should detected my local language and/or set locale to it on installation.

The lesson here is that your applications - especially ones that are expected to work in multiple locales in multiple languages - take "input" from a lot of different places. Phrased differently, not all input comes from the user.

System locale and language, time, timezone, dates, are all input as ambient context to your application. Make sure you assert your assumptions about what "default" is. In this case, my little app worked great on en-US but not on "C.UTF-8." I was able to explore the behavior and learn that there was both a local workaround (I could detected and set a default locale if needed) and there was a library fix available as well.

Assert your assumptions!

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About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

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I love my Nintendo Switch. It's a brilliant console that fits into my lifestyle. I use it on planes, the kids play it on long car rides, and it's great both portable and docked.

NOTE: Check out my blog post on The perfect Nintendo Switch travel set up and recommended accessories

But I never would have predicted "Visual Studio Core for Nintendo Switch" - now that's in a massive pair of air quotes because FUZE4 Nintendo Switch has no relationship to Microsoft or Visual Studio but it's a really competent coding application that works with USB keyboards! It's an amazing feeling to literally plug in a keyboard and start writing games for Switch...ON A SWITCH! Seriously, don't sleep on this app if you or your kids want to make Switch games.

Per the Fuze website:

This is not a complex environment like C++, JAVA or Python. It is positioned as a stepping stone from the likes of Scratch , to more complex real-world ones. In fact everything taught using FUZE is totally applicable in the real-world, it is just that it is presented in a far more accessible, engaging and fun way.

If you're in the UK, there are holiday workshops and school events all over. If you're elsewhere, FUZE also has started the FuzeArena site as a forum to support you in your coding journey on Switch. There is also a new YouTube channel with Tutorials on FUZE Basic starting with Hello World!

FUZE4 includes a very nice and complete code editor with Syntax Highlighting and Code bookmarks. You can plug in any USB keyboard - I used a Logitech USB keyboard with the USB wireless Dongle! - and you or the children in your life can code away. You just RUN the program with the "start" or + button on the Nintendo Switch.

It can't be overstated how many asserts, bitmaps, sample apps, and 3D models that FUZE4 comes with. You may explore initially and mistakenly think it's a shallow app. IT IS NOT. There is a LOT here. You don't need to make all the assets yourself, and if you're interested in game makers like PICO8 then the idea of making a Switch game with minimal effort will be super attractive to you.

 

 

FUZE and FUZE Basic also exists on the Raspberry Pi and there are boot images available to check out. It also supports the Raspberry Pi Sense Hat add-on board.

They are also working on FUZE4 Windows as well so stay turned for that! If you register for their forums you can also check out their PDF workbooks and language tutorials. However, if you're like me, you'll have more fun reading the code for the included samples and games and figuring things out from there.

FUZE4 on the Nintendo Switch is hugely impressive and frankly, I'm surprised more people aren't talking about it. Don't sleep on FUZE4, my kids have been enjoying it. I do recommend you use an external USB keyboard to have the best coding experience. You can buy FUZE4 as a digital download on the Nintendo Shop.

Sponsor: Like C#? We do too! That’s why we've developed a fast, smart, cross-platform .NET IDE which gives you even more coding power. Clever code analysis, rich code completion, instant search and navigation, an advanced debugger...With JetBrains Rider, everything you need is at your fingertips. Code C# at the speed of thought on Linux, Mac, or Windows. Try JetBrains Rider today!

About Scott

Scott Hanselman is a former professor, former Chief Architect in finance, now speaker, consultant, father, diabetic, and Microsoft employee. He is a failed stand-up comic, a cornrower, and a book author.

About   Newsletter

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