DirectX in C# in Brief
Several techniques of implementing DirectX functionality into C# application will be presented. Their common attribute is an idea of component object model (COM) because DirectX is based on component technology. This paper will be focused on use of DirectX graphical capabilities within the C# code of the Microsoft .NET Framework. Three main techniques will be described. First, COM interoperability which allows us to decide what specific functionality to use. There will be also mentioned some basic principles like memory management and garbage collector (GC) and some approaches based on wrapper classes. Second, Visual Basic type library that includes all the functionality, and third, the complete solution known as DirectX 9.0. Each technique will be supported with a code snippet and with several reasons stating its suitability. Nowadays, the need for security can be more important than for the efficiency. This also gives a right answer for the question of how good is solution provided by use of DirectX and .NET Framework.
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Working with Data in ASP.NET 2.0 - Efficiently Paging Through Large Amounts of Data
As we discussed in the preceding tutorial, paging can be implemented in one of two ways:
- Default Paging – can be implemented by simply checking the Enable Paging option in the data Web control’’s smart tag? however, whenever viewing a page of data, the ObjectDataSource retrieves all of the records, even though only a subset of them are displayed in the page
- Custom Paging – improves the performance of default paging by retrieving only those records from the database that need to be displayed for the particular page of data requested by the user? however, custom paging involves a bit more effort to implement than default paging
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.NET as a Platform for Implementing Concurrent Objects
JACO is a Java-based runtime system designed to study techniques for implementing concurrent objects in distributed systems. The use of Java has allowed us to build a system that permits to combine heterogeneous networks of workstations and multiprocessors as a unique metacomputing system. An alternative to Java is Microsoft’’s .NET platform, that offers a software layer to execute programs written in different languages, including Java and C#, a new language specifically designed to exploit the full advantages of .NET. In this paper, we present our experiences in porting JACO to .NET. Our goal is to analyze how Java parallel code can be re-used in .NET. We study two alternatives. The first one is to use J#, the implementation of Java offered by .NET. The second one is to rewrite the Java code in C#, using the native .NET services. We conclude that porting JACO from Java to C# is not difficult, and that our sequential programs run faster in .NET than in Java, while internode communications have a higher cost in .NET.
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ADO.NET in Disconnected Mode
You see how ADO.NET differs from its predecessor when you start working in disconnected mode. ADO 2.x permits you to work in disconnected mode using client-side static recordsets opened in optimistic batch update mode. This was one of the great new features of ADO that has proved to be a winner in client/ server applications of any size. As a matter of fact, working in disconnected mode is the most scalable technique you can adopt because it takes resources on the client (instead of on the server) and, above all, it doesn”t enforce any locks on database tables (except for the short-lived locks that are created during the update operation).
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Moving from ADO to ADO.NET
Let’’s face it—most Microsoft Visual Basic applications have some sort of data access. If your application uses ActiveX Data Objects (ADO), you probably want to know what improvements you can make now that you are upgrading to Visual Basic .NET. The .NET Framework offers a whole new set of controls and services, including ADO.NET.
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