Source Code Checklist

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Source code is at the heart of any application, and you’ll be working with it every single day that you develop. It’s worth learning about tools and techniques to make working with code easier:

• Use utilities such as Ildasm or Reflector to analyze the code when you’re not sure what it will do.

• Use tools such as Snippet Compiler or .NET Component Inspector to experiment with new components without the overhead of building an entire project.

• Get to know the FCL and the classes that it contains so that you can avoid reinventing the wheel.

• Investigate other sources of reusable code when you want to incorporate common functionality in your projects.

• Use a tool such as FxCop to check code for conformance with design guidelines.

There’s another alternative to writing your own code or incorporating someone else’s code: using tools to automatically generate the code for you. I’ll introduce this technique in the next chapter.

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