Develop Reference

"URI formats are not supported." exception just started showing up in really old, unchanged code

Ok, I'm experiencing a truly random bug and I cannot find any reason why this would happen. I have an application that I update that was first developed MANY years ago. I work on a sizable dev team whose sole responsibility is to manage this application and we've come to accept that the project is a bit of a "franken-code" project. We are but humble developers in a line of many generations of developers who've inherited this project. (This will be important to know later.)
There is a portion of our application that deep within the initialization process calls the following code:
string strPath = System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase);
string strFile = strPath.Substring(6) + "\\" + FILE_NAME;
Here's the deal. My fellow team members, and myself, have been able to modify and build higher-level, UI and DB related sections of our solution for an eternity. I, nor anyone else, has modified the above code, or any code in the same code file (or project within the solution, for that matter.)
However, today while working in a completely different section of my application I began to get some really odd "Out of Memory" exception errors. I'm not sure if that relates to my problem but I felt it was worth mentioning that after rebooting my machine and reloading the VS solution, I'm now consistently getting the following exception when I attempt to run a debugger test, when the initialization process attempts to execute the above mentioned snippet of code:
Exception: A first chance exception of type 'System.ArgumentException' occurred in mscorlib.dll
Message: URI formats are not supported.
I've googled this error message and it looks like the original dev was simply doing this wrong. This seems to be a common error, but what baffles me is that this has never been a problem until, randomly, today.
I know this is an odd question, but is there a way to fix this without modifying this code. As I mentioned, this is a really complex application that often feels a bit cobbled together. Our team is attempting to clean up, or replace, much of the applications functionality but there are portions we simply do not touch because we have no solid clue how the application will work once it is deployed to our production environment. This is a highly-critical application and it cannot be broken.
Might anyone have any clue what may cause this to "magically" start happening? Especially since I have been working in UI-related code, and no where near the low-level, configuration resolution section of code where this came from.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
We use source control. If I download, build an run an older revision of the application, it works.
We use AnkhSVN and when I inspect my changed files, again, there is nothing that has been changed that relates to the code that is now failing.
No one else in my team has ever seen this.
To my knowledge, I've not tweaked any setting associated with my project. I've taken a look at my project properties and everything looks normal. I guess there is a chance that I've hit some odd key-combo and enabled/disabled something through shortcut-keys, but I have no clue what that might be.
Any help is appreciated. Sorry for the novel. I'm just stumped and I'd rather not use a different method for acquiring this path string if there is ANY chance that altering this process could behave differently in different user environments.

I can only assume some working file within the Visual Studio that is associated with the project/solution had become corrupt. I searched through the text of my project files, and all of my code, and I didn't see anything out of place.
As I mentioned, we use source control. To attempt a fix, I pulled down the same source revision that I initially pulled for my current task. I compiled and ran the application. Everything worked properly in its "vanilla" state.
Next, I copied in all of the files I knew I had modified. I hadn't added any new project references or resources, so I just copied over the modified .cs files. I built and ran the application and I've had no trouble since the pull from my branch.
This does not answer the question of why this occurred, but this method can provide a solution to the problem.

I can confirm this change in Path.GetDirectoryName occured to me after installing VS 2015 and rebuilding our project in it so it seams to be .NET 4.6 feature.
Rebuilding the project again in VS 2013 returns the previous behaviour where Assembly.CodeBase with "file:" prefix is acceptable by Path.GetDirectoryName without any exception.
But rereading the MSDN documentation, there is a statement that "file:" paths are not supported, but this is not mentioned in ArgumentException thrown in VS 2015 code.

First of all, find out how many versions ago this started occuring: start with the current version, and work back changeset by changeset until it no longer fails.
It sounds like, for whatever reason, System.Reflection.Assembly.GetExecutingAssembly().CodeBase now returns a string that GetDirectoryName doesn't like. So, check the project files, the .sln, the repo config, anything that could cause a file to be in a different location.
If you can't find anything there, check the other files from that same commit, even if they appear that they shouldn't be related.
First Chance Exceptions generally happen when you've got multiple threads happening, so check for new threads that weren't in the previous version. I've also had situations where First Chance exceptions would only get caught under certain situations, and are silently ignored otherwise, so look changes in Debug settings: it's possible that this problem has always existed, you just haven't had the right settings to catch it until now.
Remember that under a source control, other people can change things that are "yours", even if only by accident.

Handling StackOverflowException in Lua

I'm making an IRC bot in C#, and want to have Lua be executable via a command. I already have this working, and have overcome some basic obstacles, but now I'm having a larger problem with a StackOverflowException; My friend gave me some Lua code to run, which every time seems to cause a StackOverflowException, no matter how hard I try to prevent it.
print(string.find(string.rep("a", 2^20), string.rep(".?", 2^20)))
So, with this being executed using LuaInterface (LuaInterface 2.0.0.16708 to be precise) - I get a StackOverflowException in my code and I don't seem to be able to fix this, looking at some previous questions.
I know parsing code before executing it to predict stack overflows is hard, so I don't know how I would circumvent this. I have already tried multi-threading (which solved a previous problem where yielding code wouldn't return control back to C#) but this does not seem to help.

To get around that particular error use Lua 5.2.2 or newer. The case is a reported bug that got fixed in the version 5.2.2. It gives "pattern too complex" error instead.
And as far as sandboxing is concered why not fashion it after the Lua live demo as suggested in this SO answer? I don't know how secure it is but I'd presume the authors have both the incentive and capability of making it as secure as possible. The sources can be found from here.

How to share code documentation for a project?

There was a similar-ish question here on SO https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9475795/how-do-you-share-code-across-teams-working-on-very-different-projects but mine is about writing documentation.
Scenario:
Let's say my team is working on a software project, a Fany-WordPad like application which has a feature called Fancy-Word-Art ( just like MS Office's word Art). Now I wrote the code for the main window( using WPF in .Net, or using Window Builder in Java, doesn't matter which tool/language).
Now if my colleague Mr Spongebob is writing the Word-Art part, how would I tell him what functions to call / Api to use to draw on my window? i.e. How do I let Mr SpongeBob know that he needs to call GetWindow() method to get a reference to the drawing surface, the parameters he needs to pass along , and so on?
I hope I am being clear here. Is this the procedure?
Step 1 : Use your company wiki site to understand your colleague's written code
Step 2 : Write the GetWindow() method so that it works well with the rest of the project
Step 2 : Now put a wiki on your intranet with the method parameters/ data type requirement for your GetWindow() method or use Doxygen/ Confluence as suggested below
Step 3 : Now its your colleague Mr Spongebob's headache how to find how to draw his word-art on my window.
This just doesnt sound right .. With tons of functions, Spongebob's life will be hard, just as mine. Both of us rummaging through documentation to find the right functions to do our job. What if then I change GetWindow() to GetWindow(string title).. Now how do I literally tell the poor spongebob he needs to redo his code.
Am I missing something here? Please share your experience, how do you tackle this problem in a real world software house environment? If your fellow developer is on the next table , do you actually show them how to implement a certain method as they get stuck, or how do you deal with this situation?
thank you
Thanks

A good question. Of course i do not have the universal solution. Code documentation in msdn/sun style is a good base. But for concepts, architecture and so one you need more than this. In some projects we use wikis for that. For customer requests, we have a kind of ticket-system where we also store some (no-code) information to solution. All in all there is no central place for all the documentaion stuff.
Edit: Your code in self is often the best documentation, following clean code guidelines or something else is a real best practice :-)

Wikis are a cracking idea (good suggestion #Micha!). I used to use one in a previous company for a large engineering software/hardware project. It obviously spanned hardware and software guys and so it was a great way to share info across all teams. It's really useful if it's a long term project too - you can keep track of changes to functionality/API as things inevitably morph over time.
We used a paid service - Confluence if I remember rightly; but there are free wiki hosting sites too e.g. wikihost (just a quick google search, I can't vouch for them).
On another note though - have you thought about self documenting code at all? For example "Doxygen" or similar? Takes a lot of pain out of documenting every single function and also sets up a decent framework that can be padded out with more info where necessary. It also creates a nice UI for stepping through all the functions /class etc.
Edit: I've actually just started using Google Sites (sites.google.com) to create a wiki for a dev team I'm not working with. It's free (as in 'beer') and seems pretty good so far, although it does lack auto code formatting.

IMO you need both API documentation and plenty of examples.
You might get some mileage out of documenting your code of course, but if you're truly writing a system properly, your clients will never see your code. (That goes for clients in the calling sense, not necessarily in the "paying for your services" sense).
That's a fundamental of good practice and SOA, so you should really discard the "self documenting code" approach.
An alphabetic list of functions/methods/properties/whatever has value once the client has "got it" but until then, it's not immediately useful.
So that leaves you with having to showcase your creation. Give a bunch of immediately useful examples that demonstrate the kind of thing you envisaged. Make sure you have a simple example that demonstrates every function in its basic form with minimal interaction with the rest of the system (too many required interactions and you've probably not got a clean system anyway).
Once you have that, put it on a Wiki and encourage your users to enhance it. Consider using something interactive like a Stack-Overflow-like platform. MSDN is a good model but their examples often suck and can lack context. You might have the luxury of having more tight and specific uses than, say, the entire .NET framework. Early response to questions and updates to your examples/documentation will ensure your message gets across in the vital early days. This will help your documentation burden tail off quickly by looking after your clients and giving them useful, practical help.
Hope that helps.

In my projects I use a short description in my class files at the top, like:
//======
//
// modul: fileRunner.cs
// ...
// what: for playing audio/video
// depends on: consoleOutput.cs (Form)
//
//=======
#region HowToUse
//=======
//
// HowToUse
//
// 1. create instance of fileRunner:
// fileRunner p = new fileRunner();
// 2. run console program [progPath] with arguments [cmdsString]
// string output = p.RunExternalExe(progPath, cmdsString);
// 3. handle [output]
// if (output == "anyError"){do something;}
//
// [OUTPUT]
// "0" : process ended w/o errors
// "C" : canceled by user
// else: output is the string of the StdError, the called program submitted + StdOut after "Std output:"
//
// IMPORTANT
// Mention, this file depends on consoleOutput.cs to parse the output for gui.
// It doesn't support input ways, because the way ffmpeg is outputting doesn't allow it, it's not active
//=======
#endregion
For other classes I just named the public functions, that are self-describing.
An other option is to write on the top that they should look an the comment in the code and on the top of the public functions I use similar explanations:
#region convert an audio or video file from a drop
// FUNCTION: convertTo
// DOES: converting a file from a drop
// does not delete the original
// INPUT1: [path] as string,
// path to the destination file
// INPUT2: [e] as System.Windows.Forms.DragEventArgs,
// the args, the drop-object submits
// path of source file is in here
// OUTPUT: isConverted as bool,
// true if not (canceled or error raised)
public bool convertTo(string pWorkingFile, DragEventArgs e)
{
...
}
#endregion
If something changes you can mention it at the top too.
I think with SCM software it's a good option to mention the most important w/o wasting too much time on documentation.

as Stupid as it sounds, I would write him (Spongebob) a mail, or just tell him what he will need. If you already know who will need something in the near future, it is great if you can inform those peope before they strat to search and get headaches. Not everything in a project needs a technical Solution very often a human to human is much better.
Your documentation can also be in a wiki and then you can simply send Spongebob a link.

To reduce the pain involved in changing specifications over a large api, I'd suggest you follow the msdn/javadoc convention as mentioned earlier and also advice your team mate to use a modern IDE with autocompletion/autosuggest feature. Most of the common editors that provide auto suggestion also display documentation for the method/member to be used.
If you are seeking agile here, then docs and wikis are slight overkill; my 2 cents.

Why don't you just put your work in one git/svn project instead of working on the project parts independently? Then when you change a core function, you will see what it breaks and be responsible for fixing the methods that call it before committing your changes.
I am not a big fan of documenting extensively during development. It slows you down too much and you will have to redo it over and over again. Just create descriptive method names and be generous with you in-code comments.

For starters:
To help the situation between spongebob and yourself working together you will need some sort of Code Asset Management software (GIT, TFS, etc).
What if then I change GetWindow() to GetWindow(string title).. Now how do I literally tell the poor spongebob he needs to redo his code.
You should always start your day coding by "GET LATEST", meaning download code from the repository. If spongebob does this he will immediately see that he now needs to pass in string title as his code will stop compiling. It would be preferable that you literally tell spongebob that you have changed your code and he now needs to pass in a value, but if you are both checking in code every night and getting latest when you start coding for the day you should be both informed.
As far as the use of a WIKI or if you use Sharepoint doesnt matter. I would say to make it a little more efficient why not do this:
In your document repository (Wiki/Sharepoint) call the files by the page name so one is WordArt, the other is MainDocument, maybe one is PrintDocument (assuming these are different pages) and in the code you can simply put:
For more information on this visit the ___site at :http://yourrespositoryname.com/nameofprocedure

How can I see who in my team are writing the most code and who is writing the least using TFS?

I am having a problem with one of my team members output. He seems to be always 'busy' yet I am unable to see exactly what code he has done and he seems be delivering very little and it seems to take a long time to do so. I'd like to investigate further using TFS and was wondering if there is any functionality in TFS that shows what has been written by an individual or similar?
Just to clarify I am NOT spying I am trying to resolve situation. This is only a starting point. I un derstand that quantity of code does not equate to best programmer
thanks for any answers

Your best programmer may in fact write less code than your worst programmer, in fact really good programmers often write less code. Be careful about using this information to evaluate performance. Since you are using TFS, I assume you are also using the work item tracking. That is really a better way to evaluate performance than using lines of code. See which checkins cause the most problems, which fix the most defects, and how many rounds it takes for something to be truly fixed.

For me the simplest thing is to set up email alerts for checkins. You get the checkin comment, some work item info assuming they are associating/resolving on checkin, and list of changed files, as they happen. Lets you see what part of the code that dev is in and after a while you get a sense when "it's quiet. Too quiet" because someone isn't checking in. It doesn't take the place of forensics of what he did all month, but it keeps me feeling connected. It also gives me intuitive feelings like "he's in the reports, so I'll be able to show those to the user earlier in the cycle" or "jeez, he's doing all the stupid typos in error messages and other no-thinking things, and not tackling his real hard stuff" or even "he's doing his pri 2 stuff while he has a large pile of pri 1". All of these enable a 30 second hallway conversation to deliver a course correction as close in time to the problem as possible.

See the following blog post I put together a while ago:
Getting Started with the TFS Data Warehouse
This one talks you through getting code churn for each area of your codebase, but it would be easy to add team members into that as well to get a breakdown by team member who did the check-in.
But I agree with your question - this is not a good way to check on the productivity of your colleague. Instead I would talk with them to raise your concerns.

While I am away from TFS right now, you can view a list of checkins by user in Team Explorer, and in each of these you can see the files which have been changed and look at the diffs for each.

You can get this from the TFS Cube, if you have it set up. There are a large number of dimensions within Code Churn. Some of this is also available in the TfsWarehouse database as well.
If you do have the cube set up, just point Excel at it and have some fun playing around. Keep in mind, though, that the numbers can point you in the wrong direction. Use discretion.

Subsonic 3.0 General Questions

Ok,
I was eagerly awaiting the release of subsonic 3.0 to use as my low-level data layer, and now its out. I'm currently using the ActiveRecord templates (having tried both the repository and advanced templates) and I have one HUGE request and a few questions:
Request: Other than bug fixes, Rob please spend the time to provide documentation. I don't mean 5 examples, I mean API complete documentation. Here's why:
I'm testing subsonic by writing ASP.NET MembershipProvider and RoleProvider classes and simple questions continually slow me up using subsonic:
Q. Assuming I have a class 'User' and I update/save/delete a record using
user.Save();
I need information on how to get success/failure? Do I look for an exception on failure or can I get a count of 'affected' records (old school?)
Q. If I get an exception, which exception(s) can I expect?
I'll have more issues, but I really believe a good functional API documentation would solve the problem.
If the answer is 'read the source code', then I'm sure you're going to chase quite a few developers away from subsonic. I really want to use the library, but the point is "use" the library, not reverse engineer it.
-Jeff

Q. I need information on how to get success/failure? Do I look for an exception on failure or can I get a count of 'affected' records (old school?)
If it doesn't throw an exception then it's worked
Q. If I get an exception, which exception(s) can I expect?
You can expect a DbException

We don't use custom exceptions. I spent 5 weeks writing docs - so yah I did spend some time on this. You could also find your answer there as well: http://subsonicproject.com/docs

3.0 is a little too buggy for me so far. I think I am going back to 2.x for now, thanks for all the hard work though.