Continuing the story of replacing Windows Live Writer with some custom tools... In addition to image uploads and code formatting, I also needed the ability to: Specify the date and time for the post to turn publicly visible (future posting). Save the database-generated ID for a post so the post can be updated in the future. Save the server-generated...

Continuing the story of replacing Windows Live Writer with some custom tools... One of the best features of WLW was the ability to paste an image into a post and have the image magically appear on the server in an expected location. For my new workflow, I needed a second Markdig extension to look for images in a post and automatically upload the images...

A couple years ago I decided to stop using Windows Live Writer for authoring blog posts and build my own publishing tools using markdown and VSCode. Live Writer was a fantastic tool during its heyday, but some features started to feel cumbersome. Adding code into a blog post, as one example. This blog uses SyntaxHighlighter to render code blocks, which...

The C# Interactive window in VS is not the best interactive C# experience, LINQPad still has the honor, I believe, but it is a quick and convenient option for trying out a few lines of code.

There's actually two reasons why I tend to avoid using debuggers. The first reason is a genuine belief that debuggers encourage short term thinking and quick fixes in software. The second reason is the terrible sights and sounds I witness when I launch a debugger like the VS debugger. It is the noise of combustion and heavy gears engaging. My window...

I always feel a sense of satisfaction when I move a piece of complexity from outside an object to inside an object. It doesn't need to be a large amount of code, I've learned. Every little step helps in the long run. If I could go back 20 years and give myself some programming tips, one of those tips would certainly be this: You don't move code into...