That sounds interesting ...my son might like that sort of thing. He builds "machines" with his Legos all the time.

Not all children require the same type of management: 30 minutes doing this, 30 minutes doing that, etc. My son is very good at actually managing his own time ...I observe and step in to correct issues. While I agree with what you say (nearly all of it ;) ), preventing a child from having access to an interest could be just a detrimental to development as allowing too much access. It's all about balance. His mind absorbs so much in such a short time it truly is amazing. He simply doesn't require the monitoring to make him go outside, be active, learn to read and write, etc. He's learning to read ...being on the computer, at school, and from his parents. He's learning art and creativity both on the computer and by physically drawing; learning to write both on the computer and by hand. The real issue here that everyone is going to pick at is the OP's desire to force the art of programming on the nephew. I admire the desire to "teach" ...but not forcing the skill set.

I agree ...it is *wrong* to force feed ...but we programmers are interested in passing on our art. It's natural but should be quite tempered. My 4 1/2 yr old already told me, "Daddy, I want to program a game." That could be simply regurgitating what he has heard me say. But he understands just by looking at my screen whether I am reading an article or writing code. That is smart, IMO ...and I believe he has an eye for it. He has a love for the game MineCraft for which one can write addins using Java. I don't know Java per se (although it should be a relatively easy transition since I am a C# dev), but I think that if he and I learned how to write addins for MineCraft together, not only would he learn the language, I could also judge his capacity for the art and whether the interest is temporary or not.

Even when I was strictly VB, I hated 'Dim' ...I used Dim in my early days of Applesoft Basic when I was 11, IIRC.

DevEx/CodeRush will change from implicit (`var`) to explicit.

Actually, I think the first example is fine. Does it matter that `BeginDate` is a property?

I'm not near as stringent on the use of `var`. If my data types are short - e.g., string, int, List(Of T) - I use the explicit syntax for declaring the type. On the other hand, something like

Dictionary>

...damned right I'm using `var`. It's up to the developer to make sure the variable name is meaningful - not the declaration of the data type. Yes, be responsible with the use of `var`. `var` is necessary in a few cases - as with LINQ and anonymous types. Make sure if you want an `IFoo` from a method that returns `Foo` that you cast it:

var foo = GetFoo() as IFoo;

// where GetFoo():
Foo GetFoo() {
return new Foo();
}

// and
class Foo : IFoo { }

I certainly don't recommend leaving fate in the hands of `var`. Overuse is abuse. And abusing `var` is downright lazy. But I wouldn't get that worked up about it - maybe. :-D

You can design any method to use a predicate like that. It isn't rocket science - it's LINQ:

IEnumerable Fetch(Func predicate){
return repository.Where(predicate);
}

...as long as you are using the repository that contains type `T`.

You would be correct. Until you look in the box - the cat is neither dead nor alive. Quantum theory can be crudely demonstrated with this example. Anyway ...back to the topic...

S Houghtelin wrote:

The beauty of VB6 was that they made it simple enough that a child could use it to program. Unfortunately most of the users program like children.

...and I would add that, as long as there is a flavor of VB on the market, we will continue to see this trend; although I would describe VB devs in a slightly different way - as non-OOP.

Same here. Previous employer has an enterprise app originally written from Access/VB6. Slowly being converted to VB.Net. Painful in all respects ...especially since I am a C# dev. I'll admit knowledge of VB only if it would save someone's life. Upgrading from VB6 to VB.Net is only as costly as shops allow it to be. Honestly, I think it costs more to convert module-by-module than it would to simply rewrite. Since VB was never intended to be an OOP language, trying to make it so just seems silly. Keeping VB around would make more sense if COM and ActiveX support were needed for more than legacy support. Additionally, MS should have kept VB as it's own language - it would have felt natural to the VB programmer to use COM/ActiveX components to access .Net assemblies. My .015 cents ...

Good catch ...I was actually unaware of the HasFlag method ...nice!

(((user.Roles & userRole) != 0) ? inRoles : outRoles)

...this is the part that needs some 'splaining. Maybe something as simple as:

var rolesList = (user.Roles & userRole) != 0) ? inRoles : outRoles;
rolesList.Add(roleName);

I only use IE when it is required. Even still, I always attempt with FireFox first. FF may be the Swiss Army Knife of browsers ...and some people actually say this is the characteristic that prevents it from being the speed front-runner ...or whatever criteria they use - but the Swiss Army Knife is the utilitarian's dream ... The only complaint I've had with FireFox is that my add-ins may not be updated right on time with a new version of FF ...big deal ...but, my FF will always be more reliable than IE ...which should be compared to a butter knife at the steak table.

Boarman communicate with honesty, purpose, and conviction ...

Google (or StackOverflow) hasn't made me lazy - nor, in my opinion, anyone who takes at least some time to understand code samples they are using. If you do not understand what you are implementing from a code sample, then you need to read up on some documentation. To me, documentation comes second; that said, I want both! The documentation provides me with insight on certain aspects or characteristics of a class I may be investigating or researching. There is always some crucial bit that MSDN leaves out. No doubt, I will find what I need in the code sample. If there is nothing about a code sample that I don't understand or fully comprehend just by reading the sample, then my time spent reading documentation would be better spent implementing the code sample.