VS 2017 Error: The specified task executable "sgen.exe" could not be run. The filename or extension is too long.

OK, I admit this error tripped me off.

If it were a file I created, I would have simply moved things around to reduce the filename length. But the error was coming from Visual Studio, specifically, from C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Enterprise\MSBuild\15.0\Bin\Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets.

And, sgen: what's that?  It turns out sgen is just an XML serializer generator - something I clearly don't use or need. The .targets file above contained a task referencing Sgen. So, what now: comment it out?

No!

There's an easier solution:
1. In Solution Explorer, right-click on the project throwing the error; then click on Properties.
2. In the window that opens, click on the Build tab by the left.
3. Locate the Generate serialization assembly option.
4. Set ti to OFF or AUTO.

That's it

MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining - When Performance is Critical (1)

Background

As a C# (.NET) developer, I'm constantly being reminded that it's more important to prioritize code maintainability over performance optimizations. The argument is usually that most optimizations we do is usually premature and therefore unnecessary.

But recently I began working on a C# implementation of an algorithm for network motif discovery and all those good programming principles failed me. The first implementation was not only consuming too much memory (over 2GB withing 2 minutes of execution), it was taking too long (over 5 hours for my E. Coli test network) to execute. That was totally unacceptable, so I knew it was time to put Performance where it belongs - the first place.

In this series, I will be sharing some of the more interesting optimizations I did to bring my program to execute within milliseconds with very little memory footprint. This particular piece is dedicated to Method Inlining.

Method Inlining

Method calls come at a cost. This cost can usually be avoided by inlining - writing the code directly instead of factoring it into a method. However, methods make our codes more readable and maintainable. Besides, this so-called cost is totally insignificant in a vast majority of program requirements. In some cases, the compiler does the inlining for you too.

However, from .NET 4.5 Microsoft provided us a means to explicitly ask the compiler to inline a method. That means we can still write our codes normally and simply instruct the compiler to inline it. It's achieved by adding the following attribute to the concerned method.

[MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.AggressiveInlining)]

You'll need to add the following using statement:

using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;

I added this on a few of the methods that are frequently called and my program execution became twice as fast. However, it doesn't seem to work as well on extension methods.

Try it out and let me know your experience.

I'm Excited About ASP.NET Core 1.0 (Former ASP.NET 5)

I love C# and .NET Framework - no doubt! If you've ever worked with C#/.NET, you won't want to use any other framework in your life. It's one language I know that was developed with the developer in mind. In fact, with so much abstraction built in, coding becomes something everyone can do with relative ease.

However, the fact that .NET framework is not cross-platform has always given me worries. Not because Microsoft platforms aren't rich enough - in fact, their platforms make life so much easier for you when you want to support your code in production environment; but because Windows hosting costs so much, compared to non-Windows (e.g. Linux) hosting. I understand that the reason is because of license fees for Windows OS, SQL Server, etc., but then, my pocket (and that of some of my clients) don't have the brains to understand that.

My alternative was to code in Java, PHP or other open source cross-platform languages, but having done C# for years, those languages appeared tortuous, verbose and inelegant, with so many disconnected bits and pieces of libraries scattered all around the internet (Well, Maven seems to address problem).

So, when I heard that Microsoft is working on ASP.NET 5 which will be both open source and cross platform, I was overjoyed! Sadly, shortly after announcing ASP.NET 5 RC 1 Update 1, Scott Hanselman declared the ASP.NET 5 project dead, and introduced the new ASP.NET Core 1.0 and .NET Core 1.0. Clearly that has set us a few months behind, but then I believe it's worth the wait.



This means that in no time, I will be able to build cross-platform apps without having to switch from one language (and IDE) to another! Sure, the first release of .NET Core 1.0 will not be as feature rich as .NET Framework 4.6; it's cool to see the direction Microsoft is going.

As an aside, I now have a good reason to migrate from NHibernate to Entity Framework. NHibernate was so good to me, and I'll surely miss it. But EF7 has become a man, and it's time to consolidate all my development platforms into one.