Comment Feed for Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate (Coffeehouse on Channel 9)

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Erik Porter — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:13:22 GMT

I was approximating. I didn't say 10 years ago. :P That said, I used ILDASM in 2000 (when .NET was a Tech Preview at PDC 2000) and I assumed it was written some time before that. Since it seems like a useful tool to build the framework itself and debug problems, I figured it was built pretty early on. (If you want to get technical about it)

Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Yggdrasil — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 07:45:06 GMT

I'm not as concerned as some people here. Red Gate also maintain the PInvoke.NET plugin for Visual Studio, and other than the fact that they bundle it with their Ants Profiler (a 20MB bundle for a 20k plugin), they didn't kill off any features or anything.
Also, their other products are pretty good - we use Ants Profiler and a couple of the SQL Server tools.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:43:33 GMT

It was originally an 8-bit PNG using all 256-colors, so nerr :)

Re: HumanCompiler: Close. Judging by various aspects of the program and Microsoft's own history of .NET development I'd say ildasm in its current form (obviously they'd have had an even more primitive version for development and CIL inspection during the dev stages for the CLR) was written sometime around 2001 (it remains visually unchanged since the version that came with VS2002). I reckon it dates back to 2000 at the earliest, so you're 2 years off :)

Re: littleguru: yes, but when you're in a rush you don't have the time to manually read the CIL directly.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Christian Liensberger — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 01:03:08 GMT

I love the joy of browing through the IL... don't you?

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Erik Porter — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:36:10 GMT

ILDASM was probably written almost a decade ago. :P

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Mark Wisecarver — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:26:48 GMT

Why isn't your C9 avatar more colorful? :D

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 00:15:57 GMT

ILDASM is crap as far as usability and disassembly are concerned.

I don't think there's any excuse for shipping a product with 16-color icons in this day and age.

Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

JChung2006 — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 22:35:16 GMT

There's always ILDASM if Reflector turns to crap.

Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

blowdart — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:38:48 GMT

It's always forced updates; which is rather annoying.

Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:33:10 GMT

That's quite an accusation. What's your source?

Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

ManipUni — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:18:08 GMT

Hey look someone selling out for money again... Fun...

It was a good tool while it lasted I guess. Perhaps someone will develop an open source version for the community.

PS - The current version has an expiration built into the code and won't load anymore if you try and use it for too long.

Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

blowdart — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:12:30 GMT

Well he did obfuscate the code as well; which always struck me as a little hypocritical and amusing.

Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Christian Liensberger — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 21:09:59 GMT

It was somehow guaranteed to be free as long as it wouldn't move owner :P I wonder why he didn't open source it... really. It's a small tool and would be an ideal thing.

Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:48:17 GMT

Nothing against Red Gate personally, I'd be saying the same thing if any other non-FOSS company took the helm.

Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

blowdart — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:44:00 GMT

Good lord do you all have that bad an opinion of Red Gate? Why?

Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Christian Liensberger — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:29:52 GMT

Sad News...

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:54:41 GMT

Well, now that you mention it, the disassembler could do with some tweaks. For instance it doesn't intelligently use the ternary operator in cases where it's clear it was used, or detect where switch(){} was used.

And the big one: no Linq support!

Re: Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

dahat — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:41:58 GMT

More likely the current version we know today will continue to be free and will only see bug fixes applied and a handful of usability improvements (lets face it, aside from bug fixes how often do you need/care about new Reflector updates?)... paving the way for a "Premium" version which brings whatever new features they think people will pay for that are not served by the current generation of add-ins.

Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

PerfectPhase — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 18:14:44 GMT

There is a post in the comments from a Red-Gate employee

We have no plans at all to release a "free version" which has reduced functionality and a high priced "working version".

Unless they just plan to use it to drive visits to their site?

Re: Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

stevo_ — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:58:04 GMT

*archives reflector installers*

Re: Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

Herbie Smith — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:42:20 GMT

W3bbo, you beat me to that reply; I was thinking exactly the same. Red Gate will maintain 'a version that is free', which implies 'a version which is not free'

Herbie

Re: Lutz Roeder Handing Off .NET Reflector to Red Gate

W3bbo — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 17:41:15 GMT

£5 says they'll turn it into a 2-tier product: the standard free-beer version and an expensive paid-for version. Or at least fill the product with plugs and adverts for other Red Gate software.

Forgive my cynicism, but I can't think of any reason for a company to perform development of this program with no real financial return.