I love the new System.Xml.Linq namespace. Building and consuming XML is so much easier with the new XDocument, XElement, and other XLinq classes. But one thing that has bugged me was the need to generate a tag name with XName.Get(“TagName”). For example:

XElement element = new XElement(XName.Get(“TagName”));

This statement seems to go against the spirit of the XLinq classes: simplicity. Why do I have to use the XName class just to name my tag? Well, as it turns out this is more than is needed. On a wild hunch I ripped open XName in Reflector today found an implicit operator to cast from string to XName. Damn! So all this time I could have been writing:

XElement element = new XElement(“TagName”);

And the XName implicit operator would have cast it to XName for me automatically.

I posted a question on Stackoverflow about throwing multiple exceptions.  Here is part of the question:

"In an application I work on, any business logic error causes an exception to be thrown, and the calling code handles the exception. This pattern is used throughout the application and works well. I have a situation where I will be attempting to execute a number of business tasks from inside the business layer. The requirement for this is that a failure of one task should not cause the process to terminate. Other tasks should still be able to execute. In other words, this is not an atomic operation. The problem I have is that at the end of the operation, I wish to notify the calling code that an exception or exceptions did occur by throwing an exception."

No matter what you politics are, it is hard not to admit that the Bush administration really went to war on the scientific establishment in this country.  From his interference in reasearch at NASA to his idiotic view on Stem Cell Research, Bush has tried to hamper or politicize science in the United States.

ABC News has a great article about the changes the science community are hoping for under Obama.  A number of famous and Nobel prize wining scientists endorsed Obama based on his voting record on science matters.