In a previous blog post, I demonstrated how Java’ enums that
contain one or more values/objects can be emulated with C#. One thing
bothered me, though: the switch statement and how inconvenient it
was to determine the proper type. Worst of all, it was not type-safe.
In my simple example, it was easy because I was using strings. Imagine
your fake-enum does not contain a string to quickly identify the
instance.
Well, there is a prettier workaround – and it involves an actual
enum. I was thinking about how the same could be done in C++ and in
C++, you can have type conversion operators. Then I searched if such a
feature also exists in C#, and sure enough, it does.
I have written a follow-up that improves on the following
solution using a type conversion operator overload.
When I started dabbling in C#, I wondered if it supports values in
enums. In Java, an enum instance can have properties (called fields in
Java lingo) associated with the enum’s literals. By taking advantage
of this feature, you can encode more information in an enum, like a
string, for example, or a constant number. You can even embed
instantiated class objects, maybe to associate an object factory with
a literal.
In my use case, I wanted to achieve a form of a key-value-pair
mapping. I require certain illegal characters in the NTFS file or
directory names to be replaced with a given code. I use HTML encoding
for my needs because I can simply look up the values online if I need
to.
Here is the Java reference example. First, let me start with the basic
enum definition (I use Lombok to auto-generate boilerplate code like
the constructor and accessors).
@Getter
@RequiredArgsConstructor
enum CharacterReplacementCode {
COLON(":", "&58;"),
POUND("#", "&35;"),
QUESTION_MARK("?", "&63;");
private final String character;
private final String replacement;
@Override
public String toString() {
return String.format("Character '%s' substituted by code '%s'", character, replacement);
}
}
Sometimes I want to run applications that I do not have pinned to the
quick-launch bar of my choice’s operating system/desktop environment.
To do that, I am used to pressing the Windows/Meta Key, begin typing a
few characters, and hit Enter. This is muscle memory and hard to get
rid of. Although it does not matter which UI opens, I do not need the
full-blown KDE Application Launcher, Gnome Shell, or Windows Start
Menu. The amount of UI that pops up and changes while searching for
the app is distracting.
Therefore, I wondered whether I could remap the Meta/Windows key from
opening the Application Launcher to opening KRunner. And you can, but
only on the command line.
Remove the key mapping from the Application Launcher.
kwriteconfig5 --file kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta ""
Open KRunner instead.
kwriteconfig5 --file kwinrc --group ModifierOnlyShortcuts --key Meta "org.kde.krunner,/App,,toggleDisplay"
Early July 2021, US president Joe Biden signed an executive order
strengthening the right to repair in America. It is all the rage in
the YouTuber space. Over here in Europe, the European Parliament is
also working on encouraging reuse and repair to save on resources
(Ecodesign Requirements, Grant EU Consumers Right to
Repair, Europe Reduce Waste by Guaranteeing Right to
Repair). However, I do not think the movement is as strong as
in the US, based on my perception of the media coverage. I had to
actively search for information rather than having it thrown at me by
media outlets, old-school and modern alike.
Disclaimer: This might just be my way of looking for and consuming
information. I strongly prefer non-German modern tech media (read
YouTube creators) because I am yet to find one that produces at the
same level of production quality as someone like Linus Media Group, as
one example. I watch German news, though, so I am not entirely
ignoring my own country 😉
Now, the topic of this post is not where I get my information or how
far the current state of legislation has come everywhere in the world.
I know that "Right to Repair" goes way beyond smartphones and
computers. My focus is on consumer technology because that is where my
interests are.
I want to talk about the software that runs on the hardware since it
is just as important to a product’s lifetime. Washing machines and
similar household appliances are becoming "smarter and smarter" with
every new generation, so it is no longer just phones and tablets.
Together with mobile computers, the latter two categories are likely
what everybody interested in tech immediately thinks about when
hearing "Right to Repair".
I just ran into a frustrating error that seemed unexplainable to me.
My goal was to replace an existing Azure Resource Group with a new one
managed entirely with Terraform. Besides a few other errors, this
SoftDeletedVaultDoesNotExist was incredibly confusing because no
more Key Vaults were found in the Resource Group’s list of resources.
Error: creating Vault: (Name "my-fancy-key-vault" / Resource Group "The-Codeslinger"):
keyvault.VaultsClient#CreateOrUpdate: Failure sending request: StatusCode=0 --
Original Error: Code="SoftDeletedVaultDoesNotExist"
Message="A soft deleted vault with the given name does not exist.
Ensure that the name for the vault that is being attempted to recover is in a recoverable state.
For more information on soft delete please follow this link https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?linkid=2149745"
with module.base.azurerm_key_vault.keyvault,
on terraform\key_vault.tf line 9, in resource "azurerm_key_vault" "keyvault":
9: resource "azurerm_key_vault" "keyvault" {
That is because it was soft-delete enabled. And it was the Key Vault
from the other Resource Group that I previously cleared of all
resources, not the new Resource Group.
The Codeslinger 