It's almost impossible to write real programs, especially embedded ones, without using a cast here or there. Nonetheless, you should try to use casts as sparingly as you can.
Chained exceptions don't always allow you to get at all the information you need. Paolo Brandoli demonstrates a way to preserve the data from the original exception, while maintaining a chain of exception handling.
As one of the architects of Microsoft's Smart Client technologies in the Patterns & Practices group, Microsoft Software Development Lead and Agile guru Peter Provost of the Patterns & Practices group digs into the internals and history of the Composite UI App (CAB) block including intriguing comments on what led to its initial development.
Smart Client guru Brian Noyes talks about how Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) awaits an improved version of Visual Studio to allow developers to be fully productive with the technology. Also a discussion that includes a list of resources available from Brian on SmartClients including an upcoming book on ClickOnce, and some exciting Smart Client news from Microsoft.
