Tuesday, September 16, 2008
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You simply know you're doing good, important, awesome work when you are able to get this error at runtime:

An exception of type 'System.Security.VerificationException' occurred in DamonPayne.IoC.TempProxy but was not handled in user code

Additional information: Operation could destabilize the runtime.

The Type name "DamonPayne.IoC.TempProxy" is wrong, and doesn't exist, which just adds to the fun. This will factor into the AGT series of articles, but I took a brief break to share this badge of honor.  In the age of awesome search engines, a developer can often learn how to quickly do a search for their particular error type or error message or get lucky based on some aspect of their exception stack trace.  Sometimes, very rarely (rarely unless you are Dan) you will have an error so specific that no one has blogged about it, or documented it, or asked about it in newsgroups.  The first reaction to this situation is typically panic or disgust; "crap I'm in uncharted territory" or "I can't believe no one else has tried this".  Sometimes these feelings are followed by Pride.  In a time of rising water level, more and more abstractions between the programmer and the metal, there is a certain appeal to doing something that was clearly not intended by the developers of the frameworks you are consuming.  At the very least, you now know that you are down in the bowels of The Machine, far below the safety nets installed to save Mort from himself.