The releases before the year of the end certainly seems to be cranking out.
One thing that was released a few weeks ago with the MS Chart Controls for .NET Framework 3.5. It always surprised me that we did not have charting controls in the box - and you usually had to make your own charts or get some third party ones. With the these free charting controls, you now have fantastic solution for charting. There are Winforms based controls as well as ASP.NET Controls. Download them here and check this post from Scott Guthrie for more information
The TFS branching guide v2 has just been released. This is a must have document for anyone working with TFS. Get it from here.
There is an updated Silverlight Datagrid available. Go get the Silverlight 2 Datagrid December 2008 Release
IronPython has also just been released. Get it from the IronPython Codeplex site
Me taking a drive when South Africa are batting must be some kind of bad luck. This morning, we were sitting pretty around 110-1 when I drove to work. From the time I left home and arrived at work we lost 2 wickets. Then for the few hours at work, we were doing great. I then went out for just a short bit and listened to commentary in the car. At that stage we around 220-3. Well that short 45 min trip saw us loose a cool 5 wickets. Yikes. Maybe while I am sleeping tomorrow morning Boucher and Steyn will make 100 run partnership :-)
The absolute must read guide of the year. I think it should be mandatory reading for all developers. And best of all it is free.
About a decade ago, developing on the Microsoft platform was kinda "easy". You had very few options in terms of what we provided, and most people were probably developing client server apps using VB and SQL. Later it became just a bit more complex, but you still did not have to many options to distinguish from. This was the period of COM and MTS.
These days the array of options for an application are huge. You have windows, web, RIA, mobile apps. Data is encoded in different formats and protocols. You have lots of architecture styles to choose from. This guide is terrific at providing the guidance you need in determining what you need and when.
Get it now from http://www.codeplex.com/AppArchGuide/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=20586 and tell all your friends. Download it to your phone and browse it on the beach too :-). The graphic below shows of the topics covered.
<I did this summary while at PDC but never posted to the blog>
Summary of PDC Session PC11 on Silverlight Futures. Presented by Jamie Cool.
Silverlight can be used to build applications with a great media experience. It can also be used to build business centric applications. This session focused on the latter. The session is broken down into 2 parts. The first part of focused on introducing Silverlight in the context of business applications and how you could go about building these applications today. We are introduced some of the key requirements for common business applications and the facilities available within Silverlight that makes it a good candidate for business applications.
We then run through the phases of building an application that include the options for moving data (eg Web Services, Cross Domain, 2 Way Comms through sockets, ADO.NET Data Services etc), Displaying Data, Data Binding and Shaping Data. Demonstrations are provided on getting data and displaying data.
The second part of the session is largely demo driven and shows off some of the Silverlight futures in terms of building business applications. Business applications require functionality like updateable support, validation, data paging, server filtering, authentication and business logic. A walk through the various features available in the future stack that enable this functionality is shown. Some of the work being done in terms of providing a pattern for developing business apps is being described. Finally some of the high level thoughts in terms of tooling are described.
Demos
| Getting Data – HR App | In this demo, a mini HR Application is built. Data from the AdventureWorks db is exposed via the EntityFramework. This data is then exposed through a WCF Service. This service is then consumed by a Silverlight client and shown in a datagrid. | Approx 11 minutes into session |
| Displaying/Styling Data | This demo builds on the previous one. Styling is done on the datagrid. The datagrid is then replaced with the listbox the usage of datatemplates is demonstrated | Approx 22 mins into session |
| Silverlight Futures | This is a long demo (around 25 mins of demo time). A walkthrough is done of the features including business logic, datasource support, validation, navigation support (built in support for forward/back functionality), authentication and authorization. | Approx 30 mins into session |
Conclusion
Silverlight is going to be a popular platform, not just for media scenarios, but also for business applications. This session provides the insights in terms of what the future holds for developers creating these kinds of applications
<I did this writeup while I was at the PDC but never posted it on my blog>.
Summary of notes made at TL12 session delivered by Paul Vick and
Summary
Visual Basic has historically been a language that aims to bring productivity in terms of building applications for the Windows platform. In the session, a brief history of Visual Basic is described. The initial releases were focused around RAD for Windows, the latter ones around making COM and component programming easier and then more recently the move to .NET.
The concept of co-evolution, discussed in the C# sessions as well, are talked about in terms of how the VB and C# will strive to have some high degree of feature parity.
At least a third of the session is focused around demonstrating some of the new features that are planned for the next version of Visual Basic, including statement and function lambdas, array initializers, automatic properties.
Finally, some time is spent on the three major areas that will affect the future of Visual Basic viz. Dynamic Languages, Concurrency and Declarative Programming.
Demos - Approx 22 mins into the session
Language Features
A 20 min walkthrough of some of the new language features. Some of the features shown include lambdas (multiline, function and statement), DLR interop with Python, the usage of the from keyword to initialize collections and objects, and automatic properties. The coolest new feature is the “removal” of the underscore of the line continuation character which is not needed in many cases. Other features shown include co and contra variance and the better Office interop – where you no longer need to PIA as the types that are required are embedded into the application
Conclusion
In summary, if you want to get an update of the language features available in the next version of Visual Basic, this sessions provides good insight
<Could not get to dotnet.org.za for 2 days. Good to see it back up>
This afternoon (Wed) marks about the first day in approximately 6 or 7 weeks where I have a bit of free time. Since around the last week of October things have been busy and fun. Activities over this period included
- A trip to the PDC which was great. A summary blog post is probably in order.
- Developer Manager breakfast in JHB
- Developer Manager breakfast in CPT (different topics to the JHB one)
- Devchats in Durban, Cape Town and JHB - not to mention the prep time for it!
- A holiday for a week
- Going to local Imagine Cup finals (Imagine Cup is a competition for IT students at universities)
- Religious holiday - which happened to be the same day Scott Hanselman was presenting. What a pity, especially since I first troubled him to come!
- A briefing session for ALM partners
- In between that, a bunch of customer meetings as well
Hopefully things will be a bit quieter in the next few weeks - although these days December does not seem to be so quite as before. Hopefully, I get some time to play with all that Azure stuff, see some other videos from PDC that I missed and mess around a bit with VSTS2010.
The directions are a bit difficult to find for the dev mgr breakfast at Buitengeluk tomorrow. A colleague sent me these directions
¨ Take the N1 freeway and exit at the William Nicol off ramp. Turn towards Fourways & the Monte Casino.
¨ Travel down William Nicol and as you go past the Monte Casino (on the right-hand side) there is a slip road to the left, take this and it will bring you up onto the Witkoppen Road.
¨ At the first robot, turn right into Cedar Road and travel past the Fourways Mall on your right-hand side. Go past Cedar Square Shopping Center and Fourways Life Hospital on the Left hand side.
¨ At the Fifth robot turn left into the Broadacres Lifestyle Centre. As you drive into the centre you will get to a Stop Street. Continue straight over, there is a break in the centre island turn to the right and continue straight through the Continental Tyre Fitment Centre, and continue following the road round to our parking lot situated at the rear of the centre.
Starts - nice video showing of various client/WPF applications
Ray Ozzie on -
Summarizing yesterdays keynote on Azure
Today keynote focus on user experience. Future of personal computing - PD, Web and Phone
The internet and PC are 2 different worlds. Make combination of PC, Web and Phone a lot more valuable.
Talking about what makes the PC great - access to hardware etc. Storing information locally
What's make the web great - common meeting place, every company's front door. Ability to assemble
What's great about the phone - always with you. Enable spontaneity.
An app that spreads all 3 is the best
App Model continue to be evolved. A more appliance like behaviour.
Web developer - huge focus
Alludes on how we will see web apps being taken offline and syncing -sounds interesting. Can't wait to see more - Is this Live Mesh and more?
Taking about different people that will come up.
First up is Steven Sinofsky - Windows 7 guy
- talking about introducing the client, software+Services, transition from Windows Vista, dev opportunities, fundamentals
3 things
personalized experience
find and organize
bring togather devices
First demo -
new taskbar
cool cool stuff
explorer - feature called libraries. Search a bit nicer too.
Built in home computing, get auto redirected to printer at home or work
gadgets anywhere on desktop. easier to customize desktop
demo on touch
can scroll, zoom etc with touch - even with apps that did not have support for Touch builtin.
MS Paint has a ribbon!!!
Now talking about software + Services in Windows 7
Windows 7 Live Essentials - brought all together into one suite, optional/downloadable. Do not have to use Live Services
spending some time on transition from Vista.
Talking about ecosystem and how we were not ready with drivers etc at Vista launch. Windows 7 compatible with Vista - do not need new drivers
talking about standards
Wordpad will support OpenXML and ODF
End to end experience - eg home networking
Developers opportunities
- Ribbon in Windows 7
- Jump Lists
- Libraries
- Multi touch
- DirectX
Video from Autodesk on TOuch - really nice showing how they can model with touch. Needs to be seen
Now talking about fundamentals
talking about performance. Reduce memory, disk io and power
demo
can create vhd directly from disk management
bit locker built into Windows
can boot from VHD - wow
better magnifier built into Windows - look a bit like Sysinternals
Windows P shortcut
remote desktop is multi monitor aware - most applause of the day
Full control of messages displayed. More control over UAC
Path to Beta
PDC attendees get CTP today
Expecting beta early next year
Feedback built in
Steven done. Scott on
It is 8:15 here and the double dose of keynote will start soon. First up will be the client technologies where we should see Windows 7. Scott Guthrie is in this slot too so it should be exciting. Then after a short break Don Box and Chris Anderson will be doing an all code keynote - should be cool. Remember you can follow on www.microsoftpdc.com
This session can be broken down into 3 parts. In part 1, which is the first 15 minutes, Anders describes the history of C# and some of the key trends that are defining the future. C# v1 was focused on managed code, v2 put the stuff they did not have time to put in v1. v3 was the first time they could think deeply about addressing new features with LINQ and some degree of functional programming.
Anders than focused on 3 major trends vi declarative programming, dynamic programming and concurrent/multicore. Several references made to C# co-evolving with VB as well C# borrowing from other languages and becoming multi paradigm. That is supporting more than one programming style.
The second and major focus of the session was around the new features of C# v4. These areas are dynamically typed objects, optional and named paramaters, improved COM interop and finally co and contra variance. C# (as well as VB) will become languages that directly support the DLR. More information on these areas can be obtained by looking at the demo descriptions below.
The final area was a look at the futures beyond v4. The major focus area was to take the compiler and expose it as a service that could then be extended and re-used by developers.
List of demos
Dynamic Keyword
Calling into Javascript and Python A Silverlight demo that starts off showing C# can call into Javascript (normal SL2 feature). Show how we can replace the calls to .Invoke to direct method calls after making use of dynamic features.
Also shows how you can take existing Javascript code and code it to c# a bit more easily now that dynamic objects are supported.
Finally a demo showing how C# can call into Python code.
Implementing IDynamicObject
A demo that shows a dynamic property bag that implements IDynamicObject. Shows howto create properties on the fly - In effect how it does dispatching or “duct typing”. Approx 35 mins into session
Improved COM
An Office based demo that shows taking some data on running processes, putting into Excel, creating a graph and putting the result into Word. Shows how much easier it is now that you do not have to worry about explicit casts. Also support for optional and named parameters means that the code looks a lot more like it was intended (the VBA type syntax). No need to Type.Missing! Approx 47 mins into session
Compiler as a Service
A demo showing some futures beyond C# v4. The compiler is in managed code and get exposed. In this demo, we see a command line type application that takes code which is than dynamically executed aka an Eval function. Showed off to This was probably the demo that got people most excited. Approx 1 hour into session
| If you are a C# or .NET developer, you definitely want to check this session out. The new features will make for interesting scenarios and certainly a lot easier COM Interop. |
Ray Ozzie walks on.
Notes from session
- excited
- transformation in industry
- new trends turns to opportunities
- lots of choice in platform
3 things
- Microsoft builds it owns key apps on the platform
- Critical Mass
- Microsoft understand that in order for it to be successful, the partners/ISV
PDC - hear about revolution, combining software and services
Tues - front end stuff.
Keynote today about backend services
What's the big deal with the "cloud" - concepts have been around for awhile since 60s. Virtualization in same era by IBM
Virtualization making a strong comeback.
Systems greatly expanding - Externalization of systems.Regardless of industry, the web has become important
Talking about challenges about maintaining web infrastructure
Cloud is different - systems designed for the web rather than for apps built internally.
Microsoft building lots of expertise but not packaged for developers to leverage
3 Tiers
- internal
- enterprise
- web
Few years ago new team created at MS to create a new offering in the web tier. fention's Amazon's EC2 and pays tribute to it.
Announce - Windows Azure
New Windows offering at the Web Tier - "Windows in the Cloud"
offers scalable storage, provisioning, new service based offering for cloud design point
can develop using Visual Studio leveraging skill you have.
developing in the cloud is different. Windows Azure
Azure released as CTP today. Microsoft betting on Azure as well.
Azure Services Platform
- Live Services
- Microsoft .NET Services (workflow, auth etc)
- SQL Services (looking to extend to OLAP, Reporting)
- Sharepoint
- CRM
Demo Time !!! (well I thought so but first some talk!)
Azure
- Scalable Hosting
- Manages complexity in data center
- Automated Service Management - seperates app from OS
- heart of Azure is a "fabric controller"
Fabric controller manage services not just servers
Azure works with native and managed code.
DEMO TIME !!! Hello World using Azure
Visual Studio Templates
Cloud on your desktop - can be used to test your app.
Then deploy to the cloud
Guy from Bluehoo.com
interesting social app that uses Bluetooth to connect people.
Interop is cool.
Bob Muglia is one - talking about the various services
.NET Services -made up of service bus, access control and Workflow services
Demo from Red Prairie - shows product recall scenario
Talked about management (system center Atlanta) and also a bit on Oslo/modelling - not too much details
David Thompson
It is around 8:25AM in Los Angeles and the room is packed. The keynote is about to kickoff in a few minutes. We are sitting in the second row and the with huge screen just in front of us.
During the afternoon, a number of us from South Africa participated in a program called Together - where the main focus was really about connecting people and getting to know each other. Besides the 2 Microsoft guys (me and Eben) we had 7 other South African's participate. The majority of the South Africans, which was all except 1 decided to do a tour of Hollywood. 1 person did an activity of horseback riding.
The event was fun with the best part really being the interactions with fellow PDC attendees. Below are some of the pictures - once again taken with my mobile phone which explains the non so great quality.
Sunday Morning. After getting up 4am and unable to sleep to the effects of jetlag, Eben and I had breakfast and then headed off to the conference center to register. The place was already quite busy with many attendees booked for the pre conferences. Below are some the pictures taken with my cellphone (hence the not so great quality). Registration was quick and efficient. Wireless access was already on and totally free so that was useful for some quick browsing
The PDC Goodies (minus 160GB which attendees will get later in the week)
Eben and I arrived a few hours ago in a hot Los Angeles. The flights were full, and except for a really bumpy hour from Washington to LA, it was uneventful - and uneventful flights are really good. We spent the afternoon walking around the city center trying to fight off jet lag. Tomorrow morning we go and register. Later, we meet up with some other SA developers okes for some informal social event touring Hollywood. Some guys will be attending the pre conferences tomorrow and then the real thing starts on Monday.
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