Izindaba #17

Time for another weekly round-up of developer news that focuses on .NET, agile and general development content.

.NET

1. Top 10 things to know about VS 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 - Excellent post from Daniel Moth that brings together all the links to the yummy goodness that is .NET 3.5 and VS 2008
2. Debugger Visualisers for MethodInfo, DynamicMethod and MethodBase - Roy Osherove provides some cool debugger visualizers to view the IL generated for run-time DynamicMethods.
3. How are value types implemented in the 32-bit CLR?  What has been done to improve their performance? - Some news on performance improvements that are planned for value types in vNext of the CLR.
4. .NET Framework 3.5 Namespace poster
5. Who Wrote This Crap - Jeff Atwood writes on the cool new source control integration in VS 2008 that shows the code side-by-side with the person who last changed the code.
6. Microsoft's Oslo: What is the fuss about? - Some explanations from Christian Weyer.

Design

1. Active Record vs Objects - Some thoughts from Uncle Bob on the use of ActiveRecord as data persistence pattern.

SQL Server

1. Optimizing SQL Server Query Performance - Nice TechNet article looking at query optimization.
2. SQL Server 2008 Performance and Scaleability Technologies - TechNet Webcast on the topic.

SDLC

1. Technical Debt - Steve McConnell explores the topic and presents strategies for managing it.

Software Updates

1. Expression Design SP1 - Service Pack that improves the XAML export functionality.
2. MonoDevelop 1.0 Beta2 (0.17) - MonoDevelop team is marching right on to the release of MonoDevelop 1.0 before the end of the year.
3. Windows Live Writer: Out of Beta - Windows Live Writer 2008 is now available and can be downloaded from here.  Be aware of the usability issues with the installation though.

KB Articles

1. FIX: Visual Studio 2005 may stop responding when you run a unit test application, or Visual Studio 2005 may use 85 percent or more of the CPU resources when you build a unit test application
2. How to use Assembly Version and Assembly File Version

Misc

1. Microsoft Commits to November Release Date for VS 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5 - It's official!  Somasegar announced it during the keynote address at TechEd Barcelona 2007.
2. Announcing Search Server 2008 - Microsoft announces a new enterprise search solution.

Happy reading