Rudi Grobler

I had a few emails asking for my slides and demos so here goes:

DEV314 - Building Data Driven Applications using Windows Presentation Foundation
Most rich applications present data, often lots of it. To avoid writing lots of code to support the presentation of that data, you should take full advantage of the data binding capabilities of your presentation platform. This session discusses and demonstrates the data binding capabilities of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). It explains what data contexts are and how they work with the element hierarchy. It shows you what Bindings are, how to declare them, and what optional capabilities they support. It demonstrates binding to data sets as well as custom objects and collections, and discusses the considerations for implementing those types. The session shows you how to use data templates to define reusable chunks of UI that can be rendered automatically for each item in a data collection. It also discusses the way you can interact with your bound data programmatically to control the presentation of that data and to make changes to it in code.

Slides

Demos

Comments:

The Good

• Gave me a starting insight into what to expect if I start doing it but nothing concrete to work with yet. But the ideas presented gave a direction to expect. Lunch was a little distracting as well which didn't help.
• It would have been better if I knew something about the topic. But a good experience still

The Bad

• Presenter was not engaging and did not seem confident on the topic
• mostly duplicate content
• I actually only got the tail end of the presentation, so my eval may not be fair

The WTF?

• I DID NOT ATTEND THIS SESSION, BUT BOOKED IT IN THE SESSION PICKER! DON'T KNOW HOW TO "UNBOOK". Please disregard ratings!

DEV315 - Five Cool Things to Know and Use for Smart Client Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5
While the world has gone overboard with building Web applications and many developers are focusing purely on the server-side, there are still huge opportunities for creating compelling rich client-based applications that play well in the software-plus-services world. With over 50 minutes of demo time, in this session we explore five new enhancements in Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework v3.5 for building smart Windows applications. Demonstrations include Windows Presentation Foundation interoperability, ADO.NET Sync Services, Client Application Services, the Managed AddIn Framework, and customizing Office Applications (Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System v3.0).

Slides

Demos

Comments:

The Good

• Good one, need more of these, for all tools.
• Rudi could become a firm favorite in future sessions! Absolutely brilliant presentation enabled by a high level of comfort with his subject matter.

The Bad

• The presentation was not always providing solution for smart clients! Maybe the title should be FAT Clients! Did not touch on some IsolatedStorage namespaces or one click client updates; things that are very important for Smart Clients. And also cannot say it was an Advanced course; Maybe 'Intermediate'. Thanks
• Description was not what was presented on.