John Howell

The tools are coming along a light speed and now the CTP of Microsoft’s component and toolset for building modular, business focused, client .NET application is now available.  This set of components help you build both Windows Forms and WPF applications:

The VS team has been quite busy and VS2008 and .Net 3.5 are now feature complete and the Beta 2 is now available for download and get this: it comes with a Go Live License!!!

The Visual Studio 2008 Express Beta 2 editions are available as well!!!!

Soma and ScottGu talk about the features on Channel 9.  Check it out!

Very happy coding!!!!!

Vista is a great O/S regardless of the so called ‘popular’ opinion.  The security is improved greatly.  But with every new O/S there are things to learn, do or tweak.  Anyone running Vista for any length of time has run into either that weird "out of memory" error even though you have plenty of available RAM, windows that show the frame but not populate or dialogs that are unpopulated or partially populated.   Vista uses so called "Desktop" memory to deal with these visual operations and is initially set to 3k.  You can up that but I urge caution.  Here is a great article that shows you how and remember: don’t do this unless you’re comfortable with editing the registry!

It’s finally happening!

I know that it’s been quiet on the blog lately.  I’ve been buried in a heavy sprint.  I’m really doing well with it, but it doesn’t leave much time for posting.  It will get better soon.  For now, here’s just a bit of news:

Service Release 1 (SR1) update for Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals has shipped

First look at IronRuby

Happy coding!

A company called WabiSabiLabi has put up an eBay like web site to sell security exploits claiming that that it would ensure that researchers be paid fairly for their work and that less exploits would end up in the hands of criminals.  How can that be??  What is going on?  Isn’t Cyber Terrorism a crime?  That’s like saying, "I didn’t blow up anything, I just sold the uranium to a terrorist."

You readers know how much I believe in XAML and libraries such as Silverlight.  People are really latching on to these display platforms and doing amazing thing!  Now we have companies that are starting to offer conversion tools that convert from SWF & Illustrator to XAML!   Debreuil Digital Works has put together a tool called The Converted which converts SWF to XAML.  It converts vector-based animations and sound into corresponding XAML code.  It does not convert the ActionScript events or the embedded video (yet?).  It sells for $249 and a ‘watermark’ trial version can be downloaded as well.

Last year Mike Swanson created SWF2XAML that converts visual but not audio.  He also has a managed plug-in that converts Illustrator to XAML.

The tide is finally starting to turn.  Hang on, it’s going to be a wild ride!

Happy Coding!

Maybe it’s because I do quite a bit of mentoring, but sometimes I come across an article that explains a topic very well and very simply.  I know that anyone that deals with ASP.Net Grid controls already knows this but those that are just learning seem to get stumped by this quite a bit.  With the ASP.Net 2.0 Grid control, you can code your own handlers for inserting, updating and deleting.  This article on MSDN by Scott Mitchell lays it out very simply and very clearly.  Great job Scott!

Happy Coding!

For some time now, I have had a few posts regarding issues I’ve had with Agile, SCRUM and Modelling.  I want to be clear, I don’t have problems with any of these tools.  I’m just saying that there is no tool that is perfect for every job.  I’m also saying that a tool may be ‘pretty good’ for a job but could be used just a bit differently to be more effective.

First rule: use the right tool for the right job.  If you’re given complete and thourough specs (yeah, right), then Agile might not be the best tool.  If you have a large team, SCRUM may not be the best tool or may be close but use some tweaking.   And If you’re working on a very small simple project, why build a model or state diagram when it would take longer to build the diagram and get sign-off than just build the project.

And even these three tools could be used but with some minor changes or adjustments to fit your needs.  So when you’re going into a project, think about what tools and techinques would be a good fit for that project.  And for Pete’s sake, be completely familar with your team’s skillsets and skill level so that you can make a good decision or know what tweaks need to be made.

Happy coding!