From the Editor
Volume 12, Number 20: September 22, 2008
This is an exciting time for me. I am about to start presenting on the
various technologies that are part of the latest service packs released for the
.NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008. There's a lot of good stuff that can
be accomplished rather quickly. Last quarter I presented on three topics, which
we can talk about later. But this quarter I have five fresh presentations to give.
Productivity
I guess the important thing to realize is that, in each of my five presentations,
I can get a lot done within an hour. Although I start from scratch, I do have some
code snippets that are prepared ahead of time. But with each successive release of
our tools, more and more of the painful plumbing is already done.
Modern GUI Development
From my five topics, there will be several that strike a chord with developers.
In my first demo, I create a WPF thick-client application with truly modern-looking
results, avoiding that boring, business-grey look. The application leverages lots of
graphics, powerful, built-in WPF controls, connectivity to a Web server using
ADO.NET Data Services, and the ADO.NET Entity Framework. But what it so exciting
is how quickly we can convert it to run within a browser using Silverlight. All the
styling and templating that we leveraged in the WPF application was easily plugged
into our new Silverlight port. It sure is convenient to understand one programming
model that works both for thick and Internet clients.
More to Say
I don't have room to write about everything, but I will say this: keep your eye
on the following technologies, because they greatly simplify the creation of business
applications. I think that ADO.NET Dynamic Data Web Sites will be a big deal to a lot
of companies. It was trivial for me to take a relational database and expose it to
viewing and modification across http. And, of course, it is highly customizable, allowing
you to enter custom validation as well as custom formatting, while restricting visibility
into certain tables and columns.
ADO.NET Entity Framework
The ADO.NET Entity Framework will be another key technology. It simplifies the creation
of business applications based on relational data, because many of the lower-level physical
details about a relational data model are abstracted away, allowing developers to focus on
the relationship between objects, not complicated table structures. Things have been going
in this direction for years. We're getting closer!
Beta on the Radar (Model-View-Controller)
Still in beta is the Model-View-Controller (MVC) framework, which is an exciting new
approach to architecting highly scalable and maintainable Web sites. This technology
allows you to quickly and easily perform unit testing, automating what used to be manual
tasks. MVC is not a replacement for ASP.NET applications, but an additional pattern
available to developers who wish to further isolate their business logic from user
interface considerations.
Vista Nights in San Francisco
Come spend some evenings with us at the magnificent Microsoft Office in the San Francisco
Shopping Center on Market Street. We are hopeful that these evenings will offer something
for everyone, whether you are a casual user or a developer who just wants to have fun and
hang downtown for a little while. We will give away some books and stuff, but the main goal
is to make everybody's experience more productive, and especially, more fun. We'll include
some tips and tricks, how-tos, and ways to customize Vista to better suit your needs.
The sentence you are reading right now was written completely by a computer, using Vista's
voice recognition. While voice recognition may not be perfect, it is certainly worth exploring
during these evening sessions, especially if you do not like to type.
You also can learn how to transfer all video across a home network and then provide the means
to create DVD backups of your favorite TV programs. Learn how to eliminate unnecessary programs
that start up and slow your system down. Learn to use and customize Vista Gadgets to make your
desktop reflect your own preferences. Learn how to transform your desktop to display the
information that interests you, whether it's traffic information, weather information, or
any other news or data from a Web site.
These evenings are all about making you more productive. We'll discuss scripting, light
programming, performance tuning, and learning how to find what slows your computer down.
Learn about cool Web sites, Photo Gallery, and Windows Movie Maker, using the Network & Sharing
Center, Windows Media Center, and home entertainment. Have you ever wanted to attach an external
antenna to Vista and record digital-quality programming, saved to a USB drive, to be viewed at
your leisure? How about building your own Web site? Find out what's involved in learning HTML,
or some simple techniques to maintain your own custom site. Learn how to make video recordings
and post them to your own custom Web site. Learn how to transfer video from your own camcorder,
to your video editing software, and ultimately to your Web site, for friends and family to enjoy.
So where do you sign up for all these good things and see me speak about them in person? See
the links below in the What's Happening Near You section. I will be giving away books and software
and trying to cater to everyone's needs and whims. I think we can have a lot of fun.
Thanks for reading,
Bruno
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