Vista is amazing!!!

For the past one week I am at Bangalore attending a training for Windows Vista.

We used to struggle to get a nice, jazzy UI for apps, which is far easy in WPF and I was amazed to look at getting all the UI gimmicks I would love to with just XAML... thanks to the declarative programming model introduced with WPF.

On WCF, exposing an app as a service is just for a few configurations and you are done... I have been working with SOA kind of appa for quite sometime, with WCF it is become so easy...

Thank you MS, for giving us such a nice technology.

Let's Rock the Community Launch!!!

The community launch of VS2005 is up at CNUG!!!

For more details check www.cnug.net. Registrations open at http://groups.msn.com/chennainetusergroup/communitylaunchsignup1.msnw

Awaiting to rock the community Launch!!!

Update: We had a Rocking Community launch with around 400 participants. Good thing was almost 80-85% of the crowd were developers.

VS 2005 Developer Launch - Chennai

The developer launch of VS2005 is happening at Chennai this Thursday(15/12/2005) at Le Royal Meridien. I just got the confirmation for my registration. I feel excited about attending the event and eagerly looking forward for the day!!!

Breaking Changes from Beta2 to RTM

MS has published the details of the breaking changes from .NET2.0 Beta2 to the RTM version.
The list goes like this:

Breaking Changes Overview

.NET Framework Version 2.0

• Threading Cancellation Functionality
• INullableValue Interface
• System.Nullable
• Boxing and Unboxing of Nullable

.NET Client

• MenuCommands Class
• Behavior Class
• ColumnWidthChangedEventArgs Class
• BindingContext Class
• DataGridViewRow Class
• DataGridViewCell Class
• Client Application User Settings
• Application Settings Serialization
• TreeView and TreeNode Classes
• BackgroundWorker Class
• MaskedTextBox Class
• GetPreferredSize Property of Form Controls
• Windows Forms API Changes
• CancelRowEdit Event
• AsyncCompletedEventArgs.Error Property
• RadioButton.TabStop Property
• MDI Automatic Merging
• BindingSource.Items Property

.NET Compact Framework

• EventArgs Classes

Common Language Runtime (CLR)

• XCertificateUI Class
• System.Threading.Thread Class
• KeyValuePair Class
• AssembliesVisibleTo Attribute

System.Data Namespace

• SqlDataReader.GetSchemaTable Method
• SqlNotificationEncryptionType Enumeration
• System.Data.SqlTypes.SqlStreamChars Property
• SqlDataReader.GetSqlValue Return Type

Globalization

• Persian Calendar Class
• DateTimeFormatInfo

ClassVisual Studio Tools for Office

• VSTView Interface

Visual C++ Programming Language

• ATL Server — CAtlHttpClient Class
• Floating-point Control Word Support Functions
• Dynamic Cast from Private Base
• MFC Wrapper for LoadLibraryEx()
• MFC -bit Message Map Support

C# Programming Language

• Compilation Error Due to Implicit Conversion
• Checked and Unchecked Expressions
• Nullable Does Not Satisfy IComparable Constraint Error
• Cannot Form a Delegate Over Nullable Error
• Operator "is" Returns true for T and Non-null T?

Visual Basic Programming Language

• TypeOf Statement
• Non-CLS Compliant Return Types
• Overriding Object Members in Structures
• Namespaces with Different Casing
• Implementing MustOverride Methods
• AppActivate Case-insensitivity
• AppActivate Right-Hand Title
• CreateObject Case-insensitivity
• Zero-Based Collection Object
• FileIO Enumerations
• FileLogTraceListener.CustomLocation Property
• FileLogTraceListener Date Format

ClickOnce Runtime Process

• ClickOnce Store Change
• WebBrowser Permissions

Visual Studio

• Visual Studio Settings
• Machine.config File Changes
• Visual C++ Beta Project Open Error
• Errors When Deploying Device Projects to the Device Emulator

ASP.NET

• Unique Class Names
• HTML Default Validation Schema
• Events for Non-Visible Controls
• ICallbackEventHandler.GetCallbackResult Method
• ASP.NET Personalization Database Schema
• Page.CreateStateFormatter Method
• Aspnet_regiis.exe Utility Argument Change
• WebPart File Format
• System.Web.UI.IPageHeader
• Relative References in the Configuration File
• Web Project Global Settings and Project Policy Settings

Check the Breaking Changes in Visual Studio and the .NET Framework for complete details. Just went through the document to have a bird's view of the changes, sounds good.

New Generation MS Certifications

Microsoft has come up with new certifications based on .NET2.0 technologies. Have a look at the details at The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications.

Case Study on Application Development with Whidbey & Yukon

Polaris Software Lab Triples Developer Productivity with Microsoft is a brand new case study that details the company's experience with one of its product Intellect-Collect that was ported to .NET from Java. The case study sounds pretty good. Just have a read and share your thought about it.

Hiring Good Programmers!!!

Stumbled over this article Hiring Good Programmers Matters. Was a good read and indeed true... Check it out.

Via: Sudhakar