August 2003 - Posts
I quit my job this week! I will be starting with my new employer as soon as I am released from my current contract (I'm meant to give 4 weeks notice, but my new employer wants me ASAP).
It will be an interesting move for me, as I will be going from a VB.NET shop over to C# (which I am fluent in), and I will finally get to work with Flash MX again (embedded in WinForms). I'll also get to work with PocketPC and Tablets, using Web Services, BizTalk, SQL Server and more!
I will also be changing from writing Intranet/Government type apps to ones specialised for the Hospital industry, which should prove interesting and give me more to play with and be excited about.
Once I'm settled in at the new place I'll let you all know how it goes.
It seems that Jan Tielens has updated the TypeFinder macro again. It's got a few nice extras in there.
There's one little addition I would add, once you have the macro installed browse in the AddDirective method down to where it has this line:
While text.Text.StartsWith("/*") Or text.Text.StartsWith(" *") Or text.Text.StartsWith("//") Or text.Text.StartsWith("'")
And add this to the end of the line:
Or text.Text.StartsWith("Option")
This fixes a small issue for VB.NET users that have an Option Explicit On or Option Strict On.
Happy coding!
Well, I got some good feedback from my last post, seems like I've finally got some readers! :)
I've since seen some really well done presentations. One that currently rates as #1 on my list was the .NET Compact Framework (DEV308), extremely well done.
I didn't think I would get much out of it, as I've been 'playing' with .NETCF for a while now, and had a pretty good grasp... but after hearing Peter Stanski talk, I'm almost wishing I could go to his UNI classes!
He had a lot of material to cover (next year give this man 2 or 3 session slots!!), and although the early stuff was an introduction I didn't feel like he was insulting my intelligence like I have at other sessions. He provided a host of great links, lots of hints and tips, guidelines etc. A really good section on the Performance issues you might encounter and how to overcome them.
Next he went into using compression when using web services, with links to libraries like this (HTTPZip) for the server, as well as this (zHTTP) and this (SharpZipLib) for the client.
The session on SQL Reporting (DAT207) was pretty good too, I definately want to have a play with that, I've often had to build reporting solutions and have been aching for a better way.
Adam's talk was a riot, kept the audience laughing most of the way through, and was daring enough to do live demo's! He hit a few little glitches, like when his sound started going crazy, but he recovered smoothly.
He provided us with some great tools to give WinForms developers something akin to the Validation controls that we've enjoyed in ASP.NET, unfortunately he didn't have much time left to go over some Data Binding stuff, maybe I can convince him to setup a Web Log to explain it and get feedback! :P
Anyway, gotta run off to another session on BizTalk, here's hoping it's not “just another re-hash”, or I might pass out from boredom!
Talk to you all soon.
I've been checking with a few people here, getting feedback on the technical content of the sessions.
For those that don't know, they're rated as follows in the session guide:
- 100 - Introduction to Material
- 200 - Strategic Overviews
- 300 - Advanced Level
- 400 - Expert Level
What I've found is that I'm attending a few 300 and 400 level talks that seem like they really should have been rated as 200... most of the presenters have been really good, but the level of technical detail has been poor, and in some cases missing. I mean, we're mostly developers (ignoring all the Managers that have come here for a holiday and can't understand most of what's being said, but that's another gripe)... we want to see code, we want to see it work, I'm getting a little tired of being told how it works and what it looks like, I want to see it!
Anyway, that's my opinion, and as always there have been exceptions, of note was Matthew Hardman's talk about Building Secure Applications with the Microsoft .NET Framework. He showed the code, and gave examples of when to use each of the methods. The only gripe I had with his talk was that he didn't repeat the questions before answering them, so not all of us knew what he was answering (this was about the only good thing about the C# Present & Future talk I went to as he repeated every question for our benefit, the rest was very poor).
Anyone else have simmilar feelings, or better yet want to tell me I got it all wrong? :)
I was going over Adam Cogan's (Superior Software for Windows) upcoming talk here at Tech.Ed Australia, and mentioned some macro's I use all the time... unfortunately I couldn't find the link to the TypeFinder one, so here is where to get this great macro (check the comments for an enhancement someone posted).
The other great macro is the “Add Region” macro by DevHawk, I sent him a little bug fix for it so it's worth double checking if you have the latest version.
What other ideas do you all have for Macros to enhance your experience in Visual Studio? I consider the above two to be “must have”, but I'm keen to know of more.
Update: Corrected the link to Adam's profile upon request.
Well, first day of sessions is already half over.
As usual Brisbane has great weather, typical winter days of 20-25 Celcius... I don't wanna go home!
I have seen the introduction to Jupiter so far, looks pretty good. Full integration into Visual Studio .NET will be a great thing, as well as better support for current and emerging standard.
Now I just need to find some way to get more readers... what would you like to know about Tech.Ed? Oh, and Marcie, what will it take to get you to link to me!! I'll give you some cake ;-)
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