Ben S. Stahlhood II's Blog

I am sure being the slow person I am, I am stating the obvious here, but I can see where Microsoft seems to be heading with XAML.  This looks to be a avenue for the serialization of all interfaces to XML code.  This is similar to the way NeXT did there interfaces.  You would build your interface in a program called “Interface Builder” which would create “.nib” files (Which stands for NeXT Interface Builder, FYI)  It would then serialize or “archive” the interface objects to the “.nib” file or un-archive them when receving an awake message.  I believe that is how it works.  I am going to get flammed by some Mac OS Cocoa programmers anytime now.  I have read about all this stuff but never actually programmed any Cocoa Framework apps my self.  Sorry if I totally mutalated the explanation.

A friend of mine has just started getting into .NET development using Windows Forms.  He asked me how he should go about creating a splash screen for his application.  I told him about the ApplicationContext class and that this is the way I would go about it.

I have been messing around with the CodeDOM namespaces.  I have written a tool that will take your SQL Server database and produce all the stored procedures, “Model” classes and an initial business layer that accesses all the tables via the stored procs.  I will post all the code when I get to a more stable release.  The codename of the project right now is “Skeletor”.  It will be able to produce skeleton code for various situations where you do not want to write all that code for your data access.  There are tools out there that do this, but they are expensive.  I would like to make something flexible and tailored for the .NET Community.  Make it open source and see how it works out.

If any of you are using .NET Framework 1.1 and messing around with “No Touch Deployment”, I have some info I would like to relay to you.  In talking to Brad and Jamie @ Microsoft, I found out that there is no way of getting rid of the Warning Ballons that pop up on the “Control Box” of the windows.  This warning is there for the user.  That way there is no mistakink that they are running a .NET application in a restricted secutiry contexts.  I knew this much, but I had asked them if there was a way to suppress the warning after first view.  They said at this time “NO” and that it would continue to be that way.  The “ClickOnce” deployment in Longhorn and Whidbey will be the answer to a more feature rich “No Touch Deployment” process.

Once I get into the details of the new .NET Framework and technologies I will be posting more information here.  I will be getting deep into things over the weekend and will make some postings about my opionions and findings.  If there are any specifics that any of you are interested in, please let me know.

My friend Nick, my wife, and I watched the Super Bowl over at my friend Andy's house this past weekend.  I have to say that was one of the best games I have seen in a long time.  It was total defense up until the last minute.