Archives
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80% of Windows Developers Will Not Understand XAML
With the announcement the end of last week that Microsoft is decoupling Avalon from Longhorn and will make it backward compatible with WinXP and Win2k3 Server, I’m sure there are some out there that wonder what my take on it. First off, let’s get this straight, XAML does not equal Avalon. Yes you can use XAML to wire up Avalon objects, but XAML is there to wire up .Net objects, not just Avalon .Net objects. So what is my take on the news? Happiness and concern. I’m happy about the news because I will get to share the Avalon love with users of WinXP. I’m deeply concerned, because of the whole backward compatibility scene. IMHO, most initial impressions of Avalon will be via Avalon on XP, and that concerns me. I’m sure (but I have no inside info) that there will be some things that will not work on WinXP, and the phrase, “well, that would work if you were on Longhorn” is not one that either developers or users will be happy with. Either make it 100% backward compatible, or don’t bother. A 3rd party implementing XAML on WinXP can get away with that excuse, but not Microsoft, since in the customer’s eye they own the OS, so they can change it to work with XAML. The other thing that concerns me is the marketing aspects of Longhorn. For a year now we have heard all about WinFS and Avalon, and they were the 2 primary reasons for upgrading to Longhorn. Now that those perks have been removed the “why upgrade to Longhorn?” question needs a new answer and quick.
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.NET Book Club Contest!
Jeff Julian recently announced a .Net Book Club Contest. All you need to do is fill out this survey to be eligible to win a copy of Win2K3 Server (25 CAL) or one of ten copies of Rocky Lhotka's “Expert C# Business Objects”. You will have to be a member of the .Net Book Club to fill the survey out, but I'm sure you are already a member (and if not, membership is free).
The preceding blog entry has been syndicated from the DonXML Demsak’s All Things Techie Blog. Please post all comments on the original post.
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Xamlon Rocks!
The guys at Xamlon release a new beta of their XAML rendering engine for .Net 1.1 and it is absolutely incredible. Adam Kinney has a great clock example on his blog, and Kevin Lindsey published a knowledge base article on how to use the XamlPad application to convert Illustrator CS files (as SVG) to XAML.
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Are User Groups Eliminating the Need for Mid-Sized .Net Conferences?
I’ve been thinking about this very topic since VSLive NYC and was wondering what others think about this. VSLive in NYC (formerlyVBits) was a must attend event back before .Net, but I was definitely under whelmed at the turnout for the last couple years. Last year, with the bad economy, I thought it was a fluke, but this year didn’t seem much better, and the economy (at least in the NYC metro area) is a whole lot better. But in looking at the sessions I realized that there really wasn’t much there of interest to me. And that is when it hit me. If you went every month to one of the many .Net user groups in the NYC area, plus spent a little time reading the blogs, there was very little reason to go to an event like VSLive. Most of the VSLive presenters also speak at local user groups (thanks to INETA) and the local MSDN events, and they also have very good blogs, so this material is available elsewhere for free. Smaller conferences (like Chris Sells Dev Con), where the attendance is just around 100 people, allow for much better “real world developer” to “real world developer” interaction. The larger events, like TechEd or VSLive SanFran, are appealing because they offer a larger selection of sessions, plus the .Net gods usually speak at these events. So the medium sized events of yesteryear (the traveling tech conferences) do not leave much to offer the average developer. They were geared toward the developers that couldn’t afford the travel budget needed to get to the large conferences, but still needed to learn the latest/greatest. Now with the proliferation of excellent local user groups and/or other internet resources, this niche market seems to be eroding quickly.
The preceding blog entry has been syndicated from the DonXML Demsak’s All Things Techie Blog. Please post all comments on the original post.
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DataMapper Performance Statistics On VS2005 Beta 1 and SQL Server 2005 Beta2
I took the code from my previous DataMapper examples, which was written for .Net 1.1 and SQL2K, and ported it to VS2005 Beta 1 with SQL Server 2K5. I did not have to change one line of code in either the sprocs or in the 1.1 C# code (great going VS & SQL team). Since my example code also used the DAAB 3.1, I decided to port that too, with no issues. Since I was going to be testing the beta versions running in VPC, I new that I would not be able to compare my original stats to the new stats. But since what I’m really after was performance differences versus a baseline of the DataReader, and comparing those numbers, running on a host OS versus a VPC OS should not be a factor (as long as the OS is the same, which it was, Windows XP).
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Restarting the NJ SQL Server User Group
There has been some discussion lately about restarting the NJ SQL Server user group amongst the NJ MVPs, and it looks like it will be a go. I purchased the url www.njsql.org, downloaded the new Community Server Forums, and began the task of creating a skin for the new site. It will contain both forums, and blogs (some syndicated from my site, and my wife’s, plus the ability to host new blogs, thanks to .Text). We are shooting for the first meeting to be in September, and it will not compete with either the NYC SQL Server group (which recently restarted), or the local NJ .Net groups. The focus of the group will be on topics of interest to development DBAs (people that write sprocs and DTS packages) rather than support DBAs (back/recovery, etc.) will be heavily into the new SQL Server 2005 features, along with OLAP and Analysis Services. The actual location has not been decided, but it will be either at the NJ Microsoft office, or if they relocate that office (as rumored), we will find a spot in Morris or western Union counties (Summit would be an excellent location thanks to the train line).