Jackie Goldstein's Weblog
Microsoft, .NET, and other stuff...
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A Disappointment in the Enterprise Library
Last week, I posted about the availability of the new set of application blocks in the form of the Enterprise Library. While I am still very excited about these blocks, and am already working to incorporate them in 2 current projects, there was one major disappointment. When I opened the code for these application blocks, I was shocked to realize that the source code for the blocks was only available in C# ! The documentation and Quick Starts are in both C# and VB (and well done), but the blocks themselves are C# only. This is a step backwards from the previous version where at least most of the blocks had both C# and VB versions of the source code.
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Microsoft VB Chats in February
Microsoft Visual Basic chats in February:
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Microsoft Patterns & Practices Enterprise Library Released
The latest (completely rewritten) version of the Microsoft Patterns & Practices Application Blocks has just been released. It is now known as the Enterprise Library and is already available for download.
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New Patterns and Practices Digest
The Microsoft Patterns and Practices team has just started publishing the Patterns and Practices Digest. I have done a bunch of conference presentations and have spent alot of time talking to people about this, and am always amazed at how many serious developers still aren't aware of this stuff. This digest is a good way to keep abreast of the "latest & greatest" content and code coming out of this great team in Redmond.
Download the first issue Patterns and Practices Digest -
February Israel Visual Basic User Group Meeting
February's Israel Visual Basic User Group meeting will be held on February 2, 2005:
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Help the Tsunami Victims of Banda Aceh - Buy an hour of Top-Notch Consulting
It looks like Scott was the first to blog this...
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Changes from Beta1 to Beta2 in VS 2005 Data Design-Time Features
If my post that discusses the improvements for developing data forms in in VS2005 inspired you to check it out (or check it out again), then be sure to go through this post by Steve Lasker the Microsoft PM who is responsible for most of these features. In his very extensive post, he discusses many of the changes from Beta1 to Beta2, as well as the reasoning / thought process that was behind the changes. Note that many of these changes have already shown up in the recent CTP releases.
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Agile Development User Group forming in Israel
Roy Osherove and Udi Dahan are starting up an Agile Development User Group to meet in Tel Aviv.
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ISVs, Access, and VS 2005
Speaking of ISVs and VS 2005...
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A Most Difficult Presentation
Over the past 10 years, I have given several hundred presentations on many different topics, to crowds ranging from a handful to well over a thousand. But one of last week's presentations at the Microsoft Executive ISV Briefing was in many ways the most challenging to prepare. I was tasked with presenting VS 2005, in only 30 minutes, to CEOs ! I need at least a day to really do justice to VS 2005 / Framework 2.0, but I think I hit the highlights and focussed more on the business benefits that the coding shortcuts - so nobody walked out in the middle. Being able to speak very quickly didn't hurt either...