Ajaxus place on the net

Windows 7 Beta was announced at CES 2009 and you can download it now.  I just did it from MSDN Subscripter downloads section.

Windows 7 home page:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/

Download info from the team:
http://windowsteamblog.com/blogs/windows7/archive/2009/01/07/information-on-downloading-and-installing-windows-7-beta.aspx

Steve Ballmer’s keynote:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/jan09/01-07CES09PR.mspx

Keynote videos and WIndows 7 demo video:
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/events/ces/keynote.aspx?initialVideo=Windows7Democast

These are predictions by Guy Barrette who is Microsoft Regional Director.

ASP.NET is dead
You should drop ASP.NET and start using Silverlight right now because it is clear that Microsoft has no roadmap and future plans for that technology. At the last PDC, nothing new ASP.NET was announced except a few tweaks for AJAX and the fact that Microsoft released the MVC Framework proves that but IMHO, the MVC Framework is just a toy technology to shut the Agile loudmouths that wants to code everything by hand and reinvent the wheel.

BizTalk is dead
With Dublin coming up with the Framework 4.0, it makes no sense to purchase and invest in BizTalk anymore. Why spend gazillions of dollars when you’ll have the exact same services for free right in the Framework? Why being locked with a product when you get the API for free?

LINQ 2 SQL is dead
Microsoft recently stated that they have stopped working on LINQ 2 SQL to focus on the Entity Framework so why would you use LINQ 2 SQL anymore? Once again, Microsoft has released a new technology, people invested in that technology and Microsoft abandoned it without warnings. I’m not happy because I invested so much in LINQ 2 SQL so I think I’ll stick with ADO.NET fearing that Microsoft will eventually dropped the Entity Framework as well.

VB and C# are dead
At the last PDC, Microsoft showed Oslo, its modeling platform along with M, a modeling language. This will revolutionize the way we design and build applications. In the near future we will no longer code using low level languages like VB and C#. I would stop investing in these languages right now and train my whole team in M.

Azure is DOA
Cloud computing, talk about something so stupid its name is stupid. Why the heck would I push my apps and data in Microsoft’s data centers? I don’t get it and I think no one will use that technology and trust Microsoft. This thing is dead even before it will be released (.NET My Services anyone?).

OK, you must have seen similar comments everywhere in forums, blogs or talking with colleagues and other developers but is any of this making sense?

AP.NET vs Silverlight vs MVC Framework
When I was at the last PDC, one thing that struck me was the fact that no major new announcements were made for ASP.NET. Clearly, this is the sign of a mature technology but at the same time, Microsoft is putting a lot of resources and efforts in building a new platform in Silverlight. Does that mean that you should drop ASP.NET? Of course not: it’s mature, it’s stable, hundreds of 3rd party controls are available, it’s proven and you can find thousands of developers familiar with that technology. Why would you stop using it all of a sudden? But why is Microsoft working so hard on Silverlight? Because Silverlight fills the RIA gap in the Microsoft offer because developing complex RIA apps with AJAX is way too costly right now. So why is Microsoft working on the MVC Framework, a direct competitor to ASP.NET? Again, another model to solve different problems. It’s easier to use if you’re deep into TDD, it’s somewhat lighter but at the same time, it’s somewhat a return to Classic ASP. Well, it’s another tool in your .NET toolbox and this creates confusion for people who think in the “one size fits all / one ring to rule them all” way. Again, look at your project/assignment, analyse the problem/need and select the right technology to do the job. But in the long time, could Silverlight be so successful that it would replace ASP.NET? Maybe or maybe not. It certainly has the potential to do so but who knows at this point in time!

2009 prediction: ASP.NET will dominate and we will see a slow but steady Silverlight adoption. The MVC Framework will remain a niche tool for Agilists for now (and I’m not saying this in a pejorative way).

BizTalk vs Dublin
The .NET Framework 4.0 will include a set of extensions to Windows Server that will add new services to Microsoft’s app server. Features that will simplify the deployment, configuration, management, and scalability of WCF and WF applications. Basically, some of the same features found in BizTalk Server. So why would I bother with BizTalk and spend big money when I can get the same services for free? Well, BizTalk is an integration server and Dublin is a set of management tools extending Microsoft app server. Dublin will allow you to deploy more easily your WCF apps so instead of writing a Windows service to host your WCF services, the app server will be able to host them directly.
So you think you can write a BizTalk clone? Remember how BizTalk 1 was a piece of ****? And remember BizTalk 2? Microsoft only got it right with version 3 so yes, you can write a BizTalk clone using Dublin but it will cost you a lot more than purchasing BizTalk because Dublin and BizTalk are two different animals.

2009 prediction: Dublin will be widely used right away to help host WCF apps. BizTalk will not die and some people will get burned by trying to replace BizTalk with Dublin in a scenario where the use of BizTalk would have make more sense. FUD will run loose on the Web.

LINK 2 SQL vs Entity Framework
So Microsoft created some confusion by releasing two similar ORM technologies? Yes of course but if you look closely, they are somewhat similar and different at the same time. LINQ 2 SQL is RAD against SQL Server and the Entity Framework is the full blown ORM thing. Both use LINQ as the query language so if you invested in LINQ 2 SQL, your investment is not wasted and for God’s sake, LINQ 2 SQL is in the Framework; it cannot die!
One suggestion that I saw on the Web was to release LINQ 2 SQL on CodePlex so that people can update it since Microsoft has “abandoned” it. First, Microsoft never said that it has abandoned it. They will keep it as it is right now and they will put all their efforts on the Entity Framework. My hope is that when we’ll see new SQL Server releases, Microsoft will update LINQ 2 SQL to match some of the new features. So back to the CodePlex idea: I think it’s a bad one because people will try to match the features of the Entity Framework or Nhibernate and that will create more confusion because we will have similar products competing against each other.

LINQ 2 SQL = simple 1 to 1 mapping against SQL Server
Entity Framework = complex mapping against SQL Server and more

2009 prediction: people will still be confused and FUD will run loose on the Web

C# and VB vs Oslo
Microsoft have finally abandoned the traditional design surface where we connect little boxes as the way to model apps and I think that Oslo and M are very good concepts. Is this the modeling Holy Grail? I have no idea but it looks good. Can Oslo and M replace VB and C#? Of course not!
Every time that Microsoft launched a new way to model apps, these technologies never lasted more than one version. I would tend to have a wait and see approach. Take a look, experiment and wait for version 2.

2009 prediction: Olso and M will be curiosities. Let’s hope that they will not die as the other Microsoft modelling oddities.

Azure vs apps hosted in the enterprise
Microsoft has taken a bold approach to cloud computing. Instead of hosting your virtual machines running your apps, they will host your apps in a new cloud OS running in their virtual machines. But why would you do that? To drive IT costs down of course. Look, there’s something called a recession going on right now and it’s a nasty one. At some point, your boss will be asked by his/her boss to cut expenses drastically and maybe one way to do it is to go the cloud way. We’ll see but there’s one thing that I’m sure: this will be another tool in your .NET arsenal and it will not make sense to write all apps to run in the cloud. Again, look at your project/assignment, analyse the problem/need and select the right technology to do the job. I’m sure that people will get burned by using the cloud model on projects where it doesn’t make sense.

2009 prediction: Microsoft has a lot of work to do to convince people to move to cloud computing.

Sorry for not writing lately but I have been distracted with some other projects. Here are some interesting books I came across yesterday. Enjoy!

Programming Microsoft® ASP.NET 3.5

Programming Microsoft LINQ

Introducing Microsoft® SilverlightTM 2 Second Edition

Few days ago the YUI development community was pleased to announce the release of version 2.6.0 of the YUI Library. You can download YUI 2.6.0 from SourceForge or configure your implementation using the updated YUI Configurator.

2.6.0 introduces a new Carousel Control, offers the Paginator Control for general use (it was previously bundled with DataTable), includes more than 450 total fixes, enhancements and optimizations, graduates eight components out of “beta,” and now ships with more than 290 functional examples.

What is new:

1) Added Carousel Control, contributed by Gopal Venkatesan (and based on the Carousel originally created by former Yahoo Bill Scott), provides a widget for browsing among a set of like objects arrayed vertically or horizontally in an overloaded page region. Like most YUI controls, Carousel can consume content from page markup using progressive enhancement techniques or be created, configured, and populated entirely via script. It has built-in support for the lazy-loading of content via XMLHttpRequest (aka Ajax) using YUI’s Connection Manager. And be sure to notice that Carousel’s ARIA Plugin example makes it easy to use the WAI-ARIA Roles and States with the Carousel control.

2) The Paginator Control which addresses the navigation aspect of chunked content, offering a set of controls that it can render into your UI to allow users to navigate through logical sections of local or remote data. It’s a great tool for managing page load times by reducing the amount of markup or data needed per page. In combination with Connection Manager or DataSource, paging through large sets of server side data is easy and can avoid the need for full page loads.

The simplicity of the getting started example risks hiding Paginator’s power, so be sure to explore the choices for configuring the Paginator. Plus, it’s built on a UI component architecture that allows implementers to easily create custom Paginator controls that will work automatically.

The Paginator Control was introduced with DataTable in version 2.5.0, but it has been broken out as an optional dependency for general use as of version 2.6.0.

3) Over 450 Improvements

Find out more from here.

Microsoft is revealing more about its plans for the next generation of Visual Studio Team System (code-named Rosario), part of the now officially named Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 rollout. All of these products are still in the very early stages.

“We’ve got a name called Visual Studio 2010 and that’s about all we’ve got right now,” said Dave Mendlen, director of developer marketing at Microsoft. “We’re not saying much more about schedule at this point.”

The company is outlining some of the new functionality in Visual Studio Team System 2010, which consists of Team Foundation Server and the Team Suite of role-based Visual Studio clients. This next release will focus on “breaking down the walls between the roles that exist today,” said Mendlen. With VSTS 2010, Microsoft is addressing the need to better integrate the functions of the project lead, architect, developers and testers throughout the application lifecycle. Key features in the 2010 Team Suite enable reuse of code assets, modeling across tools and architecture, higher quality test and better collaboration.

SQL Server 2005 Dropped

Going forward, the VSTS Database Edition will be rolled into VSTS Developer Edition.

“Developers are more hybrid today than they were in the past, this need to work not just with the core source code but also with the database is becoming more and more important to them,” said Mendlen. “With that in mind, we’ve made the decision to fold these two products together in the 2010 release of the product.”

Starting this month, Software Assurance customers with licenses for VSTS 2008 Developer Edition or VSTS 2008 Database Edition can download the VSTS 2008 Database Edition, VSTS Developer Edition, VS2005 Team System for Software Developers and VS2005 Team System for Database Professionals at no extra cost.

In a surprise move, Microsoft has also decided to discontinue TFS “Rosario” support for SQL Server 2005. VSTS lead Brian Harry explained in his blog: “That was a controversial decision but it is a final decision. The primary driving force behind it is that the Report Server feature in SQL Server 2008 is sooooo much improved over that in previous versions that we simply could not pass up taking advantage of it for Rosario.”

Plans for Expression Studio integration or a VSTS “Designer” edition are not currently on the 2010 roadmap. “There’s more work to be done to enable cross designer developer collaboration,” said Mendlen. “[We have] nothing specific to announce but it’s absolutely an area of focus for both sides.”

Team Suite Upgrades

The VSTS April 2008 CTP12 offered a glimpse of many of the new features in the upcoming Developer, Test and Architecture Editions. The next CTP is expected in the PDC timeframe, although Mendlen declined to confirm that timeframe.

Developers can expect improved customization of the continuous build process through new features such as architectural validation. That includes the ability to model the app’s UI layer, business layer and data layer, set up constraints, and map back-end code onto that architectural diagram. Using the new “Architecture Explorer” and “Layout Diagram designer” in the 2010 Architecture Edition, project leaders can enforce policies at code check-ins through architectural validation.

“Team Build will include a WF engine that is very extensible,” said Cameron Skinner, product unit manager for Visual Studio Team Studio. The next version of Team Build introduces an agent/controller architecture, with support for distributed builds.

The new client environment for testers beefs up its support for manual testing and test case management. It is built using Windows Presentation Foundation to enable better visualizations of software processes. Testers can run test cases that relate only to modified code. They can also capture what happens in the debugging process through video recording — TiVo for test — and that along with a debugging log, can be handed off to the developer.

The 2010 Developer Edition adds support for historical debugging, a standalone debugger on a USB stick for testing code on separate machines, code analysis rule sets and test impact of code changes.

New Modeling Platforms

The April CTP of VSTS supports UML, which Skinner said makes sense for higher level concepts such as the logical layer, with DSL at the physical layer. Microsoft has long championed DSL, as an alternative to UML.

Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond believes Microsoft views UML “as a great DSL for software architects.” One of the issues for Microsoft early on was the problem of complexity in modeling, and “Microsoft rightly noted that building off UML 2.0 can create some complex tooling for architects and developers,” Hammond said.

Microsoft officials have hinted that support for UML might be coming in “Oslo,” a new modeling platform that consists of a repository, language and tools. The company has confirmed that it will issue the first CTP of “Oslo” at next month’s Professional Developers’ Conference in Los Angeles.

“In Team System 2010, we clearly need to be able to interoperate and get the models that you’re creating in the Team Architecture Edition into the Oslo repository,” said Skinner. “That’s something that we’re currently working on, we’re still early in making that happen but that interoperation is absolutely going to be there, and we are actually chasing out more integrations between the two, but it’s still too early to talk about at this point.”

If you plan upgrading your software from .NET Framework 2.0 to .NET Framework 3.5 you should consider reading this pdf.

Its not the ultimate and comprehensive guide but will give you the picture. The authors also included some code snippets to visualize what they have gone through.

Download from here.

Everybody is aware of the need for source control! As I develop software with Visual Studio 2008, integration with this IDE is a must. Today I was lucky to find that Unified SCC supports Visual Studio Subversion integration so I easily changed my source control system.

What made me choose Unified SCC one might ask. Well, first of all its about the perfect user support. The guys on their team replied quite fast and with patience on my questions. Then it was a combination of all these advantages that made me choose Unified SCC:

* No need to keep file structure in sync manually. You can rename, move, add or remove files and folders right in the IDE, and plugin will execute necessary source control commands automatically.
* Easy access to source control operations
* File status icons and pending modifications window
* File history viewer and comparison support
* Works via MSSCCI - native source control integration interface for many programs
* Supports both edit-merge-commit and lock-edit-commit work models
* Auto file locking feature - applies to those files that can’t be modified concurrently (pictures, binary files, etc)
* Source control repository can be set for each project independently
* Atomic commits support

At the current moment, Unified SCC supports the following version control systems - Subversion and CVS as more integrations are comming soon. Unified SCC can be used with Microsoft Visual Studio, Borland Delphi, Microsoft Visio, MatLab and 3D Studio Max.

You can download a trial from here.

Here is a book by Peter DeBetta which is called “Introducing SQL Server 2008“.

Actually its two chapters available for download. But still its a good start

Get it free from here.

Can’t miss that one because we all rely on this IDE! You can get it from here.

New Web Development Features in Visual Studio 2008 SP1

The following is a list of new features in SP1 which relate to web development:

* Class Libraries and Web Application Projects in Express
* JScript Formatting
* More Support for External JScript Libraries
* Dynamic Data Templates
* SQL Server 2008 Support
* WCF Renaming Support
* IIS Module and Handler Templates
* Multiple Selection in Design View (new since SP1 Beta)

Visual Studio 2008 SP1 and Visual Web Developer 2008 SP1 contains several hundred bug fixes related to web development.

Read more here.

Few days ago ExtJS team announced their latest release 2.2 of the popular library. Here is a small list of the new features which made me impression:

- CheckboxGroup / RadioGroup - Technically, while the individual Checkbox and Radio controls are not new, they may as well be, considering the overhaul they have had in this release. Gone are the ugly standard browser input controls, now replaced by attractive, visually-consistent Ext-ified versions (a long-overdue improvement). View example.

- History - Another component that has been missing in Ext is a browser history utility to enable history stack navigation within your single-page Ext application. The new Ext.History singleton makes it extremely easy to do exactly that, and it uses an event-based API to notify you when the browser history has changed. View example.

- MultiSelect / ItemSelector - These two components were contributed to Ext by community member TJ Stuart (thanks TJ). The MultiSelect is a traditional list control that allows for selecting multiple list items, and the ItemSelector combines two MultiSelects into a more sophisticated control that includes drag-and-drop list selection and bulk selection and deselection among other features. View example.

- FileUploadField - This is an official extension provided as a sample for implementing a useful form component. Not everyone needs a form upload component, but if you do, you can’t live without it. This control is fully styled and has an API consistent with other Ext form controls. It also supports both Text+Button (read-only text) and Button-only modes, and can participate fully in form layouts. View example.

- Full Firefox 3 Support
* Grid columns were visually misaligned
* Ext.onReady stopped working reliably (our desktop demo stopped initializing correctly)
* The DatePicker width ran off the screen, making the control unusable
* The TabPanel contextmenu event stopped firing, killing the TabCloseMenu extension
* Window dragging stopped working correctly
* Various minor visual inconsistencies

- Performance Improvements, Bug Fixes and Other Goodies
* New properties for differentiating Firefox version (Ext.isGecko2 and Ext.isGecko3)
* New support for deferred row rendering in the grid (the default), boosting render performance significantly
* Refactor of EventManager to improve how event handlers are managed, which should help alleviate IE DOM leaks
* Fixed the “small PNG’s can cause performance issues in IE7″ problem
* More than 100 additional fixes and improvements

Consult the 2.2 release notes to get a complete listing of all changes.
Download it from here.