Beth's Chinese blog
Well it looks like the dust has finally settled from the huge blog migration here at Microsoft and comments are flowing again. You’ll notice most blogs have changed their look and feel and have some cool new features. Although I’m not so keen on the themes we get (totally plain or hard to read are the choices so I picked totally plain look for now) there are some nice things about the new platform.
For instance, I like the way I can completely control the right rail now, and I also like the social sharing at the bottom of each post before the comments.
I tried to keep the same features we had before (comments, about, contact me forms) but let me know if you miss something and I’ll see what I can do. Also if any of you are CSS wizards out there and want to spruce up my blog for me, let me know. :-)
Enjoy!
Last week we gave the books page on the Visual Basic Developer Center a face lift and added some new books on Visual Basic 2010.
In the featured section at the top we have Visual Basic 2010 Unleashed by VB MVP Alessandro Del Sole. Alessandro graciously donated 2 free chapters that you can also download:
Whether you are a beginner or experienced programmer this book will have something for everyone. Thanks Ale!
Check out the rest of the books on the books page and let me know if we missed any.
Come over to Foothill college on Saturday May 15th for a full day, two track education day with an all-star Microsoft cast. I’ll be there speaking on OData, Office and SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010. We’ve also got some folks from the languages team coming to show off what’s new in VB, C# and the code editor as well as some great sessions on dynamic languages IronPython and IronRuby. Our local DEs and MVPs will also be there speaking as well!
Register for .NET Education Day here.
Here’s the detailed info on the sessions and speakers. For more information on location, time and agenda please see the registration page here.
Creating and Consuming OData Services – Beth Massi The Open Data Protocol (OData) is a REST-ful protocol for exposing and consuming data on the web and is becoming the new standard for data-based services. In this session you will learn how to easily create these services using WCF Data Services in Visual Studio 2010 and will gain a firm understand of how they work. You’ll also see how to consume these services and connect them to other data sources to create powerful BI data analysis in Excel 2010 using the PowerPivot add-in. Finally, we will build our own Excel add-in that consumes OData services exposed by SharePoint 2010.
Getting Started with SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 – Beth Massi The Visual Studio team has made significant investments in building tools for SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010. This session will provide you with an overview of SharePoint development in Visual Studio 2010 from the Visual Studio developer perspective. Come see what all the fuss is about as we go over the new project and item templates, walk through the designers, access data with LINQ to SharePoint, and look at the different object models including the new SharePoint 2010 Silverlight client library.
Creating a web app with ASP.NET MVC and JQuery and migrating it to the Azure cloud – Bruno Terkaly Learn how to create an on-premise data-driven MVC web application and then migrate it to the Azure cloud. You’ll see how to migrate both the data and the application to the cloud for infinite scalability. You’ll also see how how to get started with JQuery with some hands on coding as well as how to use Dynamic Data to set up the scafolding to expose your data as a web application.
Dynamic Languages on the .NET Framework – Ryan Dawson IronPython and IronRuby are high-quality dynamic language implementations on .NET. In this talk we show you how to interactively create great applications for .NET, and why dynamic languages are so well suited to this style of programming. You will walk away knowing why dynamic languages deserve a spot in your toolbox, and you get an early look at our dynamic languages tooling story.
VB and C# IDE Tips and Tricks for Visual Studio 2010 - Kevin Pilch-Bisson In this demo-focused session, we look at a series of features and technologies available through Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 and out-of-box solutions that will make you more productive in the Visual Basic and C# IDEs. Whether you're trying to come up to speed with an unfamiliar code base, navigate your way through a large solution, write in new pieces of business logic, or test your application, these tips and tricks will help you get your job done better and faster.
What's New in C# - Kevin Pilch-Bisson Learn how C# 4 enables developers to use new dynamic and COM Interop features in their code. Hear about the forces that influence and shape the future of programming languages and how C# is evolving to meet future customer needs.
What’s New in Visual Basic – Deborah Kurata In this session we’ll walk through the new Visual Basic language features that make you more productive writing code like no more underscores, automatic properties, array and collection intializers and multiline and statement lambdas.
Ryan Dawson is a developer in test at Microsoft. He's been at Microsoft for more than 10 years, and a member of the Dynamic Language Runtime team since its inception. IronPython, IronRuby, and dynamic features of C# and VB are all built on top of the DLR. He has a degree in computer science from the Missouri University of Science and Technology.
Deborah Kurata is cofounder of InStep Technologies Inc. and has over 15 years of experience in architecting, designing, and developing successful applications. She authored several books, including the "Doing Objects in Visual Basic" series (Addison-Wesley), "Best Kept Secrets in .NET" (Apress) and "Doing Web Development: Client-Side Techniques" (Apress). She speaks at various .NET conferences and has been recognized with the Microsoft MVP award. After a hard day of coding and taking care of her family, Deborah enjoys blowing stuff up (on the XBox of course).
Beth Massi is a Senior Program Manager on the Visual Studio team at Microsoft and a community champion for business applications and Visual Basic developers. She has over 15 years of industry experience building business applications and is a frequent speaker at various software development events. You can find her on a variety of developer sites including MSDN Developer Centers, Channel 9, and her blog http://www.bethmassi.com/ Follow her on twitter @BethMassi.
Kevin Pilch-Bisson is a development lead at Microsoft. He's been a member of the C# IDE team for more than 7 years, working on features like IntelliSense, Colorization, Refactoring, and Formatting. Prior to joining Microsoft, Kevin earned a computer engineering degree at the University of Waterloo. Outside of work, he has a beautiful wife and three children. You can find Kevin on Twitter at http://twitter.com/pilchie.
A former Microsoft premier field engineer, Bruno Terkaly has travelled around the clock to solve the most hair-raising client problems and meltdowns. He has taught in nuclear power plants, assisted with life-or-death medical applications, and debugged multi-million-dollar financial trading software, and brings two decades of training experience with a wide array of platforms to his presentations. Bruno is also a confirmed thrill seeker and a stand-up comedy connoisseur who works hard to make his audiences laugh, just like his role model, Anders Hejlsberg.
For more information on location, time and agenda please see the registration page here.
Hope to see you there!
I'm back with Boris Scholl, the Program Manager who designed the BDC Model designer in Visual Studio 2010. Boris is a SharePoint expert, and in this interview he shares some tips and tricks having to do with BDC model deployment to SharePoint 2010. He provides insight into what the designer is doing behind the scenes, what happens when you deploy the package, and how you can configure it to do exactly what you need.
Channel 9 Interview: Tips & Tricks with Business Data Connectivity Model Deployment in Visual Studio 2010
Boris and I are good friends and in this interview we joke around a bit as he explains to me (a total SharePoint n00b!) how BDC models work. Hope you enjoy this one as much as I did.
For more information on SharePoint Development in Visual Studio 2010 please see:
Last weekend I was out in Phoenix spending some time with Alan and the natural beauty of the Southwest. I spoke at the community launch event in downtown on the Thursday before and then did a guest appearance on the .NET Rocks road trip on Friday so we figured we’d stay the weekend.
The launch event was a lot of fun, I had the privilege of speaking about the SharePoint developer tools in Visual Studio 2010 that the team I’m on built. (I’ve been interviewing team members about them on Channel 9 so check them out if you haven’t already.) There were about 20 SharePoint developers there out of probably 100 attendees and they were so excited to see these tools baked into the VS box. Package & feature designers and deployment, Visual Web Parts and LINQ to SharePoint got some cheers and nods from everyone so that was fun. Yes, all but one of my demos were in Visual Basic (my comfort zone) and a couple people came up afterwards and thanked me for it so that was really nice. The rest of the event was great too, Developer Evangelists Sara Ford, Bruno Terkaly and Daniel Egan were there as well as MVP Scott Cate talking about all things Visual Studio 2010.
On Saturday, Sara and I decided to tackle Camelback mountain – a super-popular hiking spot right in Phoenix. We took the Echo Canyon Trail which is 1.2 miles up to the peak at 1,280 feet. The short distance and elevation gain is very similar to the kind of hikes I do here in the East Bay Area, so I wasn’t worried about that. What was challenging was the terrain – covered with huge rocks that you had to climb all the way up. I’m glad I brought my full-fingered gloves. The other challenge was all the people! Wow, I am not used to that many people on a trail, even in Yosemite. But, dodging all the other hikers, I made it up in an hour and back down in 30 minutes so I think I’m in pretty decent shape.
I always pack a first-aid kit, survival kit, knife, and a frisbee. Yes a blue frisbee that has VB in big white letters. You never know when you’re going to need a VB frisbee. ;-) So once we got to the summit I found a good overhang rock and Sara took some photos of me holding it over Phoenix. Yes, VB rules over Phoenix… literally ;-)
Alan and I plan on taking a driving trip through the Southwest very soon. I love it down here and I’d love to try and tackle some more awesome hikes. If you live in the area, let me know what your favorites are and I’ll add them to my list.
Thanks Phoenix, see you next time!
I’ve written about collection initializers here on this blog before, but I thought I’d catch up with the VB Team to tell me more about how they really work.
In this interview Spotty Bowles, a tester on the VB Compiler team, shows us a couple of new language features: Array and Collection Initializers. He gives us insight into how they are implemented in the compiler and best practices on how to use them in our code. Additionally, he discusses how to extend Collection Initializers with your own extension methods.
Channel 9 Interview: Array and Collection Initializers in Visual Basic 2010
For more new Visual Basic language features in Visual Studio 2010 see:
Also, stop by the Visual Basic Team Blog and the Visual Basic Developer Center.