Fabrice's weblog
Tools and Source
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Free XSLT 2.0 and XQuery engine
Start working with XSLT 2.0 and XQuery today!
Still waiting for Microsoft to include XQuery & XSLT 2.0 support? Altova makes the same engines that drive its XMLSpy, MapForce, and StyleVision XML development tools available for use in custom applications – free of charge! Sold!
AltovaXML is an entirely free download that includes the Altova:
- XML validating parser
- XSLT 1.0 engine
- XSLT 2.0 engine (schema-aware)
- XQuery 1.0 engine
- Well-formedness checking
- Validation based on DTD or XML Schema
- XML transformations via XSLT 1.0
- Schema-aware XML transformations via XSLT 2.0
- XML queries and transformations via XQuery
- Command line operations
- COM interface
- Java interface
- .NET interface
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Did I already tell you that I hate the new web project model?
Let me say it one more time: I hate the new (and improved...) web project model in Visual Studio 2005.
The more I work with it the more I hate it. Microsoft, please reinstate the previous model for the final release!
Here are new complaints for the day.
Because there are no more project files like a .csproj or a .vbproj, you cannot open a web project by double-clicking on the project file. It is also not possible to use drag&drop to open a web project. You have to start Visual Studio first and navigate to the folder you had before your eyes in the Windows Explorer.
It also not possible to know whether a folder is a web project or not by looking at it, because nothing differentiates it from any other folder.
Please let Microsoft know that we'd like the previous model back! -
Tools for .NET 2.0
I've just added a new attribute for the tools in the SharpToolbox to indicate whether they support .NET 2 or Visual Studio 2005.
If you know of a tool that supports .NET 2 and that is not marked as such, please let me know.
No doubt this attribute will be used a lot very soon!
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[OT] Is hate commonplace in the USA???
The host city for the 2012 Olympics was picked. New York was out early and that was a big relief to me, personally. I think New York needs a rest from big events. All that security wears on you.
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OlympicBoard, site about the Olympic Games
I would like to announce a new site about the Olympic Games: OlympicBoard.
This site still needs some work, and we have a lot of improvements we would like to implement in a close future, but it currently already proposes news about the Olympic Games in English, French and Chinese, for 2006, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
If you are interested in being part of this project and post about the Olympic Games in your own language, just drop us a note. We would be very happy to extend the support for various languages!
Things are heating up a bit due the vote for the selection of the host city for the 2012 Olympic Games that will happen tomorrow in Singapore. I know a lot of people are eagerly waiting for the decision, especially here in Paris...
But read all the latest news about the Olympic Games now!
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Google-Microsoft fight
http://maps.google.com
http://www.virtualearth.com
http://earth.google.com
http://www.google.com/ig
http://www.start.com/myw3b
http://search.msn.com
http://local.google.com
...and a lot more, the list is growing and growing...
I know who is going to win, but who is copying who, that is the question :-)
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The world as seen by a satellite eye
Google has put online satellite photos of the whole Earth.
Time to pay http://maps.google.com/ a new visit!
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Journées "Communautés Microsoft"
Today, I took part to the Microsoft Open Days event in Paris for and by MVP, MVS/MSP (Microsoft Student Partner), and user group members.
I gave a presentation about SharpToolbox and .NET tools, with a focus on some tools and tool categories like .NET Reflector, FxCop, software factories and CruiseControl.NET, code generation and Codesmith, object-relational mapping.
You'll find a link to the Powerpoint document below, but of course it is in French.
Aujourd'hui, j'ai participé à la journée des communautés Microsoft (OpenDays) à Paris pour et par les MVP, MVS, et groupes d'utilisateurs.
C'était sympathique de rencontrer les autres membres de ces clubs très select ;-)
J'ai trouvé les sessions intéressantes et l'ambiance conviviale. J'ai aussi apprécié l'esprit critique des intervenants. Non, ce ne sont pas de gentils petits soldats de Microsoft :-)
J'ai présenté une session sur SharpToolbox et les outils .NET, en mettant l'accent sur quelques outils et catégories d'outils tels que .NET Reflector, FxCop, les usines de développement et CruiseControl.NET, la génération de code et Codesmith, le mapping objet-relationnel.
Vous pouvez consulter le support Powerpoint pour avoir une idée du contenu de la présentation.
Vous pouvez aussi consulter la présentation sur ASP.NET 2 par Patrice Lamarche.
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.NET suggestion: add a paraminfo keyword to get information on parameters at run-time
I have added a suggestion for the .NET framework or the C#/VB.NET compilers in the MSDN Product Feedback Center: "Add a paraminfo keyword to get information on parameters".
Basically, the idea is to be able to write paraminfo(someparam).Name and paraminfo(someparam).Value to access to information about a parameter at runtime inside a method.
What do you think about this idea? You can vote for this suggestion if you find it interesting...
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Interesting stats and viral marketing experiment
Don't you think this is a nice bell curve, with a short tail?
These are the stats for a page I put in place about the TransAtlantys hoax, an advertisement campaign based on viral marketing, which claimed a tunnel and train was being built under the Antlantic Ocean. This was just a campaign from a travel company to sell airline tickets from Paris to New-York!
I think it was an interesting experiment and shows how quickly viral marketing takes on the internet. The first day, there was no result from Google about this hoax; two days after, 16,000; and now more than 100,000. The traffic quickly reduced starting on June 3, because this is the day when the hoax was revealed on the official site. You can also see "holes" during the week-ends (4-5 and 11-12).
What's nice is that my page is ranked number 2, just after the official site :-)