Paul Wilson's .NET Blog

You may remember me posting about joining Mimsware as a software consultant here in Atlanta a couple of months ago.  Well first let me say that things are going well and that I really enjoy working with Mimsware, and of course I highly recommend them if you're in the Atlanta area.  But it was pointed out by Wim in the comments that Mimsware's website looked like Microsoft's website back in the year 2000.  Well I'm happy to report that Dave Mims took that comment to heart and made updating the Mimsware site a priority -- so take a look now.  Its also worth noting that Dave did already know that it really needed updating, but it had just never been a priority until Wim's comment.

Registration for Atlanta Code Camp 2007 on January 20th is now open.  Space is limited and fills up fast, so do NOT delay registering -- it's free.  Thanks to Jim Wooley for putting this together this year.

I'll be presenting a session titled "Linq and O/R Mapping" that will be lots of real code and very little powerpoint.  If you've seen the standard Linq sessions already, or even if not, but you've been wanting more then this is for you.  I'm not going to waste any time on Linq to Objects or Xml, although those are cool in their right -- I will focus purely on Linq to Sql, and to a lesser extend Linq to Entities or Datasets.  Do you want to see a real application built using Linq to Sql?  That's what I plan to do, and I'll do it several ways so you can experience the possibilities.  For instance, should we use SqlMetal, the GUI Designer, or do our own thing with xml mappings instead of attributes?  What if you want to include some relationships, use some stored procs, and even some inheritance?  We shall cover all of those possibilities and more -- you will NOT be disappointed since this will not be just another slide deck or sample series based on what's already available.  In fact, I would actually challenge you to find any other "real" sample that includes all of these with xml mappings, but you won't find it since it doesn't exist.  I hope you get that I'm excited about this, as these technologies have definitely matured past my initial criticisms.  And even if you can't make it for some reason, I'll post at least some version of my sample app after the event is over for all to see.

I've been tagged by Brendon, so here are 5 things that you don't know about me:

If you haven't heard it already, VS 2005 Service Pack 1 is out and can be downloaded here.  It contains over 2200 bug fixes according to Scott Guthrie, as well as making Web Application Projects standard once again.  Also according to Scott, the install time can vary significantly depending on what you have installed, and is especially very long if you have C++ installed.  My own experience was that it took about an hour to install on my system, although that actually involved what I can only describe as two 1/2 hour installs.  Yes, maybe it was a fluke due to something on my system, but it installed once and said it was done, and then kept going with another install, including the exact same couple of dialogs, before finally asking to reboot.  Maybe your experience will be different, but in the end I suppose what matters the most is that our VS 2005 experience will now be improved every day.

We got to see an IronPython demo in ASP.NET today at the ASPInsiders Summit; some things are NDA, but some things are available now in a CTP. Let me just say that its fantastic to see ASP.NET in this space. Why? I'm not a user of dynamic languages myself yet, but I hear the train coming loudly. I've looked at Ruby, and now I've seen Python, and even though I still prefer C#, there's also an undeniable ease of use that is winning converts everyday. I've seen Rails, and for ASP.NET we already have SubSonic and MonoRails, as well as BLinq, and I saw some cool demos today with IronPython that were just incredible. Anyhow, to get to my point, I think its important that Microsoft is in this space so that we can know that the future of ASP.NET will be safe. Like it or not, technologies and languages come and go, and it would be foolish for MS to believe that C# and VB.NET will always be enough. Just like the IE team discovered that they had to regroup, at some point dynamic languages may very well be the norm. Maybe they won't, but either way ASP.NET should be prepared to be a thought leader, and that is what I saw today, and I just want to say "thank you" to the teams at Microsoft that are making this happen.

I've heard this before, but I'd long since forgotten: MySpace runs ASP.NET.  Its easy to miss this since it looks like they are running coldfusion, but the cfm's are in most cases remnants of their older system and are now mapped to ASP.NET.

The ASPInsiders Summit began today with Scott Guthrie's overview of what's happening. Steve Smith already has a good summary of his presentation, so I won't try to repeat it. Instead, let me just say that working with .NET just keeps getting more and more exciting. Its truly amazing to see how agile some of the teams at Microsoft have become recently. We've already seen Web Application and Deployment Projects and CSS Control Adapters, and now we see Expression Web Designer, PowerShell, and VS 2005 for Data Professionals. But expect to see more very soon, like ASP.NET Ajax, Data Publishing, and VS 2005 SP1, and later on the things still in CTP, like Orcas, IronPython, WPF/E, and IIS 7.0 Server.

I've already installed some things, including the final release version of .NET v3.0, but I really need to go install Expression Web, PowerShell, and VS 2005 Data Pro too. Expression Web will give you today the CSS friendly design surface that Orcas will have, and VS 2005 Data Pro will give you Schema Compare, Data Compare, Data Generator, and more. Speaking of data, the Data Publishing Tool that is coming very soon will not only generate the sql to build your database schema, but it will also finally build sql to populate it. And note that VS 2005 SP1 will not only include bug fixes (and there are more than 2200), but it will also automatically finally include Web Application Projects (no addin needed).

Of course no matter how much we get today, we also are still very much wanting Orcas. I have no clue what the target release date is, but I'm guessing very late 2007 or early 2008. But it will be cool when it does come, and it will support all of v2.0, v3.0, and vNext. That means it will finally add Linq, and make AJAX built-in as opposed to being an addin, but it will also include the Expression Web Designer and JavaScript Intellisense/Debugging. I'm assuming it will also include full support for WPF/E, which is looking really cool. But don't wait until then to start getting the various pieces that are out now or soon. And that was really what I got out of Scott's talk the most -- a lot of this is available today or is coming soon.

I highly recommend the book ASP.NET 2.0 Web Parts in Action by Darren Neimke (Manning Publications).  This book assumes you are already experienced with ASP.NET, so it doesn't waste your time with yet another introduction.  Instead, everything in this book is just good content about Web Parts and the Portal Framework, a lot of which is hard to find anywhere else.  This book does not just show you how to build a Web Part based Portal, it will also teach you how to customize most every aspect of the process.  You'll learn about the Manager control, Connections, and Personalization, but also about changing the look of the Chrome that all Web Parts automatically get.  So if you are an experienced ASP.NET developer that is needing to learn about Web Parts, then this is a must-have book -- there's nothing else like it.