July 2004 Entries
I just ran across this pretty good post on a number of things VB has that C# doesn't. I don't agree with most of them (considering some are mired with bad coding practices) and there are some that I would like to see on there, but overall, it's a good post. I'd like to see a similar list for C#. I'm sure the article has, or will, spark a response, tho. This gives me an idea... I think I'll start a few wish lists of my own. I'll update them as I run into features that I'd like to see in the respective...
InfoWorld published an article discussing Longhorn. Despite all of the Longhorn-related posts/articles I've read, I really liked this one. The Indigo part was the best - I wasn't too impressed with the WinFS coverage, tho. But, all-in-all, it was a pretty good article. It wasn't too technical, tho, so if you have any IT [semi-]savvy people that don't know much about Longhorn (i.e. managers), this would be a good place to start. Here are a few of my predictions... IndigoI expect to see Sun trying...
Here's something to chew on... ...more-than 50% of programmers in the US use .NET as their primary development framework. I don't know the date of this, but it came out of a Forrester report, according to Software Development Magazine. ...Ya know, maybe that was a bad title. Oh well
Mike Guttman, director of the Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) FastStart Program, talks to Software Development Magazine about MDA and mentions Microsoft's efforts. First, SD Magazine asks how Microsoft fits into MDA - making notice to the fact that it hasn't “embraced modeling.” Then, SD Magazine asks, “But if you don't have buy-in from Redmond...” This is where my interest peaked. Mike says... I don't believe theirs is a viable strategy; they don't even dominate the modeling...
Ahh, what a blessed curse... The system cannot find the path specified. Better yet... Unable to create the file 'New Text Document.txt' The system cannot find the file specified. These are the errors I get while trying to extract SQL Reporting Services from the Microsoft licensing download site. I imagine not too many people out there (compared to the community size) will run into this problem, but I wanted to post on it anyway. More precisely, I am extracting the “SW CD SQL Svr Developer Edtn...
Andrew Binstock wrote an article on the benefits of technical web logs - both internal and external to IT organizations. There were a couple of things about the article that I really liked. For one, Andrew made a comment about Java blogs that I thought was interesting. A separate cabal of Java bloggers exists as well, although in my opinion, it's somewhat smaller and less tightly dedicated to the technology [than .NET bloggers]. I just thought this was funny. Who knows whether it's completely true...
As I'm sure you all know, Java was born to provide a single development platform for any hardware system. The dreams were idealistic, yet within reach, but the implementation severly lacks. This is all old news, however. I've always found it interesting that each J2EE application server provides a different set of extensions to the base J2EE class library. This just shows the inadequacies of the platform and the lack of support Sun and the JCP provide. The question is, with the recent release of...
Coming up in the next release of Java, J2SE 5 (aka J2SE 1.5), there will be a new feature: static imports. I thought this was kind of interesting. I'll give an example, but before I do, let me explain something... Like C#'s using and VB's Import statements, Java has a similar import statement; however, Java's import statement can [but does not have to] specify a class name instead of a namespace (or package, in Java terms). I don't really know what the benefit of this is, but it's possible. I guess...
Tom Yager wrote about web- and client-based systems and a few of the pros and cons of each. Of course, we can all contribute to that list. I just have to say, “Here-here!” Tom is stating a fact that I've been protesting for quite some time - both customers and developers want web-based systems. Granted, rich clients are beautiful, but why can't we standardize a format that will allow us to develop these rich environments over a stateless medium like the internet? Flash does it. Microsoft...
UML and more. That's how an SD Times article covering VS05's new class modeling capabilities started to describe the new features. Unfortunately, I'd have to disagree. There are two main parts to Team System's modeling environment: System Designer and Class Designer. System Designer allows an architect to piece together systems based on generic components; and, Class Designer provides basic UML class diagram capabilities. The reason I say that Team System is not “_uml_ and more” is because...
This is old news, but it looks like Microsoft is planning on openning has openned a bug tracking system, code-named Ladybug. That sounds pretty interesting. I just wonder how many people will try to abuse it. It could turn out to be pretty useful, tho. It's been almost a month since the article I read, so I'll have to look around for some more info. I imagine this software will probably make it out in a 2006 or 2007 version of Visual Studio, or perhaps a downloadable WebPart for Windows SharePoint...
I just read an old article on Visual Studio by Tom Yager. It was pretty good. I knew about most of what was in there, but it was still a good read. I can't wait to check out the beta. And, it's supposed to work with 1.1 and 2.0, so that'll make it even better. I'm mostly interested in the Team System stuff. I don't think it will meet all the needs of enterprise developers, but that's usually how Microsoft works - they develop something that's mediocre, and release a 2.0 that's top notch. .NET is...
Oh, man, I have got to say something about this! Now, I am very pro-C#. Personally, I don't think VB.NET is a good language. Granted, it's a whole lot better than VB6, but I still don't like it. All that aside, whoever came up with the “Reasons to Convert from VB.NET to C#” is an idiot. While most are true (or partially true), they aren't very good reasons to opt for one language over the other. All-in-all, this person doesn't seem to know too much about C# or the overall differences...
Once again, I'm late, but it looks like the Eclipse Foundation has extended an invitation to Microsoft to join its efforts. I guess they think their new directions on web services and SOAs might be of interest to Microsoft, since they're the market leader, right now. Personally, I don't expect Microsoft to support this. First off, Eclipse has a long way to go to compete with Visual Studio. Secondly, do you seriously think Microsoft will support development for a product on a platform that it is a...
I'm probably responding pretty slow to this, but I've been out for a while... Concerns over whether or not Microsoft will claim patent infringement lawsuits against the open source community has been raised. Basically, Microsoft patented the FAT File System in 1976 and a lot of OSs and portable devices use the file system for data interchange with Windows. The main concern is that Microsoft could stop the use of Linux and Unix integration with Windows. I seriously doubt that this would happen. Maybe...
Ok, that's it. We're gonna have to do something about this. I just got 47 adult dating blog spam entries. There has to be something we can do to stop this. Maybe set some limit to how much time has to pass between posts. Maybe use one of those character confirmation images. I don't know what the best option is, I just know I'm sick of having to go thru and delete these things
I thought Edmund DeJesus' article, Design for Success, was nice because it showed that [some] people realize the benefits of modeling. It brought up something that I've been fighting for some time, th database-driven design. I know that this is going to raise some eyebrows - especially in the Microsoft arena (i.e. VB6, ASP, .NET) - but here goes... It seems like most people who use Microsoft technologies have one or more individuals who take care of software and database development, instead of having...
I read a short article by Mike Sax of Sax.net today. It talked about how you can be more competitive in today's IT job market. Basically, the article said you need to call yourself an architect, do a few extra things, and all of a sudden, you're indispensable. It'd be nice if life worked this way, but it's not as easy as Mike makes it out to be. I hope that nobody is dissillusioned about what it truly takes to become an architect. It sure seems like Mike is. Admittedly, he states that, “This...
I'm severely disappointed in the first edition of Microsoft Architect Journal. I'm hoping for a bit more in the second edition, but won't be able to get to it for a while - I have a stack of papers to sift thru that have been piling up for a month, now. I'd be interested to see if anyone else had different opinions about it. Several of the topics seemed to be right-on, but they just didn't get to where I expected them to get. Oh well...