:C#, VS Deployment and all geek talk

Visual Studio.NET Service Packs are due this year, but their site is up already (The site clearly mentions it is still in process)

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/support/servicing/default.aspx

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Frequently we desire to autopopulate some fields on our web form with the current logged in username and domain.

How to get that information?

Well, User.Identity.Name comes to the rescue.

Set the text property of the field to User.Identity.Name and it will show the logged-in username prefixed by the domain information

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Wohoo! Enterprise library for .NET Framework 2.0 has just been released.

More details at http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnpag2/html/EntLib2.asp

Direct download link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5A14E870-406B-4F2A-B723-97BA84AE80B5&displaylang=en

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While we are on the topic of System.Web.Mail, it is important to note a new namespace in version 2.0 of the .NET Framework.  There is a brand new namespace for sending mail via managed code, it is called System.Net.Mail.  Have no fear, System.Web.Mail is still accessible in v2.0 but it is deprecated.  (Which means v2.0 won’t break your code but you should strongly consider using System.Net.Mail in new development.)  The documentation for System.Web.Mail is updated to reflect this.

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Do you have some students who want to learn Visual Basic .NET or C# on their own? Or perhaps you want to learn them as part of your own professional development. Well if so, Microsoft has a free series of lessons for absolute beginners. They look pretty good to me. I am sure that may others will find them useful as well.

Visual Basic Express – http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/vb/learning/default.aspx

Visual C# Express – http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/visualcsharp/learning/default.aspx

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With a plethora of blogs floating on the internet, it is hard to find the blogs which make a difference. Below is a collection of blogs of authors whose books we have read and blogs of people who make the technology.

I spent some time to find out such information and post it so that it will be useful for people who want to hear (read) from the horse’s mouth.

Below are the links of blogs of personalities whose blogs I find interesting to read:

There are many others whose blogs I read and I will be updating this site as soon as I get some time. If you feel that there is more to the list, please leave me a comment and I will check it out.

Who’s who in the list above:

Charles Petzold: The guru of Windows programming. Since Windows 3.1, he has been writing books on Windows programming. If anyone can talk on Windows programming, he can.

Don Box: The architect of the next version of Windows (Vista) and the geek (not Greek) mythology that shadows it can be answered by him and him only. When not confusing (enlightening) me on the future of Messages & designing the next generation of Windows, he takes time to write a blog and is quite humorous in his style.

Stanley Lippman: C++ guys should watch out for his blog

Somasegar: When the Corporate VP of Developer Division at Microsoft writes, the developers across the blog read, coz what he writes about affects their bread and butter. His is the blog to look out for happening in the Microsoft Developer Tools camp.

Brad Abrams: No one speaks of the CLR internals with as much clarity as the Lead Program Manager of CLR team at Microsoft.

Scott Hanselman: ASP.NET guys and .NET developers in general cannot afford to miss this blog. His post in the questions every .NET developer should know (link) should be familiar to anyone appearing for interviews for .NET positions.

C# FAQ: The C# team at Microsoft has a FAQ blog, which is updated by C# team and C# MVPS.

Sahil Malik: Kiss-ass attitude is what I like about his blog. His latest book Professional ADO.NET 2.0 is selling wonders. His language may be rough, but he gets his point across.

Robert Scoble: Think blog! Meet Robert Scoble. No, RSS does not stand for Robert Scoble Syndication, but this guys writes all about Microsoft, good and bad. Hats off to him.

Larry Osterman: His is a very geeky blog and he explains everything in detail.

Comments are very welcome and if my limited reading should be expanded, please mention who I missed in this list.

PS:.As I am writing this, I know Robert will scold me for not formatting it nicely. Sorry Robert, but I am a HTML dummy.

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Yes, for a limited time (1 year), Visual Studio express editions are going to be free. SQL Server Express editions will be free always.

More details at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/

Start downloading folks.

Clarifications on the free offer at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/faq/default.aspx#pricing

Complete FAQ at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/support/faq/default.aspx

And yes, you cannot develop V1.1 applications with VS2005 Express editions. 🙁 tsk tsk

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.NET Compact Framework v2 is now ready and available for download !  As of today we have the English end-user download and the Platform Builder QFE available.  Remaining language downloads will be released in the new few weeks as we get the localized download pages completed.

.NET Compact Framework 2.0 End User Download
Component: .NET CF v2.0
Description: Integration of .NET Compact Framework v2.0 into Windows CE 5.0.

Windows CE 5.0 Platform Builder Update 051027_KB904260
Overview:  The Microsoft® .NET Compact Framework 2.0 Redistributable includes everything you need to run applications built for both NET Compact Framework v1 and v2, including the Common Language Runtime and the .NET Compact Framework class library

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Did you feel that a powerful Collection library for public domain was missing?

Well, its here now…

Check out http://www.wintellect.com/powercollections/ 

A brief description:

With .NET 2.0 comes the ability to implement what has been known in C++ as template classes. Generics are like C++ templates, only better. To learn more about generics, check out Jason Clark’s article in MSDN Magazine: http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/03/09/NET/

Leading the development effort is Peter Golde, formerly a Lead Designer for the C# language. Peter is currently building the starting set of classes as well as incorporating ideas from the community into a set of collection classes to be made freely available to the public.

The specifications for the library are at http://www.wintellect.com/powercollections/spec.aspx.

Wintellect is inviting the developer community to give in their suggestions…..More at http://www.wintellect.com/powercollections/

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Scott talks about the compatibity testing on this blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2005/05/11/406515.aspx

Wonder the stress these guys are in when they are about to reach ZBB. No wonder their efforts make out cool products for us developers. Keep it up guys.

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