Friday, November 9, 2007
Session 19 - The Irresistible Forces Meet the Moveable Objects
Presented by Pat Helland
We turned up a bit unsure what this session was going to cover with the session description including "This talk is about a vision and not about any kind of product announcements...be inspired by the future and join us!" but as it was the only option for this time slot the arena was packed out.
A lively and fast paced tour through the years of computing from winchester disk drives to billion transformer processors and a thought about the future! Check out Damons summary for this session - he managed to keep up with the presenter and got some notes down!
I've just been flicking through Pats blog on MSDN and found this article about how he has shed an amazing amount of weight over the last 3 years. It also explains why he was so lively and full of energy on stage!
We turned up a bit unsure what this session was going to cover with the session description including "This talk is about a vision and not about any kind of product announcements...be inspired by the future and join us!" but as it was the only option for this time slot the arena was packed out.
A lively and fast paced tour through the years of computing from winchester disk drives to billion transformer processors and a thought about the future! Check out Damons summary for this session - he managed to keep up with the presenter and got some notes down!
I've just been flicking through Pats blog on MSDN and found this article about how he has shed an amazing amount of weight over the last 3 years. It also explains why he was so lively and full of energy on stage!
Country Drinks evening at Shoko
After the last session of the day we nipped back to the hotel to part with laptops and give the fellas time to do their hair and get their party frocks on. The venue Shoko was located in the Olympic Village near to where we had eaten the night before so we knew where we were heading for on the metro.
Session 3 - .NET Developers Advanced Introduction to SharePoint 2007
Presented by Ted Pattison
I chose this session out of curiosity to find out more about Sharepoint. Not having noticed the "4" in the code for this session I wasn't expecting a deep dive introduction but hey, even though it was the first session of the day, I managed to keep up with this one!
Ted started the session off with an observation that there were hardly any delegates in last years SharePoint sessions and the reason for the increase in numbers at this years sessions was probably due to developers being "diagnosed with SharePoint development responsilbilites".
Ted notes 3 phases that you go through with SharePoint:
Phase 1 - Denial. "SharePoint is an end user thing! Developers don't use SharePoint". Developers are used to having access to nice toolsets. But SharePoint doesn't have any of that so when developers start to use SharePoint they move into Phase 2...
Phase 2 - Anger.
Phase 3 - Acceptance. Ted wants to use this session as a self help group to get from Anger to Acceptance.
Unlike asp.net which is purely aimed 100% at developers, SharePoint is aimed at the end user.
WSS - Windows SharePoint Services
WSS is licensed as part of Windows Server 2003. It has out-of-the box collaboration features. It is essentially a site provisioning engine which provides core workspace services - an engine for creating, running and managing sites.
It is the development platform.
There is built-in versioning - it is possible to revert to previous versions of sites.
MOSS - Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (2007)
Unlike WSS, MOSS is licensed separately. MOSS sits on top of WSS. It is a unification of SPS 2003 and CMS 2002. There are huge changes between 2003 and 2007 with 2007 containing lots more functionality.
Microsoft have rearchitected the platform to sit on .net 2.0.
More to follow...
I chose this session out of curiosity to find out more about Sharepoint. Not having noticed the "4" in the code for this session I wasn't expecting a deep dive introduction but hey, even though it was the first session of the day, I managed to keep up with this one!
Ted started the session off with an observation that there were hardly any delegates in last years SharePoint sessions and the reason for the increase in numbers at this years sessions was probably due to developers being "diagnosed with SharePoint development responsilbilites".
Ted notes 3 phases that you go through with SharePoint:
Phase 1 - Denial. "SharePoint is an end user thing! Developers don't use SharePoint". Developers are used to having access to nice toolsets. But SharePoint doesn't have any of that so when developers start to use SharePoint they move into Phase 2...
Phase 2 - Anger.
Phase 3 - Acceptance. Ted wants to use this session as a self help group to get from Anger to Acceptance.
Unlike asp.net which is purely aimed 100% at developers, SharePoint is aimed at the end user.
WSS - Windows SharePoint Services
WSS is licensed as part of Windows Server 2003. It has out-of-the box collaboration features. It is essentially a site provisioning engine which provides core workspace services - an engine for creating, running and managing sites.
It is the development platform.
There is built-in versioning - it is possible to revert to previous versions of sites.
MOSS - Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (2007)
Unlike WSS, MOSS is licensed separately. MOSS sits on top of WSS. It is a unification of SPS 2003 and CMS 2002. There are huge changes between 2003 and 2007 with 2007 containing lots more functionality.
Microsoft have rearchitected the platform to sit on .net 2.0.
More to follow...
Session 2 - The .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Framework
Presented by Luca Bolognese
The aim of LINQ (Language Integrated Query) technology is "to make connecting to data easier". It consists of :
The basic jist is that the new objects allow developers to easliy add and manipulate data from various datasources in a common way using very little coding.
More to follow...
The LINQ Project on .NET Framework Developer Centre
The aim of LINQ (Language Integrated Query) technology is "to make connecting to data easier". It consists of :
- LINQ to objects
- LINQ to datasets
- LINQ to SQL
- LINQ to entities
- LINQ to xml
The basic jist is that the new objects allow developers to easliy add and manipulate data from various datasources in a common way using very little coding.
More to follow...
The LINQ Project on .NET Framework Developer Centre
Session 1 - A Tour of Visual Studio 2008 and the .NET Framework 3.5
Presented by Daniel Moth
As we've only recently started to use VS2005 and .net 2.0 in cis resources I was looking to find out how big a jump it was going to be from VS2005 to VS2008 and .net 3.5.
The .net framework
The session started with a history of the .net framework and an outline of the difference between "the red bits and the green bits". Microsoft will continue to provide service packs for the individual .net 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 frameworks. (Note there's no mention of 1.0 or 1.1 any longer!!!). The reason for this is because VS2008 is designed to be multi targeting - you can choose which version of the framework you want to develop your applications against. The version of .net that applications are using can be easily upgraded or downgraded by selecting the version from a dropdown list in VS2008.
ASP.NET 3.5
Microsoft AJAX libraries and project templates will ship out of the box (or, as pointed out by Dan, in the box depending on your point of view!). So no need to have to hunt around on msdn for extensions.
An improved ListView control, new DataPager and the much publicised new LinqDataSource controls are all available in .net 3.5
LINQ to SQL
Language INtegrated Query has been developed to reduce the amount of code and effort required to work with data in applications. By adding the LINQ framework to your project and adding a control or two to your applications you can easily retrieve and display data from various types of data sources. Very nice indeed! Check out my blog for session 2 - The .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Framework for more info.
Visual Studio 2008 IDE Enhancements
I have to admit that the geek in me got far too excited about the new enhancements in VS2008. All those little "I wish it did this..." and "I wish I could do that..." bits that would make life so much easier seem to have been included in the new environment. It is possible to have both VS2005 and VS2008 installed on the same pc but I can't imagine why you'd want to hang on to VS2005 after you've had your mitts on a copy of VS2008! I got a copy of VS2008 Beta 2 with last months VSj magazine. It's on my desk if you'd like to install it either that or you can download it from the Visual Studio Developer Center
Javascript IntelliSence and debugging at last! Simply add a reference to your javascript files in the project to be able to use the colour coding intellisense and debugging feature. Make the intellisense box transparent by holding down the ctrl key.
New HTML designer and split view with better switching performance allows you to browse your web pages as you're designing them. Changes made in your code are reflected immediatley.
Rich CSS support to easily identify which style is being applied to your elements and hover-over functionality shows any styles that are being overridden. Click on an element on a page and click on the style window to see which style is being used. You can also drag and drop styles around in the css document and also drag and drop styles between files.
Debug into the .net framework code is possible in VS2008.
Run your apps in VS2008 with standard user priviledges Most developers have admin rights when developing apps but VS2008 allows you to run your apps with reduced priviledges.
Dan went on to describe the enhancements (although not in as much detail) for mobile applications and windows applications. New mobile features include Compact LINQ, NETCF v2.0 SP2 and v3.5, Sound APIs, C#3 and VB9 to name but a few.
As we've only recently started to use VS2005 and .net 2.0 in cis resources I was looking to find out how big a jump it was going to be from VS2005 to VS2008 and .net 3.5.
The .net framework
The session started with a history of the .net framework and an outline of the difference between "the red bits and the green bits". Microsoft will continue to provide service packs for the individual .net 2.0, 3.0 and 3.5 frameworks. (Note there's no mention of 1.0 or 1.1 any longer!!!). The reason for this is because VS2008 is designed to be multi targeting - you can choose which version of the framework you want to develop your applications against. The version of .net that applications are using can be easily upgraded or downgraded by selecting the version from a dropdown list in VS2008.
ASP.NET 3.5
Microsoft AJAX libraries and project templates will ship out of the box (or, as pointed out by Dan, in the box depending on your point of view!). So no need to have to hunt around on msdn for extensions.
An improved ListView control, new DataPager and the much publicised new LinqDataSource controls are all available in .net 3.5
LINQ to SQL
Language INtegrated Query has been developed to reduce the amount of code and effort required to work with data in applications. By adding the LINQ framework to your project and adding a control or two to your applications you can easily retrieve and display data from various types of data sources. Very nice indeed! Check out my blog for session 2 - The .NET Language Integrated Query (LINQ) Framework for more info.
Visual Studio 2008 IDE Enhancements
I have to admit that the geek in me got far too excited about the new enhancements in VS2008. All those little "I wish it did this..." and "I wish I could do that..." bits that would make life so much easier seem to have been included in the new environment. It is possible to have both VS2005 and VS2008 installed on the same pc but I can't imagine why you'd want to hang on to VS2005 after you've had your mitts on a copy of VS2008! I got a copy of VS2008 Beta 2 with last months VSj magazine. It's on my desk if you'd like to install it either that or you can download it from the Visual Studio Developer Center
Javascript IntelliSence and debugging at last! Simply add a reference to your javascript files in the project to be able to use the colour coding intellisense and debugging feature. Make the intellisense box transparent by holding down the ctrl key.
New HTML designer and split view with better switching performance allows you to browse your web pages as you're designing them. Changes made in your code are reflected immediatley.
Rich CSS support to easily identify which style is being applied to your elements and hover-over functionality shows any styles that are being overridden. Click on an element on a page and click on the style window to see which style is being used. You can also drag and drop styles around in the css document and also drag and drop styles between files.
Debug into the .net framework code is possible in VS2008.
Run your apps in VS2008 with standard user priviledges Most developers have admin rights when developing apps but VS2008 allows you to run your apps with reduced priviledges.
Dan went on to describe the enhancements (although not in as much detail) for mobile applications and windows applications. New mobile features include Compact LINQ, NETCF v2.0 SP2 and v3.5, Sound APIs, C#3 and VB9 to name but a few.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Monday 5th - Keynote session
The week was kicked-off with the Keynote speach from S. Somasegar the Corporate Vice President of the Developer Division, Microsoft Corporation.
Rather than me whitter on here about what he covered, you can see a summary on Somasegars blog on msdn: S. Somasegar
Rather than me whitter on here about what he covered, you can see a summary on Somasegars blog on msdn: S. Somasegar
TechEd - Barcelona - 5th to 9th Nov 2007
Week commencing 5th Novemberr 2007 I will be attending the Microsoft TechEd conference in Barcelona. The purpose of this blog is to record my brain dumps for sessions I attend and to record any useful bits and bobs I pick up along the way.
The TechEd home page
The TechEd home page
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