DotNetKicks.com : Stories kicked by CharlieCalvert

Future Focus: Document Map Margin

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 18:57:19 GMT

We are continuing our series of posts about proposed features for the next version of Visual Studio. This post focuses on a new feature called Document Map Margins (DMM). Developers frequently work with huge source files that are difficult to navigate. The proposed DMM feature is designed to make it easier for you to find and track important features in your code and to visualize the overall structure of your file.

Released: Visual Studio Service Pack 1; .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:05:07 GMT

Visual Studio Service Pack 1 and .NET 3.5 Service Pack 1 are now available for download.

Video: New Error Checking Feature in Visual Studio Service Pack 1

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 19:08:04 GMT

In this 12 minute video I talk with C# IDE PM DJ Park about a new feature in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 beta called Live Semantic Errors or Squiggles. This feature gives an increased level of live feedback on potential errors that might be found in your code.

Community Convergence XLV

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:50:57 GMT

Welcome to the 45th Community Convergence. I recently reached the two year mark here at Microsoft, and that means it is probably time for me to slip in some changes to my routine. In this post I'll begin that process by taking Community Convergence in a new direction.

LINQ Farm: More on the LINQ Aggregate Operators

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:31:23 GMT

The LINQ aggregate operators allow you to perform simple math operations over the elements in a sequence. This post is designed to walk you through those operators, and give you an overview of how to use them.

LINQ Farm: More on Set Operators

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 15:31:02 GMT

This is a second post on the LINQ Set operators, the first being published while LINQ was still in beta. As mentioned in the previous post, there are four LINQ set operators: Union, Intersect, Distinct and Except. Like the other 50 LINQ operators, these methods are designed to allow you to query data which supports the IEnumerable<T> interface. Since all LINQ query expressions, and most LINQ queries, return IEnumerable<T>, these operators are designed to allow you to perform set operations on the results of a LINQ query. In this post I give four highly simplified examples of how to use each of the operators, and then end with a more complex example that shows how the operators might be used in a real world setting.

Video: Meet the C# Design Team with Anders Hejlsberg

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 20:16:02 GMT

Here is a video on Channel 9 with the members of the C# design team. The discussion covers dynamic languages, concurrency, declarative programming, Attendees include Anders Hejlsberg, Paul Vick, Scott Wiltamuth, Mads Torgersen, Matt Warren, Eric Lippert and Jim Hugunin.

Future Focus: Searching and Navigating to Symbols

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:59:54 GMT

C++ PM Boris Jabes has added to our series of articles on features that are being considered for the next version of Visual Studio. In his post, Boris describes a proposed feature that will allow users to "find and navigate to a specific location in their solution." Boris explains that users can type in a string and the IDE will return a list of matching results drawn from the "symbol definitions and files in a solution." The feature is also designed to allow users to explore a solution by posing a potentially vaguely worded query and seeing a set of related results. This new search feature is not language specific, and hence can at least potentially be of use to all developers who use Visual Studio, regardless of whether they implement their programs in C++, C#, Visual Basic, or some other language.

Showing some support for LINQ to SQL

Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:16:02 GMT

Great article detailing why LINQ to SQL deserves some attention particularly if you buy into the object oriented style of development or are currently working with an ORM such as NHibernate.

Lambdas

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 21:31:03 GMT

Lambdas are a simple technology with an intimidating name. They sound like they are going to be difficult to understand, but in practice prove to be relatively trivial. Read this post to get an easy to understand overview of a topic is not really so terribly difficult to understand.

Extension Methods and Scoping

Sat, 28 Jun 2008 08:19:31 GMT

There are a few scoping rules that you must keep in mind when using extensions methods. Problems with scoping and extensions methods are rare, but when you encounter them they are quite vexing.

Cut Development Time: Use LINQ

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 22:51:35 GMT

When Microsoft employees talk about LINQ publicly, we haven't tended to emphasize how much time you can save by using it. This is perhaps because we don't want LINQ to be labeled as simply another RAD tool designed to save time. Nevertheless, it is becoming clear to me that shorter development cycles may be one of the first major benefits of LINQ to be widely recognized by the community.

WPF Farm: A Simple WPF Program

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 07:10:59 GMT

It can be helpful to start from the beginning when working with new technologies. This post explains how to create a minimal WPF application that produces a single window with a gradient in it, as shown in Figure 1. The point of this exercise is to build the app from scratch, choosing File | New Project | Empty Project rather than File | New Project | WPF Application. The benefit of this exercise is to simply see what ingredients go into the production of a minimal WPF program.

Live Gallery Plugins for Live Writer

Fri, 30 May 2008 21:39:44 GMT

Use these plugins to enhance live writer.

Color Schemes for the Visual Studio Editor

Mon, 26 May 2008 20:15:11 GMT

Developers with a bit of time on their hands have built some beautiful color schemes for the Visual Studio Editor. You can save download these settings files to your ...\Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Settings directory. You can then access them by following the instructions in this post

Where are the Visual Studio 2008 Keybinding Posters?

Sun, 25 May 2008 16:24:47 GMT

Download the posters in PDF format here: * Visual C# 2008 Keybinding Reference Poster * Visual Basic 2008 Keybinding Reference Poster * Visual C++ 2008 Keybinding Reference Poster * Download the C# Keybindings in a spreadsheet. Note that many of the keybindings stem from Visual Studio classes such Edit, Project, View, Window and Refactor. To see the complete list of methods for these classes, bring up the command window (Ctrl-W, A) and type File followed by a period. IntelliSense on all the methods for the File object will appear in the command window, just as if you were working with a C# class in the editor window. You can also see this classes in the find/command box on the toolbar (Ctrl + /). Inside the find/command box, type the the greater than symbol followed by the word Find and a period: >Find.

Welcome to the forty-fourth Community Convergence.

Thu, 22 May 2008 19:23:05 GMT

Welcome to the forty-fourth Community Convergence. I want to remind every one that the C#, VB and dynamic language teams are still hiring. If you are an expert manager, developer or test engineer, please look at our listings and see if there is a place where you might belong. This is an excellent opportunity to participate in a first rate development process and to meet and work with some of the best developers in the world.

VCS Team Links for May 22, 2008

Thu, 22 May 2008 19:10:29 GMT

Rather than place the links to the most recent C# team content directly in Community Convergence, I have moved them here. This posts covers the last few weeks of posts from the C#, F# and related teams.

Visual Studio Survey

Fri, 23 May 2008 09:31:02 GMT

A new Visual Studio survey has been created and we would like your feedback. This survey focuses on learning more about the types of applications you are creating, which tools and technologies you are using, and how we can improve our content and code examples to better meet your needs. There are also questions about how you access online help, and some questions about the .NET Framework docs.

Build Games for the Zune: XNA Game Studio 3.0 Tech Preview

Tue, 20 May 2008 17:20:48 GMT

If you want to program games for the Zune you'll need either Visual Studio C# 2008 Express or Visual Studio Standard Edition or higher with C# installed. This CTP works only for Zune and Windows, and does not support XBox 360. However, it runs side by side with Visual Studio 2005 and XNA 2.0, which does support XBox 360. The CTP does not work in 64 bit at this time.

More on how Entity Framework's single-model goal is flawed

Tue, 20 May 2008 09:31:07 GMT

Greg takes point with the long-term goal of EF as defining the one true model can't possibly appropriate.

Microsoft C#, VB, F#, Ruby and Python Teams are Hiring

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:29:05 GMT

The C#, VB, F#, Python and Ruby teams are looking for program managers, developers and testers who want to come work at Microsoft. The languages I've listed are among the most popular in use today, and Microsoft is in the forefront of the innovations that are driving the future of computer language development. Though not all our plans public at this time, I can say that we are involved in developing many exciting new technologies. The C# team has just finished shipping LINQ, which is provides developers with a powerful new technology for querying data. F# is exciting new language which will ship in the near future. There is surge of energy in the development world about dynamic languages such as Ruby and Python, and of course VB is one of the most popular languages in the world, as it has been for many years and will continue to be in the future.

Charlie Speaking in Southern California

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:20:09 GMT

I will be presenting on C# and LINQ three times in Southern California next week at a series of user group meetings. The events will be held in the San Diego and the Los Angeles area. Lisa Feigenbaum will be flying down from Redmond with me, and she will do VB presentations at the same set of meetings.

LINQFarm: Understanding IEnumerable<T>, Part I

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 14:46:03 GMT

The IEnumerable<T> interface is a key part of LINQ to Objects and binds many of its different features together into a whole. This series of posts explains IEnumerable<T> and the role it plays in LINQ to Objects. If you hear people talking about IEnumerable<T>, and sometimes wished you better understood its significance, then you should find this text helpful.

Community Convergence XLIII

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:08:46 GMT

Welcome to the forty-third issue of Community Convergence. The last few weeks have been consumed by the 2008 MVP Summit. During that annual event about 150 C# MVPs and many MVPs from other disciplines descend on Redmond for a technical summit accompanied by fun and games at local restaurants and hotels. Below I include a summary of the event by Jeremy D. Miller. One of the highlights of the event is a day in which the C# MVPs hear directly from the team about our plans for the future.