With the PDC 08 going on you can download a CTP of Visual Studio 2010.
Cool, Microsoft decided to bring a fresh new .NET logo. The old .NET logo survived for about 8 years. I like the logo very much!
Today I needed to install extra stuff on my VPC, but it turned out that there was not enough space. Donn Felker blogged a nice article how you can resize your VHD, I followed all the steps and It worked like a charm.
PowerCommands is a set of useful extensions for the Visual Studio 2008 adding functionality to various area of the IDE.
The features I found very useful are: - Copy/Paste References
- Edit Project File
- Remove and Sort Usings
PowerCommands can be downloaded here and below you find the complete list of features: - Collapse Projects
This command collapses a hierarchy in the solution explorer starting from the root selected node. It can be executed from three different places: solution, solution folders and project nodes respectively. - Copy Class
This command copies a selected class entire content to the clipboard. It can be executed from a single project item or a project item with dependent sub items. - Paste Class
This command pastes a class entire content from the clipboard. It can be executed from a project or folder node. - Copy References
This command copies a reference or set of references to the clipboard. It can be executed from the references node, a single reference node or set of reference nodes. - Paste References
This command pastes a reference or set of references from the clipboard. It can be executed from different places depending on the type of project. For CSharp projects it can be executed from the references node. For Visual Basic and Website projects it can be executed from the project node. - Copy As Project Reference
This command copies a project as a project reference to the clipboard. It can be executed from a project node. - Edit Project File
This command opens the MSBuild project file for a selected project inside Visual Studio. It can be executed from a project node. - Open Containing Folder
This command opens a Windows Explorer window pointing to the physical path of a selected item. It can be executed from a project item node - Open Command Prompt
This command opens a Visual Studio command prompt pointing to the physical path of a selected item. It can be executed from four different places: solution, project, folder and project item nodes respectively. - Unload Projects
This command unloads all projects in a solution. It can be executed from the solution node. - Reload Projects
This command reloads all unloaded projects in a solution. It can be executed from the solution node. - Remove and Sort Usings
This command removes and sort using statements for all classes given a project. It can be executed from a solution node or a single project node.
Note: The Remove and Sort Usings feature is only available for C# projects since the C# editor implements this feature as a command in the C# editor (which this command calls for each .cs file in the project). The Visual Basic IDE implements this functionality for Imports in an interactive way: Project properties, go to the References tab, then click the Unused References... button, then select which references you want removed via a listbox. - Extract Constant
This command creates a constant definition statement for a selected text. It can be executed from the code window over a selected text. - Clear Recent File List
This command clears the Visual Studio recent file list. - Clear Recent Project List
This command clears the Visual Studio recent project list. - Transform Templates
This command executes the associated custom tool with text templates items. It can be executed from a DSL project node or a folder node. - Close All
This command closes all documents. It can be executed from a document tab.
Jihaaa, Visual Studio 2008 has been released on MSDN. If you want to have a nice overview of the new features in VS2008, take a look at this post from ScottGu. Take a look at the following downloads available for VS2008
Tom Hollander revealed some features/scenarios about the upcoming Validation Application Block that will be included in Enterprise Library v3. There are already some validation libraries available, for example The fact that you can define rules through configuration is really cool. I can't wait for the CTP!
PowerShell 1.0 has been released for Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003. The bits can be downloaded here. If you already have installed a previous release of PowerShell, you need to uninstall by selecting 'Show Updates' in the 'Change or Remove Programs'. 
The Microsoft Patterns & Practicess Team recently released a new version of the Web Client Software Factory that can be found on CodePlex. One of the things I noticed directly, is that they implemented a web version of the Composite UI based on the ObjectBuilder. The goals of Web Client Software Factory are: - CAB for Web
- Hiding complexity
- Separation of infrastructure & biz logic
- Biz logic reuse amongst different UI Technologies
- Promoting consistent development practices
- Navigation
- UI Richness
- UI Layout management
- State management
- Best use of technology available (Ajax, WinForms controls, ...)
- Security
- SaaS implications on application design
More information about the vision & scope can be found here.
Microsoft released the beta program for Virtual PC 2007. The new features are - Hardware-assisted virtualization
- Support for Windows Vista as a guest and host operating system
- Support for 64-bit host operating system
You can participate on the beta program through the Microsoft Connect web site.
A new version of CruiseControl.NET has been released. The release notes of version 1.1 can be found here. This is the defacto standard tool if you want to continuous integration together with unit testing, code metrics, code analysis, etc.
That's right, a public preview of Office 2007 Beta 2 is available. You can download the bits from here. Note that right now it is very difficult to connect to the server, due to high traffic.
The Service Factory is a cohesive collection of various forms of guidance that have been build with the primary goal of helping you build high quality connected solutions in a more consistent way with less effort.
Check it out: http://practices.gotdotnet.com/projects/svcfactory
Microsoft announces on the msdn site that service pack 1 for Visual Studio 2005 will appear around Q3 of 2006.
The patterns & practices team introduces a new project, called Baseline Architecture Toolkit (BAT). It's a collection of carefully selected, designed, and integrated guidance assets which include: - Reference Implementations
- Application Blocks (such as CAB and EntLib)
- Hands-On-Labs
- How-Tos
- Guidance Automation Packages automating common tasks
- Documentation bringing all the parts together and describing the rationale behind the key smart client design recommendations.
The toolkit provides an effective way for architects, dev leads and developers to create high-quality baselines for their smart client applications, addressing non-trivial design and development challenges. The toolkit will provide reusable assets, guidance and examples for solving those challenges in the most common scenarios. Also, the guidance will be open and customizable, so you will be able to adjust it to your specific needs. There is a Smart Client Baseline Architecture Toolkit released on GotDotNet and it will be updated every 3-4 weeks and is based on the CAB. On Channel 9 you can find 2 casts about Smart Client BAT:
Here are some interesting blogs that are dedicated to Virtual PC There are some fundamental features in Virtual PC that you really have to look at. For example differencing disks, see HOWTO: Use Virtual PC's Differencing Disks to your Advantage and you can also compress your VHD files, see Compact Your VHD Files. Tip On several keyboard layouts and for example on a AZERTY belgian keyboard you need the [Alt Gr] key for the backslash, square brackets, etc. Inside Virtual PC the [Alt Gr] key doesn't work, therefore you can use an alternative for the [Alt Gr] key, which is [Ctrl] + [Alt]. Update: There is a hotfix now for the ALTGR problem.
I have missed that one, but Dasblog has released a new version. The new Dasblog 1.8 can be downloaded here. I think that I am going to upgrade now, i'm still running 1.5. Update: The upgrade went without any problems and the content can be converted with the DasBlogUpgrader.exe tool. As you can see there is a cool theme included named Portal from Johnny Hughes.
A new version of the Enterprise Library has been released. More information about the changes since the January release can be found here.
I don't use UML on a daily basis, therefore it is handy to have a summary of the UML diagrams. A very good quick reference of UML can be found here
It has been a long time ago, but log4net has released a new version.
The release notes can be found here
It has been a long time ago, but there is a new version of DasBlog. More information and changes can be found here and can be downloaded here.
More information about CruiseControl.NET and the new features can be found here.
From Patterns and Practices we can expect soon an Enterprise Library. This is a single application block that will integrate the most used application blocks. For the first release it will include: - Data Access
- Exception Handling
- Caching
- Configuration
- Logging
- Security
- Cryptography
I am convinced that the Enterprise Library will be the defacto standard application block for each application/project. All the functionalities are so fundamental that you can't without it. Like the site mentions, it enforces Consistency, Extensibility, Ease of Use and Integration. The GodDotNet workspace for Enterprise Library can be found here.
Novell announced the release of version 1.0 of Mono yesterday. More information can be found here. I am not sure if we will hear about it at TechEd2004 :)
The ASP.NET Resource Kit is a nice bundle of tutorials, tools and free controls for any developer starting ASP.NET. It can be downloaded here (about 134MB). Go and get it!
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