Thursday, April 23, 2009
Let's get rid of the widget mentality!
My colleague developer has been doing some reading about the new MVC Framework. We have had a short discussion about the new possibilities that it brings to the table and he asks: "But how do you drag a grid to the design surface?" Gee... The widget mentality has been spoiling us... it might be hard to combat it. But, let's give it a try.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Silverlight 3.0 Part I - Out of Browser Experience
First of all, I would like to say hello to everyone and start a series of short posts about the new features that have been added to Silverlight 3.0.
Silverlight 3.0 is the best thing since sliced bread. 2.0 was already quite good but what Microsoft did with 3.0 is just outstanding. Beware Flash, we are coming to get you.
Actually, to describe what SL3.0 brings to the table is pointless. First, there are too many features to coherently describe them in a short post. Secondly, others have already made attempts at this. I recommend this guide to Silverlight 3.0 new features by Tim Heuer who is the program manager at Microsoft for Silverlight. His blog is a great starting point for those seeking information on what is going on around Silverlight and what can be expected in the future.
So, what is the best new feature? Well, one of the most awaited and expected one is the Out of Browser Experience. This feature allows the end user to drag a Silverlight application from the browser and put it either on the desktop or in the Start menu. From now on, the app may be started from outside of the browser in its own mini environment. Isn't that cool? What is more interesting and appealing, anytime the developer updates the sources the user will get the automatic update experience. Additionally, the security sandbox is still there, just like it was with the browsers.
The Out of Browser Experience opens up new possibilities for developers and users. Some of the scenarios are discussed here . For a nice introduction to this technology you can watch the MIX09 presentation by Mark Harsh, another Silverlight PM.
Some more links about this new SL3 feature:
take care, Przemek
Silverlight 3.0 is the best thing since sliced bread. 2.0 was already quite good but what Microsoft did with 3.0 is just outstanding. Beware Flash, we are coming to get you.
Actually, to describe what SL3.0 brings to the table is pointless. First, there are too many features to coherently describe them in a short post. Secondly, others have already made attempts at this. I recommend this guide to Silverlight 3.0 new features by Tim Heuer who is the program manager at Microsoft for Silverlight. His blog is a great starting point for those seeking information on what is going on around Silverlight and what can be expected in the future.
So, what is the best new feature? Well, one of the most awaited and expected one is the Out of Browser Experience. This feature allows the end user to drag a Silverlight application from the browser and put it either on the desktop or in the Start menu. From now on, the app may be started from outside of the browser in its own mini environment. Isn't that cool? What is more interesting and appealing, anytime the developer updates the sources the user will get the automatic update experience. Additionally, the security sandbox is still there, just like it was with the browsers.
The Out of Browser Experience opens up new possibilities for developers and users. Some of the scenarios are discussed here . For a nice introduction to this technology you can watch the MIX09 presentation by Mark Harsh, another Silverlight PM.
Some more links about this new SL3 feature:
- by Tim Heuer
- by Shawn Wildermuth
- at InfoQ
- at SilverlightShow
take care, Przemek
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Hurray, I passed my first Microsoft exam!
After some months of preperations I have managed to pass the ASP.NET 3.5 Microsoft 70-562 Certification Exam. I would like to share some of my experiences associated with taking this examination.
First of all, I am quite proud to be one of the few people in Poland to pass this exam. According to the statistics on this Microsoft page there were only 2 people in our country at the end of January who passed it. The flavor of success is therefore a little more sweet, especially considering the fact that the official Microsoft training book for this exam will be coming out in April 2009.
The ASP.NET 3.5 exam is part of the new Microsoft Certification scheme that was launched at the end of last year. For Web developers, instead of going the 70-536, 70-528, 70-547 route the better option now is to follow 70-536 and 70-562 for MCTS and then continue on getting the associated MCTS for other technologies: WCF, ADO, Windows Forms. This is the way I am planning to follow in the future.
The 70-562 exam itself is pretty difficult. It is built on top of ASP.NET 2.0 (70-528) exam by adding the ASP.NET AJAX technology and among others LinqDataSource, ListView etc. There is a detailed Microsoft Preparation Guide that turns out to be pretty accurate. Although I have to admit that there seemed to be more percentage of questions associated with ASP.NET Ajax and Mobile developmnet than it was indicated there.
The following list contains some areas that were addressed in the 50 questions of my particular exam:
The questions were more difficult than the sample ones contained in the official training book for the 70-528 exam. Most of the time the problems reflected the programmatic approach instead of the declarative one. For example, it is not enough to know how to use and configure WCF or Web Services in the web.config file. It is necessary to know how to create appropriate channels from the code. Similarily, one can expect questions on programmatic handling of Asynchronous Ajax parameters and so on. I already mentioned that the official preparation book for this exam will be available in April. For those who want to take the 70-562 exam before this book is out, I recommend using the 70-528 book plus the msdn library . I was also using this ASP.NET AJAX in Action which I strongly recommend.
First of all, I am quite proud to be one of the few people in Poland to pass this exam. According to the statistics on this Microsoft page there were only 2 people in our country at the end of January who passed it. The flavor of success is therefore a little more sweet, especially considering the fact that the official Microsoft training book for this exam will be coming out in April 2009.
The ASP.NET 3.5 exam is part of the new Microsoft Certification scheme that was launched at the end of last year. For Web developers, instead of going the 70-536, 70-528, 70-547 route the better option now is to follow 70-536 and 70-562 for MCTS and then continue on getting the associated MCTS for other technologies: WCF, ADO, Windows Forms. This is the way I am planning to follow in the future.
The 70-562 exam itself is pretty difficult. It is built on top of ASP.NET 2.0 (70-528) exam by adding the ASP.NET AJAX technology and among others LinqDataSource, ListView etc. There is a detailed Microsoft Preparation Guide that turns out to be pretty accurate. Although I have to admit that there seemed to be more percentage of questions associated with ASP.NET Ajax and Mobile developmnet than it was indicated there.
The following list contains some areas that were addressed in the 50 questions of my particular exam:
- membership
- authentication and authorization
- session state in SQL Server
- using aspnet_compiler.exe
- ListView, GridView,TreeView
- registering and loading custom controls
- using Wizard
- using XmlDocument
- DataSet and DataView
- Calling WCF from client script
- tracing (ASP and .NET)
- health monitoring
- detailed usage of ASP.NET AJAX
- control device-specific rendering
- implementing control adapters
- application theming and recources
The questions were more difficult than the sample ones contained in the official training book for the 70-528 exam. Most of the time the problems reflected the programmatic approach instead of the declarative one. For example, it is not enough to know how to use and configure WCF or Web Services in the web.config file. It is necessary to know how to create appropriate channels from the code. Similarily, one can expect questions on programmatic handling of Asynchronous Ajax parameters and so on. I already mentioned that the official preparation book for this exam will be available in April. For those who want to take the 70-562 exam before this book is out, I recommend using the 70-528 book plus the msdn library . I was also using this ASP.NET AJAX in Action which I strongly recommend.
Friday, February 13, 2009
SOLID remains to be solid
Software developers, or at least some that I know, have sighed with relief after listening to the Episode 41 of the StackOverflow podcast . What was starting to look like a new 'religious' war has come to a peaceful solution when the parties have sudenly found the inner stregth and responisbility to apologise to each other for their previously expressed probably-not-so-wise statements.
The main issue was around the fact that in one of the previous episodes, during discussion of software quality, Jeff Atwood (one of the authors of StackOverflow) said that "quality doesn't matter that much" and referred to the Robert Martin's SOLID principles. A very heated discussion followed.
Of course, the authors of the podcast did not mean to attack the core principles of the agile methodology, let alone Uncle Bob himself. The altercation was not in anybody's interest and has come to a quick and peaceful solution. Robert Martin has accepted the invitation to be a special guest of the podcast, which seems to be a very respectful gesture that should benefit also (or mainly) most software developers who would prever to hear civilized, merit-based, technological discussions over personal bickering.
The main issue was around the fact that in one of the previous episodes, during discussion of software quality, Jeff Atwood (one of the authors of StackOverflow) said that "quality doesn't matter that much" and referred to the Robert Martin's SOLID principles. A very heated discussion followed.
Of course, the authors of the podcast did not mean to attack the core principles of the agile methodology, let alone Uncle Bob himself. The altercation was not in anybody's interest and has come to a quick and peaceful solution. Robert Martin has accepted the invitation to be a special guest of the podcast, which seems to be a very respectful gesture that should benefit also (or mainly) most software developers who would prever to hear civilized, merit-based, technological discussions over personal bickering.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Blogosphere
On the 1st of February 2008, I stopped my old 'colourful' professional life and stepped through the threshold into the 'silver' life as a professional sofware developer. Gone are the ameteur and scientific research replacements for what is really the essence of my professional soul. Let the new adventure begin and the (silver) light show where the fun really is.
I am new to the blogging world but I discern all the advantages.
Do it for others, be it your family, your colleagues or the unknown.
Do it for yourself, systematize your knowledge and give vent to your verbal creativity.
I am new to the blogging world but I discern all the advantages.
Do it for others, be it your family, your colleagues or the unknown.
Do it for yourself, systematize your knowledge and give vent to your verbal creativity.
Microsoft Certification Exam for ASP.NET 3.5 (70-562)
It has been confirmed that me and some of the colleagues at work will be taking the certification exams on 9 and 10 of March 2009. I have mixed feelings about my chances, although I have been studying quite hard for the last year. Having been away from professional .NET development since July last year hasn't been really helping me in my preparations. However, the pure amount of time spent on learning by reading and by writing sample code is definitelly a plus. A month from now I will testify wether I have passed my first test as a developer.
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