Last Sunday, the 4th of November, saw me in Las Vegas for the second day of the Developer Express TechSummit 2007. Podcasts will be ready this week!

Today’s sessions covered the Developer Express offering in the ASP.NET arena and the IDE productivity tools CodeRush and Refactor ! Pro. Day one had seen demonstrations of the “desktop” offering in the way of WinForms, WPF and Silverlight – today was the web offering and the IDE tools show!

Mehul Harry was kind enough to deliver an excellent overview of the ASP.NET product line, focusing on the ASPxGridView, ASPxScheduler and the ASPxperience. As I understand it, this was Mehul’s first public presentation, kudos to Mehul, a job well done! Check out the on-line demos here.

Mark Miller and Dustin Campbell then took the floor to discuss Refactor ! Pro. It’s worth noting that Microsoft are using a free version of Refactor! in their Visual Basic 2005 and 2008 product lines – further details can be found here. Refactor! and Refactor ! Pro co-exist very nicely, as Mark was more than happy to demonstrate. Whilst a target of some 150 refactorings in place for the end of 2007 might seem like rather a lot, it seems that Developer Express are ahead of schedule and are likely to have more than 150 refactorings available for the start of 2008, an impressive feat!

After a short break, Mark returned to discuss CodeRush – an IDE productivity tool that, for me, has its roots in the Delphi product set. However, as Mark noted in a podcast that we recorded, it actually goes back further than Delphi, touching on the days of DOS! CodeRush might seem like it’s promoting arcane keystroke that require memorising. True enough, there is a learning curve to contend with, however once that curve has been flattened (and it’s a quick process), the keystrokes you have learnt are portable between the various languages supported by CodeRush. Equally, because it is no longer a chore to create (not necessarily write) code, you become used to doing this they way they should be done, i.e. less corners are cut – for example, how often have you not bothered with an exception block?

Closing the day saw Ray Navasarkian take the floor. Ray’s a down-to-earth guy who is passionate about his company’s offering. I managed to grab a few minutes of audio with Ray after day one of the TechSummit, just outside Morton’s Steakhouse. We chatted about the merits and successes of bringing together like-minded influencers who have a community spirit and enjoy sharing their experiences and tribulations with others.

Many thanks to Developer Express for inviting me to this conference: for me, it was very much worthwhile. It’s nice to get away from the day-to-day activities and just focus on one thing for a couple of days. Further thanks for affording me the ‘exhibtor’ pass to the DevConnections evening event – it was a blast, I caught up with a few folks from the UK (Alex & Dave), with the Falafel team from the Pacific coast and with Dr.Neil Roodyn (a man who follows the warm weather from one hemisphere to the other!)

Refactor ! Pro: 110+ Refactorings, Three Languages, One Keystroke.

CodeRush: Powerful. Efficient. Fast.

Related Posts
Developer Express – TechSummit 2007 – day 1

Technorati Tags: Mark Miller, Mehul Harry, Developer Express, CodeRush, Refactor!Pro, Refactor!, ASPxperience, ASPxGridView, ASPxScheduler, DevConnections

I am pleased to announce that on the 24th of November, there will be two coaches running from Reading railway station to the DDD6 venue at Microsoft’s TVP Campus.

The morning coaches will be there from 0800 – the first one will depart when it is full. The second one will depart when it is full or if the time reaches 0845. Therefore, show up sharp if you want to get the free coach.

At the end of the day, two coaches will leave from TVP heading back to Reading station. The coaches will be available from 1645 – the first will leave when it is full, the second will leave when it is full or when the time reaches 1730.

You are free to use the coaches in either direction, and are invited to use the coaches to get you back into the centre of Reading in time for the geek dinner that Zi is so graciously organising once again!

The coaches are sponsored by SQLBits – huge thanks to them!

SQL Bits has been started by a group of individuals that are passionate about the SQL Server product suite. There is a breadth of knowledge in the SQL Community that will benefit everyone in the community. We want to spread that knowledge.

We all work with the SQL community, some of us for many years and have all been given the MVP award by Microsoft.

This is not run by Microsoft but benefits greatly from the support provided by Microsoft to the Developer and IT Pro communities.

SQLBits – the podcast collection.

Technorati Tags: DDD6, geek dinner, Zi Makki, SQLBits

Located at the south end of The Strip in Las Vegas, The Mandalay Bay hotel is certainly the largest hotel I’ve stayed in so far.

Technorati Tags: Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay, Developer Express TechSummit

Here’s how it’s done:

Spotted at the Developer Express TechSummit 2007, Las Vegas.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft Windows Vista, Apple logo, Developer Express, Developer Express TechSummit

It’s just gone midnight here in Las Vegas, just after day one of the inaugural Developer Express TechSummit. The clocks go back by one hour around about now…which seems odd because I felt as if I was an hour late arriving in Newark on Friday morning. Man these clock changes are confusing, still I get one extra hour today…no doubt I’ll have to give it back on my way back to the UK.

Today, I sat in on nearly five hours of technical content covering a brief history of Developer Express, the activities at the DevConnections booth, and an overview of upcoming products and release schedules. Julian Bucknall gave us on overview of where Developer Express are going with regards to WPF Charts, WPF Grid and the work they are putting in to the creation a Silverlight proof of concept. Julian continued to discuss the new features in the DXperience 2007 volume 3 release and the WinForms product line including some demos. Closing the day was Oliver Sturm, he spoke about the eXpress App Framework (XAF).

The demonstrations were very visual and as a result were particularly pleasing. Amongst other things, we looked at XtraGrid, XtraBars, XtraScheduler, XtraTreeList, and XtraCharts. However, my favourite demonstration today came from the power and the speed of the PivotGrid (XtraPivotGrid Suite).

Dinner was in Morton’s The Steakhouse, a truly excellent dining experience. I grabbed a few audio bytes whilst I was there. Expect to hear the likes of Carl Franklin, Richard Campbell, Julian Bucknell (and here), Courtney Edgar and Ray Navasarkian get vocal about the benefits of bringing together a bunch of like-minded influencers to discuss and critique the current Developer Express product line. Oh, and by the way, if you haven’t seen/heard Carl’s epic masterpiece Home At Least, here it is (thanks to DC for spotting this so quickly).

Tomorrow will see us chatting about the Developer Express ASP.NET offering. In amongst all that, expect to see some content from Mark Miller (of CodeRush fame).

This idea of bringing together influencers, including a number of Microsoft MVP’s, into the same space to discuss the Developer Express product set is a unique exercise. Community is important, sharing is important, feedback goes in two directions: we’ve heard what Developer Express have to say about their product set and they’ve listened keenly to what we’ve said in return. Remember, however, that not all feedback is necessarily positive, but all feedback is good feedback…if you understand what I’m trying to say! Even negative feedback has its uses.

Carl Franklin was kind enough to bring along of copy of Kerry Patterson’s Influencer, a good read for any evangelist.

Related Posts
Developer Express – TechSummit 2007 – day 2

Technorati Tags: Devexpress, Developer Express, Las Vegas, Morton’s The Steakhouse, Carl Franklin, Richard Campbell, Julian Bucknall, Oliver Sturm, DXperience

Need I say more?

http://msevents.microsoft.com/CUI/EventDetail.aspx?EventID=1032357828&culture=en-US

Technorati Tags: DDD, DDD6

November sees Microsoft’s DPEs hit Edinburgh for a double SharePoint session.

One is in the evening of the 20th, the other in the morning of the 21st.

Event Overview
The SharePoint technologies offer a huge range of features to people who are building web applications: content management, site provisioning, distributed authoring and version control, collaboration and workflow, to name but a few. In this event we’ll look at SharePoint as an application platform, assuming you know just the basics of ASP.NET.

1. An Introduction to Windows SharePoint Services v3
Anyone with a Windows Server license can download and install Windows SharePoint Services. This session introduces WSS as a web development platform that can enable you to build bigger and better web apps, and just beneath the surface are all the ASP.NET features you’re familiar with. Building on your knowledge of ASP.NET, we’ll look at the ways in which a SharePoint site can be customised and extended by developers, and how to go about building and deploying new features.

2. An Introduction to Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
MOSS 2007 builds on top of Windows SharePoint Services, and provides a range of services and functionality you can use within your SharePoint sites. This session will build on the previous one, and provide an overview of the key MOSS features – Excel Services, InfoPath Forms Services and the Business Data Catalog.

Speakers
Martin Parry
David Gristwood

20 November 2007, Edinburgh: MSDN: Sharepoint for Developers – 20/11/2007
1800 – 1830 – Registration
1830 – 1945 – Session 1
1945 – 2005 – break
2005 – 2120 – Session 2
2120 – Close

21 November 2007, Edinburgh: MSDN: Sharepoint for Developers – 21/11/2007
0900 – 0930 – Registration
0930 – 1045 – Session 1
1045 – 1100 – break
1100 – 1215 – Session 2
1215 – Close

Technorati Tags: Martin Parry, David Gristwood, SharePoint, Microsoft, Developer Event, Edinburgh