Tag Archives: Visual Studio

Developer Events

Event: Edinburgh 01/Oct/2012 – Visual Studio 2012 Launch

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Scottish Developers are very pleased to announce that Microsoft’s General Manager for the Visual Studio leadership team will be delivering a presentation at Microsoft’s Edinburgh office on the 1st of October!

This is a special event that celebrates the launch of Visual Studio 2012.

To compliment the launch of Visual Studio 2012 on the 12th September we are running a series of RoadShow events and dropping in on 4 cities in 5 days. We’d love for you to come and join us at some of these events. We will be joined by Shanku Niyogi who’s team have been instrumental in the creation of the product and he will own the testing elements of Visual Studio moving forward.

At each location we will be joined by some of our strategic partners (BlackMarble and SQS) who will bring some “real world” experience by talking about new areas of the products and how they are applying the tools.

Registration is required, please register here.

This post relates to the afternoon sessions running from 1300 through to 1700. Shanku is also presenting at the community launch in the early evening at the same location, where there will be beer, pizza and swag!

About the speaker
Shanku Niyogi leads the team responsible for testing the next generation of Microsoft’s developer tools, including the Visual Studio product line and the .NET Framework. Most recently, as Director of Program Management, Shanku led the design team for Visual Studio Pro and Express, developer tools for platforms such as Windows, Office, and Azure, and managed and JavaScript programming languages.

Shanku joined the Visual Studio leadership team as GM in 2008, and delivered the first set of Visual Studio tools for Azure, and the Chakra Javascript runtime in Internet Explorer. Previously, Shanku had been a part of the .NET Developer Platform organization for nearly seven years, where he helped ship several version of ASP.NET, and helped incubate technologies such as ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC, WCF RIA Services for Silverlight, and ASP.NET Mobile Controls. Shanku has been with Microsoft since 2008. Shanku holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

Community, Developer Events

Event: Edinburgh 01/Oct/2012 – Visual Studio 2012 Launch – Community Beer+Pizza+Swag!

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Scottish Developers are very pleased to announce that Microsoft’s General Manager for the Visual Studio leadership team will be delivering a presentation at Microsoft’s Edinburgh office during the evening of the 1st of October!

This is a special event that celebrates the launch of Visual Studio 2012 – it is an evening session that follows on from the afternoon sessions.

There will be beer and pizza available – and some great swag!

Please register for this event here.

About the speaker
Shanku Niyogi leads the team responsible for testing the next generation of Microsoft’s developer tools, including the Visual Studio product line and the .NET Framework. Most recently, as Director of Program Management, Shanku led the design team for Visual Studio Pro and Express, developer tools for platforms such as Windows, Office, and Azure, and managed and JavaScript programming languages.

Shanku joined the Visual Studio leadership team as GM in 2008, and delivered the first set of Visual Studio tools for Azure, and the Chakra Javascript runtime in Internet Explorer. Previously, Shanku had been a part of the .NET Developer Platform organization for nearly seven years, where he helped ship several version of ASP.NET, and helped incubate technologies such as ASP.NET AJAX, ASP.NET MVC, WCF RIA Services for Silverlight, and ASP.NET Mobile Controls. Shanku has been with Microsoft since 2008. Shanku holds a Bachelor of Mathematics degree in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.

General

Do you want a sneak peek at some ideas Microsoft are working on?

Microsoft’s Steven Clarke is looking for five JavaScript developers to help him with a user experience study!

The study starts on 31st of July and runs until the 2nd of August – please get in touch with Steven to arrange a convenient time.

You’ll need to make your own way to Microsoft’s Edinburgh office (it’s pretty much at Waverley railway station)

You’ll have to sign an NDA to participate as the prototypes are confidential. It’s a great opportunity not only for an early look at some ideas Microsoft has, but more importantly for an opportunity to significantly influence the direction Microsoft take.

Please contact Steven if you are interested.

Community, Developer Events

Visual Studio 2010 Launch – Edinburgh, 16th April

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Via Mike Taulty:

If you’re up in Edinburgh then you’re lucky as it’s a great city and it also has the nicest Microsoft office I’ve seen in the UK ( rooftop gardens 🙂 ).

You’re also lucky in that on the 16th April there’s a Visual Studio 2010 launch event happening in our Edinburgh Office and Jason Zander, the General Manager for Visual Studio, will be there.

I imagine, given the size of the office, that this will give you very good access to chat to Jason about whatever you like in Visual Studio.

So…if you’re up in that part of the country then why not drop in? Here’s the blurb for the event:

LAUNCH AGENDA:
9.30am – 10.00am Arrival
10.00am – 11.30am Keynote & Q&A – Jason Zander, Global GM for Visual Studio @jlzander
11.30am – 12.00pm
Break
12.00pm – 1.00pm Developer & Tester Collaboration with Visual Studio 2010 – Giles Davies, Technical Specialist
1.00pm – 1.30pm Lunch

DATE:
Friday, 16th April 2010

LOCATION:
Microsoft Edinburgh, Waverley Gate, 2-4 Waterloo Place, Edinburgh, EH1 3EG

If you would like to attend, please email Nathan Davies on a-ndavie@microsoft.com with your name, company and email address – demand for this event will be high, so please register asap.

Mail Nathan to grab a seat and meet up with other Scottish developers interested in Visual Studio.

.net, Book Reviews

Book: Introducing .NET 4.0: With Visual Studio 2010 by @alexjmackey

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Introducing .NET 4.0: With Visual Studio 2010 is a book that many day-to-day developers will benefit from. It provides a great overview of what’s new in .NET 4.0 and Visual Studio 2010 – an obvious statement I know, however what sets this book apart is the fact that it makes reference to the new 4.0 content with references to both the earlier 3.5, 2.0 and 1.1 material. You’ll also find that the author chooses to refer to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) documentation using URLs as opposed to either copying the information verbatim or paraphrasing it some way: a refreshing change. This means that for much of this book, you are presented with straight-to-the-point information about the highs, the lows and the gotchas to look out for when you are building applications using Visual Studio 2010 and the .NET 4.0 platform. If you need a book that covers the salient technical points without going into huge amounts of detail, this is the book for you.

Alex is an experienced developer, he discusses his own personal experiences with many of the .NET 4.0 technologies, providing us with an insight into their history, their strengths and weaknesses – it’s all valuable content that can be hard to source elsewhere. And what’s more, given that this is Alex’s first book, he has done a terrific job: his writing style is contemporary, elegant and is easy to read.

Why should I buy this book?
Don’t be put off by the use of “Introducing” in this book’s title. It’s a book all developers should buy, from beginners to seasoned professionals. Beginners will benefit from the coverage of features, Alex essentially provides a roadmap of the things you need to look at in .NET 4.0 in order to gain the most benefit.

What’s in it for me? What’s this “roadmap” you mention?
Alex covers all of the bases with chapters about the following topics: Visual Studio IDE and MEF, Languages and Dynamic Changes, CLR and BCL Changes, Parallel, Workflow Foundation 4, Windows Communication Foundation, Entity Framework, WCF Data Services, ASP.NET, Microsoft AJAX Library, jQuery, ASP.NET MVC, Silverlight Overview,WPF 4 and Silverlight 3 and Azure. This should provide you with a one-stop shop regarding the current .NET 4.0 technologies and tools: a great resource, especially for newbies, those developers moving to .NET 4.0 from the Java world, etc. and experienced developers looking to make use of new material in their applications.

One of the most common questions I get asked at developer events is “how do I get to know .NET?” – this book is a great source of up-to-date information, “newbies” and those moving to .NET 4.0 from other platforms should rush out and buy this book. Seasoned developers will enjoy the to-the-point writing style, the short code examples and the author’s reach out to “subject matter” experts from the field – if you need to know more, the links are there for newbies and long-in-the-tooth developers!

This book sits nicely in between Pro C# 2010 And The .NET 4.0 Platform 5th Edition by Andrew Troelsen (Hardcover – 3 Mar 2010) and Pro ASP.NET 4.0 In C# 2010 4th Edition by Matthew MacDonald (Paperback – 3 Mar 2010). Alex’s book provides all the groundwork you’ll need in order to be able to tackle the works of Troelsen and MacDonald – Alex’s book is available now!

What are you waiting for? Visual Studio 2010 will be released in a few months time! Get ahead now, buy this book, you won’t regret it!

Further links
Alex’s web-site
The APress web page for Alex’s book

Community, Developer Events

[UK] Feb/Mar 2009 MSDN Events (inc. Professional Developers’ Day discount!)

Mar 23 Microsoft Professional Developers’ Day @ DevWeek 2009 London

Register for PDD before 27 February to receive the discount rate of £219 + VAT. The Professional Developers’ Day (PDD) is a Microsoft exclusive, single-day event designed to give you an early preview of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework v4.0 as unveiled at the 2008 Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. We guarantee there will be no slides and no marketing fluff. Instead we’ll be delivering lots of code and lots of demos using the very latest technologies from Microsoft, including samples and more for you to take away. With so much new technology to choose from we have split the day into 10 self-contained sessions, each digging surprisingly deeply into what we believe are the most relevant and impactful changes in the .NET Framework and Visual Studio. Our goal is to ensure you finish the day able to identify which technologies will help you deliver better solutions in the future and hence focus your own research time in the right areas. And to add to the fun, we’ll be showcasing a range of ‘after hours’ technologies in the Expo area, including XNA, robotics, and Photosynth.

***

What:
MSDN: Catch Up with Microsoft Rich Client Technologies for 2008

Event Description
Audience: Developers

In this half-day session we’ll do a refresh of the technologies that we can use to build rich, interactive clients with .NET in 2008. We’ll take a look at how we can be cross-platform, cross-browser with Silverlight 2 and yet get the full development experience of a .NET application and then we’ll explore how we can take that further with the Windows Presentation Foundation V3.5 Service Pack 1 which allows for the richest, most-productive development model for Windows applications. There’ll be lots of demos and code as we bring you bang-up-to-date with what’s happening in the world of Microsoft clients.

Agenda:
Silverlight 2: From Scratch

Haven’t seen or experimented with Silverlight 2? This session is for you. We’ll explain the platform’s capabilities for rich, internet applications and we’ll look at how you go about building applications using a combination of the XAML language and the .NET Framework. Along the way, we’ll look at the major stepping stones like how we can make use of the network, how we can make use of the filesystem, how we can re-use and make use of existing controls and we’ll look at the controls that come “in the box” along with the ones in the Silverlight Toolkit on CodePlex. We’ll also look at the tooling involved in building a Silverlight 2 application with Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 and Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1.

Windows Presentation Foundation: From Scratch

New to WPF? Coming back to the world of “rich client” after building web applications? In this session we’ll do a refresh of what Windows Presentation Foundation is, what its core capabilities are and how we build applications using a combination of the XAML language and the .NET Framework. We’ll bring this bang up-to-date by having a look at what’s new for WPF since its original release in 2006 and we’ll look at some of the newer developments such as the WPF Toolkit with its DataGrid and Ribbon controls on CodePlex.

Where:
Feb 10 London
Feb 12 Birmingham
Feb 24 Edinburgh
Feb 26 Manchester

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Community, Developer Events

[UK] Feb/Mar 2009 MSDN Events (inc. Professional Developers’ Day discount!)

1 Comment

Mar 23 Microsoft Professional Developers’ Day @ DevWeek 2009 London

Register for PDD before 27 February to receive the discount rate of £219 + VAT. The Professional Developers’ Day (PDD) is a Microsoft exclusive, single-day event designed to give you an early preview of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework v4.0 as unveiled at the 2008 Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in Los Angeles. We guarantee there will be no slides and no marketing fluff. Instead we’ll be delivering lots of code and lots of demos using the very latest technologies from Microsoft, including samples and more for you to take away. With so much new technology to choose from we have split the day into 10 self-contained sessions, each digging surprisingly deeply into what we believe are the most relevant and impactful changes in the .NET Framework and Visual Studio. Our goal is to ensure you finish the day able to identify which technologies will help you deliver better solutions in the future and hence focus your own research time in the right areas. And to add to the fun, we’ll be showcasing a range of ‘after hours’ technologies in the Expo area, including XNA, robotics, and Photosynth.

***

What:
MSDN: Catch Up with Microsoft Rich Client Technologies for 2008

Event Description
Audience: Developers

In this half-day session we’ll do a refresh of the technologies that we can use to build rich, interactive clients with .NET in 2008. We’ll take a look at how we can be cross-platform, cross-browser with Silverlight 2 and yet get the full development experience of a .NET application and then we’ll explore how we can take that further with the Windows Presentation Foundation V3.5 Service Pack 1 which allows for the richest, most-productive development model for Windows applications. There’ll be lots of demos and code as we bring you bang-up-to-date with what’s happening in the world of Microsoft clients.

Agenda:
Silverlight 2: From Scratch

Haven’t seen or experimented with Silverlight 2? This session is for you. We’ll explain the platform’s capabilities for rich, internet applications and we’ll look at how you go about building applications using a combination of the XAML language and the .NET Framework. Along the way, we’ll look at the major stepping stones like how we can make use of the network, how we can make use of the filesystem, how we can re-use and make use of existing controls and we’ll look at the controls that come “in the box” along with the ones in the Silverlight Toolkit on CodePlex. We’ll also look at the tooling involved in building a Silverlight 2 application with Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 and Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1.

Windows Presentation Foundation: From Scratch

New to WPF? Coming back to the world of “rich client” after building web applications? In this session we’ll do a refresh of what Windows Presentation Foundation is, what its core capabilities are and how we build applications using a combination of the XAML language and the .NET Framework. We’ll bring this bang up-to-date by having a look at what’s new for WPF since its original release in 2006 and we’ll look at some of the newer developments such as the WPF Toolkit with its DataGrid and Ribbon controls on CodePlex.

Where:
Feb 10 London
Feb 12 Birmingham
Feb 24 Edinburgh
Feb 26 Manchester

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Podcasts

052 – Guy Smith Ferrier on Internationali[s|z]ation, VS2008, .net 3.5, C# language features

6 Comments

Tenth the in the Twelve Podcasts of Christmas 2008!

Heroes Happen Here

Stealing a show naming scheme from the NxtGenUG chaps, this is “The One With The Semi-naked man in…”

Luckily it wasn’t our guest, esteemed Internationalisation expert and Microsoft MVP Guy Smith-Ferrier. Andy Westgarth, myself and Guy sat down on the most comfortable seat at this event and chatted about Guy’s session, his user group DotNetDevNet and a host of other things. I decided to edit out the semi-naked man scene in order to keep the flow, however I put it back in near end of the show…every podcast should have a man clad only in boxer shorts, yes?

Despite what it might sound like in this recording, no money changed hands…there will be no cash for questions here, no sir.

I reviewed Guy’s book, .NET Internationalization, over here.

Photos of the event can be found here.

Podcast feed – subscribe here!

This podcast: http://www.craigmurphy.com/podcasts/052-Guy-Smith-Ferrier.mp3

Resources
Guy’s user group, DotNetDevNet
Guy’s blog

The Twelve Podcasts of Christmas 2008
01 – Kyle Baley on ALT.NET and Brownfield Development in .NET
02 – Aaron Parker on Microsoft Application Virtualisation
03 – Caroline Bucklow from IT4Communities: charitable software development
04 – Eileen Brown on IT Professionals, TechNet, Women In Technology & Girl Geek Dinners
05 – Stephen Lamb on security, community, Linux and Twitter
06 – Cristiano Betta on Geek Dinners
07 – David Yack and Jonathan Carter on ALT.NET, MVC and Community
08 – Andrew Fryer on SQL Server 2008 and “upgrade”
09 – Viral Tarpara on Collaboration, SharePoint, Open Source (Port 25) and Community
10 – Guy Smith Ferrier on Internationali[s|z]ation, VS2008, .net 3.5, C# language features
11 – Matt Dunstan on event management, “engagement” and life as an Application Platform Manager
12 – Stephen Lamb on his new role in marketing / PR

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Podcasts

049 – David Yack and Jonathan Carter on ALT.NET, MVC and Community

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Seventh the in the Twelve Podcasts of Christmas 2008!


David & Jonathan


Audio man Zi making sure it’s all good!

In this podcast you can listen to David Yack and Jonathan Carter very eloquently discussing ALT.NET and .NET 3.5 SP1 and beyond. You may hear me using to the word “opposite” somewhat out of context, apologies for that…I was within the “safe for podcasting alcohol limit”…it just goes to show that any alcohol and podcasting can be have consequences… Luckily David and Jonathan are more professional than me and carried on answering the question has if they had heard it correctly in the first place!

Recorded live inside Italian Graffiti (their web-site does need a face lift, yes?) near Soho, London, just after ALT.NET Beers 2, organised by Sebastien Lambla. There is some restaurant noise, please grin and bear it, one has to grab podcasts with superstars as and when they arise, rarely is there a quiet room to hide in!

Photos of the event can be found here.

Podcast feed – subscribe here!

This podcast: http://www.craigmurphy.com/podcasts/049-David-Yack-Jonathan-Carter.mp3

Resources
David Yack’s blog
The CRM Book (mentioned in the podcast)
Jonathan Carter’s blog
Zi Makkie’s blog

The Twelve Podcasts of Christmas 2008
01 – Kyle Baley on ALT.NET and Brownfield Development in .NET
02 – Aaron Parker on Microsoft Application Virtualisation
03 – Caroline Bucklow from IT4Communities: charitable software development
04 – Eileen Brown on IT Professionals, TechNet, Women In Technology & Girl Geek Dinners
05 – Stephen Lamb on security, community, Linux and Twitter
06 – Cristiano Betta on Geek Dinners
07 – David Yack and Jonathan Carter on ALT.NET, MVC and Community
08 – Andrew Fryer on SQL Server 2008 and “upgrade”
09 – Viral Tarpara on Collaboration, SharePoint, Open Source (Port 25) and Community
10 – Guy Smith Ferrier on Internationali[s|z]ation, VS2008, .net 3.5, C# language features
11 – Matt Dunstan on event management, “engagement” and life as an Application Platform Manager
12 – Stephen Lamb on his new role in marketing / PR

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