In my first editorial, “Riding Waves” CoDe Magazine Mar/Apr 2002, I wrote about the concept of software waves and how software waves present opportunities to developers with the initiative to paddle out and ride them.

In that editorial I discussed the release of a number of products over the prior 10 years: Microsoft Access, ASP 1.x and IIS, SQL Server 7.0, Visual Studio .NET and the .NET Framework version 1.0. Each of these products presented enormous opportunities for developers with the foresight to ride at least one of them.

It is now December 2006 and waves are crashing all around us. I have never seen surf so good. There are different waves coming in now and there are large swells building.

Vista and Office 2007

One of the largest waves that formed in 2006 was the Office 2007 and Windows Vista wave. This wave presents opportunities for developers to create state-of-the-art user interfaces. Applications developed in aero glass look sweet. Importing and exporting Office data will be orders of magnitude simpler with the new XML Document formats now supported by Office 2007.

.NET 3.0

The technology triumvirate: Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), present opportunities to develop applications with advanced UI's, advanced communication, and advanced workflow. WPF gives developers the ability to work with designers to create rich user experiences never before possible. WCF takes literally thousands of lines of code out of the process of developing reliable distributed applications, and WWF addresses a common design pattern that has often been overlooked by development tools: workflow.

SharePoint 2007

Another large wave comes in the form of SharePoint 2007. This overhaul to the SharePoint system brings Web Part development into the Visual Studio 2005 world. The last version of SharePoint required developers to use Visual Studio 2003 to build Web Parts and, in general, it was more difficult than necessary to build these applications. This issue of CoDe Magazine features part two of Sahil Malik's great article demonstrating the process for developing Web Parts for SharePoint 2007.

Team Systems

System integrators and trainers will catch a large wave when companies install and integrate Team Systems into there development process. Team systems tend to be both large and complex.

After installing Team Systems development teams will benefit greatly from a fully integrated development environment. Development teams will benefit from the tools that help manage system development from requirements to deployment. Team Systems provides a great environment for developing, testing and managing large scale projects and development teams.

Orcas and LINQ

One large wave forming offshore that we'll soon be able to catch is the Orcas and LINQ wave. “Orcas” is the code name for the next version of Visual Studio and LINQ is the acronym for Language Integrated Query. Orcas will enhance the development experience with new tools and language constructs. LINQ will allow you to issue SQL SELECT statements on your local datasets and objects.

As I watch the 7-degree weather outside the window here in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I'm contemplating which waves I want to catch in 2007. Personally I'm a data dude so the LINQ wave probably interests me the most. I'm also a tools developer so SharePoint 2007 seems to satisfy my craving for that type of wave. In the coming year I'll do my best to help you find the best techniques for catching and riding these waves into shore.

Thank You for 5 Years at Code

This is my 30th editorial for CoDe Magazine. The next issue begins my 6th year as Editor-in-Chief of CoDe Magazine. I want to express my thanks to the writers, editors and you the readers of CoDe Magazine. It's an honor to work with and for you all!!!