Articles filed in category 'Opinions'

Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.

Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.

Ken Getz Jan/Feb 05 Finalize Column

March/April .Finalize() column.

.Finalize() Column

Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.

Jan/Feb .Finalize() column

Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.

Nov/Dec .Finalize() column

Ken Getz - Finalize Column - July/August 2005

.Finalize() Column

Ken Getz - May/June 2005 Finalize column

Ken Getz Finalize Column Mar/April 06

Ken Getz Mar/Apr 05 Finalize COlumn

Ken Getz Nov/Dec 05 Finalize Column

Rod Paddock Editorial January February 2004 Issue

This page is dedicated to non-technical aspects of our lives as developers.Look here in each issue for commentary and insight into the struggles and joys of balancing life and logic.

Rick Strahl discusses Windows Vista for developers.

Rick discusses WCF

At Mix 2007 in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced Silverlight (formerly known as WPF/E) to much fanfare. Silverlight is very intriguing in concept, as it further travels the path previously laid out by WPF (Silverlight’s big brother), and it aims to bring the worlds of Windows and Web development, as well as the worlds of software development and graphical design, much closer together. As more and more details emerge (and the first released version is now available), it beco...mes clear that Silverlight is not just an intriguing concept, but it is for real! Markus discusses Silverlight concepts in this article.See More

Two roads diverged in a wood, and we… we took the one that led straight to hell, where we thought nothing of reconciling ourselves to the sad state of software affairs that followed.

Rod Paddock Editorial May June 2002 Issue

Do you want to save keystrokes?Do you want to ease maintenance? Do you want inline information about the code structures that you're working with? How about statement completion? Are you interested in increasing the potential for code reuse? Do you want your applications to run faster and require less memory? Do you prefer to have users find bugs or do you prefer to find them yourself?

Markus Egger discusses declarative programming

Markus Egger talks about developing secure applications.

In this article, Rick discusses the new features of IIS 7.

May/June 2007 Doc Detective column

Rick Strahl discusses Visual Studio 2005.

Rick Strahl discusses the newly released ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (MS AJAX)

Rick Strahl discusses the new ASP.NET Orcas beta release.

Rick Strahl discusses ATLAS, Microsoft's ASP.NET implementation of AJAX.

Markus Egger discusses the new Aux Display feature supported in Windows "Longhorn".

CoDe Focus Mobile Editorial by Markus Egger

Rod Paddock Editorial Article November December 04 Issue

Rick Strahl discusses building rich internet applications

Markus Egger discusses mobile development and mobile devices.

Rod Paddock Editorial July August 2004 Issue

July/August 2003 Editorial by Rod Paddock.

David Stevenson Editorial Article Jan/Feb 2002

Everything you wanted to know about customers but were too busy coding to ask.In the last column, we discussed the initial contact and the issues that are important in that first meeting. In this column, we discuss negotiating the terms of the contract.

David Stevenson discusses developers and deadlines.

Eventually SQL Server databases in a production environment must move from one server to another. It’s important to plan for eventual database moves when architecting a database solution.Designers and developers often overlook the eventuality that a database will need to move to a different server. This month’s column is the first of three dealing with the issues surrounding database moves. In this first part, you’ll learn about the reasons why you should plan for moving... a database when you design and architect your application.See More

Rod Paddock Developers Toolkit commentary

Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) September/October 2004

Markus Egger talks about TabletPC development.

Angry Coder - Jonathan Goodyear and J. Ambrose Little - July/August 2005

Rod discusses learning from his mistakes.

Summer 2000 Editorial Article

This is the first in a series of what I hope will be one of your favorite columns for years to come! I am the host of a talk show on the Internet called .NET Rocks! (see advert), in which I interview the movers and shakers in the .NET community.

Ken Getz .Finalize() column for September/October 2008

Wow, another year has gone by, and as you read this, you are probably returning to the office after a few more or less relaxing holiday time spent with friends and family and a New Year's celebration. Interesting things have happened in our industry in the last 12 months, but I predict that the next 12 months will be quite a bit more interesting! Seldom before have I been as excited about new technologies and developments as I am now.

Rod Paddock Editorial Mar/April 2005

Nov/Dec 2007 .Finalize Column() Ken Getz

I am the host of a weekly Internet audio talk show for .NET developers called .NET Rocks!Each week my co-host, Rory Blyth, and I interview the movers and shakers in the .NET community. It's a free download, and there are about 80 shows in the archives as of this writing. We've interviewed the likes of Alan Cooper, Scott Guthrie, Don Box, Kimberly Tripp, Chris Sells, and many other well-known persons in the community. Our show is not boring! We have fun! We give away priz...es, look at strange Web sites, talk about what went on in .NET land during the week, and otherwise have a good time. Heard on .NET Rocks! is a regular feature of CoDe Magazine in which I highlight some of the conversations we've had recently.See More

Carl Franklin's .NET Rocks July/August 2007 column.

Jan/Feb 07 .Net Rocks Column

In .NET Rocks! episode 355, Richard and I talked to Ted Faison about event-based and event-driven programming. There’s more to it than you think. Ted Faison has more than 30 years of experience in the software industry and has been involved with object-oriented-programming and component-based development since the inception of those technologies. He is currently working on .Net projects for the Motorcycle Industry Council and Amtrak. Ted is the author of the books Event-...Based Programming: Taking Events to the Limit, Component-Based Development with Visual C#, and a few others.See More

Carl Franklin's .Net Rocks March/April 05

.NET Rocks column for Sept/Oct 2007

.Net Rocks by Carl Franklin Nov/Dec Article.

Carl Franklin - Jan/Feb 05 .NET Rocks Column

Ron Talmage discusses how developers can avaiod Transact-SQL Cursors

Markus Egger discusses the need to create multi-threaded applications.

During the Visual Studio .NET Launch February 13 at VSLive! 2002 in San Francisco, Markus Egger and David Stevenson of Component Developer Magazine interviewed a panel of Microsoft personnel about the concept of developer communities.In this free-ranging discussion, we learned how Microsoft desires to support and encourage the growth inside developer "ecosystems" by focusing considerable resources on "community outreach."

Ken Getz Finalize Column - May/June 07

Rod Paddock January February 2005 Editorial Article

May/June 2003 Editorial by Rod Paddock.

Rick Strahl discuss scripting with jQuery.

A lot of programmers tend to over engineer their software solutions.In the course of my consulting, I have reviewed many applications from many companies. In many cases I find a lot of areas where the software was just too complex. The reasons for this are varied, but seem to be centered around a few main areas: inappropriate use of design patterns, the “not invented here” syndrome, and building a Cadillac when a Chevy would do the job. You can solve these issues in many... ways. All it takes is a little bit of re-thinking on how you build software. This article offers guidance on some things you can do to simplify your software development processSee More

Issue 1 2001 Editorial Article

Sept/Oct 08 Editorial by Rod Paddock

Markus Egger talks about the needs to learn about the latest development technologies.

Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) July/August 2004

November/December 2002 Editorial by Rod Paddock.

Writing software is hard, particularly when the schedules keep programmers “nose to the grindstone.” Every so often, it’s important to take a breather and look around the world and discover what we can find-what we find can often help us write software better.Philosophy seems a strange partner to the software craftsman, but ironically a brief dip in the waters of abstract thought will help hone skills later useful to the craft of code, models, and workable software.

Ted explains why branding is important, no matter how big or small your company is.

Writing software is hard, particularly when the schedules keep programmers “nose to the grindstone”; every so often, it’s important to take a breather and look around the world and discover what we can find-ironically, what we find can often help us write software better.Psychology seems no less strange a partner to the software craftsman than philosophy, but understanding how we engage in that practice called “thought” and “feeling” improves interpersonal skills, like h...ow to deal with annoying co-workers like yourself.See More

Ted Neward explains how taking the negative approach just might lead to leaner, cleaner code.

Words aren’t the only aspect of good communication. Mike teaches us that the code should stand on its own, now, next week, next year, and for the next decade.

If your calendar has more meetings scheduled into it that time to work, you’ll appreciate Mike Yeager’s suggestions for making meetings more efficient.

Moving a SQL Server database from one server to another is simple-initially. But there are various methods for moving a database, and some have more advantages than others. Investigating the types of moves ahead of time can make planning for a database migration easier.It takes essentially three steps to move a database from one server to another: take the database out of production, copy it to another server, and then bring the copy back into production. While you can c...hoose from many methods to accomplish these steps, it can be difficult to complete the move given all the database’s dependencies. In this article I’ll describe the methods for moving the database. In my next installment I’ll discuss the dependencies and additional related objects that you must also move along with the database data.See More

Product Manager Letter

xIn the past two installments of this series I’ve discussed two key aspects of moving a SQL Server database from one server (or instance) to another. First I covered the advantages of designing databases to make them easier to move, and then I looked at the methods that you can use to move a database. Now it’s time to look specifically at the types of database dependencies that you must account for after you move a database.

Sept/Oct 2007 MVP Corner Article

How did we ever survive without social networks? I asked myself that today and couldn’t come up with an answer I liked. If I need to find contact information for that DBA I worked with three jobs ago, it’s off to LinkedIn or Plaxo. When I’m wondering about that guy from high school who was going to be a world famous rock star, Facebook is only a couple of clicks away. Out of town for a conference? No worries, I just check Twitter to see where my friends are.

Ken Getz July/August 2007 .FINALIZE() column

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) has become the de facto data transfer standard for client-side Web applications that use JavaScript. JSON is a JavaScript-based object/value encoding format that looks very close to raw JavaScript and can be very easily parsed by JavaScript code because JavaScript can effectively evaluate a JSON string and re-materialize an object from it. Unlike XML there’s no parsing involved in the process, so it’s easy to work with and also relativel...y quick because the actual parsing (or rather evaluating) of a JSON string is done internally in the JavaScript engine rather than through manual code. The format and data types are also well defined so it’s easy to generate JSON strings in other languages like .NET (although parsing is a bit more complex).See More

Rod Paddock Editorial March April 2004 Issue

Rod Paddock's May/June 2009 Editorial article.

Ron Talmage discusses performance counters in SQL Server.

Brian Kernighan [1] once said, "Debugging is twice as hard as writing code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." This quote gets a little giggle out of most developers, but on the serious side, there is a lot of truth in it. Writing code that does cool or useful things certainly is much easier than writing code that does cool or useful things reliably.

Nov/Dec 2010 Post Mortem Article by Dan Appleman

.Finalize() column for Sept/Oct 2007

Markus Egger discusses team development with Visual Studio 2005 Team System.

Rod Paddock Editorial for Sept/Oct 2007

Rick Strahl discusses Rest-Based Ajax Services.

Rod Paddock - March April 02 Editorial

Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) discusses MVPs and ASP.NET.

Rod Paddock Editorial May Junel 2004 Issue

Ron Talmage discusses SQL Server 2005 in this introductory SQL Server Observer Newsletter

Ron Talmage discusses the roles of SQL Server databases and instances in high availability scenarios.

September/October 2003 Editorial by Rod Paddock.

Issue 2 2001 David Stevenson Editorial Article

Rick Strahl discusses AJAX technology.

Recent polls show that nearly fifty percent of applications with reporting functionality use Crystal Reports, and about twenty percent use SQL Server Reporting Services. This article will cover some of the major reporting tasks that developers face, and how the two reporting tools (Crystal and SQL Server Reporting Services) handle the tasks. Finally, I’ll provide a sneak preview at the next scheduled releases of both products (the next version of Crystal Reports and SQL ...Server Reporting Services 2008).See More

This installment of “The Baker’s Dozen” covers some of the major features in Visual Studio 2005. Visual Studio 2005 offers language, data handling, and development environment enhancements that are sure to please many developers. Programmers who are currently using Visual Studio .NET 2003 will find many ways to write more efficient code and increase their overall productivity. In addition, programmers who are new to .NET will find the migration to Visual Studio 2005 a bi...t easier than the migration to the first version of .NET. While it’s not possible to talk about every new feature in Visual Studio 2005, this article will cover many of the primary changes and enhancements.See More

Rick Strahl discusses considerations when writing JavaScript

HTML-based Web development has dominated application development for the last six years or so and there are no signs of that changing.However, things are changing as the .NET initiative takes hold. Although Microsoft has put a lot of effort into its Web-based interfaces, which include the powerful new ASP.NET Web Forms framework, I am guessing that there will actually be a push back to desktop-driven, forms-based applications once .NET takes hold.

Rod Paddock Editorial March April 2004 Issue

.Net is a maturing platform. The first .NET alphas and betas went to a selected group of people years and years ago. At this point, we are approaching the third major installment of Visual Studio .NET (now called "Visual Studio 2005"). Surely at this point, nobody has to explain what .NET and the Managed Platform is. Or do we?

As the pace of software development continues to accelerate, the way in which we approach it must change to keep up as well. What made sense before isn't as practical now.

Many products are taking advantage of the enhanced exception management features that the .NET Framework provides, yet very few are going the extra mile to provide instant solutions.

Microsoft promised to support VB6 long after the release of .NET, but their actions are telling a different story.

The recent Professional Developer Conference (PDC) fostered great excitement about the power of the .NET Framework v2.0. Unfortunately, it is going to be well into next year before most developers even get a whiff of all things Whidbey; and that's only in beta form. Some important .NET language and framework enhancements are in a big holding pattern, though, and I don't think that's right.

Dino explains the business layer so that even a seven-year-old can understand.

Markus Egger discusses the evaluation of new technologies.

If you have been involved in a new software development project during the last five years ? and if you read this article, chances are you have ? then you have probably been faced with the question "Web application or Windows® UI?" And in the vast majority of cases, the answer to this question was probably "Web application." For modern, enterprise-wide systems there were simply many reasons and issues that made it hard to implement the desired feature set in a convention...al Windows application and deploy it in a reasonable manner. At this point, the advantages and disadvantages of each application type are well understood, and decisions are easy to make. Or are they?See More

Rod Paddock Editorial July August 2002 Issue

Rick Strahl Commentary JanFeb2002

Dino has a somewhat literary take on the things that go wrong in software development. You’ll follow him through the seven rings of Software Hell in a parallel to Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”

Rod Paddock Editorial Article July/August 2005

Rick Strahl takes a frank look at the "Good", "Bad", "Obnoxious" and "Unknown" qualities of .NET.

Fall 2000 Editorial Markus Egger and Rick Strahl

Ron Talmage discusses 32-bit vs. 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005

May/June 2008 .Finalize column by Ken Getz

Markus Egger Fall 2000 Services Article

The first step in securing your application is to understand threats. This article discusses how to understand where your application may be threatened.

Rick Strahl discusses LINQ to SQL features.

The Web View October 2007

David Stevenson's Column - July August 02

Markus Egger discusses user interface technologies developers should familiarize themselves with.

Markus Egger discusses the use of inheritance in Visual Studio .NET applications, in particular WinForms apps.

Eric Rudder talks about VFP 8.

Ken Levy discusses VFP8.

As a .NET architect and developer I cannot imagine my everyday work without Visual Studio. I was always in a strange excitement when waiting for a new CTP, Beta or RTM of Visual Studio because I always expected some great new features with every release. During the years I have bought a few third-party add-ins and utilities for Visual Studio to make my development tasks easier and even created small add-ins to produce some useful piece of code. I knew that Visual Studio ...was extensible; I downloaded the SDKs and tried to get familiar with those hundreds of extensibility interfaces. However, due to lack of good documentation I often got frustrated. See More

Rod Paddock editorial Jan/Feb 2011

Rick Strahl discusses Web Application Projects

Rick Strahl discusses the current status of the Web.

Welcome to our second CoDe Focus issue on mobile PC development.

Rod Paddock Editorial September October 2004 Issue

Rick Strahl discusses ASP.NET Web Forms

Markus Egger discusses screen resolutions.

Markus Egger discusses the role of business logic in modern application architecture.

Markus Egger discusses the importance of a solid basis of knowledge.