Issue: 2003 - September/October

  • September/October 2003 Editorial by Rod Paddock.
  • Product News September/October 2003
  • Microsoft promised to support VB6 long after the release of .NET, but their actions are telling a different story.
  • In the Fall of 2002, Microsoft introduced Tablet PCs based on the popular Windows XP operating system.By default, this new platform includes applications with special Tablet PC features enabled, such as Ink Input and Pen-based operation. In order for this platform to become truly popular, third-party vendors will also have to ink-enable their applications. Luckily, this is a pretty straightforward task.
  • ASP.NET is a terrific platform for Web applications.That does not mean that tricky coding is always one or two clicks away within a dockable and resizable Visual Studio .NET dialog box. Tricky solutions require tricky coding, just the kind of features that a wizard-driven environment and a general-purpose framework can't provide. In this article, we'll tackle five ASP.NET features that require wicked and creative code.
  • Windows or Web? A question you've asked and have been asked countless numbers of times for the past five years.And yet, when it comes to the mobile field and building business applications for smart devices, many are surprised when they realize the same question needs to be answered. The question is slightly dissimilar but the answers are entirely different. "Windows CE or Mobile Web?" you might ask. As for the answer, the .NET world can steer you in two very opposite di...See More
  • The .NET class Thread defined in the System.Threading namespace represents a managed thread.The Thread class provides various methods and properties to control the managed thread. Unfortunately, there is a significant potential for abusing these mechanisms, and most developers may not even realize they are doing anything wrong. This article describes the dos and don'ts of the Thread class, and then presents a wrapper class that simplifies starting a thread, correctly ter...See More
  • Developing applications for the Palm OS may seem like a daunting task to a VB developer.The traditional Palm SDK requires at least moderate knowledge of the C programming language and has a substantial learning curve. Further complicating the situation are the memory management requirements of the Palm OS and its specific API references. Now, in version 3.5, MobileVB is a well thought-out add-in for VB6 that alleviates the drawn-out development process and makes Palm OS ...See More
  • Having a custom control display properly is a challenge in itself.Getting your custom control to behave the way you want it to is only half the work. Once you get to the visual side of things you have to create the logic that generates the actual HTML shown in the browser. If you want the control to display properly, this can be a tedious task, especially if you want it to render properly in different browsers.
  • Your application can detect a deadlock and resubmit its transaction, but a better approach is to resolve a deadlock by changing the conditions that lead to it in the first place. In this article, you'll learn how SQL Server deadlocks arise, what types of deadlocks there are, and how you can resolve them.
  • Tips and Tricks from the Doc Detective
  • .Finalize() Column