Issue: 2002 - September/October

Rodman (Rod Paddock) reflects on the September 11, 2001 crisis to argue that, beyond professional achievement, the true value in life lies in friends, family, and freedom. He uses the tragedy to illustrate how quickly life and global connections become fragile, and how meaningful exchanges with loved ones sustain us. The piece then broadens to celebrate international collaboration in his field, before urging developers to prioritize human relationships and personal time ...over constant work, reminding readers to nurture what truly matters.See More

The newest version of Visual Basic now has support for full object-oriented programming, provides access to the .NET Framework and use power and flexibility of the Common Language Runtime. Never have there been more reason for VB developers to consider making the move to Visual Basic .NET. Yet, amidst the excitement surrounding the .NET platform, some major productivity features have been lost in the shuffle.

In this article, Leonardo Esposito explores the concept and practical implementation of ASP.NET user controls as a powerful means to enhance web page reusability and modularity. He explains how user controls, which are embeddable and programmable components composed of multiple ASP.NET controls, provide a flexible alternative to custom control classes. Using a detailed DateBox example, Esposito demonstrates the design, coding, and integration of user controls, highlighti...ng their advantages in combining multiple controls into a single interface and their seamless interaction with ASP.NET pages through properties, methods, and strong typing.See More

New computer languages are rare and successful ones are rarer still, yet Microsoft decided to create a new language to go along with the .NET Developer Platform. Why weren't existing languages good enough?

The first article in this series detailed how to build data-aware forms in Visual Studio .NET using the Data Form Wizard. It demonstrated how easy it is to build forms using a point-and-click interface. You also learned that the generated form was especially suited to production development. This article continues where that article left off and introduces you to techniques to improve data-aware forms created with the Data Form Wizard.

In this article, Srinivasan Manickam introduces PerlNET, a technology that integrates the open-source Perl language with Microsoft's .NET framework, enabling Perl to function as a .NET language. Manickam highlights Perl’s key features such as scalars, arrays, hashes, and regular expressions, then explains how PerlNET facilitates creating, consuming, and wrapping .NET components using Perl. The article also demonstrates building Windows GUI applications with PerlNET and d...iscusses the distinctions between Pure Perl, .NET, and Mixed type components, emphasizing PerlNET’s role in bridging Perl’s dynamic nature with .NET’s strong typing for versatile application development.See More

Daniel Leclair argues that Visual Studio .NET lacks some beloved FoxPro capabilities, and introduces the Visual FoxPro Toolkit for .NET—a free, public-domain .NET assembly that re-creates many VFP-style functions (225 in total) across arrays, strings, data, and more. Written in managed code and operable without VFP installed, the 56K DLL serves as “training wheels” for VFP developers transitioning to .NET while rewarding VB.NET and C# users with familiar, familiar-functi...on syntax and powerful helpers. Leclair explains installation, usage, and the toolkit’s scope, emphasizing its practicality, extensibility, and value for diverse developers.See More

In this article, Paul Sheriff explains how to create a custom configuration class in ASP.NET to manage application settings stored in the web.config file more efficiently than using the traditional Application object. He highlights the drawbacks of the Application object, such as lack of type safety and automatic updates, and demonstrates how to define a configuration section, implement the IConfigurationSectionHandler interface, and initialize the class to enable strong...ly typed, IntelliSense-supported properties that automatically refresh when the web.config file changes. Sheriff emphasizes that while the setup requires effort, the resulting improved maintainability and functionality justify it.See More

Eiffel Software Inc.'s Eiffel for .NET is now available as part of ESI's EiffelStudio™ . Eiffel for .NET combines the power of two object technology variants: Eiffel (including Design by Contract™, multiple inheritance, genericity and seamlessness of software development) and .NET (including language interoperability, Web services and other advanced facilities.).

Doc Detective offers a playful, practical guide to navigating the Visual Studio .NET documentation by answering real reader questions and clarifying common confusions, from accessing Access data with ADO.NET to redistributing the .NET Framework and understanding ASP.NET intrinsic objects. Through direct, accessible explanations and pointers to key MSDN topics, the column helps newcomers move beyond seemingly confusing examples (like SQL Server–heavy tutorials) and reveal...s where to find reliable guidance, while occasionally noting doc inaccuracies with humor.See More