Issue: 2007 - September/October

Rod Paddock Editorial for Sept/Oct 2007

Sept/Oct 2007 MVP Corner Article

Thinking of upgrading to SQL Server 2005? Or are you using SQL 2005 already and you want to learn more about the language features? Then this article may be for you!Microsoft implemented many new features in SQL Server 2005, including an impressive set of language enhancements. From new language statements for SQL-99 compatibility to new features in response to customer requests, Transact-SQL 2005 helps to increase developer productivity. In this article, I’ll cover most... of the new language features by posing a statement/scenario and then provide some code samples to show how you can use T-SQL 2005 to address the problem. At the end of the article, I’ll talk briefly about Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals, a product that helps a development team to manage databases. Finally, I’ll give you a sneak preview of some features in the next scheduled version for SQL Server (SQL Server 2008, “Katmai”).See More

Microsoft opened the doors of game development to the .NET developer community in December 2006 with the first release of XNA Game Studio Express.No longer constrained to enterprise systems, database-driven applications or Web service layers, .NET developers can now spread their digital wings and let their pixelized imagination run wild as their favorite development platform and language now enable them to explore new worlds and new challenges of their own making, all in... full high definition (HD) at 60 frames per second! But who is XNA for? Is it a serious enough initiative, platform, and set of tools for professional game developers in the gaming industry? Eager to answer those questions, I (virtually) sat down with a number of professional game designers, studio directors, and developers for a chat in order to find out: Is Microsoft XNA ready for prime time?See More

What does XNA stand for? It’s a recursive acronym that stands for “XNA’s Not Acronymed”. Aren’t developers fun?

“Web application development has come a long way in a fairly short period of time.” A quote like that surely won’t send anyone into shock anytime soon because it’s accepted as fact. From basic, static HTML pages to totally data-driven and data-centric Web applications, the demands on a Web developer are much more complex and demanding than they were just a few years ago. The advent of social networking sites like MySpace, which is written in ASP.NET 2.0, interactive mapp...ing sites, and sites streaming full motion video has required the Web developer to adapt and change with the times. One of the best tools to use to build these types of Web applications is Microsoft’s ASP.NET 2.0. In this article I am going to delve into some of the more interesting features of ASP.NET 2.0 and show you how you can begin using ASP.NET 2.0 on your next Web project.See More

Sept/Oct 2007 CoDe On the Road

.NET Rocks column for Sept/Oct 2007

In this Doc Detective column, Doc Detective helps developers navigate Visual Studio 2005 documentation by answering readers’ questions: XML documentation files aren’t set on ASP.NET Web site property pages (use the /doc compiler instead); use Browsable and Category attributes (or composite controls/overrides) to expose, categorize, or hide properties on custom user controls; share an application icon via project resources for forms; and be aware F1 help uses cursor context, not highlighted text.

.Finalize() column for Sept/Oct 2007