Monday, March 21, 2011

The Visual C++ Weekly Vol. 1 Issue 11 (Mar 12, 2011)

The Visual C++ Weekly Vol. 1 Issue 11 (Mar 12, 2011)

The Visual C++ Weekly Vol. 1 Issue 11 (Mar 12, 2011)

Posted: 12 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PST

[Delayed posting, just for the records]

Read in this issue:

  • [MS Parallel Programming] Sorting in PPL
  • [Visual C++ team] Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 General Availability
  • [John Socha-Leialoha] C++/CLI to C++ Tips and Tricks
  • [Thomas Becker] C++ Rvalue References Explained
  • [Stephan L. Lavavej] Algorithm Optimizations - Advanced STL, Part 2

RC of Entity Framework 4.1 (which includes EF Code First)

Posted: 19 Mar 2011 11:32 PM PDT

Last week the data team shipped the Release Candidate of Entity Framework 4.1.  You can learn more about it and download it here . EF 4.1 includes the new "EF Code First" option that I've blogged about several times in the past.  EF Code First provides a really elegant and clean way to work with data, and enables you to do so without requiring a designer or XML mapping file.  Below are links to some tutorials I've written in the past about it: Code First Development with Entity Framework 4.x EF Code First: Custom Database Schema Mapping Using EF Code First with an Existing Database The above tutorials were written against the CTP4 release of EF Code First (and so some APIs might be a little different) – but the concepts and scenarios...(read more)

NuGet Package of the Week #3 - PhoneyTools for Windows Phone 7

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 12:17 PM PDT

Have you implemented the NuGet Action Plan ? Get on it, it'll take only 5 minutes: NuGet Action Plan - Upgrade to 1.1, Setup Automatic Updates, Get NuGet Package Explorer . The Backstory: I was thinking since the NuGet .NET package management site is...( read more )...(read more)

Windows Client Developer roundup 064 for 3/21/2011

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 11:58 AM PDT

This is Windows Client Developer Roundup #64. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF , Silverlight , Visual C++ , XNA , Expression Blend , Surface , Windows 7 , Windows Phone...( read more )...(read more)

Windows Client Developer roundup 064 for 3/21/2011

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 11:58 AM PDT

This is Windows Client Developer Roundup #64. The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of interest to Windows Client Developers, including WPF , Silverlight , Visual C++ , XNA , Expression Blend , Surface , Windows 7 , Windows Phone...( read more )...(read more)

SQL Azure Migration Wizard v3.5.9

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 02:23 PM PDT

SQL Azure Migration Wizard (SQLAzureMW) is designed to help you migrate your SQL Server 2005/2008 databases to SQL Azure. SQLAzureMW will analyze your source database for compatibility issues and allow you to fully or partially migrate your database schema and data to SQL Azure.

WP7Contrib – Page Transitions and Navigation Service

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:33 AM PDT

I finally got around to updating the page transistions in wp7 contrib last week, its something that has been on my list for awhile. For a complete sample project check out the sample in the spikes folder where you can also find lots of other samples illustrating...( read more )...(read more)

Interview with SilverlightShow Eco Contest Grand Prize Winner Jeyanandan Nandakumar

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:15 PM PDT

Q. Hi Jey. Congratulations on winning the Grand Prize in our Eco Contest, with your application ' The Lost Leaf '! Please introduce yourself to the community at SilverlightShow – your country, job, experience with Silverlight, anything...( read more )...(read more)

Windows Phone 7 - Part #8: Using Sensors

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 07:21 PM PDT

This article is compatible with the latest version of Silverlight for Windows Phone 7. Don't miss... WP7 shows WP7 Stock Quoting Demo series What is Windows Phone series WP7 Developer Guide: Show more books This is part is the final, 8th part from the...( read more )...(read more)

3D on Windows Phone 7 using Balder

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 11:39 PM PDT

This is not my first time to talk on 3D on Silverlight or Phone platform,In past I wrote decent amount of stuff including Kit3D,3D in Silverlight and recently I wrote 3D on Windows Phone 7 using capabilities of Silverlight framework sitting inside phone...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for March 20, 2011 -- #1062

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 10:37 PM PDT

In this Issue: Ollie Riches , Damon Payne ( -2- ), Jesse Liberty ( -2- ), Shawn Wildermuth , John Papa , Beth Massi , Michael Crump , Mike Taulty ( -2- ), Jorge Peraza , and Peter Kuhn ( -2- ). Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Delay Binding Updates within...( read more )...(read more)

Windows Phone, a great dev platform: adding leaderboards to 4th & Mayor in 30 minutes

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:07 PM PDT

Just over a week ago, a new foursquare feature was released for nice leaderboards. WP7 is fast - I added the feature in about 30 minutes....( read more )...(read more)

4th & Mayor: the ultimate foursquare app for your Windows Phone

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 03:43 PM PDT

I'm pleased to announce that my foursquare app for Windows Phone, 4th & Mayor, is now available on the Windows Phone Marketplace....( read more )...(read more)
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Sunday, March 20, 2011

Building MVVM Light from Codeplex

Building MVVM Light from Codeplex

Building MVVM Light from Codeplex

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 12:40 PM PDT

I just published an article describing how to get the source code from Codeplex, build it, unit test it, get all the DLLs and install them to replace a previously installed version. It's not very complicated, but it is good to have this information in...( read more )...(read more)

MVVM Light V4 preview 2 (BL0015) #mvvmlight

Posted: 20 Mar 2011 08:36 AM PDT

Over the past few weeks, I have worked hard on a few new features for MVVM Light V4. Here is a second early preview (consider this pre-alpha if you wish). The features are unit-tested, but I am now looking for feedback and there might be bugs! Bug correction...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Training Montreal in April 2011

Posted: 19 Mar 2011 04:11 PM PDT

The Silverlight Tour deliver one more class in Montreal , come and learn top Silverlight content from local experts!!! >> This course will be taught in French * << What: Silverlight training When: April 25-28 (4 days) Where: Montreal, Qc Registration...( read more )...(read more)

The Visual C++ Weekly Vol. 1 Issue 12 (Mar 19, 2011)

Posted: 19 Mar 2011 02:41 PM PDT

Read in this issue:

  • [Patterns and Practices] Parallel Programming with MS Visual C++ (online guidance)
  • [CodeProject] 3-D Software Rendering Engine – Part I
  • [Viva64] Lessons on Development of 64-bit Applications
  • [Vlad Lazarenko] C++ Exception Handling and Performance
  • [Channel 9] Kate Gregory on Being a Most Valuable Professional (MVP)
  • [Intel] Free Speedup with Compiler Switches for Fast Math and Intel® Streaming SIMD Extensions 
  • [Visual C++ team] Proposed Workaround for Assembly Signing Issue with VS2010 SP1
  • [Nishant  Sivakumar] C++/CLI equivalent for C#'s default(T)
  • [C++ and Beyond] Registration for C&B 2011 is now open
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Saturday, March 19, 2011

MVP Summit 2011

MVP Summit 2011

MVP Summit 2011

Posted: 19 Mar 2011 06:18 AM PDT

Here is the traditional Canadian " Sea Of Red " picture at the MVP Summit ! picture by Morten Rand-Hendriksen   And a special one, this is the Silverlight MVPs group: picture by Corey Schuman...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight & WCF RIA Services: strategies for handling your Domain Context - Part 2

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 11:22 PM PDT

Don't miss... Deep Dive Into WCF series WCF article series by B.Noyes WCF RIA Services Shows SL4 Business App Development book: Show more books This is the second in a two-part article series on the WCF RIA Services Domain Context. Part 1: Introduction...( read more )...(read more)

Announcing Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 is available

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 05:58 PM PDT

We are proud to announce that Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 is now available for download. LightSwitch gives you a simpler and faster way to create high-quality Silverlight business applications for the desktop and the cloud. If you are new to Visual...( read more )...(read more)

Extending LightSwitch Beta 2 Applications

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 05:49 PM PDT

Hello Silverlight Community, I am the product manager for Microsoft® Visual Studio® LightSwitch™. Today, we are making Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 publicly available for download. If you are new to Visual Studio LightSwitch Beta 2 here...( read more )...(read more)

How to: Configure Visual C++ Projects to Target 64-Bit Platforms (Visual C++ 2010)

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 05:25 PM PDT

This topic describes how to set up C++ applications to target 64-bit platforms using project configurations available in the Visual Studio IDE.
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Friday, March 18, 2011

Tutorial: Building a connected phone app with AgFx

Tutorial: Building a connected phone app with AgFx

Tutorial: Building a connected phone app with AgFx

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 02:39 PM PDT

Earlier this week I wrote a post detailing the application framework that I've been working on, which I'm calling AgFx. I wanted that post to be a bit of an introductory overview,. Now I'm going to dig into detail a bit more, as well as show a bit about how you can use the free Windows Phone 7 Developer tools to quickly create a great application. AgFx does a lot, and one of the apps I used to generate requirements and testing, is Jeff Wilcox's gorgeous new foursquare™ client: 4th & Mayor , which is built on AgFx. Jeff and I, along with some others, have written several apps on top of AgFx over the last few months, and have really sharpened it to be exactly what you need when building a connected phone application...(read more)

Enabling IIS Express support in VS 2010 Sp1

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 09:40 PM PDT

With the Sp1 release of Visual Studio 2010 now available for download , you now have the option to use IIS Express as the development server for your web projects instead of the built-in Visual Studio Development server (aka. Cassini). Here are some previous blog posts explaining the IIS Express integration features in VS 2010 Sp1 Beta, which are also available with this new release of Sp1: VS 2010 SP1 (Beta) and IIS Express Visual Studio 2010 SP1 Beta IIS Express Integration VS 2010 SP1 and IIS Express should both be installed to enable IIS Express support To enable using IIS Express as the development server for your web projects, you need to have both the Sp1 release of VS 2010 as well as the IIS Express web server installed. See the 'Installing...(read more)

Silverlight TV 66: Phoney - New Windows Phone 7 Open Source Project

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 08:34 AM PDT

If you have trouble using bit.ly or logging on Windows Phone 7, check out this week's episode of Silverlight TV where John Papa talks with Shawn Wildermuth about Phoney, a new Open Source Project that will be showcased at MIX11 on April 11 th . ...( read more )...(read more)

Blend Bits 27–“Make it Flip”

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 04:30 AM PDT

This one comes from showing Blend to a few people yesterday and trying to think of various scenarios for making use of different visual states for a UI or for a control and one that came up was "can you make one of those UIs where we have a panel...( read more )...(read more)

Blend Bits 26–Use Libraries for Assemblies

Posted: 18 Mar 2011 01:46 AM PDT

One of the things that's a bit annoying with Expression Blend is that when you go to reference an assembly you get the standard Windows file open dialog. That is; raises the dialog; and that's not what you see in Visual Studio and makes hunting down the...( read more )...(read more)

Phone Tools reaches Beta!

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 04:26 PM PDT

URL : http://shawn.me/wp7phoney I am proud to announce the Beta version of the Phoney Tools. This version (v0.5) includes a few new features that are detailed below. The official release is still slated for MIX11! Changes in this version include: SelectSwitch...( read more )...(read more)

On Silverlight TV to Talk About Phoney Tools

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 04:07 PM PDT

URL : http://shawnw.me/dEUJJk I had the pleasure to join John Papa on Silverlight TV to talk about my Phoney Toolkit. If you get a chance take a look and see if you like what i've built. I got a chance to plug the upcoming Open Source Fest at MIX 11 as...( read more )...(read more)
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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Visual Studio Template Behavior Research

Visual Studio Template Behavior Research

Visual Studio Template Behavior Research

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 08:30 AM PDT

I've been working on some stuff around templates lately and had my own opinions of some of the value of certain features of the Visual Studio template functionality. What I'm speaking of here is when you choose File… New Project or on an existing project...( read more )...(read more)

Visual Studio Template Behavior Research

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 08:30 AM PDT

I've been working on some stuff around templates lately and had my own opinions of some of the value of certain features of the Visual Studio template functionality. What I'm speaking of here is when you choose File… New Project or on an existing project Read More......(read more)

Marbles CMS

Posted: 14 Feb 2011 02:22 AM PST

Marbles aims to be a simple Content Management Server for hosting multiple websites.

Kate Gregory on Being a Most Valuable Professional (MVP)

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Kate Gregory on Being an MVP

The 2011 MVP Global Summit took place a few weeks ago at MS headquarters. MVP stands for most valuable professional, a distinction that Microsoft assign to some prominent community personalities for their passion and dedication in helping the community get the most out of Microsoft technologies.

The MVP program has several disciplines, being C++ one of those. There are about 70 C++ MVPs world wide. This is the first of a series of interviews Charles Torre (our spy in Channel 9!) did recently to the C++ MVPs who attended the Summit. We start with Kate Gregory, a Canadian C++ MVP who recently was nominated "2010 C++ MVP of the Year" for the great job done in presenting sessions on C++ development at several MS conferences including recent and upcoming TechEd's, local codecamps, Channel 9 (we'll be posting some of her technical screencasts) and so forth. Kate is a great blogger as well.

Enjoy the chat!

SilverlightShow for March 7-13, 2011

Posted: 17 Mar 2011 06:12 AM PDT

Check out the Top Five most popular news at SilverlightShow for March 7-13, 2011. Here are the top 5 news on SilverlightShow for last week: SilverlightShow EcoContest Grand Prize Winner and First Runner-up Selected WCF RIA Services V1.0 SP1 Visual Studio...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight & WCF RIA Services: Strategies for handling your Domain Context - Part 1

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 11:21 PM PDT

This is the first in a two-part article series on the WCF RIA Services Domain Context. Part 1: Introduction, instance strategies & first strategy Part 2: Other instance strategies, pointers & conclusion This article series is accompanied by source...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for March 15, 2011 -- #1061

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 10:34 PM PDT

In this Issue: Peter Kuhn , Emil Stoychev , Viktor Larsson ( -2- ), Kevin Hoffman , Rudi Grobler , WindowsPhoneGeek , Jesse Liberty ( -2- ), and Martin Krüger . Above the Fold: Silverlight: "Image comparison using a GridSplitter" Martin Krüger WP7: "Using...( read more )...(read more)

Character Encoding in the .NET Framework

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 01:40 PM PDT

In addition to its support for Unicode (UTF-16) encoding, the .NET Framework supports a standard set of character encodings as well as numerous code pages. This topic discusses the .NET Framework's support for various character encodings, recommends which encoding to use in particular scanarios, discusses how to convert from one encoding to another, and documents the .NET Framework's support for different fallback strategies, which allow an encoder or decoder to handle unmappable characters or bytes.

Overview of Web Application Security Threats

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 11:10 AM PDT

An important part of developing a more secure application is to understand the threats to it. Microsoft has developed a way to categorize threats: Spoofing, Tampering, Repudiation, Information disclosure, Denial of service, Elevation of privilege (STRIDE). This topic briefly describes these threats and how they apply to Web applications.

Upcoming speaking engagements on the Windows Phone

Posted: 16 Mar 2011 02:45 PM PDT

I wanted to share info on a few of the upcoming talks that I will be giving at a few conferences. If you're thinking of attending any of these, I think there will be plenty to learn! MIX 2011 (April) At Microsoft's own MIX 11 conference in Vegas, I will...( read more )...(read more)
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Wednesday, March 16, 2011

SQL Azure Migration Wizard v3.5.8

SQL Azure Migration Wizard v3.5.8

SQL Azure Migration Wizard v3.5.8

Posted: 31 Aug 2009 02:23 PM PDT

SQL Azure Migration Wizard (SQLAzureMW) is designed to help you migrate your SQL Server 2005/2008 databases to SQL Azure. SQLAzureMW will analyze your source database for compatibility issues and allow you to fully or partially migrate your database schema and data to SQL Azure.

XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 7 - Collision detection

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 05:58 PM PDT

This article is part 7 of the series "XNA for Silverlight developers": XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 0 – Why should I care? XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 1 – Fundamentals XNA for Silverlight developers: Part 2 – Text rendering...( read more )...(read more)
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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Visual Studio 2010 SP1

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 12:14 PM PDT

Last week we shipped Service Pack 1 of Visual Studio 2010 and the Visual Studio Express Tools.  In addition to bug fixes and performance improvements, SP1 includes a number of feature enhancements.  This includes improved local help support , IntelliTrace support for 64-bit applications and SharePoint, built-in Silverlight 4 Tooling support in the box, unit testing support when targeting .NET 3.5, a new performance wizard for Silverlight, IIS Express and SQL CE Tooling support for web projects, HTML5 Intellisense for ASP.NET, and more.  TFS 2010 SP1 was also released last week, together with a new TFS Project Server Integration Pack and Load Test Feature Pack.  Brian Harry has a good blog post about the TFS updates here Read...(read more)

Build great Windows Phone applications the easy way!

Posted: 11 Mar 2011 06:15 PM PST

Introducing AgFx One of the things we've spent a fair amount of time on is working with various application writers, helping them build great Windows Phone 7 applications. Many of the top applications that you'll find on Windows Phone 7 devices today spent some time in a debugger on my desktop, or Jeff's , or another one of the folks around here. In doing this process, we saw a lot of common trouble spots for developers looking to write Windows Phone 7 applications and as I started to think more about the problem. I thought the same thing I always think: "hmmmm, how can I build a framework that will make these things easy for the developer so they can worry about other stuff!" And so it was born, and I'm currently...(read more)

With WPF and Silverlight against cancer

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 11:42 AM PDT

MVPs are well known for their good heart (like the GeekGive initiative shows ) and Client App Dev MVP Gregor Biswanger is no exception. At the latest MVP summit (beginning of March 2011), he took over a DVD about WPF 4 and Silverlight 4 and asked a few...( read more )...(read more)

New Book "Parallel Programming with Microsoft Visual C++" now available!

Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:00 AM PDT

Ade MillerHi, my name is Ade Miller and I'm Principal Program Manager with the Microsoft Technical Computing group.

Last fall we shipped Parallel Programming for Microsoft .NET and immediately started working on a companion version of the book for C++ programmers. I'm very happy to announce that Parallel Programming with Microsoft Visual C++: Design patterns for Decomposition, and Coordination on Multicore Architectures is now available!

 

Parallel Programming with Microsoft Visual C++Where Can I Get The Book?

The content is available right now on MSDN Library: Parallel Programming with Microsoft Visual C++, and I hope that will help you be successful with the latest parallel programming features in Visual Studio.

The printed book is available for pre-order from O'Reilly: Parallel Programming with Microsoft® Visual C++.

 

What's In The Book?

The book describes six key patterns for data and task parallelism and how to implement them using the Parallel Patterns Library and Asynchronous Agents Library, which shipped with Visual Studio 2010.

 

Design Patterns for Decomposition and Coordination on Multicore Architectures

 

The book also includes additional material. Appendices on how the Task Scheduler and Resource Manager work and how to use the Visual Studio profiler and debugger to understand your application's performance. It also include an appendix on Microsoft's technology roadmap for technical computing, that sets the book in a larger context.

 

How About Code Samples?

Accompanying the book are code samples for each chapter. This includes small code samples showing how to use each feature of the Task Parallel Library and a larger example for each chapter setting the pattern in a larger context. You can download them from our Parallel Patterns CodePlex site. You can also download answers to the questions at the end of each chapter from CodePlex.

 

Acknowledgements

Once again I'd like to thank my co-author, Colin Campbell and the team of editors and production specialists who did all the real work. I'd also like to thank the countless people who provided feedback, helped with samples and reviewed material. They are all acknowledged in the book.

WP7 for iPhone and Android Developers - Hardware and Device Services

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 06:52 PM PDT

This article is part 4 in a 12-part article series on Windows Phone 7 for iPhone and Android Developers. WP7 for iPhone and Android Developers - Introduction to C# WP7 for iPhone and Android Developers - Introduction to Xaml and Silverlight WP7 for iPhone...( read more )...(read more)

Silverlight Cream for March 14, 2011 -- #1060

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 09:42 PM PDT

In this Issue: Lazar Nikolov , Rudi Grobler , WindowsPhoneGeek , Jesse Liberty , Pete Brown , Jessica Foster , Chris Rouw , Andy Beaulieu , and Colin Eberhardt . Above the Fold: Silverlight: "A Silverlight Resizable TextBlock (and other resizable things...( read more )...(read more)

Cynergy Showcases HTML5 at IE9 Launch

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 06:40 PM PDT

Today I'm proud to announce we have updated the HTML5 game Jitterbugs, in celebration of the final release of Microsoft Internet Explorer 9. If you've got IE9, you can go play it now. Jitterbugs was originally written for the beta release of IE9...( read more )...(read more)

Looks like the new Office2015 is going to get alot of Metro luvin

Posted: 14 Mar 2011 02:46 PM PDT

If these leaked images are true then Office15 will get alot of metro/zune luvin A video of Word2015 that shows alot of Zune like transitions/animations Heres the rest of the Office 2015 images of the other products : – RussianSite … Continue...( read more )...(read more)
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