Bill Gates has a real knack for delivering big news in a small way. The Microsoft chairman could have been ordering hamburgers when telling the WinHEC audience the company had sold close to 40 million copies of Vista.
Gates revealed the news during the opening keynote of Microsoft's annual Windows Hardware Engineering Conference, which started today.
"As of last week, we've had nearly 40 million copies sold, and so that's twice as fast as the adoption of Windows XP, the last major release that we've had," Gates said.
The sales number, for the operating system's first 100 days of broad availability, represents license sales into the channel. However, the number of Vista PCs sold is probably much less.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Windows Home Server
Windows Home Server helps you simplify the digital aspects of your life, connecting PCs, devices, and people. It provides a familiar way to store, share, and automatically protect what's important to you—your digital memories.
With Windows Home Server, you can store your music, photos, and other files on a central hub-like hard drive, accessible from every PC in your house. Protect your files and your PCs with automatic backup and a simple restore process—even gain access to files on your PCs from anywhere with an Internet connection through secure Web access.
Simple to set up and easy to use, Windows Home Server helps you and your family get organized, connect your PCs, and protect your data.
What is Windows Home Server?
Windows Home Server helps families with multiple PCs easily connect their digital experiences, providing a reliable and familiar way to store, access, share, and automatically protect treasured digital images, music, video, and personal documents.
Who is building hardware for Windows Home Server?
Later this year, a variety of manufacturers will be offering products powered by Windows Home Server, providing a complete hardware and software solution.
How does Windows Home Server differ from other products in the marketplace?
Windows Home Server is a unique, integrated solution that provides backup and restore, centralized expandable storage, and access from anywhere to your home server and home PCs. It is a lot more than extra storage. Unlike other home storage, backup, or remote access tools currently available, Windows Home Server offers unprecedented simplicity and ease of use. In addition, as a development platform, Windows Home Server offers partners great opportunities for innovation to address the needs of the digital home. This means that a wide range of applications and tools that integrate with and take advantage of Windows Home Server will be available.
How can I access my files when I'm not at home?
You can access Windows Home Server and your home PCs through a personalized Windows Live Internet address that you choose. That means with a simple log in to your family Web site, you can access your photos, music files, and videos from anywhere. Windows Home Server not only enables you to upload and download files stored on your home server but also allows you to connect remotely and use your home computers as if you were sitting in front of them.
When will this product be available for purchase? How can I buy it?
Windows Home Server will be available through the retail channel within a wide range of new hardware products. The first products are targeted for availability in the second half of 2007. It will be available in English, German, French, and Spanish
How is Windows Home Server different from Windows XP Media Center Edition or Windows Vista Home Premium?
Windows Home Server works with your Windows PC. Windows XP Media Center Edition and Windows Vista Home Premium are designed to run on personal computers and provide acquisition and management of media, such as TV programs, music, and photos. Windows Home Server is designed to make managing a home network, with Windows XP PCs and Windows Vista PCs, easier and more automatic. It does this by acting as a centralized place for storage, enabling remote access and providing automated backup for all PCs in house.
Windows Home Server SDK Now Available for Download
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
How to surf anonymously without a trace
The punchline to an old cartoon is "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog," but these days, that's no longer true.
It's easier than ever for the government, Web sites and private businesses to track exactly what you do online, know where you've visited, and build up comprehensive profiles about your likes, dislikes and private habits.
And with the federal government increasingly demanding online records from sites such as Google and others, your online privacy is even more endangered.
But you don't need to be a victim. There are things you can do to keep your surfing habits anonymous and protect your online privacy. So read on to find out how to keep your privacy to yourself when you use the Internet, without spending a penny.
What they know about you?
Whenever you surf the Web, you leave yourself open to being snooped upon by Web sites. They can track your online travels, know what operating system and browser you're running, find out your machine name, uncover the last sites you've visited, examine your history list, delve into your cache, examine your IP address and use that to learn basic information about you such as your geographic location and more. To a great extent, your Internet life is an open book when you visit.
Sites use a variety of techniques to gather and collate this information, but the two most basic are examining your IP address and placing cookies on your PC. Matching your IP address with your cookies makes it easier for them to create personal profiles.
If you'd like to see what kind of information sites can gather about you, head to these two sites, which peer into your browser and report what they find.
- Privacy Analysis of Your Internet Connection gathers and displays basic information, such as your operating system, screen resolution, what site you previously visited, general system setup and so on.
- BrowserSpy delves even deeper into your system and even reports on whether you have certain software on your system, such as RealPlayer and Adobe Acrobat, including version information.
The best way to make sure Web sites can't gather personal information about you and your computer is to surf anonymously by using an anonymous proxy server that sits between you and the Web sites you visit.
When you use an anonymous proxy server, your browser doesn't contact a Web site directly. Instead, it tells a proxy server which Web sites you want to visit. The proxy server then contacts the Web site, and when you get the Web site's page, you don't get it directly from the site. Instead, it's delivered to you by the proxy server. In that way, your browser never directly contacts the Web server whose site you want to view. The Web site sees the IP address of the proxy server, not your PC's IP address. It can't read your cookies, see your history list or examine your clipboard and cache because your PC is never in direct contact with it. You're able to surf without a trace.
There are three primary ways to use anonymous proxy servers. You can configure your browser to use a such a server (or get software to do it for you); you can visit an "anonymizer" Web site, which does the work of contacting the server; or you can download software that will ensure your anonymity when you use the Internet. We'll look at how to do each.
Keep yourself anonymous with Tor
The best free software you can find for being anonymous when you use the Web is to use the free Tor. When you use Tor, all your communications -- not just Web surfing, but also instant messaging and other applications -- are in essence bounced around a giant network of Tor servers called "onion routers" until it's impossible for sites or people to be able to track your activities.
Setting up Tor is straightforward. Download a package that includes not just Tor, but other software you need to work with it, such as Privoxy, a proxy program. All the software is self-configuring, so you won't need to muck around with port settings or the like. Tor runs as a small icon in your system tray. To start Tor, right-click it and choose Start from the menu that appears; to stop it, right-click it and choose Stop.
Once it starts, simply use the Internet as you normally would. If you're superparanoid, you can regularly change your Tor "identity" to make it even harder for anyone to track your travels. Right-click the Tor icon, and select "New Identity." That's all it takes.
Tor also includes a nice bandwidth tool that has nothing to do with anonymity but that graphs your bandwidth use. Right-click the Tor icon, and choose Bandwidth Graph. You can see it in action, along with Tor's right-click context menu, in the nearby figure.
Firefox users will want to download the Torbutton, which will let them turn Tor on and off from directly within the browser.
I've found only one drawback to Tor: At times, I've noticed a slowdown in surfing when using it. But that comes and goes, and slowdowns aren't that extreme. So if you're worried about your privacy when you surf, it's a great bet.
Web sites that let you surf anonymously for free
A number of free Web sites offer free anonymous surfing via proxy servers. The benefits of these sites are obvious: When you surf, you're anonymous. But there are some drawbacks as well. Surfing tends to be slower -- and in some cases very slow. And when you use these Web sites, some sites you visit from them don't display properly.
The sites all work pretty much the same. Head to them, and in a box, type the Web site you want to visit. From that point on, you'll be surfing anonymously; the site does the work of using an anonymous proxy server for you.
The Cloak is one such service. It lets you customize exactly how anonymous you want to be and what surfing technologies you want to leave on or off. It goes beyond providing anonymity and can protect you in other ways -- for example, by turning off Java and JavaScript or even blocking banner ads. As you can see in the nearby screenshot, you can configure all that yourself before you start to surf.
Once you do that, you type in the address you want to visit, and you're off. As you browse in your browser's address bar, you'll notice an odd URL that contains the Cloak's URL as well as the site you're visiting. For example, if you visit CNN, you'll see something like this:
http://www.the-cloak.com/Cloaked/+cfg=31/http%3A//www.cnn.com/
Note that if you want to remain anonymous during your surfing session after you visit the first Web site from The Cloak, you'll have to only click links. If you type a URL directly into the address bar, the Cloak will no longer work.
The Cloak is free, but it has some limitations. You'll surf more slowly than normally, and the slowdown may become noticeable. One reason is that the site also offers a for-pay service, and so it throttles down free users, while letting those who pay surf without a throttle. And the site may also limit the amount of time you surf anonymously as well, depending on whether many users are logged in simultaneously.
Use your browser with an anonymous proxy
If you don't like the limitations imposed on you by sites like the Cloak or would simply prefer to configure anonymous surfing yourself, you can easily set up your browser to use an anonymous proxy server to sit between you and the sites you visit.
To use an anonymous proxy server with your browser, first find an anonymous proxy server. Hundreds of free, public proxy servers are available, but many frequently go offline or are very slow. Many sites compile lists of these proxy servers, including Public Proxy Servers and the Atom InterSoft proxy server list. To find others, do a Google search.
I prefer Atom InterSoft proxy server list because it provides more information about each server. It lists server uptime percentage and the last time the server was checked to see if it was online.
Find the server with the highest percentage of uptime. Write down the server's IP address and the port it uses. For example, in the listing 24.236.148.15:80, the IP address is 24.236.148.15, and the port number is 80.
In Internet Explorer, select Tools-->Internet Options, click the Connections tab, and click the LAN Settings button. Check the "Use a proxy server for your LAN" box. In the Address field, type in the IP address of the proxy server. In the Port field, type in its port number. Check the "Bypass proxy server for local addresses" box; you don't need to remain anonymous on your local network. Click OK and then OK again to close the dialog boxes. Now when you surf the Web, the proxy server will protect your privacy. Keep in mind that proxy servers can make surfing the Web slower, depending on the proxy you're using.
In Firefox, select Tools -->Advanced, click the Network tab, and click the Settings button. Choose "Manual proxy configuration," enter the proxy information (IP address and port number), and click OK and then OK again
Problems with anonymous proxy servers
If you set up your browser to use anonymous proxies, as I just outlined, you need to keep in mind that there's one potential danger: Theoretically, a hacker could set up a proxy server, and then use it to capture information about the Web sites you visit. And if you type in user names and passwords, he could steal those as well.
I haven't heard of this actually happening in the real world, but you should be aware that it's a possibility. Using software like Tor or a free proxy server like the Cloak won't expose you to this danger; only the use of public proxy servers does.
How can you protect yourself against this? Before using a proxy server, do a Google search on its name and address to see if there are any reports about hackers using it. And it's also a good idea to only use a server that you notice have been on the lists a long time, because hackers are not likely to keep a server running a long time without being caught or shutting it down.
What else you can do?
There are other ways to help protect your anonymity online. If you're worried that your searches may be used by search engines or government agencies to invade your privacy or create a profile about you, see Seven ways to keep your search history private.
If you want to be able to send e-mail anonymously so that no one can find out that you sent it, you can use an anonymous remailer such as the Web-based Anonymouse's AnonEmail or the downloadable QuickSilver.
There are also plenty of for-pay anonymity services, such as the Anonymizer, and the Anonymizer's new Nyms service, which uses utilizes disposable e-mail addresses to protect your true e-mail identity.
Finally, for a very good all-around resource about how to protect your privacy online, check out the http://www.epic.org/privacy/tools.html It has plenty of links to software and sites to help protect your privacy.
Friday, May 11, 2007
Mozilla Firefox 3 schedule
Mozilla Corp. unveiled new details of its schedule for Firefox 3, the next major upgrade to the popular open-source browser.
Alpha editions of Firefox 3 will be released monthly, said Mike Schroepfer, the company's vice president of engineering, in a posting to the mozilla.dev.planning forum. "We will do date-driven alpha releases on a one-month cadence," said Schroepfer.
Firefox 3, which Mozilla has said should appear in final form in the last quarter of the year, will feature a completely revamped bookmarking system, new identity management tools and support for offline Web applications. The redesigned bookmarks, dubbed Places, will debut in Alpha 5, which is due to roll out May 31.
According to numbers reported earlier this month by metrics vendor Net Applications, Firefox had 15.1% of the global browser market. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remained the leader, however, with a 78.6% share.
Alpha editions of Firefox 3 will be released monthly, said Mike Schroepfer, the company's vice president of engineering, in a posting to the mozilla.dev.planning forum. "We will do date-driven alpha releases on a one-month cadence," said Schroepfer.
Firefox 3, which Mozilla has said should appear in final form in the last quarter of the year, will feature a completely revamped bookmarking system, new identity management tools and support for offline Web applications. The redesigned bookmarks, dubbed Places, will debut in Alpha 5, which is due to roll out May 31.
According to numbers reported earlier this month by metrics vendor Net Applications, Firefox had 15.1% of the global browser market. Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer remained the leader, however, with a 78.6% share.
Microsoft still interested in Yahoo
Having lost out to Google Inc. in a bid to acquire Internet advertising company DoubleClick Inc., Microsoft Corp. has initiated a new round of talks to acquire Yahoo Inc., according to published reports.
Microsoft and Yahoo have held informal talks in the past, with the software developer making an offer for Yahoo that was turned down, according to today's New York Post, citing unnamed sources. The fresh talks suggest a renewed urgency on Microsoft's part to make a deal, the paper said.
The companies appear to be in "early-stage discussions" over a merger or some other type of deal that would combine their respective strengths, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also reported the talks.
Financial analysts have valued Yahoo at approximately $50 billion, the Post reported. Goldman Sachs is working with Microsoft, it said.
Google announced early last month that it would buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash, bolstering the search company's status as an online advertising powerhouse. Microsoft had also been interested in DoubleClick and was thought to have lost out in a bidding war with Google, analysts said at the time.
Microsoft and Yahoo have both been struggling to rein in Google's lead in the search and online advertising markets. Losing DoubleClick and a few other deals to Google, including an advertising deal with AOL LLC two years ago, gave Microsoft renewed interest in a merger with Yahoo, the Post reported. "They're getting tired of being left at the altar," a banking source told the newspaper.
Microsoft and Yahoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment. They both declined to comment to the Post, which reported the story on its Web site this morning.
Acquiring Yahoo would expand Microsoft's presence on the Web and could make it easier to attract new advertising customers. And Yahoo could benefit from Microsoft's technical expertise, the Journal said.
Despite heavy investments in its own search engine and search ad network, Microsoft has not matched the levels of online advertising revenue that Google and Yahoo have achieved. Traffic to Microsoft's Web sites is strong -- it consistently ranks first in Web site visitors worldwide -- but the company has not monetized the traffic effectively.
Microsoft and others, including two civil rights groups, have asked regulators to examine Google's planned DoubleClick acquisition, saying it would be bad for competition in the online advertising market.
Microsoft and Yahoo have held informal talks in the past, with the software developer making an offer for Yahoo that was turned down, according to today's New York Post, citing unnamed sources. The fresh talks suggest a renewed urgency on Microsoft's part to make a deal, the paper said.
The companies appear to be in "early-stage discussions" over a merger or some other type of deal that would combine their respective strengths, according to The Wall Street Journal, which also reported the talks.
Financial analysts have valued Yahoo at approximately $50 billion, the Post reported. Goldman Sachs is working with Microsoft, it said.
Google announced early last month that it would buy DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in cash, bolstering the search company's status as an online advertising powerhouse. Microsoft had also been interested in DoubleClick and was thought to have lost out in a bidding war with Google, analysts said at the time.
Microsoft and Yahoo have both been struggling to rein in Google's lead in the search and online advertising markets. Losing DoubleClick and a few other deals to Google, including an advertising deal with AOL LLC two years ago, gave Microsoft renewed interest in a merger with Yahoo, the Post reported. "They're getting tired of being left at the altar," a banking source told the newspaper.
Microsoft and Yahoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment. They both declined to comment to the Post, which reported the story on its Web site this morning.
Acquiring Yahoo would expand Microsoft's presence on the Web and could make it easier to attract new advertising customers. And Yahoo could benefit from Microsoft's technical expertise, the Journal said.
Despite heavy investments in its own search engine and search ad network, Microsoft has not matched the levels of online advertising revenue that Google and Yahoo have achieved. Traffic to Microsoft's Web sites is strong -- it consistently ranks first in Web site visitors worldwide -- but the company has not monetized the traffic effectively.
Microsoft and others, including two civil rights groups, have asked regulators to examine Google's planned DoubleClick acquisition, saying it would be bad for competition in the online advertising market.
Microsoft discloses details about next SQL Server ('Katmai') release
Microsoft Corp. announced new details about the next version of its SQL Server software, which it said will let users access and manage increasing volumes of data.
Microsoft, which made the announcement here at its first Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference, said that the next release -- now called Katmai -- will ship next year.
"We developed SQL Server with the goal of providing a data management and analysis platform for all companies, regardless of size or budget," said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the data and storage platform division at Microsoft, in a statement. "With the release of Katmai, we'll take the next step on our data platform vision by delivering a comprehensive and integrated business intelligence solution. Expanding the usability of data across business will give customers more value for their IT investments."
Katmai will include tighter integration with Microsoft Excel 2007, Excel Services, Office SharePoint Server and Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft said. It will also provide reports of any size or complexity for internal use and for external partners and suppliers.
In addition, Katmai will include the Microsoft Visual Studio integrated development environment and .Net Framework, which will let developers build new applications with a higher level of data abstraction and synchronize data from virtually any device to the central data store, Microsoft said.
SQL Server Katmai can be used to manage any type of data, including relational data, documents, geographic information and XML, Microsoft said.
Microsoft, which made the announcement here at its first Microsoft Business Intelligence Conference, said that the next release -- now called Katmai -- will ship next year.
"We developed SQL Server with the goal of providing a data management and analysis platform for all companies, regardless of size or budget," said Ted Kummert, corporate vice president of the data and storage platform division at Microsoft, in a statement. "With the release of Katmai, we'll take the next step on our data platform vision by delivering a comprehensive and integrated business intelligence solution. Expanding the usability of data across business will give customers more value for their IT investments."
Katmai will include tighter integration with Microsoft Excel 2007, Excel Services, Office SharePoint Server and Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, Microsoft said. It will also provide reports of any size or complexity for internal use and for external partners and suppliers.
In addition, Katmai will include the Microsoft Visual Studio integrated development environment and .Net Framework, which will let developers build new applications with a higher level of data abstraction and synchronize data from virtually any device to the central data store, Microsoft said.
SQL Server Katmai can be used to manage any type of data, including relational data, documents, geographic information and XML, Microsoft said.
Monday, May 7, 2007
Visual Studio Orcas features(.NET-2007)
Visual Studio Orcas, due for release at the end of 2007, promises numerous improvements for Visual Basic, a data query called the Language Integrated Query (LINQ), a new Entity Framework for ADO.NET and updated tools for ASP.NET AJAX and Office 2007 development.
This two-part series examines ten of the IDE's new features as they were explained during sessions at DevConnections 2007. This article looks at the improvements to the IDE and the aforementioned ADO.NET Entity Framework. Part 2 looks at what's new in Visual Basic 9 and LINQ; as you will see, these two concepts are closely related.
Multi-targeting
Visual Studio Orcas is billed as the design surface for the .NET Framework 3.5, which itself is the merger of the .NET 3.0 toolset introduced earlier this year with updated versions of ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Visual Basic, C# and the CLR.
At the same time, though, Orcas allows developers to work backwards and develop specifically for .NET 2.0 or 3.0. In the words of Jeff King, program manager on the Visual Studio team, the tool and the framework are decoupled: "It really buys you freedom."
Once a framework version has been selected, Visual Studio Orcas will enable the reference features that are appropriate for that version of the framework. (In other words, don't try using LINQ in a .NET 2.0 application.)
N-tier application development
An n-tier application is spread among any number of different systems, typically a service layer, an access layer and a business logic layer. With such a model, it is easy to share validation logic between entities, said Young Joo, a Visual Basic program manager.
Unfortunately, developing such applications in Visual Studio 2005 is "pretty much impossible," Joo said, because a dataset and the code that connects it to a database are in the same file. The change in Visual Studio Orcas is subtle but important, as the table and the dataset now reside in different layers.
An improved designer
King described the Visual Studio 2005 designer as little more the Internet Explorer renderer turned into an editor. To improve upon this, the Visual Studio group turned to Expression, the Microsoft product suite for Web designers.
The new designer allows developers to apply styles in line, with an existing class, with a new class or with Internet Explorer. "We default manually nowadays," King said. In addition, changes such as margins and paddings around images can be applied to rules and not just individually. This also makes for cleaner CSS files.
Finally, the designer offers a split view, so developers can look at source code and design simultaneously. This is a response to the growing trend of development using two monitors, King said.
ASP.NET AJAX and VSTO for Office 2007
Right now, developers aiming to build cutting edge Web applications have to download the ASP.NET AJAX framework, and those who want to develop for Office 2007 have to download Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition.
Both ASP.NET AJAX and VSTO 2005 SE will be directly incorporated into Visual Studio Orcas. VSTO will come with a new runtime, which will run both Office 2007 and Office 2003 add-ins, while ASP.NET AJAX will come with a variety of JavaScript tools, such as IntelliSense and robust debugging.
The ADO.NET Entity Framework
The biggest changes to ADO.NET revolve around its Entity Framework. This framework consists of a conceptual layer, which fits between an application's logical database layer and its object layer, and the Entity Data Model, said Julia Lerman, consultant and owner of The Data Farm.
Run the Entity Data Model Wizard in Visual Studio Orcas and the output is three files -- a conceptual model that talks to object classes, a logical model that the relational database talks to, and map between the conceptual and logical models.
Within the conceptual layer, one finds entity types bundled into sets, associations that define the relationship between entities, and sets of associations. The information in this layer will handle the back and forth with SQL Server without touching data access code, Lerman said.
Once entities have been created, developers can use the either CreateQuery or new LINQ to Entities query to retrieve entity objects, data records or anonymous types, Lerman said.
LINQ: The Language Integrated Query
In Visual Studio 2005, querying a dataset typically involves a stored procedure, a newly created view and a bit of ADO.NET filtering. This is the case because data exists in rows, while .NET code deals with objects. "They are always two different worlds," said Jeff King, a program manager on the Visual Studio team. "LINQ puts queries inside the languages and merges the worlds together."
At its most basic level, the Language Integrated Query, a feature of both Visual Basic and C#, uses the concept of the SQL Select statement to make its queries. However, there are two important differences, said Markus Egger, president and chief software architect at EPS Software Corp. and publisher of CoDe Magazine.
First, LINQ statements begin with a From statement instead of the Select statement. By listing the data source first, IntelliSense is triggered, Egger said.
Second, since C# and Visual Basic are object-oriented languages, he said, "whatever you can express in C# or VB you can make part of LINQ queries." This encompasses anything that is IEnumerable -- entities, collections and even XML. Moreover, since the queries are being made in an object-oriented environment, Egger said, "you can do very, very complex things that result in a completely different result set," such as calling up an instance of objects that did not exist in the source at all.
LINQ also brings about the introduction of several new language concepts for Visual Basic and C#. The expression tree, for example, is a data representation of the LINQ expression that bridges the gap between the .NET code and the SQL Server. In addition, property initialization makes it possible to create an object and set its properties in a single line of code.
Other new language concepts, which will be discussed below, include implicit types and extension methods.
VB 9: Implicit types
In a nutshell, author and consultant Billy Hollis said, implicit types provide strong typing without forcing developers to figure out the type they need. The compiler does the work for them, since the type is inferred from the initializer expression.
Implicit types work well when looping through a collection, Hollis said, since in such a scenario a developer is likely to be looking only for a key and a value and will not know, or care, what is the index type.
In addition, inferring types makes it possible for extensions to bind to data types such as XML. This is fundamental to making LINQ work, Hollis said.
VB 9: Extension Methods
Extension methods, which Hollis described as "syntactic sugar," are another Visual Basic 9 feature coming straight from LINQ, since all LINQ query operators are extension methods. These methods are marked with custom attributes and are then added to other objects automatically (so long as they are not already there).
Hollis said extension methods can be used just about anywhere a developer would use a normal function. However, they cannot contain optional parameters, parameter arrays or generic arguments that have not been typed. Also, late binding cannot be done with extension methods, he said.
VB 9: IntelliSense
IntelliSense, already referred to as "Intellicrack" in some development circles, is set in Visual Basic 9 to encompass keywords, member variables and anything in scope. "Anything that would make sense there, IntelliSense will put it in," Hollis said.
Moreover, IntelliSense will work with implicit types, once the compiler has figured out what is they type, Egger said.
In addition, LINQ, as stated, is set up to take advantage of IntelliSense. In SQL syntax, the Select query comes first, but in LINQ, the From statement comes first. With the data source listed first, IntelliSense has a chance to kick in.
Finally, as mentioned in Part 1 of this article, Visual Studio Orcas has added JavaScript IntelliSense to accommodate ASP.NET AJAX development.
VB 9: Relaxed delegates, initializers and more
For additional information on what's new in Visual Basic 9, including relaxed delegates and initializers, check out the MSDN article Overview of Visual Basic 9.0. The emphasis there is on productivity gains developers can expect to enjoy when building data-oriented applications with an increasingly dynamic language.
This two-part series examines ten of the IDE's new features as they were explained during sessions at DevConnections 2007. This article looks at the improvements to the IDE and the aforementioned ADO.NET Entity Framework. Part 2 looks at what's new in Visual Basic 9 and LINQ; as you will see, these two concepts are closely related.
Multi-targeting
Visual Studio Orcas is billed as the design surface for the .NET Framework 3.5, which itself is the merger of the .NET 3.0 toolset introduced earlier this year with updated versions of ASP.NET, ADO.NET, Visual Basic, C# and the CLR.
At the same time, though, Orcas allows developers to work backwards and develop specifically for .NET 2.0 or 3.0. In the words of Jeff King, program manager on the Visual Studio team, the tool and the framework are decoupled: "It really buys you freedom."
Once a framework version has been selected, Visual Studio Orcas will enable the reference features that are appropriate for that version of the framework. (In other words, don't try using LINQ in a .NET 2.0 application.)
N-tier application development
An n-tier application is spread among any number of different systems, typically a service layer, an access layer and a business logic layer. With such a model, it is easy to share validation logic between entities, said Young Joo, a Visual Basic program manager.
Unfortunately, developing such applications in Visual Studio 2005 is "pretty much impossible," Joo said, because a dataset and the code that connects it to a database are in the same file. The change in Visual Studio Orcas is subtle but important, as the table and the dataset now reside in different layers.
An improved designer
King described the Visual Studio 2005 designer as little more the Internet Explorer renderer turned into an editor. To improve upon this, the Visual Studio group turned to Expression, the Microsoft product suite for Web designers.
The new designer allows developers to apply styles in line, with an existing class, with a new class or with Internet Explorer. "We default manually nowadays," King said. In addition, changes such as margins and paddings around images can be applied to rules and not just individually. This also makes for cleaner CSS files.
Finally, the designer offers a split view, so developers can look at source code and design simultaneously. This is a response to the growing trend of development using two monitors, King said.
ASP.NET AJAX and VSTO for Office 2007
Right now, developers aiming to build cutting edge Web applications have to download the ASP.NET AJAX framework, and those who want to develop for Office 2007 have to download Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition.
Both ASP.NET AJAX and VSTO 2005 SE will be directly incorporated into Visual Studio Orcas. VSTO will come with a new runtime, which will run both Office 2007 and Office 2003 add-ins, while ASP.NET AJAX will come with a variety of JavaScript tools, such as IntelliSense and robust debugging.
The ADO.NET Entity Framework
The biggest changes to ADO.NET revolve around its Entity Framework. This framework consists of a conceptual layer, which fits between an application's logical database layer and its object layer, and the Entity Data Model, said Julia Lerman, consultant and owner of The Data Farm.
Run the Entity Data Model Wizard in Visual Studio Orcas and the output is three files -- a conceptual model that talks to object classes, a logical model that the relational database talks to, and map between the conceptual and logical models.
Within the conceptual layer, one finds entity types bundled into sets, associations that define the relationship between entities, and sets of associations. The information in this layer will handle the back and forth with SQL Server without touching data access code, Lerman said.
Once entities have been created, developers can use the either CreateQuery or new LINQ to Entities query to retrieve entity objects, data records or anonymous types, Lerman said.
LINQ: The Language Integrated Query
In Visual Studio 2005, querying a dataset typically involves a stored procedure, a newly created view and a bit of ADO.NET filtering. This is the case because data exists in rows, while .NET code deals with objects. "They are always two different worlds," said Jeff King, a program manager on the Visual Studio team. "LINQ puts queries inside the languages and merges the worlds together."
At its most basic level, the Language Integrated Query, a feature of both Visual Basic and C#, uses the concept of the SQL Select statement to make its queries. However, there are two important differences, said Markus Egger, president and chief software architect at EPS Software Corp. and publisher of CoDe Magazine.
First, LINQ statements begin with a From statement instead of the Select statement. By listing the data source first, IntelliSense is triggered, Egger said.
Second, since C# and Visual Basic are object-oriented languages, he said, "whatever you can express in C# or VB you can make part of LINQ queries." This encompasses anything that is IEnumerable -- entities, collections and even XML. Moreover, since the queries are being made in an object-oriented environment, Egger said, "you can do very, very complex things that result in a completely different result set," such as calling up an instance of objects that did not exist in the source at all.
LINQ also brings about the introduction of several new language concepts for Visual Basic and C#. The expression tree, for example, is a data representation of the LINQ expression that bridges the gap between the .NET code and the SQL Server. In addition, property initialization makes it possible to create an object and set its properties in a single line of code.
Other new language concepts, which will be discussed below, include implicit types and extension methods.
VB 9: Implicit types
In a nutshell, author and consultant Billy Hollis said, implicit types provide strong typing without forcing developers to figure out the type they need. The compiler does the work for them, since the type is inferred from the initializer expression.
Implicit types work well when looping through a collection, Hollis said, since in such a scenario a developer is likely to be looking only for a key and a value and will not know, or care, what is the index type.
In addition, inferring types makes it possible for extensions to bind to data types such as XML. This is fundamental to making LINQ work, Hollis said.
VB 9: Extension Methods
Extension methods, which Hollis described as "syntactic sugar," are another Visual Basic 9 feature coming straight from LINQ, since all LINQ query operators are extension methods. These methods are marked with custom attributes and are then added to other objects automatically (so long as they are not already there).
Hollis said extension methods can be used just about anywhere a developer would use a normal function. However, they cannot contain optional parameters, parameter arrays or generic arguments that have not been typed. Also, late binding cannot be done with extension methods, he said.
VB 9: IntelliSense
IntelliSense, already referred to as "Intellicrack" in some development circles, is set in Visual Basic 9 to encompass keywords, member variables and anything in scope. "Anything that would make sense there, IntelliSense will put it in," Hollis said.
Moreover, IntelliSense will work with implicit types, once the compiler has figured out what is they type, Egger said.
In addition, LINQ, as stated, is set up to take advantage of IntelliSense. In SQL syntax, the Select query comes first, but in LINQ, the From statement comes first. With the data source listed first, IntelliSense has a chance to kick in.
Finally, as mentioned in Part 1 of this article, Visual Studio Orcas has added JavaScript IntelliSense to accommodate ASP.NET AJAX development.
VB 9: Relaxed delegates, initializers and more
For additional information on what's new in Visual Basic 9, including relaxed delegates and initializers, check out the MSDN article Overview of Visual Basic 9.0. The emphasis there is on productivity gains developers can expect to enjoy when building data-oriented applications with an increasingly dynamic language.
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