I like having my editor and my build environment integrated with my source control, even if that source control is Source Safe (ugh.) I like being able to check in and out from Solution Explorer rather than a separate tool, and settings like “check out on edit” are handy too. But you know what I really want to be able to do? Right click a line of code and ask “who wrote this?” The answer would be the date, user id, and check-in comment from the last time a touch of that file affected that line of code. Anyone who has ever managed a team project has looked at a block of code, done a double-take, and then demanded of the air “who the %^^$# put that in there?” I want my editing environment to tell me that.

The information to do this is in the system. I can do it by hand by doing a Diff between versions until I find two versions where that line changed, then looking at the check-in details. But it's just the kind of boring job that's perfect for a computer.

I wonder if the source control in VSTS does this?

Kate

Did you know that Visual C++ 6, which is fast approaching its seventh birthday, will soon be an unsupported product? That's not exactly shocking; after all it was developed to let developers target Windows 95 or NT! Perhaps you were wondering when some other applications you use are going to reach end of life.... in that case, here are some handy links:

• http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifesrvr for server products.... SQL Server 7 support ends this year, too. MTS has been out of support for years.
• http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifedevtoolfam for developer tools... VB 6 will be in extended support for longer than VC++ 6. Go figure.
• http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifeofficefam for the Office family.
• http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifewin for versions of Windows. Windows 1.0 was still in mainstream support until 2001!

If there's something you don't feel like upgrading, you might want to know how long it will be supported for as part of your wait-or-upgrade-now decision.

Kate

I got an interesting email today with this subject line: Want to build the next generation of C++ Libraries?

Enclosed was the following, from Martyn Lovell:

Development Lead, Visual C++ Libraries

Want to set the standard for the next generation of C++ application? Ready to design code that will be used and critiqued by the whole developer community? Want to have a direct connection to customers whose problems you understand? Want to build a new generation of libraries for a new language running in modern environments? The Visual C++ Libraries team is the place for you. We own all the library code shipped for C++. We are building new libraries that drive developer productivity and power on the native and managed platforms. Next version we’ll have to understand how our customers are going to work with WinFX and move forward with their existing code. And we’ll have to bring our native and managed libraries up to date to work seamlessly with the technologies of the Longhorn Wave, WinFX and ISV applications like Office 12. We own the full set of C++ Libraries -- C Runtime Library, Standard C++ Library, MFC and ATL. In future releases we’ll also have to address some of the challenges of parallel programming, and migration of existing native applications to managed code. We’re looking for senior individual contributors ready to code, design and provide the next generation of code reuse though leadership at Microsoft. Degree in a relevant subject and five years of software engineering required.

We are anticipating expanding our team for our next version to allow us to build some new MFC and ATL features (such as integration with Avalon, and support for new UI styles). So we’re hoping to find one or two people with deep MFC experience to add to our team. You don’t have to be using MFC today, but we especially want to hear from you if you have written a good amount of MFC code in your past.

If you know Martyn's email address, go ahead and email him and mention you saw it on my blog. If you don't, email me (don't leave a comment) and I will forward it to him.

Kate

People regularly email me, or approach me at conferences, and ask me to “confirm” that Microsoft is trying to get rid of C++ in favour of C#. Since nothing could be further from the truth, I am not the person to get a confirmation from. But then again, I don't work for Microsoft, so maybe I'm deluded? That's why I like to find simple and unequivocal statements from people who do work for Microsoft, like this:

Visual Studio 2005 takes C++ development to a new level. For example, developers will get the same drag-and-drop experience creation of user interface as other languages, the same automatic statement completion and the same intuitive graphical debugger. Visual C++ 2005 developers will be able to build high performance 32-bit native code applications, use web services to interact with popular sites such as Amazon.com and Ebay, add professional quality 3D/2D graphics, video and sound using the DirectX SDK, all while generating robust and extremely fast code using our world-class C/C++ compiler.

C++ is here to stay for a long time and we are committed to providing the best tools for C++ development.

That's kind of hard to misinterpret. And when the Corporate Vice President of the Developer Division says it, you really need to believe it.

Brandon Bray went about 18 months without blogging and I know I was just one of many people who begged him to start again. Well, he has and his first entry is a delightful laundry list of things he plans to cover. The second is about switch reduction in the 2005 compiler and linker, but it provides wonderful insight into the hassles of writing, testing and maintaining a compiler and a linker. A few quotes:

I started evaluating changes by doing none else than reading the source code for the compiler driver. Through that I came across obsolete, outdated, bizarre, undocumented, and useless switches. I looked at each one asking whether it was necessary for the compiler in the long term and evaluating each switch against the requirements listed above. I actually spent most of my time trying to figure out what each switch did. Even asking developers who work on the compiler, I'd sometimes get several different answers. In a few cases, no one knew what the switch did. If our own team couldn't recall a switch's purpose, it's not hard to believe nearly every programmer using Visual C++ will have the same problem.

...

In a good attempt to allow application writers to make use of the latest and greatest hardware, nearly every compiler introduced a new better switch to make your code even faster. Unfortunately, compiler switches end up in make files that rarely get revised. It wasn't uncommon to see a make file specify a G4 or G5 switch even though 80486 and Pentium have long been out of mainstream production. The G-series of switches do not prevent programs from running on older hardware, which was a common misconception. Eventually, Visual C++ just ignored the G3, G4, and G5 switches and the program compiled as if G6 had been given to the compiler.

Brandon writes with a dry, understated sense of humour. You have to love “It is difficult to know that Os and Ot are ineffective.” or “Very few programs could actually work with these options, so they were both removed from Visual C++ 2005.” Not to mention subheads that call switches “truly evil” or “bizarre”.

An excellent post to give some insight into what the team's decisions involve day to day, and the extent to which MVP and Ladybug feedback make a real difference in those decisions. Keep going, Brandon!

Kate

ps: the topic for the second post came from a comment on the first. Tell him what you want to read and I bet he'll write it.

I'm registered and I've reserved a hotel room. Just the little matter of plane tickets to take care of now...

Kate

The French Canadian version of DotNet Rocks is BlaBla dotNet. Recently Mario Cardinal prowled the halls at DevTeach asking speakers and other well known folks to give ONE good reason for switching to VS 2005. Just one! What a challenge! The answers he collected are in English, so even though the Eric-and-Mario banter around the quotes is in French, you can understand the show even if you're monolingual. In the banter, you can hear people's names, book titles, occasional familiar words, and delightful phrases like “Superstars de monde de développement” or “bloggeuse très prolifique” (that one for Julie Lerman and I just adore bloggeuse and will try to use it whenever I can) and various stuff you probably need at least grade school French for but that I can just follow, and then someone speaks in English about VS 2005 cool features.

When Mario cornered me, he told me a big surprise for him was the lack of duplicates. Mostly we all picked very different features, so by listening to us all you get a real sense of the treats that are waiting for you. You might also spend some time thinking about describing an elephant if you only get to touch one small part of it

Kate

Actually a whole bunch of them are, at www.groktalk.net, but mine in particular is at

http://www.groktalk.net/blog/KateGregoryPresentingWhyCIsntCEnough.aspx

My favourite part happens after the camera is off and we go to credits.

You can stream these, download them to watch at your leisure, or bring them down in the background with BITS using a tool like DrizzleCast. Full instructions are at the main URL. We've set each talk up as a blog entry so that you can comment and ask questions: you'll lower my workload if you comment there rather than here.

Kate

The C++ team has released an update for Beta 2 of Visual C++ 2005. This isn't a feature patch, it's an improvement to the information gathering that they use to tweak the final release, based on how all of us actually use the beta.

This patch updates the C++ IDE language service DLL (vcpkg.dll) to provide proper upload of usage data for the Customer Experience program. Applying this update is very important in ensuring that the Visual C++ team gets accurate data about the usage of the different product features. The Visual C++ team would appreciate you taking the time to apply this patch. This patch ensures that the Visual C++ team gets the most accurate information available to help provide a high quality product at RTM.

While we wait for my Groktalk to appear (editing is really hard and timeconsuming and Scott is a hero) I have been getting a few requests for “the seven things C++ has that C#” doesn't.

• Can generate native code and work with native types from other libraries
• C++ interop – the fastest and easiest
• Templates and generics
• Deterministic destruction
  • my absolute favourite, I must say
• Optimized MSIL
• PGO for native and managed code
• .NET Linking (from within the IDE)
  

I will try to do individual blogs on these when I can. In the meantime, you can peruse the deck and remember, it's for a ten minute talk: Why Cpp.ppt (94 KB).

Kate

In my second Tech Ed talk I touched very briefly on the classes, templates, and macros that make it easy to integrate MFC and WinForms in C++ applications that target the runtime. If you want proof of Microsoft's continuiing committment to MFC, head for the new MFC whitepaper on MSDN. I quote:

.NET integration enables MFC applications to leverage the power and productivity of the .NET platform as a natural extension of MFC. The reliability and security enhancements in MFC make for a more productive development process with fewer end-user issues, and existing MFC applications can take advantage of these enhancements with little more than a simple recompile in many cases.

I'll give links to more details as soon as I can.

Kate

Have you ever read the hotel soap story? It's always presented as true, but of course it's not. I've found an American version (featuring Dial and Camay) and a British one (featuring Imperial Leather). The thing just makes me laugh out loud even after all the times I've read it. Well anyway here at the Peabody (Tech Ed Speaker hotel) I am starting to have a similar, but more delicious, problem. Each evening they come around to do a turn-down service, to get you ready for bed. If I am out, they come in and do it, and leave two chocolates on the pillow. Very nice. If I am in, they knock on the door and say “turndown!” and I come to the door and say “thanks, I'm fine, really.” And then, you see, they say the dreaded words “but wouldn't you like a chocolate or two?”. “Oh yes, that would be nice, thankyou!”. The first time this happened, they gave me three. The next night, four. It keeps going up, I have no idea why. Last night, SEVEN! Tonight I think it was TEN!

I am actually eating a few of these chocolates but not at a sufficient pace. I leave tomorrow: I have, after eight nights in this hotel, twenty nine squares of chocolate still piled by my lamp, a little like the soaps of our supposed true story above.

There are worse problems to have.

Kate

The Groktalks are finished! Now comes the editing... so Scott Stanfield needs to rest up a little... and at Tech Ed, you take your rest where you can get it.

Anyone who doubted that 40 ten-minute talks could knock an attendee over need only have visited our booth this afternoon as we wrapped up. What a treat to see and hear so many of them, and what a lot of work to film them all! The Groktalk crew all deserve a big round of applause: Patrick Hynds ran the schedule, Scott Golightly tracked the times and kept the speakers on task, Scott Stanfield was camera and direction (and heart and soul,) and J. Michael Palermo did everything else technical that needed to be done. Today I made sure speakers were ready when their time rolled around. Tons of other RDs came to the booth for moral support, occasional technical support, and to hear some really good presentations, ten minutes at a time.

Let me tell you, speaking for ten minutes is HARD. Speaking all day, for eight or nine hours, is tiring, but not that hard: if one demo blows up and you need to either do it over or abandon the rest of it, there's plenty of ways to speed up or slow down other parts of the day. An hour is reallly pretty nice: if you speak too long on one thing you can make up for it later, if you forget something when you're on slide 11 you can always find a way to weave it in to slide 12 or even 22. But in ten minutes, there's just nowhere to hide. I am so impressed that we were able to do this, and really glad we filmed them. Watch for links as we get things edited and uploaded.

Kate

We're putting in a lot of time at the RD Cabana booth recording these groktalks. This is such a great idea! Top notch speakers who normally do hour, half day, or all day sessions instead tackling one concept in just ten minutes. I haven't been able to watch them all, but I can't wait till they're uploaded to the groktalk site. In the meantime you can find some pictures we've taken while filming, our schedule, and a map to where we are.

Take a look!

Kate

One more entry on this very busy day: the VSTO team announced today that VSTO will be (has been, but it's still in beta) expanded to include support for creating Outlook add-ins with managed code. There's a 5-page description on MSDN already.

This is making a cool tool, VSTO, even cooler. If you haven't noticed VSTO yet, it's time that you did. My Office 2003 category is pretty much all VSTO posts, versions 2003 and 2005.

Kate

Here's the link to the ebay auction featuring over 20 Tech Ed speakers, almost all RDs. It ends June 16th. Get your hour of consulting time and help the tsunami victims at the same time. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, wander back in time through this blog to January: we did an auction then and raised $10,000 for immediate relief. This time it's about recovery and our help is still sorely needed.

Whose time might you get?

• Don Box (USA) Microsoft, Inc.
• Jesper Johansson (USA) Microsoct, Inc.
• Richard Campbell (Canada) Campbell and Associates.
• Scott Hanselman (USA) Corillian, Inc.
• Kimberly Tripp (USA) SQLSkills.com
• Michele Leroux Bustamante (USA/Canada) iDesign, LLC
• Kate Gregory (Canada) Gregory Consulting
• Juval Lowy (USA) iDesign, LLC
• Stephen Forte (USA) Corzen, Inc
• Clemens Vasters (Germany) Newtelligence AG
• Andrew Brust (USA) Citigate-Hudson, Inc.
• Carl Franklin (USA) Franklins.net
• Ingo Rammer (Austria) Thinktecture
• Christian Weyer (Germany) Thinktecture
• Joel Semeniuk (Canada) Imaginets
• Rockford Lhotka (USA) Magenic Technologies
• Patrick Hynds (USA) Critical Sites
• Tim Landgrave (USA) Crowe, Inc.
• Tim Huckaby (USA) Interknowlogy, Inc.
• Jackie Goldstein (Israel) Renaissance
• John Goodyear (USA) Aspsoft
• Richard Hundhausen (USA) Accentient, Inc
• Paul Sheriff (USA) PDSA, Inc

Not a dud in the bunch! Please help if you can by bidding right away: the more bids are in the system the higher the minimum bid.

Kate

My Tech Ed talk today was about what's new in C++ other than the language. I promised some links to whitepapers and resources. Here they are:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/floapoint.asp - Eric Fleegal's whitepaper on floating point optimization.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/securitychecks.asp - My whitepaper on GS and RTC in Visual C++ 2003, which you can use as a starting point. Try the samples with 2005. The code samples come with the C++ toolkit - there's a link in the whitepaper to download it.

Thanks for coming to the talk!

Kate

Day Zero was Regional Director side meetings, lots of marvelous presentations from a variety of product teams and special guests. I also took care of registering, did my technical rehearsal for Monday's talk, and generally had a wonderful time.

Day One was my first talk, and it went very well. Here's the empty room before the audience showed up:

I also got to experience the RD Cabana. This is a happening place full of smart people and couches:

 We're getting ready to start filming our GrokTalks tomorrow. You need to check these out: stop by and watch us film, or get them off groktalk.net as we upload them. Here's our fearless technical director:

If you're here, stop by and say Hi! We're just off the main path through Hall A.

Kate

Tech Ed starts on Monday, there are all kinds of side meetings Sunday, and I'm here early because I did a compressed Ascend day yesterday. So far it is rainy and grey: I feel as though I accidentally flew to Seattle instead of Florida.

I like to get a room with two beds so I can use one bed just to pile up swag. Here's how it looks so far:

All this has to get home with me, and we're not even started yet. If you haven't left yet, remember to leave lots of room in your suitcase! Trust me!

Kate

Twenty RDs, plus Don Box and Jesper Johansson, are doing the charity auction thing again. This time it's restricted to Tech Ed speakers. The gory details are on Stephen Forte's blog. Ebay link real soon now.

Kate

It starts with Chris Sells, who says he wants “the power and performance of C++ and the simplicity of C#.” He links to a grumpy programmer blog that says lovely things about the new C++/CLI, including this in the first sentence:

C++ becomes a fully fledged, first class .NET language, throwing off the clumsy ‘managed extensions’ and gaining a full set of designers, code verification and mixed mode (managed and embedded) capability. It is thus the only .NET language that offers true backward compatibility with legacy code bases and delivers genuine performance benefits over C# or VB.NET.

He then goes on to say something that many people close to me say regularly: what the heck is C# for? I don't say this myself, I think lots of people love C# and more power to them, there's nothing wrong with it at all. It has a place. It's just not the only way to use semicolons and brace brackets while targeting the CLR, that's all.

The comments section of Chris' post is full of entries from people who don't know what C++/CLI is. I'm not being rude or dismissive, it's just that someone who complains about the double underscore keywords is complaining about the old syntax, and that is gone now. Read my lips: no more double underscores! Let's keep saying it till everybody hears it! ... er, sorry, got a little carried away there. If you haven't seen the new syntax, try Stan's “Hello, C++/CLI” column.

Next up is Sam, who confessed to me privately that he liked C++/CLI and has now come out on his blog: “I was expecting all sorts of horrors and errors but the code came out perfect in first try and naturally, the way C# flows for me.”

Craig Andera basically says “but people like C#” and you know? I'm not arguing with that. But why is it a win-lose game with C++ and C#? Why can't they both soar and do well?

A nice start to what will probably be a long hard week for me.

Kate

Yesterday my Ascend day started with a lab, not lecture, so I was pleasantly surprised to arrive half an hour before it started to discover three or four people settled into the room already. I told them I was glad to have a few keeners in the class and got nothing but puzzled looks for my trouble. It seems it's a Canadian slang that hasn't spread very far. Tonight I Googled a little - it's hard, because it's a commonish last name, plus people insist on taking “a keener look” or having “a keener focus” and the like. But the only sites I could find that used it to mean “someone who studies way harder than everyone else, does all their homework, and always puts schoolwork above leisure, socializing or sleep” were Canadian ones.

Who knew?

Was I a keener as an undergrad? Oh yes. But I was in Engineering, rich in keeners depite the hard-partying image. I wasn't the keenest of them all or anything like that. It's served me in good stead, though. You would be amazed what you can do with your brain if you're just determined to do it.

Kate

Because he's just had something small but important explained to him in a very concise and useful way, of course.

It starts at Tech Ed, but it's more than that. Check out www.groktalk.net for details.

With the seven-city Smart Client Deep Dive tour done, I thought it would be appropriate to summarize my upcoming speaking and training schedule.

• May 23-26. Ascend Training (Smart Client Track) Redmond, WA. Teaching Microsoft people and special guests (MVPs, RDs, partners) all about Smart Clients (VSTO, WinForms, and more) in Whidbey.
• June 3. Ascend Training (one day ultra condensed) Orlando, FL. This is a pre-conference event for Academic Days at Tech Ed.
• June 6-10. Tech Ed USA,  Orlando FL. Two talks (Monday morning and Tuesday morning - both are C++ talks and who would go to only one of them? See the new syntax, new optimizations, new power for an old friend - search for DEV330 and DEV331), one panel lunch (women in technology), and helping out with the way cool thing the RDs are doing that I can't quite discuss yet.
• June 18-19. DevTeach, Montreal Quebec. A Canadian User Group Leader get-together, and my two C++ talks glued into one “What's New in C++“ presentation.
• October 23-26, Tech Ed Africa, Sun City South Africa. OK, I'm not officially accepted as a speaker yet but I'm pretty sure I'll be there, topics TBD.
• Nov 7-10. C++ Connections, Las Vegas, NV. How real customers are moving to the new C++.

This is just the stuff I'm on stage for. I'm planning to be in the audience at either or both of the PDC and the MVP Summit, both in September.  And oh yeah, I have a company to run and some projects to finish. Gotta dash!

Kate

The government of Ontario simplifies procurement by using Vendor of Record lists. If a Ministry or Agency is planning a certain kind of work, they use these lists rather than “the entire world” to locate a vendor. It's pretty fine company to be in: only 78 vendors qualified for our other VOR list, for Electronic Service Delivery.

This list, VOR-1005-04, is for “Task Based IT Consulting Services” and you can see all the vendors at http://www.ppitpb.gov.on.ca/mbs/psb/psb.nsf/english/vorlist-e.html#VOR-1005-04 - 137 in all, and some pretty big names (Microsoft Canada, say, or IBM Canada for that matter) mixed in with ours.

Kate

This weekend was a rarity in that I did very little work-work, as in “for the business”. It was, however, action-packed, featuring:

• Three overnight guests
• One continental breakfast in bed
• Two brunches
• One putting up of the large screened tent that covers my back deck (summer mornings in the screened tent with coffee and a laptop... deleting overnight spam becomes almost pleasant)
• One pool installation
• One barbeque-themed dinner (is there anything nicer than hot grilled vegetables?)
• One two-hour bike ride

Never mind what the calendar says, that was clearly a summer weekend. It was shorts weather, more than hot enough to be messing around getting wet as part of readying the pool, and that two hour ride could fit in after dinner thanks to longer days and warmer afternoons. Very nice. Now, back to work for me!

Kate

I was diverted today for some time by http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/index.html which is a trove of “visual illusions” and explanations for many of them. A lot require Flash, which I stubbornly refuse to install, but enough are presented as images alone that I was able to experience a lot of surprises.

You've seen the moving-without-moving blue and yellow wheel already perhaps, or the grid of white lines on a black background that seems to have black dots at the intersections, but only the intersections you aren't actually looking at. But have you seen the non animated image that starts out blurry and goes sharp, just because of what you were looking at before it? Or the instructions on how to draw impossible objects?

Look at this tiny animated gif from the main page. Think of it as flat. Now think of it as something that goes down into the page, like a crater or a bucket. Did you get a surprise?

I really must go do some work now.

Kate

You snooze, you lose!

You can try getting on the waiting list at http://www.microsoft.com/events/teched2005/default.mspx but right now, write yourself a note to move a little more quickly next year. I'm looking forward to another terrific week. My talks have been scheduled now, and they are Monday and Tuesday. So it will be clear sailing through the rest of the week for me!

Kate

So, just how much do you know about the Base Class Libraries? About C# or VB? About moving to .NET from the unmanaged world? Think you know a lot? Wish you knew a lot? Well how about this for a contest: you answer questions about .NET development, and as long as you're getting every question right, you're in the running for TWENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. Canadian currency. Oh, and if you don't know that much... the learning modules will take care of it for you. You can learn the stuff as you work through the contest. Even after you've been knocked out of the running for the grand prize, you can still win module prizes. You want to be part of this. I'm not eligible, or I would have entered already. A fun chance to show off, to learn, and to win a book or an XBox or a whole whack of cash money. What's not to like? Go, enter!

Kate

In the last few days just about every Microsoft or Microsoft-friendly blog I read has changed its theme. I can't even remember how to change my theme, and suddenly the folks who were black on orange are blue on white, the folks who were blue on grey are orange on white, links that were on the left are on the right and vice versa. More than once this week I have thought I was on the wrong blog!

Let's see if I can get with the spirit and add some flare today or tomorrow...

Kate

What does it take to become a SharePoint developer? You should understand how SharePoint looks to a user, and the best way to learn that is by using it. You should know where to find the documentation for the object model and for CAML, and that means lots of Googling because it's not all in MSDN by any means. And then of course you need to be a developer. Mike Fitzmaurice makes it pretty clear that means an all-around good .NET developer. He's inspired by Gregory MacBeth's inaugural blog post that lists the steps to becoming a good SharePoint developer. Gregory sets the bar pretty high - step 0 is get your MCSD, and then the real learning can begin. My attention was caught by Mike's postscript that in addition to being an all-round .NET dev, in VB or C# as you prefer, and learning the SharePoint-specific material, you're also going to need C++:

Attention tool builders and other interested developers — in the next release, protocol handler development and IFilter development will still need to be in C++.  Do not wait for the rules to change, because they won’t (at least not before “v4”).  If you want to extend our search technology to new content sources and formats, you might as well get started now.  Search gets a lot better in many ways, but the method for developing IFilters/protocol handlers isn’t one of them.

So, all round .NET dev, SharePoint object model, CAML etc, and while you're at it, C++. No wonder I'm finding good SharePoint devs rather hard to find!

Kate

Sessions and abstracts, along with speaker names, are starting to appear on the Tech Ed sessions page. My C++ talks have been christened DEV 330 and DEV 331. You can search on the session code or my name to see the abstracts.  Doesn't look like you can start to build your calendar yet, but watch for it.

Since the speaker dropdown is populated, I just had to check: I counted 8 Brians, and 11 obvious women, not counting the chances that an Alex, Chris, or Pat could be a woman. I also see some fellow RDs and some Speaker Bureau folks. Should be a fun week!

Kate

How's this for a party? A five-day C++ conference, C++ Connections, held in conjunction with Visual Studio Connections,  ASP.NET Connections, and SQL Server Magazine Connections from Nov 7-11 2005 in fabulous Vegas at the marvelous Mandalay Bay resort. My standard introduction line on C++ matters is “I've been working in C++ since before Microsoft had a C++ compiler.“ It isn't 20 years for me (I never used cfront) but it sure is close.

Think you could speak there? The call for papers is on Herb Sutter's blog. Am I speaking there? I hope so, I will report back with details when I have them. This is going to be fun!

Kate

I'm going to be travelling across Canada in April and May to deliver the next round of Deep Dives -- these ones on Smart Client development with VSTO 2005. Here's the abstract:

Recommended Audience: Developer.

Microsoft Office has established itself as the standard for office productivity applications. Knowledge workers use the Office tools (word and excel) to create and mine data. The experience and familiarity with these tools can be leveraged to build a new breed of applications to make working with important information easier using Word and Excel as application interfaces.

This session will explore the details of creating Smart Client Applications using Microsoft Office System and Visual Studio Tools for Office. This session will include data access techniques for online and offline work, security considerations and leveraging the .NET Framework and web services to interact with Line of Business applications. This session will also provide attendees with prescriptive guidance on choices for application development, comparing all the possibilities for smart client development, in the form of a decision matrix.

Here's the schedule and some links to register:

	Ottawa	April 19
	Waterloo	April 20
	Windsor	April 21
	Vancouver	April 26
	Calgary	April 27
	Halifax	April 28
	Toronto	May 3
	Montreal	May 4

I am preparing the material right now, and it's all Visual Studio 2005 and VSTO 2005 -- if you've seen me do VSTO 2003 material before, you're going to be delighted with the new tool! It's much more designery and much less “now simply provide implementations for the following 20 functions with almost identical names.” That means there's time to show cooler stuff, and I fully intend to. See you there!

Kate

I went over to the MSDN Canada site to get some question of mine answered, and got completely distracted by today's poll. The results as of this morning:

Hmmm....

Kate

I'm a little late getting this blog posting up... I kind of had to recover from the event. Sam rolled into town in the early afternoon and what a blast! The pre-event agenda was gossip, code names, and assorted gems I will not be sharing. Plus great sushi -- in Whitby, much to my surprise -- and plenty of geek talk. For the event itself we were in a new venue and had to sort out some logistics around projecting and such, but it worked in the end. We had about double our usual attendance. I have never seen so much note-taking! Then when the crowd left, it was time for beer and more discussion, until the dreaded “you don't have to go home, but you can't stay here.” Time for Sam to meet a true Canadian institution... Tim Hortons . Other blog entries on the evening: Eli, Sam, and Jean-Luc. Though I notice Sam neglected to mention that he actually likes C++/CLI .

If you're an INETA speaker and you haven't come to my group yet, you don't know the fun you're missing. Just say the word, and I'll request you. And if you live within an hour or two's drive of Oshawa or Whitby, and haven't been to a meeting yet, resolve right now to come to the next one. It may not feature beer, but you'll be glad you came.

Kate

Back in the 80's, one of the classic anecdotes around corporate gender unfairness was the idea of the meeting that finished up in the mens room, inaccessible to the women left standing in the hall. If this  is how those meetings went, we were worried for nothing.

See you at Tech Ed, guys!

Kate

Last night I spoke at the Metro Toronto .NET Users Group on Interop between J2EE and .NET apps, using a variety of techniques but especially Web Services. There was a bit of code, but really the emphasis was on philosophy, the kind of “big picture” approaches you can take to make interop happen. I mentioned more than once that it's important to know what exactly you mean by interop and what it is that you want your two (or three, or more) applications to be able to do together. The sorts of projects that really don't work are the ones that start “how can we use BizTalk in our firm?”. Start with a business problem, and if it looks like BizTalk will make it possible to solve the problem, then go from there, but don't pick the solution and then go looking for a problem.

This came back around in the post-presentation questions and chat, and we got to talking about the importance of requirements. I'm hip deep in a project where we spent months just settling the requirements, but as a result the project has moved forward into code after spending years (before I came on board) getting about halfway through design and then stopping and starting over. For Enterprise work (and these interop issues are generally Enterprise) there is simply no substitute for real solid business requirements that are completely nailed down before anyone starts designing, followed by a properly thought through design. I don't go through all that for three day projects, putting together a little Sharepoint web part or some Windows Service that sends email at night about additions to the database today, but I sure go through it for anything that needs more than one programmer or that will take more than a month.

I was reminded of a funny article I read a while back called Agile Bridge Building, which mocks Agile Software Development by dissing bridge design in favour of showing the client Working Wood as soon as possible. Basically, you stick a log out into the river and right away you've started to build your bridge. This process naturally produces requirements, since now we have consensus that the log should actually reach all the way to the other side of the river! Why waste a lot of time in meetings trying to develop this requirement in advance? Once there's working wood, a genuine prototype, the stakeholders can quickly agree on what's important. And all without the hassles of paying someone for requirements and design. There's more, so I recommend you read the whole article. And to be honest, if I lived in the woods and was sick of wading through a small stream to get to the far side of my property, I probably would apply Agile Bridge Building to the problem, just as I don't particularly design every speck of software I write. But I'm glad the folks who built the bridges I drove over today designed them first, and I'm glad I know how to gather requirements, get consensus on functionality, and design the big projects I code before I code them.

Kate

Once again Fawcette have tapped a number of Toronto folks and given us not-so-secret discount codes for VSLive registrations. That's right, register for VSLive Toronto, enter KATE as your priority code (where it says "Please enter the first five digits of your conference priority code") and presto! you get 10% off.

VSLive is April 13th to 16th, and there are early bird prices until March 16th. This year it's divided into ASP and Smart Client, and it's packed with Whidbey (aka 2005 or 2.0) material. The agenda is at http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/agenda.aspx with session details at http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/asp-sessions.aspx and http://www.ftponline.com/conferences/vslive/2005/to/smart-sessions.aspx. You'll see plenty of familiar names speaking, and there's sure to be more good stuff announced as we get closer to the date. So make your plans, and I'll see you there.

Kate

Lots of Tech Ed rejection letters this year -- I got five myself -- but in the end I am giving ALL the C++ talks -- really I am! Well, that is to say, both of them. But at the moment I only see two Visual Basic and two C# talks, so I don't feel bad. The talks, and current abstracts, are:

Visual C++ and .NET: Great Performance, Full Access and Easy Migration of Existing Code

Abstract: The enhancements to Visual C++ 2005 enable it to stand toe-to-toe with any tool in terms of support for the .NET Framework. In fact, in many ways it can do things no other tool can. Learn how the CLR brings new features such as garbage collection, generics, reflection, and verifiability to C++ ... and how C++ brings deterministic cleanup, templates, and meta programming to the CLR! Learn how to easily migrate existing native code - including MFC applications - to run under the CLR. Strategies for choosing which parts of the application remain native and which are managed will be discussed. Finally, this session will provide guidance on how to build high-performance managed "wrappers" enabling reuse of native libraries.

Visual C++ 2005: A Look at the New Features for Building Fast Native and Managed Code

Abstract: Whether you build end-to-end applications or components for enhancing larger applications, the new Visual C++ 2005 is the power tool for Windows programming.  In this presentation we’ll spend extensive time in the Visual C++ 2005 development environment – highlighting new productivity features – as we dive into its support for building high-performance, first-class native and managed applications.  You’ll learn about native code compiler optimizations, security enhancements, 64-bit development, and support for multiprocessor/grid computing systems.  In addition, this presentation will demonstrate how Visual C++ 2005 now provides CLR/.NET Framework support that allows it to stand toe-to-toe with any other tool in terms of elegance and productivity…with the additional benefit of high-performance access to native code and the ability to easily move native code to the managed environment.  

As well, the Women In Technology lunch will be happening again and I'm looking forward to another panel appearance. This is shaping up to be another great Tech Ed... as long as some more familiar faces start to show up on the speakers list.

Kate

Monday the 21st is the February meeting for the East of Toronto user group. Please visit http://gtaeast.torontoug.net/ug_events/936.aspx to register.

This event will consist of an overview of methods for interoperating between Java-based systems and NET including XML document exchange, shared database, messaging, web services, and Java to .NET bridges. We’ll spend the bulk of the time on a detailed analysis of the approaches and methods for web services-based interop between apps and systems running on .NET and other technologies.

I'll be doing this same talk myself March 3rd, so I'll be taking detailed notes while Adam is presenting

Kate

Spring may not be in the air yet, but some sort of economic recovery certainly is. I've got complete strangers calling me asking us to help with their problems, established clients ramping up ongoing projects, and just generally too much work for us all to handle. So I need an experienced dev who can jump on board and start coding, designing, documenting, and generally helping with all that we do. While I have in the past hired new grads and relatively inexperienced people, right down to high school interns, this is not one of those times. I want a senior person. Ideally someone who started using .NET before it was public or shortly after, and who has experience in other ways of doing things as well as the .NET way.

Think that's you? Or someone you know? Head on over to http://www.gregcons.com/seniordev.htm for a little more detail and some application instructions. Please don't try to apply by leaving comments on the blog or by emailing me directly. I am looking for someone smart and capable, and someone who knows the value of a little process in a chaotic world.

Kate

For several months now, I've been plagued by unexpected language changes while I'm typing. I'll type one character, maybe a quote or a question mark, and I'll get a really strange character instead, say a capital E with an accent on it. I came to realize that it was the language settings, and I keep the language bar on my toolbar so I can flip back to English whenever this strange thing happens. But I didn't know why it was happening, and I found stopping what I was doing to mouse over to the bar and click back to the language I wanted very frustrating.

Well, now I know what was going on! ALT-SHIFT rotates through the languages. I'm a huge ALT-TAB user, and I ALT-SHIFT-TAB when I need to cycle backwards through that list. I also use a fair amount of other ALT-things, like ALT-A to bring up the favourites menu in IE, then arrow keys to choose an item. I really prefer the keyboard to the mouse. Well I guess every once in a while an ALT-SHIFT gets through to the language bar and flips my language. So now when I go to type a URL and see ццц I can quickly make it right.

Лфеу (er, Kate)

OK, I did the blogmap thing:

This is my Peterborough office, not that I'm there very often...

Kate

110.00, 107.50, 105.00, 102.50, 101.00, 100.00

What do these numbers have in common? They are losing bids for the consultant auction . Time is running out, the auction closes tomorrow morning, 9am Eastern, and now is the time to boost your bid and catapult yourself up the list! Lowest winning bid at the moment is $120... let's drive it up!

Kate

Apparently some people are hesitant about bidding on the auction in case they win. I know the feeling, do I have enough tough questions to justify an hour of Richter or Prosise time, do I have my act together on Web Services and Interop enough to grill Michele on them properly...

Relax. You don't have to think of it that way. Whoever you win, fire us an email with something that's been bugging you. Like “can you really explain this whole destructors in C++ when it's managed code and the object I'm using wasn't even written in C++?” Or like some of the old emails I cleared out this last week: “how can I uninstall a service?” “how do I restrict forms authentication in ASP.NET to only some folders? How can I force a logout when they browse from a secured to an open page?” and “why am I getting this linker error?”. Maybe that uses up 10 or 20 minutes. Fine, next time you have a toughy like that, send it along. By the time you use up your whole hour, you'll probably have become a friend/colleague/former client who can send questions like that once in a while for the rest of your life.

Or, how about this? Take a look at the talks your selected consultant has prepped for upcoming conferences (get us to send you the abstracts we've submitted) and have us deliver a private session of a useful talk to your whole company over LiveMeeting. There's a free LiveMeeting trial going on, and the talks have to be prepped anyway, so your hour would just be the delivery of the talk, to as many of your colleagues as you can get online at once. So it might end up 90 minutes, we don't mind.

You can't lose! Hell, even if you use your hour to take one of us for a drink the next time we're in the same city, what really counts is you gave $100 or $150 or $200 to help people who have NO clothes, NO books, NO walls around them.... this is a FUNDRAISER so come on, let's raise some funds!

Kate

The February meeting of the East of Toronto User Group will be on a Monday, due to room issues. Join us February 21st for the MSDN User Group Tour.

We are meeting in room 1011 at the Durham District School Board, 400 Taunton Road East in Whitby. Social from 6-7, presentation starts at 7. Visit http://gtaeast.torontoug.net/UG_Events/936.aspx to register, to click for a map to the location or to check all the goodies we will have for attendees. Come and hear Adam Gallant of Microsoft show you what interop can do in real life.

Kate

Barry Gervin is bidding on some of his fellow celebrities in the fundraising auction. But the thing is, Barry is a .NET expert in his own right and employs quite a few more. And you know, if he asked me to help him with some little thing that would only take an hour, I would. So he doesn't need the services he's bidding for in quite the same way as other folks do. So he has a few, er, creative ideas for how to use an hour... still consulting, mostly, but ...

But to clarify, I won't so much shave my head as shorten my hair by the same number of inches that Barry shortens his. That should still leave me three feet or so

Kate

I am learning a lot about how EBay works. In IM with Adam and Julie I think I have figured it out. Let's say you went right now to bid on the auction (good for you!) and you bid $200. Not “$100 now and if I need to then automatically raise me to $200” but just flat out $200. Your bid would still appear as $100. Why? Because there are 30 items available and so far only 27 have been bid for. Once there are more than 30 bids, we will start to see real bids and not just the minimum. So come on, go bid. Believe me you will get more than $100 value no matter who you get, and you'll be helping a good cause.

Kate

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=5552696499

Bid!

Kate