Client applications

Windows 7: The new Mojave

Microsoft’s “Mojave Experiment” was an interesting case of managing expectations. Convinced that Vista OS had gotten the short shrift, Microsoft demoed its next OS, Mojave, to a slew of people. Everyone thought it was a great improvement over Vista, and then came the surprise ending: Mojave was Vista. Ta-dah!

If the lesson for Microsoft was that Vista failed largely because it was badly marketed, the solution was simple: launch it again, this time with better marketing. And thus we come to Windows 7, the real-life Mojave.

To be fair, Windows 7 has some significant differences. One of the best new ideas in Vista was UAC, which fixed the fairly big security risk of programs always running with administrator privileges. But Vista’s UAC was poorly designed and annoyed users: Windows 7 should fix that to a large degree, although programmers will also do themselves a service if they elevate privileges correctly.

The biggest new feature in Windows 7 is the new taskbar, a significant if largely cosmetic change. Instead of a program living in up to three places on the taskbar — as a quicklaunch icon, a notification tray icon and a window tab — all its functionality is now consolidated into a single, square icon. You can also reorder icons, which is great for OCD people like me who just have to have their browser on the far left.

Yes, the new taskbar in Windows 7 has design implications for developers, and yes, Windows 7 has better connectivity for peripherals (although I haven’t been able to test it; the laptop I have it running on isn’t connected to any peripherals). But all in all, Windows 7 feels more like a big minor release than a lurch forward in OS technology. Vista took the hits — especially for UAC — and Mojave Windows 7 will reap the rewards. So it goes.

Mono brings C# to the iPhone, Wii

Mono is best known as an open source implementation of .NET, but as we mentioned in our coverage of Mono 2.0, the project actually started with just a C# compiler. The idea was that C# is a nice programming language, and it’d be nice if non-Microsoft programmers could use it — with or without the .NET framework.

A lot of Mono’s recent progress has been on the .NET side, but the pure-play C# compiler is still relevant.  Game programmers have used C# to write an iPhone app, Mono’s lead Miguel de Icaza announced on his blog. He followed that entry with another, more complete list of C# iPhone apps. Mono has also been used to write at least one game for the Wii in C#.

This is exciting news. The Windows world is a great place to develop, but as other platforms keep cropping up, it’s becoming harder and harder to ignore everything that doesn’t come from Redmond. The iPhone has made a splash, and gaming consoles have always been huge. Thanks to Mono, programmers can reuse their existing skills — and code base — as they look for broader audiences.

Microsoft Opens to Eclipse?

Microsoft is working to make it easier for Eclipse developers write code for Windows apps. Microsoft will provide engineering support to allow Eclipse Standard Widget Toolkit (SWT) to use Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Such support would make it easier to Java developers to write applications that look and feel like Windows Vista. San Ramji, director of the Open Source Software Lab explains in his blog-posting Supernova, “We’re committing to improve this technology with direct support from our engineering teams and the Open Source Software Lab, with the goal of a first-class authoring experience for Java developers.”

LINQ, WPF supported in Visual Studio 2008

Now that VS 2008 is out of the box, so to speak, it appears that a new era in Windows development is upon us. Language-Integrated Query is one of several game-changing technologies now supported in the Microsoft software kit. Although it is still early and there is a lot of learning to do, LINQ is poised as a whole new way of developing with data.

It is fair to say that the first rush of .NET technology was about catching up with Java, although there was much unique about .NET too. With LINQ, for now, it seems Microsoft has stolen a march on the Java opposition.

I spoke recently with Jason Beres, director of product management at Infragistics, which is one of the major third-parties in the Microsoft market. Beres said people will take LINQ very seriously. “I think it going to be the de facto way to do any real data binding or object access moving forward,” he said.

With the new Microsoft tool kit comes Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). Is WPF game changing? That is hard to say. When it was first conceived, the ubiquitous Web interface seemed to be overstressed, and ready to be replaced by a new generation of WPF-based Smart Clients that would use something like WPF. But, before WPF made it too market, AJAX came on strong as a means to give new life to Web interfaces.

This means the plate of companies like Infragistics is pretty full. Infragistics has just rolled out NetAdvantage for WPF 2007, which is compatible with Visual Studio 2008. At the same time, according to Beres, the company has been re-tooling its frameworks around ASP.NET AJAX as well.

For Infragistics and others, Silverlight looms as another alternative interface. Watch for Infragistics and others to provide Silverlight components, especially now that Silverlight 2.0 (which, more than its predecessor, rightly bears the mantle of “WPF/Everywhere”) arrives in its first beta form.

LINQ, WPF and VS 2008 have been primary areas-of-interest for the SearchWindowsDevelopment.com site for some time. We invite you to check out our LINQ VS 2008 pages, and to stay tuned.

RELATED INFORMATION:
> VS 2008 and LINQ Topic Page
> Introducing WPF
> Introduction to Silverlight 1.0

Microsoft releases .NET Micro Framework Version 2.5 updates

Microsoft updated the .NET Micro Framework, releasing Version 2.5 with improvements in Web Services and TCP/IP support.

.NET Micro Framework Version 2.5 includes a Web Services on Devices implementation compatible with Windows Vista and supported by the other Microsoft Windows Embedded platforms.

With Web Services on Devices, Micro Framework devices can discover and communicate with other devices on a network without need for user configuration. While some observers initially scoffed at Web services as a ‘real-time’ embedded solution, a growing consensus hold that it is ‘real-time’ enough for a slew of solutions.
 
Also, with Version 2.5, the framework gains native TCP/IP stack support, and, let’s face it, TCP/IP is nothing short of the greatest protocol of all time.

Microsoft also said it has inked a deal with oft-time rival IBM to collaborate on a pre-installed Windows embedded-based point-of-service solution for the retail and hospitality industries.

Microsoft again vows to promote interoperability - shares new API info

Microsoft said Thursday it will provide extensive documentation for APIs covering its major software products, including Office 2007, the Windows client and server, and the .NET Framework. Much of this information had been closely held, available only along with trade secret licenses or only within the company.

The move is an apparent extension of concessions Microsoft made late last year in the face of a difficult European Union Commission antitrust case. As described by Microsoft Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie at a press briefing, the API initiative is also a response to an industry-wide move toward software that is delivered as a Web service. Major Microsoft managers Steve Ballmer, Bob Muglia, and Brad Smith appeared at the briefing along with Ozzie.

Ozzie described the API move as a strategy shift. Software users need software and services that are “flexible enough such that any developer can use their open interfaces and data to effectively integrate applications or to compose entirely new solutions,” said Ozzie.

Microsoft’s Muglia said the company would publish the more than 30,000 pages of protocol documents created as a part of the effort to meet requirements set by the European Commission and the Department of Justice to divulge information to independent software and hardware vendors.

“In the coming months, and no later than the end of June, we will publish  the protocols in Office 2007 that are used to connect to any other  Microsoft product, including Exchange Server 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007, as well as — we will take the .NET Framework related protocols and  publish those on our Web site, on MSDN,” said Muglia.

For his part, Steve Ballmer said the company was designing new APIs for Word, Excel and PowerPoint that will allow developers to plug in additional document formats, and enable users to set those formats as their default for saving documents.

In the blogsphere, early reaction to the Microsoft announcement sometimes centered on its relation to the EC’s case against the company, and efforts by Microsoft to gain OSI acceptance for its OOXML format. In his Digital Daily Feed blog John Paczkowski notes that the European Commission seems unimpressed by Microsoft’s declaration of interoperability principles. The EC said in a statement: “This announcement does not relate to the question of whether or not Microsoft has been complying with EU antitrust rules in this area in the past.”

The intersection of patents and open software remain an issue for Microsoft to address. For its part, Linux vendor Red Hat wants more, saying that MS should make additional commitments. Editor Joseph Ottinger discusses this with the Java community at TheServerSide.com.

Danger! Windows mobile developments ahead

Mobile development has undergone some changes in recent years. A big influence has been Google, which among its various efforts is pushing the Android software stack (including an application framework and SDK, a virtual machine, a DB and a browser) for mobile devices. The software represents yet another attempt to make Web apps ‘play nice’ on cell phones and other mobile devices.

With the new approaches to software services in mind, Microsoft made a new foray into the mobile space today with news of a Windows Live Mobile Developer Program, enabling programmers to develop mobile versions of its Windows Live services. Windows Live services include Hotmail, Messenger, Photo Gallery photo sharing, and Spaces personal blogs. The announcement came at the Mobile World Congress in sunny Barcelona.

At the same time, Microsoft entered into an agreement to acquire Danger Inc., a maker of software for consumer handset applications, most notably, the Sidekick cell phone. The cost of the deal was not disclosed, but it is presumably less than Microsoft’s recent $40-billion-plus offer for Yahoo! Some former Danger principals are working on Android within Google.

.NET reference posters: Great things come in large packages

Posters make good conference swag, but they don’t always fit into the suitcase. Fortunately, many of Microsoft’s greatest hits — .NET Framework namespaces, Visual Studio 2008 and 2005 keyboard shortcuts, Silverlight 2.0 Developer References and so on — are available for download on MSDN.

Chris Bowen recently did the world a favor and compiled the most recent .NET reference posters in a single blog entry. As he admits, “I didn’t realize just how many until I searched for ‘poster’ on MSDN downloads.” (For the curious, 22 posters pop up in the search results.)

Bowen points to numerous useful .NET posters, including the aforementioned Namespaces and Silverlight references, keyboard shortcuts for C# 3.0, C++ 2008 and Visual Basic 2008, BizTalk Server 2006 charts and Microsoft Office 2007 features.

Meanwhile, one comment from Bowen’s entry points to the Developer Readiness Program, a South African .NET technology training company. DRP offers dozens of reference posters, with particular attention paid to SharePoint 2007, Team Foundation Server and the .NET 3.0 technologies. In addition, TFS posters are available in Spanish and Portuguese in addition to English.

Nearly all these .NET reference posters are rather large, so go find yourself a nice color printer if you intend to redecorate the walls of your cubicle.

Beefing up the .NET Developments blog roll

One of the things we’ve been meaning to do for quite some time now is beef up our blog roll. We started by featuring four blogs — WPF Reflections, Custom Application Development: Buy, Build or Ignore?, SOA Talk and the ITKE Community Blog — but realized it certainly doesn’t hurt to add more. So, without further ado, here’s a little bit ’bout the blogs we have recently added.

Scott Guthrie — He’s responsible for Microsoft’s myriad of Web application development endeavors, including ASP.NET, IIS and Silverlight, he writes several posts a week, he answers just about all the questions readers ask, and he offers lots of downloads. ‘Nuff said.

Sara Ford — This blogger posts a daily tip to make life a little easier for those who spend several hours a day inside Visual Studio.

Visual Basic Team — This is the official blog for Microsoft’s Visual Basic development team. The group frequently points to tutorial videos, code samples and other resources. LINQ, not surprisingly, has been a big topic as of late.

Oren Eini — This Israeli developer, who goes by the blog name Ayende Rahein and is the author of Rhino Mocks, writes two or three times a day about programming methodologies, open-source tools for .NET and scads of other relevant topics.

Are there any .NET blogs you visit on a frequent basis? Do they fit into one of the many topics in the list at left? Let us know and we’ll add them to the blog roll forthwith.

Mulling the pros and cons of XAML

XAML, the Extensible Application Markup Language, is the code-behind language for Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight applications. The idea is that application designers can create the whiz-bang graphics they want and hand them over to developers as XAML files that the developers need not touch (or “ruin,” depending on whom you ask).

A couple bloggers have had a chat recently about programming with XAML. They focus primarily on using XAML with WPF — not surprising, since, in relative terms, it has been around a lot longer than Silverlight. Both articles are worth a read, especially for those just getting started with XAML programming.

Tomer Shamam loves XAML, particularly the way it separates design from code, is hierarchical and is able to define a graphic using fewer lines of code than do static languages.

On the other hand, Omer van Kloeten does not love XAML. It doesn’t make good enough use of the .NET 2.0 CLR, it adds complexity (in the form of new syntax for binding and references, a different parser and compiler, and new layers), and the tooling support for both developers and designers is a bit immature.  

Have any of you out there had XAML experiences that mirror those of either Shamam or van Kloeten? Feel free to weigh in.