Joe's Coding Blog

WWDC 2010 - Day 0

2010-06-06T17:40:00.000+01:00

I now have officially collect my WWDC 2010 badge. So Day 0 of the conference (registration). I was reminded that all the sessions (excluding the Keynote) are under NDA. Therefore I will be blogging live from the Keynote tomorrow.

WWDC 2010

2010-06-06T15:55:00.002+01:00

In just over 24 hours, a few meters from were I am sitting, Steve Jobs will be showcasing the next greatest technologies from Apple. It is amazing what kind of attention such an event attracts. It is almost like a pilgrimage for a lot of people. Numerous people of my flight to San Francisco from London are attending as are hundreds of guests at my hotel. Right now (1 hour before registration opens) there is a handful of people waiting to collect their badges. As I am sat on the steps of Moscone West on this fresh San Francisco Sunday morning, I couldn't help but wonder, that all these people are affecting the lives of millions around the world in profound ways. They might not be curing cancer or helping the hungry but in a way they are creating technologies that have the potential to do that. All I can say is let the games begin!!!

iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 4

2010-05-20T00:10:00.000+01:00

As expected, Apple today released its fourth Beta version of the upcoming iPhone OS 4.0. As mentioned before I can’t mention the new features/changes due to the NDA. You can find them pretty easily if you just Google. My prediction is one more beta prior to this year’s WWDC 2010 and launch sometime in mid/late June.

Future of Flash!

2010-05-10T21:21:00.000+01:00

Flash here to stay or not? If Apple and Microsoft had their way, Flash will certainly be on its way out. After all, do we really need Flash anymore? For any new piece of technology to be successful, there needs to be a real problem that it can solve. That is exactly what Macromedia (remember them, before Adobe bought them out) did back in 1996 (yes!) when they launched FutureSplash Animator, quickly followed by Flash 1. Back then browsers (IE & Netscape) could just about manage pictures, let alone animation and sound. In 1996, Internet Explorer was at its infancy and Netscape wasn’t that much ahead, while we all had to use really slow modems! Browser rendering engines were limited to basic text & image positioning. Modems couldn’t cope with large amounts of data and scripting languages didn’t exist.

Macromedia had an idea, “what if we could make things move, interact and make sounds but still download quickly?”. And that is exactly what they achieved by building a client rendering engine (Flash Player) that could work inside browsers, yet at the same minimise data transfers by using a proprietary compressed binary file format. It was great, the web became alive. Suddenly we could all play games and watch movies. The arrival of course of home-made videos, YouTube and the cheap availability of fast broadband connections meant that Flash was more in demand than ever.

It wasn’t though only the connections and hardware that became better in all these years of Flash domination, the browsers became exceptionally sophisticated and capable at managing pretty much any type of content. New kids on the block (such as WebKit) made sure that browsers could really and truly tap in to the power of modern operating systems and their graphics stacks. This meant that suddenly there is no need for smaller downloads, nor the need for an extra layer (Flash Player) to achieve something that your browser can do pretty much better and straight out of the box.

As I said in the beginning, any new piece of technology is successful if it solves a real problem. Flash did just that for over a decade. Now that problem that does not exist anymore as browsers have natively taken over, therefore I think it is time for Flash to respectfully leave the party on a high!

WWDC 2010 - Sold Out!

2010-05-08T00:15:00.000+01:00

In only 8 days, this year’s WWDC in San Francisco has been sold out! This is the third year in a row that the conference is a sell out. This year though it was in only 8 days and not in a month like last year. I think this clearly demonstrates that the iPhone OS platform is a very serious platform and that more and more developers are seeing its potential. In only 2 years, Apple has fundamentally changed the developer world. Only a small percentage of developers would have ever considered developing apps for the Mac platform using Xcode and Objective-C, but 2 years on, that is not the case anymore. Developers are realising the potential and power of this new platform, and are flocking by the thousands to events like the WWDC.

This of course fundamentally changes the potential of developing not just for the iPhone OS platform but ultimately for the Mac OS platform. Could this be a repeat of what happened to Apple after it launched the first iPod? Before Apple launched the iPod and iTunes, the company was pretty much bankrupt. Users started liking the iPod and eventually thought, and rightly so, that “if their iPod is this good - then their computers must be too”. Apple very cleverly lured people away from PCs & Windows to the simplicity of the Mac. Could this be happening now for developers?

I couldn’t help but wonder, could this really be a time of major shift in developers? Could we see more and more developers shifting to the Mac/Objective-C platform? After all, “if it is this easy to develop for the iPhone OS - then it must be easy to develop for the Mac platform”. It is not easy for any developer to switch to Objective-C, but it is easy enough for a developer with the right foundations. Anyone with good understanding of object-oriented concepts and C could do the jump quite easily. The rest is simply just syntax! A good creative author that writes novels in English can write equally good novels in French, they would just need to learn French.

It is certainly an exciting time for all of us. I think that people who choose to ignore the Mac and iPhone OS platforms are doing so at their own peril.

See you all 5,000 developers in San Francisco in exactly one month from now!

iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 3

2010-05-05T12:42:00.000+01:00

Today Apple released iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 3. Excellent improvements and new features. Due to the NDA I cannot disclose any details. Sorry.

If you are a registered developer - go ahead and download it.

WWDC 2010 Keynote Predictions

2010-05-01T14:10:00.000+01:00

Right well, one moth to go till WWDC 2010 and as promised I will be covering the event from San Francisco, via this blog, Twitter and Facebook. Here’s my predictions for it:

iPhone 4th Generation (Well we know about that already), new A4 processor, more RAM, possibly more storage space, front camera, iChat and better camera. I still think that Apple will pull something our of their sleeves regarding this though. Maybe wireless syncing!
iPhone OS 4 release (and possibly beta for iPad)
iTunes 9.2 (possibly iTunes X!!!)
Updated Mac Pro systems
Mac OS X 10.7 Preview

The bets are on - lets see what actually happens.

If any of you are actually attending this year’s WWDC drop me a line and say hi when in SF. I will be loitering around Moscone West, Third Street & Montgomery Street (my favourite). I am also thinking of taking a trip down to Cupertino and visit the real Apple Campus Visitor Store!

WWDC 2010 Keynote Coverage

2010-04-29T23:52:00.000+01:00

As I have mentioned before I am attending this year’s WWDC 2010 in San Francisco. To keep all my readers happy, I will be providing live coverage of the actual Keynote Event with Steve Jobs. No photos though I am afraid.

WWDC 2010 - June 7-11

2010-04-28T22:26:00.000+01:00

Today Apple finally announced the much anticipated WWDC 2010 dates. It will be held at the usual place (Moscone West Conference Centre in San Francisco), on June 7 - 11. This comes as a surprise since it was widely anticipated that the conference was going to be held in late June rather than in its usual early June slot. This year Apple announced the dates almost a month later than the usual late March. Also the focus this year seems to be totally on iPhone & iPad development. Not really a lot about Mac OS X development. I have already purchased my ticket and anxiously awaiting for my confirmation code so I can activate my e-ticket. Looking through the myriad of post-graduate hardcore technical sessions - I have already picked up a few interesting ones (iPhone OS Multitasking - Parts 1 & 2)!!! See you all there in June!

Knight Frank Property Search for iPhone

2010-04-23T10:23:00.000+01:00

In the last few months I have not been spending a lot of time blogging. That has been mainly due to the fact that I have been hard at building my first iPhone App. Knight Frank Property Search for iPhone is a truly international property search app for the iPhone. I personally think it is the first of its kind really. Even though there are other property apps out there, none of them really allow you to text & GPS search properties around the world. Take a look and let me know what you think. iTunes

Office 2010 RTM Available!

2010-04-22T17:18:00.001+01:00

Office 2010 RTM is now available for download for all MSDN subscribers!

Office 2010 RTM Availability

2010-04-22T13:36:00.001+01:00

Some days ago Office 2010 (14) made it into RTM. Microsoft announced their availability date via their Office Backstage Blog. Here’s the schedule:

22nd April - MSDN Subscribers
27th April - Volume Licensed Customers with Software Assurance
1st May - All Volume License Customers
June 2010 - General availability in stores etc.

WWDC 2010?

2010-04-21T19:52:00.000+01:00

Well spring is upon us as is the end of April as well. We’ve heard of the new iPad, iPhone OS 4.0 Betas 1 & 2, new MacBook Pro laptops but absolutely not a single word from Apple about this year’s WWDC conference. Last year it was held in early June and the dates were announced in late March. This year rumours have it that it will be held in late June.

Let’s see what happens. Oh and see you all in San Francisco.

Adobe CS3 Activation Fun

2009-08-08T01:38:00.003+01:00

iPhone 3GS

2009-06-23T00:52:00.000+01:00

After almost 2 years of trusted service my iPhone was today replaced with the new all singing all dancing iPhone 3GS - 32GB. So far I am very happy with the speed and performance of the new device. Let’s see how the battery does!

Snow Leopard 10.6 Build 10a380

2009-06-14T12:22:00.000+01:00

Apple released build 10a380 (the last developer preview) of Snow Leopard last week. This apparently is the last developer preview released prior to shipping Snow Leopard in September.

Some of the new features include:

Full 64-bit support.
Intel only architecture resulting in faster applications, and far far less disk space for OS. Apple claims that Snow Leopard’s HD footprint is 6GB less than Leopard.
Grand Central Station (framework for clever management of multi-processor multi-threading execution).
OpenCL (Open Computing Language). New standards C based software abstraction layer for managing video processing power. This will allow developers to leverage GPUs in any application.
New version of QuickTime (QuickTime X).
Dock Expose (not included in this release).

Snow Leopard will retail at $29 ($49 for a family pack).

Pro JavaScript RIA Techniques Book

2009-06-04T00:15:00.002+01:00

An ex-colleague and very good friend has just published his book on Pro JavaScript RIA Techniques. Den Odell is one of the best in the field of Web Development. Despite not having read the book yet myself, I am sure it is nothing sort of brilliant. Having worked closely with Den for a number of years, on large scale public facing web sites, I am completely confident in his skills and ability to transfer his knowledge to paper.

Visual Studio Magazine

2009-06-03T20:32:00.002+01:00

Please read my contribution to the article posted by Visual Studio Magazine about Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1.

Article at Visual Studio Magazine

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 - Review

2009-05-18T19:53:00.001+01:00

Just out for MSDN subscribers – Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. Non subscribers don’t despair. General availability for Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1 will start this Wednesday.

Over the next few weeks I will be posting here my experiences with Visual Studio 2010 Beta 1. For now here’s a collection of screenshots from the Setup. Notice the nice change in allowing users to clearly select whether their are developing managed or unmanaged code!

Stay tuned!

Windows 7 – XP Mode & Windows Virtual PC

2009-05-02T14:10:00.001+01:00

Windows 7 RC is out, and as promised here’s a first look at XP Mode and Windows Virtual PC. There seems to be some confusion over some of the terms & names used in this technology. So here’s a quick explanation:

XP Mode – Currently in Beta and available for download from MSDN. It requires Windows 7 and it is nothing more than a pre-installed Virtual Machine Image File. Below are a couple of screenshots of the installation process.

So as you can see XP Mode is called Virtual Windows XP. Simply a pre-configured virtual machine image. So far that doesn’t sound too impressive right? Hold on and I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Windows Virtual PC – is the second Beta download available from MSDN. It is available for XP SP3, Vista and Windows 7. Simply this is a newer version of Virtual PC simply named Windows Virtual PC. Unlike previous versions, this one does take advantage of virtualisation features of processors such as Intel VT etc. Under Windows 7, Virtual PC integrates really easily with XP Mode.

Using XP Mode with Virtual PC

Once everything is installed, it really is extremely easy to get started. Initially, Virtual PC will initialise the XP Mode image and this can take a few minutes.

During the initialisation, Virtual PC enables a feature called “Integration Services”. This really is quite clever but nothing new in the virtualisation space. It allows you to run applications installed on the XP Mode machine directly from the host operating system. It also goes a step further to even integrate notifications in the host’s system tray area. More about this later.

Finally a quick wizard asks you a few easy questions and boom!

Once you are up and running you will find yourself in familiar territory, if you have used Virtual PC in the past.

It is worth noting that the default settings of XP Mode, are set to give the virtual machine 256MB of RAM. This is configurable as most of the other settings XP Mode like in any other Virtual Machine setup with Windows Virtual PC. So far it looks pretty simple and nothing we haven’t seen before. This is were the “Integration Services” come into play. You can choose to run XP Mode as a full desktop, shown above, or use “Integration Services”. If you need to configure and/or install any legacy applications, such as Office 2003 or VB 6, then you would start XP Mode in full mode. Once everything is installed and configured you then don’t need to worry about starting it up again. XP Mode will be managed in the background for you and be ready when you need it. All your installed applications will appear in your host’s start menu.

When you are ready just fire up any of these apps. The application will be executed inside XP Mode but its output redirect to the Window Manager of the host and look as if it is part of your main operating system. If the virtual machine is already running you will be prompted that it needs to be closed. This takes seconds and allows the application to run seamlessly inside the host operating system.

As you can see above, Word 2003 and VB 6 are running under Windows 7’s XP Mode.

Conclusion

This is an extremely important feature that Microsoft is adding to Windows 7. It will help businesses of any size to ensure that their current investment in software is secure and that they can continue to operate in the future, despite moving to new operating system. It will also help Microsoft redeem itself of all the compatibility issues Vista had with various software applications. For a Beta version running under a Release Candidate version of Windows, I was extremely impressed with the performance and overall simplicity of XP Mode & Virtual PC. I can only hope and predict that Microsoft will integrate this even further, to the point that when an incompatible application with Windows 7 is installed, it will offer users an easy way to move it to XP Mode.

You can read more about XP Mode & Windows Virtual PC on Microsoft’s web site.

Windows 7 Release Candidate Review

2009-05-02T00:27:00.001+01:00

Windows 7 RC is officially out of the door (at least for MSDN & TechNet Subscribers). Don’t panic Microsoft will be making this version available to the general public, as a preview download, on May 5th.

Over the next few weeks, I will try to give you more info into what Windows 7 is, and what new features and additions Microsoft has in store for us.

First up will be the infamous “XP Mode”! Stay tuned.

Mac OS X 10.5.3 & XCode 3 Beta 6 Out

2008-05-28T21:49:00.002+01:00

Apple just released their latest updates for Leopard 10.5.3. Also today they released their latest, and probably last Beta version, of their developer tools XCode. The latest version the tools requires 10.5.3. The final version of the developer tools is expected to ship on the first day of the WWDC conference on June 9th.

Download the latest Mac OS X update either from Software Updates or from here http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/apple/macosx_updates/macosx1053update.html.

Download the latest Beta version of the developer tools here http://developer.apple.com/iphone/program/.

Mac OS X Tip #1- The Alt Key

2008-05-21T21:49:00.001+01:00

Starting this week, I will be posting regular Mac OS X Leopard tips that I come across.

The Alt key is quite powerful on Macs. First hidden little secret is the System Profiler and the Alt key. If you want to start System Profiler quickly then hold your Alt key while you click on the Apple menu. The About This Mac menu item will change to System Profiler, and by clicking it will launch System Profiler instead of the About screen.

The Alt key has many hidden uses in Mac OS X and I will be revealing them slowly, so stay in touch. Also I am going to start talking about Xcode and Objective C very soon and everything about development on Mac OS X.

My First Dashboard Widget

2008-05-15T22:51:00.001+01:00

Well I have really moved over to the other side - Apple that is. Well yesterday I published our first ever Mac OS X Dashboard Widget, and today it has been listed on Apple's web site! Check out the screen shot and if you are sensible enough to be on a Mac download it here from Apple.

I built this widget within a few hours by using Dashcode, part of Xcode, Apple's free development tools for Mac OS X. Can you build one of these so quickly and elegantly for Vista? I don't think so!

I'm a Mac!

2008-05-03T23:55:00.001+01:00

First it was the work iMac earlier this year. The trial machine ended up becoming an inseparable work partner. Not only Leopard is a first-class operating system but the iMac even runs Windows faster in VMWare than my original PC hardware did. I am now officially a Mac. I ditched my Lenovo laptop with its pathetic screen resolution (and you know how much screen space Visual Studio needs) for a brand new Macbook Pro (15.4" screen, 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo and 4Gb RAM). The machine simply screams of power. Visual Studio rocks on it in a VMWare Vista machine. Amazing screen resolution and with Leopard Spaces it only takes one keystroke and I switch from Leopard to Vista in no time. Can't wait to switch my home computer to a new 3.06GHz iMac this October - I think a great present for my 30th birthday!

I will keep you posted on how I get on but to get your appetite going here's a picture of the machine! GET A MAC - it doesn't just work - IT ROCKS!

Apologies + Windows XP SP3

2008-04-21T23:25:00.001+01:00

To all my readers - I haven't been able to post anything for the last month. It has been quite a hard and difficult month in all fronts. But I do promise I will be back very soon. I have had a lot of demands for the Subversion installation articles. I promise I will be posting the remaining content on setting up Subversion and CruiseControl.NET very very soon.

Meanwhile enjoy downloading XP SP3 on the 29th of April. Microsoft just announced SP3 RTM!!!!

iLove the iPhone

2008-03-23T23:00:00.001Z

I finally got an iPhone through work for R & D. Namely trying to develop applications for the iPhone using the newly released iPhone SDK. This works really well with my new Apple iMac as the new SDK (which basically is Xcode) only works on a Mac.

Here is a screen shot of my hacked iPhone working with my Orange sim card.

I will keep you posted on how I get on with my iPhone and the iPhone SDK.

Back from California to find IE8 Beta 1

2008-03-05T21:45:00.001Z

Well San Francisco and Las Vegas were fantastic, but even better Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 (IE8) is now available. You can download it here.

Well I will try to cover in a series of postings my experiences with it.

Installation

Not much changed here yet. As a matter of fact not much has changed generally with IE8's UI.

First Run

A new first run settings wizard walks you through the various different old and new settings available, such as Search, Apps and Safety Filter (aka Phising Filter).

Once you have completed the settings wizard you are prompted with the new IE8 Welcome Page, introducing you to the new features available such as IE7 Emulation mode and WebSlices.

IE7 Emulation

IE7 introduced a lot of "hacks" in order to maintain compatibility with previous versions. Subsequently this meant lack of Web Standards. IE8 now runs in Standards mode by default, but if you need to browse the Internet like IE7 then click the big IE7 Emulation button.

WebSlices

Another new feature, similar to that Safari offers on Mac OS X, is WebSlices. Developers can mark parts of web pages as "WebSlices" and enable users to monitor information they rely on as they move about the web. With a click in the Favourites bar, users see rich "WebSlice" visuals and developers establish a valuable, persistent end-user connection.

Finally when you browse to a web site, IE8 ensures you are sure of where you are by highlighting the domain name of the site - so hopefully Phising will become even more difficult.

I will keep you posted with more as soon as I start using it more and more. So far my main work website works!!!

Mac OS X 10.5.2 Released

2008-02-11T23:13:00.001Z

Apple just released the anticipated 10.5.2 update for Leopard. Among the myriad of fixes the highlights of this major update are:

- Airport: Improves connection reliability and stability
- Back to my Mac: Adds support for more third-party routers, as detailed in this article.
- Dock: Updates Stacks with a List view option, a Folder view option, and an updated background for Grid view.
- Desktop: Addresses legibility issues with the menu bar with an option to turn off transparency in Desktop & Screen Saver preferences.
- Desktop: Adjusts menus to be slightly-less translucent overall.
- iSync: Adds support for Samsung D600E and D900i phones.
- RAW Image: Adds RAW image support for several cameras, as detailed in this article.
- Safari: Addresses issues with Safari reliably resolving certain domains.
- Time Machine: Adds a menu bar option for accessing Time Machine features (the menu extra can be enabled in Time Machine preferences).
- Time Machine: Improves backup reliability when computer name contains slash or non-ASCII characters.
- Time Machine: Addresses issues in which some external drives are not recognized by Time Machine.

Get your update via Software Update or via a Combo Installer here. One more thing after installing 10.5.2 there is one more update Software Updates will find the Leopard Graphics Update. Get it either via Software Updates or here.

Let's hope I can now connect to the Internet via my corporate MS ISA proxy server. Fingers crossed.

I Heart San Francisco

2008-02-10T22:11:00.001Z

Well it is that time of the year again that I need my American fix. So I am off for 3 weeks to San Francisco, Las Vegas and possibly Seattle to visit friends and family. Very tight schedule ahead but really looking forward to it. Sneaky visit to Microsoft and Apple. Ever since I told people I am going over, my phone hasn't stopped ringing. Between the countless calls from Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, I am finding it hard to decide who I am having dinner with every evening. *Just Kidding* - Although a sneaky visit to Redmond is most likely as a good friend is a VP there. Can't wait to raid the Employee Store with its great discounts again this year with him! Finally I am so looking forward to seeing my all time favourite Bette Midler in Las Vegas on her opening night in Caesar's Palace.

See you in a few weeks.

Windows Vista SP1 & Windows Server 2008 hit RTM

2008-02-04T23:23:00.001Z

According to the Microsoft Windows Vista blog, today Microsoft released Windows Vista SP1 to manufacturing. Unfortunately it will not be until mid-March before it hits Windows Update and becomes available for download.

Today also Windows Server 2008 made it to manufacturing as well. As of a few hours ago Microsoft published the final versions for download in their MSDN Subscribers' Download area.

Hopefully it wont be too long before Vista runs faster on my iMac thanks to the service pack.

Apple iMac - 2 weeks on

2008-02-01T22:35:00.001Z

Well it has now been two weeks since my amazing new Apple iMac arrived. So far it is a match made in heaven. Still no solution to the MS ISA Proxy server issue (although googling the problem reveals a possible fix in Leopard 10.5.2, that's about to be released).

I am almost completely happy with VMWare Fusion as well. My corporate workstation image with Windows XP and Visual Studio 2008 is actually running far more reliably and fast than it did on my HP workstation. The virtual machine is configured to use both cores of the Intel Core 2 Duo Extreme *Intel Inside Jingle* and 2GB of physical RAM. This configuration is pretty similar to my original HP workstation. The only annoying thing with Fusion 1.1 (not a problem with Parallels though) is the lack of support for multiple monitors. Basically if you are using multiple monitors you can not use both of them at the same time with the emulated machine. You can not drag Windows/Linux/OS2 windows from one monitor to the other in Unity mode. Hopefully a fix is soon on its way as Parallels do explicitly offer that option with their Coherence feature.

I suppose unlike a Tiger or a Leopard or a Panther I have managed so far to change my stripes and spots without problems!

New Year - New Computer - New Apple

2008-01-22T22:39:00.001Z

Well, there is always a first, there is always a new resolution and of course there is always one thing we all try to change every New Year. Well my one change this year is to not use a PC anymore, or shall I use the old style phrase "IBM compatible". Yes for the first time ever I've decided to take the plunge and use an Apple Computer as my main work computer. To be precise a brand new 24" iMac with a 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo Extreme processor and 4 GB of RAM. I am also using a second 19" monitor as well as an Apple Wireless mouse & keyboard. If you exclude the countless problems that Safari and Mac OS X have in dealing with Microsoft ISA proxy servers (standard Enterprise setup really), the machine is HOT!!! I ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT. And just to make you even more jealous here is a picture of it!

I am currently running Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.1 and VMWare Fusion 1.1 with Windows Vista and Windows XP. I have Visual Studio 2005 & 2008 and SQL Server 2005 all running as one big happy family. I am also testing Parallels 3.0 to see if it performs even better than VMWare. Currently when in "Unite" mode with VMWare (makes Windows apps look as if they are running under Mac OS X) all my applications, and especially Visual Studio, run better than my previous PC.

I will keep you posted on how I am getting on with it!!!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

2007-12-25T15:13:00.001Z

I want to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas and a happy new year full of tons of coding without bugs!

Merry Christmas everyone.

Joe

www.csharpblog.net

2007-11-25T00:12:00.001Z

Yes I got a new address for this blog - www.csharpblog.net. I think it is quite cool that I managed to get this domain name!

You can update your favourites or just keep going to the existing one!

Thanks again for reading.

Joe

Subversion & Visual Studio 2008 - Part 1

2007-11-25T00:05:00.000Z

Most .NET developers would be comfortable working with Visual SourceSafe (VSS) when it comes to source control. VSS is good but there are several problems with it and with Team Foundation Server (TFS). First of all they are all very expensive, do not offer a very good disconnected model ("meaning that it is quite hard to work offline"). VSS also expects you to pretty much exclusively check out a file before working on it, making it harder for large teams to work together. Finally VSS and TFS's automated build system are very heavy and do not really offer immediate deployment to development servers. But again that is only my opinion.

On the other hand Subversion (initiated in 2000 by CollabNet) is a very light, open-source and free alternative to VSS that requires minimal maintenance once installed and configured. A lot of large and well known organisations such as Google use Subversion. Arguably Subversion and CruiseControl.NET (CC.NET), a continuous build system, are more difficult to install and configure than VSS is. There's more to it that just double-clicking an executable file like with VSS. Hopefully the series of articles on this subject will aim to provide you with a solid guide on how to configure them.

During this series, I will be using Virtual PC to demonstrate how to setup a Subversion server and a development machine. I will be setting up two different virtual machines, one running Windows Server 2008 RC0 Web Edition (this will host the Subversion server) and one running Windows Vista Home Premium with Visual Studio 2008 (this will be development workstation).

1. Setting up Apache Web Server on Subversion server machine

This guide assumes that you have already installed and configured successfully Windows Server 2008 (W2K8) RC0 Web Edition. Below is a screen shot of my server's about screen.

Please note that you can use Standard Edition for this as well. As a matter of fact you do not need any of the web features of W2K8 if you are only going to use this server as a Subversion repository. I decided to use the Web Edition because I will be using this server later on in this series as a web development server.

Subversion on its own gives you access remotely to the source repository only via the custom Subversion SVN protocol (default port 3690). But you can still access your repository via the HTTP/HTTPS protocols as well, with the help of a web server. Unfortunately using IIS with Subversion is extremely difficult and almost impossible. The server of choice, recommended by Subversion developers, is Apache a free web server that can run as well on a Windows platform as it does on Linux.

So once you have W2K8 installed and configured, you will need to first install Apache on your server. You can download Apache 2.0 here. I will be using version 2.0.61. There are later versions than this but are not as stable with Subversion. There are two options here you can either download a version without SSL support or with Open SSL support. I will be using the non SSL version. If though you will be providing access to your repository remotely over HTTPS then you should install the Open SSL version. I chose to download apache_2.0.61-win32-x86-no_ssl.msi.

Once you have downloaded the Apache setup executable you can go ahead and start the setup. It is straight forward really. Just fill in your server details as in the screenshot below and then choose Typical Install.

Once the installer completes you should see a new tray icon appear and if all has gone smoothly the icon should be a green play-like icon.

You can check your server's installation by navigating in your browser to http://localhost. If you had IIS installed prior to installing Apache there is bound to be a conflict as the default port for both is port 80. To avoid this please change the default port of IIS prior to installing Apache. You can afterwards change Apache to listen to a different port (i.e. 81).

In the next article I am going to show you how to setup Subversion to work with Apache.

Subversion can play well with .NET

2007-11-23T15:01:00.001Z

I don't know about you, but I never really liked Visual Source Safe. Don't get me wrong I love Microsoft products, but somehow I do not think VSS cuts the mustard.

Subversion is a much more light-weight, open-source, disconnected source control system that works and plays really well with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET.

In the coming days I will try to give a comprehensive guide in setting up Subversion, automated builds and integrating it with Visual Studio 2008.

The articles are to be organised as follows:

Subversion & Visual Studio 2008
CruiseControl.NET - Automated Builds
Visual Studio 2008 Subversion Integration
Other CruiseControl.NET Integration Stuff (FxCop etc.)

I hope you find this interesting. I think it is really good stuff and an excellent development environment. But let me know what you think before I start writing!

Forgot that connection string?

2007-11-21T22:54:00.001Z

There is an excellent web site for all of us who can not possibly memorise and remember all the different settings for connection strings. This web site includes pretty much every type of connection string you might need to generate from SQL Server 2005 to Oracle, Paradox even IBM DB2! Really cool, easy and free to use.

Bookmark it now!!!!

http://www.connectionstrings.com

Coding Tip 3 - To scroll or not to scroll

2007-11-21T14:09:00.000Z

Tip 3 - Automatically scroll position between postbacks

I don't know about you, but I get very upset when I do a postback and my scroll position is lost. Thankfully .NET 2.0 now offers a way to resolve this problem on all moderns browsers.

<% Page MaintainPostBackPosition=true %>

So scroll and postback away!

Visual Studio 2008 Review - Part 1

2007-11-20T10:04:00.001Z

Visual Studio 2008 is finally here. It brings more enhancements and language features than any previous version of the Microsoft IDE. I will try to review some of these as time goes on. Today I will focus on some of my first and most obvious additions to features and the user interface of the IDE. Also I am including some screenshots to tempt all of you to download it and use it.

Find out more about purchasing Visual Studio 2008

First of all the traditional Microsoft splash screen - updated for this version:

The first thing you will notice once the IDE has finished loading is the new and slightly slicker menu and toolbars. The usual Recent Projects area and RSS news reader from MSDN are still there as well.

One of the greatest new features of Visual Studio 2008 is the ability to choose which version of the .NET Framework you wish to target your new project. Have a look at the highlighted drop down list in the New Project window. This new feature is very powerful. It will allow developers still working on legacy versions of the .NET Framework to still take advantage of the new IDE features.

One of my favourite new features is the new split view of web pages. The new view allows you to edit the source of page but still view the design of the page at the same time. This feature works well but the synchronisation of the content is not immediate. Most times for changes to appear in the design split view you need to save your code.

One of the final little helpful features I will show in this post, is the window switcher (ctrl + tab) inside the IDE. As you know using this combination allows to switch between documents in an MDI environment. Microsoft decided to add a bit of Vista magic to Visual Studio. Even though it is not as good as Flip 3D, using this feature now allows you to get a small preview of your window contents (like alt + tab in Vista)!

Hope this got your appetite going - more soon!

Visual Studio 2008 RTM Available on MSDN

2007-11-19T16:47:00.000Z

Microsoft just released Visual Studio 2008 to manufacturing. The full Team Suite version is now available to download from MSDN Subscriber Downloads. Get yours from https://msdn.one.microsoft.com (You obviously need a valid MSDN account).

Coding Tip 2 - Fields Change

2007-11-19T12:49:00.000Z

Tip 2 – Non-constant fields should NOT be visible

Static fields that are neither constants nor read-only are not thread-safe. Access to such a field must be carefully controlled and requires advanced programming techniques for synchronizing access to the class object. Because these are difficult skills to learn and master, and testing such an object poses its own challenges, static fields are best used to store data that does not change. This rule applies to libraries; applications should not expose any fields.

Example:

WRONG: public static DateTime publicField = DateTime.Now;
//This is wrong because the field is public and not a literal

CORRECT:

public static readonly DateTime literalField = DateTime.Now;
//Correct because it is a literal read-only field

static DateTime privateField = DateTime.Now;

//Correct because it is a private field.

Coding Tip 1 - Evil Strings

2007-11-15T13:37:00.000Z

Starting today I will be posting a weekly coding tip that will hopefully help us all avoid common mistakes and errors.

Tip 1 – Evil Strings (Avoid Unnecessary String Creation)

Avoid creating strings unnecessarily. When converting strings to upper or lowercase, cache the result where necessary rather than duplicating a previous string creation. Prefer string.Compare over converting strings to upper or lowercase when performing case-insensitive comparisons. Do not create strings that are not subsequently assigned to variables. Unnecessary string creation degrades performance.

Example:

WRONG: if (string1.ToLower() == string2.ToLower()) //case insensitive string comparison
CORRECT: if (string.Compare(string1, string2, true) == 0) //case insensitive string comparison

To blog or not to blog

2007-11-15T12:54:00.000Z

My name is Joseph Megkousoglou - I know it is a bit of a mouthful.

I work for Knight Frank in London. Knight Frank is the largest privately owned property services firm in the world, you can read more about them on Wikipedia. My title is Associate, Senior Lead Developer and I am responsible for the web site software engineering team at the firm. We have a number of web sites that help the firm advertise all its properties and services. You can have a look at our UK one here.

Prior to working at Knight Frank I was a Senior Software Engineer and Technical Manager for AKQA, a leading digital agency in London. During my time at AKQA, I worked mainly on the Sainsburys.co.uk and Dominos.co.uk web sites. I was also involved in other work with Microsoft, Xbox and Gucci.

I feel that, after working professionally as a Software Engineer for over 8 years and with almost 20 years of software development experience, I should help others via my blog. I will try to post technical articles relating to Microsoft programming technologies (namely C# and .NET).

I currently hold a BSc in Computer Science (Brunel University) and an MSc in User Interface Design (London Metropolitan University).

I hope you will find this blog useful and that you will visit regularly.

To blog then it is.

Joe