text: What Is Being Unveiled at the PDC this Year?by Shawn Wildermuth
  10/27/2003
  This:
  Codename "Whidbey"
  Whidbey is the new .NET Framework and Visual Studio .NET combination. This release can be thought of as the first real maturation of the platform. Here is an overview of the changes:
  Generics)
  C# Changes
  Even though generics didn't become a C#-only feature, C# did get a couple of perks on its own:
  - Partial classes: Allows classes to be split up into multiple physical files:
  //class1.cs public partial class PartialClass { public PartialClass() { } } // class2.cs public partial class PartialClass { public void ShowMe() { Console.WriteLine("hello"); } }
  - Iterators: A stronger way to develop ways to iterate over your own collections by defining a way to handle
  foreachin a more straightforward way.
  public class MyList { ArrayList _list; public object foreach() { foreach( object o in _list) { yield o; } } }
  - Anonymous methods: Allows the creation of inline methods. Very useful in handling events:
  listbox.DoubleClick += new EventHandler(sender, e) { MessageBox.Show(listbox.SelectedItem.ToString()); }
  VB.NET Changes
  Most of the changes in VB.NET are about making it more appealing to VB developers. These include:
  - C#-like documentation: A new commenting system that works much like the C# counterpoint to allow self-documenting code.
  - Edit-and-continue:They have finally re-enabled the VB-like edit-and-continue way of developing. How I wish C# would get this; but for now, it's a VB.NET-only feature.
  ASP.NET v2
  While old-style ASP.NET will continue to work, ASP.NET v2 has attempted to learn a lot from the last few years of ASP.NET:
  - More controls: A large number of controls have been added for all sorts of ASP.NET work.
  - Master Page System: Provides a way to create a master page with other pages that derive from it in a more normal way than ASP.NET does today. Allows the master page to show the developers what sections of the page they are able to change.
  - ASP-style development: Out of the box, developers can develop ASP.NET sites with automatic compilation -- no more hacking a solution file to make this happen. It will be supported implicitly.
  - Built-in support for personalization: Most new controls support personalization by individual users by default. Since most of the web sites out there need this, Microsoft seems to be listening.
  Windows Forms Changes
  While Windows Forms changes are more evolutionary than revolutionary, Microsoft has spent a lot of energy on making No-Touch Deployment much more natural. They've added features for creating bootstrap installs and easy deployment to IIS servers to support this.
  Data-Related Changes
  There has been a lot of work in the areas of dealing with data in the .NET Framework. In very brief detail, these are:
  - ObjectSpaces: This much-vaunted project is finally seeing the light of day. This project allows you to create a mapping between a set of classes and a database store, so that all of the serialization to the database is handled in a seamless way..
  - New XML stack: There have been a number of improvements across the XML stack to add features and standards that did not exist at the time of the 1.1 writing. There are also expectations of performance improvement, especially in the new transformation (XSLT) engine.
  Visual Studio .NET v.Next
  The new Visual Studio .NET includes a large number of changes to improve the productivity of users. These include:
  - Visually docking windows: No more being caught up in the purgatory of trying to get your windows in the IDE to dock where you like.
  - Better debugging: The debugger now handles collections much better than before. In addition, walking through code will automatically skip code that isn't yours. No more hitting some framework or x86 code that is sandwiched in between two calls that you are debugging.
  Codename "Yukon"
  Yukon is the new version of SQL Server that will ship near or at the same time as Whidbey. The changes for Yukon include:
  The CLR Inside.
  The New XML Type
  XML has graduated to a real type in Yukon. You can define schemas and store XML in specific columns. You can also add XML-specific indexes to your tables to allow you to index parts of XML documents for easier searches.
  Service Broker
  The purpose of the Service Broker is to handle asynchronous database work. It is akin to have MSMQ integrated into the SQL Server. You can simply push work onto the Service Broker to allow some non-time-sensitive work to happen when the SQL Server has time.
  MARS.
  Codename "Longhorn"
  Further out than Whidbey and Yukon is Longhorn, the next release of a desktop operating system. Longhorn consists of a number of new systems:
  "Avalon".
  Conclusion
  Showing messages 1 through 11 of 11.
  - Call The Hague
  2003-10-28 05:25:41 anonymous2 [View]
  - The "working" developper ?
  2003-10-28 01:03:02 GerardM [View]
  With lead times like 2005, it does not mean much for a working developper. It means something when a product is tangible something that will be there within a period of up to three months anything, else may be for another project I will be working on but not for the current one and the one in the planning stages. It is simply not relevant as it would make me include migration trajects at extra cost to the current projects
  - The "working" developper ?
  2003-10-28 07:20:29 anonymous2 [View]
  It isn't vaporware, it's stuff under development now. You can get early releases if you are interested or ignore it if you are not. Grow up, linux whiner. .NET will assimilate you. You will comply!
  Sincerely,
  7 of 9
  .NET Borg Babe
  - The "working" developper ?
  2003-10-28 10:39:07 GerardM  [View]
  That's right!
  Remember how they delivered Microsoft Bob?
  No one's forcing you to listen, there's no law that says you need to be informed as to what the future will look like. Specifically, the targeted audience is professional developers; getting a paycheck for programming isn't the driving qualification.