Status Report – July 19, 2002

Well, no bear on last weekend’s camping trip (sorry Thomas Whiteley <g>) – but lots of mosquitos. <g> Got to see Yes at a free concert here last Sunday night, excellent show.

More of the VB team has been spending time online. It’s been nice to see. We’re setting up a user group tour – and it looks like I’ll probably be in Denver speaking in August. A big thanks to everyone for their comments and suggestions for the XML Doc tool on http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vb. I’ve collected them all and we’re looking at enhancements/fixes.

Coming August 1, VBTV! Looking for the inside scoop on Visual Basic .NET? Searching for a powerful, yet approachable, tool? Tired of sitting through dull technical Webcasts on esoteric topics that don't apply to today's programming challenges? If so, tune in beginning August 1, 2002 as the Visual Basic .NET family unveils the premiere of the soon-to-be modern day classic, VBTV. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbtv/default.asp

The highlights for the week:

1. In case you missed it… We still have the XMLDoc front end for VB .NET on GotDotNet. http://www.gotdotnet.com/team/vb.

2. The servers are in – I’m setting up the databases, etc., next week. WOO HOO!!!!

3. Chats, chats, chats! As always, if you miss them, the transcripts are put online at http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats.

-yag

Upcoming chats (http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats):

Chat with Visual Basic Management
Tuesday, July 23, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
The management of the Visual Basic team would like to hear your suggestions for what features should be in the next major version of Visual Basic .NET. We’ve been collecting feedback via newsgroups and meetings, but we’d like to here from everyone.

Dynamic Webforms from Databases
Tuesday, July 30, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
The rich interaction between ASP.NET Web Forms and databases allows developers to create a variety of compelling business solutions. The whitepapers "Survey Sample: Web Form Design in ASP.NET" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/surveysample1.asp) and "Survey Sample: Development of an ASP.NET Web Form" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnaspp/html/surveysample2.asp) discuss some of the things to keep in mind when dynamically creating Web Forms. Come discuss this and other solutions you have implemented that feature Web Forms and databases.

Building International Applications Using Visual Basic .NET
Tuesday, August 6, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
Planning and executing the development of an internationalized application can be difficult without the right preparation. Come talk with the experts about any questions you have regarding internalization.

Become A Help Power User
Tuesday, August 13, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
There is a lot of great material in the Visual Studio help system. This session will cover various tips and tricks for getting the most out of it and will collect your feedback on the help system.

Rich Editing User Interface in Windows Forms: The PropertyGrid Control
Tuesday, August 20, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
The .NET Framework PropertyGrid control is a great way to surface a number of options to users. The whitepaper "Getting the Most Out of the .NET Framework PropertyGrid Control" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dndotnet/html/usingpropgrid.asp) discusses where, when, and how to implement this control. Come discuss this and other solutions to the user interface problems you are encountering when creating Windows Forms.


White Papers
The Queue Continuum
In this article, Billy Hollis introduces a very useful, but underutilized technology for distributed architectures – message queues.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnadvnet/html/vbnet07092002.asp

Viewing the Values of a DataSet in a Debug Window
In this article, Ken Spencer discusses an approach to customizing how you view dataset information using the debug and command windows in Visual Studio .NET.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/02/07/AdvancedBasics/default.asp