Status Report – August 22, 2002

Went camping again last weekend on Mount Rainier – I gotta say, if you get a chance to make it out here – it’s really beautiful… As far as technical things to talk about, here we go!

1. The user group tour continues. Thanks to all of you whoa are coming out to see us. This coming week we have events in California, Missouri and Oregon. Check out http://msdn.microsoft.com/events/vbnet/ for a full list of cities and dates.
2. VBTV is live and in your face! <g> Take one part technical Webcast, one part talk show, mix in some product managers, a loveable redneck, 2 rocket scientists, a DJ, and a head in a box, and you’ve got VBTV. Episode One covers the fundamentals of VB .NET. http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbtv/.
3. We’ve created a “try before you buy” website for those of you interesting in .NET! Check out http://msdn.protier.com.
4. Chats continue on. I’ve listed the upcoming ones below – and transcripts of completed chants are available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats.
5. In addition to the chats listed below, here’s a support webcast that you may find interesting: Windows Forms DataGrid Control – An Introduction. It takes place on Thursday, September 5, 2002 at 10:00 A.M. Pacific time (Greenwich mean time - 7 hours). This session introduces the Windows Forms DataGrid Control. You will learn about binding at design time and at run time, managing appearance, customizing views, rich formatting, and the editing capabilities of the control. The website is: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=/servicedesks/webcasts/wc090502/wcblurb090502.asp

-yag

Upcoming chats (http://msdn.microsoft.com/chats):
Advanced Interaction with Windows Forms Controls
Tuesday, September 3, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
The Windows Forms ToolBox contains a number of controls that offer a great deal of power and flexibility to client application developers. The whitepaper "Sorting ListView Items by Column Using Windows Forms" (http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnwinforms/html/listviewsort.asp) discusses one aspect of this; come chat about issues and strategies you have when working with the Windows Forms Controls.

Creating Office Add-ins with Visual Basic .NET
Tuesday, September 17, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
Building COM Add-Ins using # or Visual Basic .NET combines the rich object models of the Office applications and the .NET Framework with the power of Visual Basic .NET's language features. However, combining COM objects and .NET objects can present a few challenges. Come discuss the problems you are encountering and strategies you have found to work around them.

Visual Studio .NET Debugger (** Note special day **)
Thursday, September 19, 2002, 1:00 – 2:00 P.M. Pacific time (21:00 – 22:00 GMT)
Join Microsoft experts in an online chat to discuss debugging .NET applications using the Visual Studio .NET Debugger.

White Papers
Walkthrough: Manipulating Files using .NET Framework Methods
Intended for the beginning Visual Basic .NET programmer, this article illustrates how to create a diary application, MyLog. It begins by creating the interface used to write to the diary, and it then adds the writing functionality, including how to display the contents of the diary, and how to remove or edit entries.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dv_vstechart/html/vbtchVBACLRFileIOWhitepaper.asp
Creating Visual Basic .NET Controls from Scratch
This month Billy Hollis shows you how to build a visual control from scratch that renders its own interface.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/dnadvnet/html/vbnet08142002.asp