Ever wondered why they call the new main menu system i Office 12 "Ribbon"?
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2005/10/07/478214.aspx
Working on a pretty large system with custom UI from start to end, I can totally see whats going on.

VS2005 & .Net Framework 2.0 released today!!
http://blogs.msdn.com/somasegar/archive/2005/10/27/485665.aspxJust thinking of how many hours I'll be spending with this program the next years.. Downloading tomorrow (MSDN Universal, no warez here baby!)

There is a bug when using databinding between data containers and windows forms elements in combination with and in-between business logic/data validation in .Net 2.0. In a few words the problem arises when e.g. you make a change to a value in, say, a TextBox and the Set-method of the property the value is data-bound to does a custom validation/modification before committing the change to the business object.

Let's say I make a change to myLabel.text, which is databound to your Business Objects (using something similair to: myLabel.DataBinding.Add("Text", this.CustomerBusinessObject, "CustomerName");). CustomerBusinessObject has a property called CustomerName that implements a Set; method that actually updates CustomerBusinessObject's private field m_customerName. So far all is good - untill you start adding custom modification in the Set; method, say;

Set
{
value.Trim();
this.m_customerName = value;
}

What you will see is that any other controls will refresh their display values, if anything to refresh, but the actual edited textbox will not. Read on for a temporary solution as we await a fix for this (probably as a service pack after VS2005 release 7th November) here: Conclusion

Microsoft:

Bugreport

Rockford Lhotka:

Conclusion

Problem first reported

..continued

.NET Framework 2.0 Beta 2 Obsolete APIs

In the Beta 2 version of the .NET Framework 2.0 product, there are various APIs that have been added in since V1.1, but are marked obsolete. All of these APIs will be removed from the product at V2.0 release. These are APIs which were added during the beta cycles of the V2.0 product lifetime, but as a result of design changes and/or product feedback, have subsequently been replaced, or will simply be removed. It is paramount for your ability to easily move forward to the final V2.0 release of the product that these obsolete APIs not be referenced. This list is the APIs which will be removed before the final release of V2.0.

No dramatic changes in what I use on a daily basis, System.Runtime.InteropServices and Microsoft.Vsa (scripting engine) seems to have the biggest changes. Note that System.Uri has cut two constructors.

There will probably be changes as november 7th closes in.. :-)

I am pretty excited about WWF (no, not the animal fundation, or the wrestling crazyness..) and here is a more hands-on guide as to how it might work from a developers view: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Workflow Foundation: A Developer Walkthrough. Really looking forward to when we may orchestrate our businesslogic and services using this fundation and these tools.

Article has a pretty high score and is written by Dino Esposito, check out his blog, from Solid Quality Learning.

Download Microsoft® Visual Studio® 2005 Extensions for Windows Workflow Foundation (beta1).

Windows Vista Developer Center: Windows Workflow Foundation

Microsoft SoCal Architecture Blog reports that Microsoft is in the process of launching an Architect Certification Process. The certificate might be ready early 2006. It is reported that at least 10 Microsoft marketingguys are currently working day and night to come up with a 4-letter abreviation for the new program ;-)

Maybe one day *sigh*... first I need to get around doing my Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and possibly Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD).

Rescources:
SoCal : http://blogs.msdn.com/socalarchitect/archive/2005/09/19/471369.aspx
Microsoft Certified Professional : http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/default.asp
Architect Blogs : http://www.microsoft.com/architecture/aggregate.aspx?pid=share.read&abver=FEEB2E89-4412-4C58-A7F8-9B2CA0E0BDAC

I decided to move all my computer/programming-related posts here, since blogger.com does not support categories for posts.