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Showing 1–156 of 156
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Eliminating Waste During Designer-to-Developer Handoff
Updated
Improve how teams move from front-end UI/UX experience created for users, to the developers who will write code to make it work. Create clear specs, usability testing, use low-code to design and improve collaboration and communication. If you’ve ever been part of a development team, you’ve experienced the disconnection that designers sometimes seem to have from how things get built. Jason shows how to make it better.
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On Endings
Updated
Ted Neward discusses his closing thoughts in his final back-of-the-issue editorial for CODE Magazine.
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Rodman Visits the World of FX on Hulu’s “Devs”
Updated
Rod writes the editorial of his life after visiting Earling Studios in the UK where they filmed the TV series Devs in 2019. In Jan 2020, interviewed Alex Garland, the creator-writer-director of Devs.
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Talk to an RD: Tim Huckaby and Markus Egger
Updated
Tim Huckaby and Markus Egger discuss privacy and many other issues that significantly change with artificial intelligence.
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Managed Coder: On Brand
Ted explains why branding is important, no matter how big or small your company is.
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The Mythical Business Layer
Dino explains the business layer so that even a seven-year-old can understand.
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Editorial
In this issue, Rod discusses the cost benefit analysis of tools.
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The Software Comedy: State of the Art
Dino has a somewhat literary take on the things that go wrong in software development. You’ll follow him through the seven rings of Software Hell in a parallel to Dante’s “Divine Comedy.”
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Manager’s Corner: Words Matter
Updated
Words aren’t the only aspect of good communication. Mike teaches us that the code should stand on its own, now, next week, next year, and for the next decade.
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Managed Coder: On Negativity
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Ted Neward explains how taking the negative approach just might lead to leaner, cleaner code.
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Manager's Corner: Meetings
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If your calendar has more meetings scheduled into it that time to work, you’ll appreciate Mike Yeager’s suggestions for making meetings more efficient.
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We Are Customer Service!
Rod Paddock editorial Jan/Feb 2011
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Post Mortem: Desaware’s Licensing System 1.x
Nov/Dec 2010 Post Mortem Article by Dan Appleman
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Managed Coder: On Certainty
Writing software is hard, particularly when the schedules keep programmers “nose to the grindstone”; every so often, it’s important to take a breather and look around the world and discover what we can find-ironically, what we find can often help us write software better.Psychology seems no less strange a partner to the software craftsman than philosophy, but understanding how we engage in that practice called “thought” and “feeling” improves interpersonal skills, like how to deal with annoying co-workers like yourself.
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Managed Coder: Of Software and Philosophy
Writing software is hard, particularly when the schedules keep programmers “nose to the grindstone.” Every so often, it’s important to take a breather and look around the world and discover what we can find-what we find can often help us write software better.Philosophy seems a strange partner to the software craftsman, but ironically a brief dip in the waters of abstract thought will help hone skills later useful to the craft of code, models, and workable software.
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Keep Software Simple
Updated
A lot of programmers tend to over engineer their software solutions.In the course of my consulting, I have reviewed many applications from many companies. In many cases I find a lot of areas where the software was just too complex. The reasons for this are varied, but seem to be centered around a few main areas: inappropriate use of design patterns, the “not invented here” syndrome, and building a Cadillac when a Chevy would do the job. You can solve these issues in many ways. All it takes is a little bit of re-thinking on how you build software. This article offers guidance on some things you can do to simplify your software development process
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From the CODE Magazine Mailbag
Ken Getz .Finalize() column for September/October 2008
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Heard on .NET Rocks! Ted Faison on Event-driven Design
In .NET Rocks! episode 355, Richard and I talked to Ted Faison about event-based and event-driven programming. There’s more to it than you think. Ted Faison has more than 30 years of experience in the software industry and has been involved with object-oriented-programming and component-based development since the inception of those technologies. He is currently working on .Net projects for the Motorcycle Industry Council and Amtrak. Ted is the author of the books Event-Based Programming: Taking Events to the Limit, Component-Based Development with Visual C#, and a few others.
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Languages Re-Unleashed
Sept/Oct 08 Editorial by Rod Paddock
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MVP Corner: We Are the Masters of the Twitterverse
How did we ever survive without social networks? I asked myself that today and couldn’t come up with an answer I liked. If I need to find contact information for that DBA I worked with three jobs ago, it’s off to LinkedIn or Plaxo. When I’m wondering about that guy from high school who was going to be a world famous rock star, Facebook is only a couple of clicks away. Out of town for a conference? No worries, I just check Twitter to see where my friends are.
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Things Fall Apart
Updated
Ken Getz recounts puzzling moments when software appears to "fall apart," arguing that apparent breakdowns often stem from human assumptions, not bits disappearing. Using a Visual Studio/DataGridView example, he shows that binding a string array yields string.Length values and explains the correct fix—project into an anonymous type with a Name property and call ToList()—then frames these surprises as everyday entropy and the limits of memory.
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Guilty Pleasures and LINQ
Nov/Dec 2007 .Finalize Column() Ken Getz
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The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Comparisons Between Crystal Reports and SQL Server Reporting Services
Recent polls show that nearly fifty percent of applications with reporting functionality use Crystal Reports, and about twenty percent use SQL Server Reporting Services. This article will cover some of the major reporting tasks that developers face, and how the two reporting tools (Crystal and SQL Server Reporting Services) handle the tasks. Finally, I’ll provide a sneak preview at the next scheduled releases of both products (the next version of Crystal Reports and SQL Server Reporting Services 2008).
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Heard on .NET Rocks!: Frank Savage on Programming the Xbox 360
.NET Rocks column for Sept/Oct 2007
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MVP Corner: Perspectives from a .NET Guy at GDC
Sept/Oct 2007 MVP Corner Article
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Printing Envelopes, and Lambda Expressions
.Finalize() column for Sept/Oct 2007
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Re-Igniting Creativity
Rod Paddock Editorial for Sept/Oct 2007
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Heard on .NET Rocks! Dead Head Bill Wagner
Updated
Carl Franklin's .NET Rocks July/August 2007 column.
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A Look at Windows Vista from a Developer Perspective
Updated
Rick Strahl discusses Windows Vista for developers.
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ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005: You win some, you lose some
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Rick Strahl discusses Visual Studio 2005.
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ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 is here
Updated
Rick Strahl discusses the newly released ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (MS AJAX)
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Beyond HTML: Rich Internet Applications
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Rick Strahl discusses building rich internet applications
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The Client-Side JavaScript Dilemma
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Rick Strahl discusses considerations when writing JavaScript
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Welcome from the Mobile and Tailored Platforms Group
Welcome to our second CoDe Focus issue on mobile PC development.
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WPF 4 Unleashed - An excerpt from Chapter 1: Why WPF, and What About Silverlight?
WPF 4 Unleashed: By Adam Nathan, Sample Chapter is provided courtesy of Sams Publishing. Published Jun 4, 2010 by Sams. Part of the Unleashed series, Copyright 2011 ISBN-10: 0-672-33119-5 To purchase this book go to http://www.informit.com/store/wpf-4-unleashed-9780672331190?w_ptgrevartcl=Why%20WPF%2c%20and%20What%20About%20Silverlight%3f_1608130
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A Silverlight to Illuminate the Path Ahead…
Updated
At Mix 2007 in Las Vegas, Microsoft announced Silverlight (formerly known as WPF/E) to much fanfare. Silverlight is very intriguing in concept, as it further travels the path previously laid out by WPF (Silverlight’s big brother), and it aims to bring the worlds of Windows and Web development, as well as the worlds of software development and graphical design, much closer together. As more and more details emerge (and the first released version is now available), it becomes clear that Silverlight is not just an intriguing concept, but it is for real! Markus discusses Silverlight concepts in this article.
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Native JSON Parsing: What Does it Mean for Your AJAX Applications?
Updated
JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) has become the de facto data transfer standard for client-side Web applications that use JavaScript. JSON is a JavaScript-based object/value encoding format that looks very close to raw JavaScript and can be very easily parsed by JavaScript code because JavaScript can effectively evaluate a JSON string and re-materialize an object from it. Unlike XML there’s no parsing involved in the process, so it’s easy to work with and also relatively quick because the actual parsing (or rather evaluating) of a JSON string is done internally in the JavaScript engine rather than through manual code. The format and data types are also well defined so it’s easy to generate JSON strings in other languages like .NET (although parsing is a bit more complex).
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REST-Based Ajax Services with WCF in .NET 3.5
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Rick Strahl discusses Rest-Based Ajax Services.
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Use the ASP.NET MVC Framework to Write Web Apps without Viewstate or Postbacks
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The Web View October 2007
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Agile Development: Swimming with the Current
Two roads diverged in a wood, and we… we took the one that led straight to hell, where we thought nothing of reconciling ourselves to the sad state of software affairs that followed.
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Heard on .NET Rocks! Moving VB6 Applications to .NET
Jan/Feb 07 .Net Rocks Column
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Designing for Database Movability
Updated
Eventually SQL Server databases in a production environment must move from one server to another. It’s important to plan for eventual database moves when architecting a database solution.Designers and developers often overlook the eventuality that a database will need to move to a different server. This month’s column is the first of three dealing with the issues surrounding database moves. In this first part, you’ll learn about the reasons why you should plan for moving a database when you design and architect your application.
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How Developers Can Avoid Transact-SQL Cursors
Updated
Ron Talmage discusses how developers can avaiod Transact-SQL Cursors
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Methods for Moving a Database
Updated
Moving a SQL Server database from one server to another is simple-initially. But there are various methods for moving a database, and some have more advantages than others. Investigating the types of moves ahead of time can make planning for a database migration easier.It takes essentially three steps to move a database from one server to another: take the database out of production, copy it to another server, and then bring the copy back into production. While you can choose from many methods to accomplish these steps, it can be difficult to complete the move given all the database’s dependencies. In this article I’ll describe the methods for moving the database. In my next installment I’ll discuss the dependencies and additional related objects that you must also move along with the database data.
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Moving a Database: Dependencies
Updated
xIn the past two installments of this series I’ve discussed two key aspects of moving a SQL Server database from one server (or instance) to another. First I covered the advantages of designing databases to make them easier to move, and then I looked at the methods that you can use to move a database. Now it’s time to look specifically at the types of database dependencies that you must account for after you move a database.
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Performance Counters on the 64-bit Road Less Travelled
Updated
Ron Talmage discusses performance counters in SQL Server.
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SQL Server 2005: Scaling Up and Out
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Ron Talmage discusses SQL Server 2005 in this introductory SQL Server Observer Newsletter
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SQL Server Database Mirroring Roles: Instance versus Database
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Ron Talmage discusses the roles of SQL Server databases and instances in high availability scenarios.
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The x64 Path Less Travelled
Updated
Ron Talmage discusses 32-bit vs. 64-bit version of SQL Server 2005
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.Finalize(): What Does That Beep Mean?
Ken Getz Nov/Dec 05 Finalize Column
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Heard on .NET Rocks!: Joel Pobar and Brad Abrams on the CLR
.Net Rocks by Carl Franklin Nov/Dec Article.
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The Baker’s Dozen: 13 Reasons for Upgrading to Visual Studio 2005
This installment of “The Baker’s Dozen” covers some of the major features in Visual Studio 2005. Visual Studio 2005 offers language, data handling, and development environment enhancements that are sure to please many developers. Programmers who are currently using Visual Studio .NET 2003 will find many ways to write more efficient code and increase their overall productivity. In addition, programmers who are new to .NET will find the migration to Visual Studio 2005 a bit easier than the migration to the first version of .NET. While it’s not possible to talk about every new feature in Visual Studio 2005, this article will cover many of the primary changes and enhancements.
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.Finalize() - The Living Language-Visual Basic 2005
Updated
Ken Getz - Finalize Column - July/August 2005
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dotNetTemplar vs. angryCoder: To Go Live, or Not to Go Live
Angry Coder - Jonathan Goodyear and J. Ambrose Little - July/August 2005
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Am I a Mad Scientist?
Updated
J. Ambrose Little argues that building an application around a strongly typed, rich domain model—rather than a database-centric or data-set approach—offers real, practical business benefits: easier maintenance, greater code reuse, improved performance, and faster, safer development thanks to compile-time checks and better tooling. He contends that object-oriented design decouples the domain from the database, reduces coupling to UI layers, and enables clearer, more dependable architectures, ultimately making development more enjoyable and less error-prone.
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Ask the Doc Detective
In this Ask the Doc Detective column, Doc Detective answers reader questions about using Visual Studio .NET documentation and SDK samples—diagnosing a delegates/events sample issue (KB Q312114), pointing to VB.NET performance and managed-code optimization resources, advising on multithreaded web crawling approaches, explaining how to deploy and populate an MSDE database via a Web Setup custom action, confirming Java skills suffice to learn VB.NET, and clarifying why Help's Sync Contents can be disabled when filters hide topics.
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Heard on .NET Rocks: Jay Roxe
Carl Franklin - Jan/Feb 05 .NET Rocks Column
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It's a Blog World
Rod Paddock January February 2005 Editorial Article
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.Finalize() - Making Sausages
Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.
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Best Practices
Rod Paddock Editorial Article November December 04 Issue
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Heard on .NET Rocks!
I am the host of a weekly Internet audio talk show for .NET developers called .NET Rocks!Each week my co-host, Rory Blyth, and I interview the movers and shakers in the .NET community. It's a free download, and there are about 80 shows in the archives as of this writing. We've interviewed the likes of Alan Cooper, Scott Guthrie, Don Box, Kimberly Tripp, Chris Sells, and many other well-known persons in the community. Our show is not boring! We have fun! We give away prizes, look at strange Web sites, talk about what went on in .NET land during the week, and otherwise have a good time. Heard on .NET Rocks! is a regular feature of CoDe Magazine in which I highlight some of the conversations we've had recently.
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.Finalize() - Climbing Hills and Making Rules
Ken Getz' .Finalize() column.
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Die VSS Die!
Jonathan D. Goodyear critiques Microsoft's continued support for Visual Source Safe (VSS), a widely recognized subpar version control system, despite the availability of more robust alternatives like the newly introduced Visual Studio 2005 Team System. He argues that VSS is outdated, inadequately scalable, and poorly suited to modern development needs, urging Microsoft to phase it out and prioritize universal access to their SQL Server-based version control and work item tracking tools. Goodyear advocates for fostering better development practices by providing high-quality tools to all developers, emphasizing that this approach could benefit Microsoft’s reputation and encourage adoption of premium offerings.
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What Makes an Effective Software Manager?
Rod Paddock Editorial September October 2004 Issue
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.Finalize() - Keeping Secrets
Updated
Ken Getz explores the fundamentals and applications of hashing in .NET, illustrating how hash functions and data structures like HashTable enable efficient data storage, retrieval, and secure password comparison. Drawing from personal anecdotes and technical explanations, he emphasizes the importance of hashing's deterministic nature and its role in managing data secrecy and integrity. The article serves as both an educational overview and a segue into more advanced topics, notably hinting at hashing's potential for safeguarding sensitive information.
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Life Is A Loop
Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) July/August 2004
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Great Reasons to Ring In 2005!
Wow, another year has gone by, and as you read this, you are probably returning to the office after a few more or less relaxing holiday time spent with friends and family and a New Year's celebration. Interesting things have happened in our industry in the last 12 months, but I predict that the next 12 months will be quite a bit more interesting! Seldom before have I been as excited about new technologies and developments as I am now.
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How Many Threads Do You Need?
Markus Egger discusses the need to create multi-threaded applications.
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Learn Outside the Box
In Learn Outside the Box, Markus Egger argues that continuous learning is the fundamental core of a software developer's job. While mastering a primary technology stack is essential for daily work, Markus emphasizes the immense value of exploring outside one's comfort zone. By studying different programming languages, alternative platforms, and even seemingly unrelated fields like game development, developers can discover innovative techniques to solve complex problems in their own projects. Ultimately, he conveys that actively cross-pollinating ideas from diverse technological ecosystems is the key to outperforming peers and becoming an exceptional software engineer.
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Modern Application Development: Visual FoxPro and .NET
Updated
Markus Egger argues that while Visual FoxPro remains a productive, reliable choice for monolithic, file‑based database applications, modern requirements — web services, security, scalability, disconnected/offline support, mobile devices, rich UIs, and simplified deployment/versioning — favor the .NET platform; he recommends continuing to use VFP where appropriate but adopting or migrating to .NET for distributed, service‑oriented, and Longhorn/XAML‑centric solutions.
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The Importance of the Managed Platform
.Net is a maturing platform. The first .NET alphas and betas went to a selected group of people years and years ago. At this point, we are approaching the third major installment of Visual Studio .NET (now called "Visual Studio 2005"). Surely at this point, nobody has to explain what .NET and the Managed Platform is. Or do we?
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The Revenge of the Thick Client
If you have been involved in a new software development project during the last five years ? and if you read this article, chances are you have ? then you have probably been faced with the question "Web application or Windows® UI?" And in the vast majority of cases, the answer to this question was probably "Web application." For modern, enterprise-wide systems there were simply many reasons and issues that made it hard to implement the desired feature set in a conventional Windows application and deploy it in a reasonable manner. At this point, the advantages and disadvantages of each application type are well understood, and decisions are easy to make. Or are they?
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The Two Faces of .NET
Rick Strahl takes a frank look at the "Good", "Bad", "Obnoxious" and "Unknown" qualities of .NET.
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User Interface Challenges
Markus Egger discusses user interface technologies developers should familiarize themselves with.
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Finish Your Week with .NET Rocks!
Updated
This is the first in a series of what I hope will be one of your favorite columns for years to come! I am the host of a talk show on the Internet called .NET Rocks! (see advert), in which I interview the movers and shakers in the .NET community.
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Showing Some MVP Love
Jonathan Goodyear (the Angry Coder) discusses MVPs and ASP.NET.
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.Finalize() - How Many Programmers Does it Take (or, the Bike Ride that Wasn't)?
Updated
March/April .Finalize() column.
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The Mind of an Angry Coder: Dances with Vacuums
As the pace of software development continues to accelerate, the way in which we approach it must change to keep up as well. What made sense before isn't as practical now.
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.NET Gripes and XAML Worries
Rod Paddock Editorial January February 2004 Issue
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The Mind of an Angry Coder: Waiting to Inhale
The recent Professional Developer Conference (PDC) fostered great excitement about the power of the .NET Framework v2.0. Unfortunately, it is going to be well into next year before most developers even get a whiff of all things Whidbey; and that's only in beta form. Some important .NET language and framework enhancements are in a big holding pattern, though, and I don't think that's right.
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Aux Displays Rock!
Updated
Markus Egger discusses the new Aux Display feature supported in Windows "Longhorn".
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Can You Hear Me Now?
Updated
In "Can You Hear Me Now?", Markus Egger highlights the growing importance of mobile device applications but critiques the inadequate wireless infrastructure in the United States, which hinders adoption and development. Drawing from personal experience, Egger contrasts the limited coverage and functionality of US mobile devices with the superior connectivity found in Europe, emphasizing the frustration of developers and users alike. He calls for urgent improvements from hardware providers, network operators, and policymakers to create a robust mobile ecosystem that can fully support modern applications and meet user expectations.
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Do You Think In Ink?
Updated
Markus Egger argues that Tablet PC technology, with its native ink support, should be treated as a first-class input modality rather than a fallback to the Input Panel; developers should ink-enable applications by attaching ink collectors to controls and using scalable, unobtrusive pen input that expands the interaction area beyond tiny text boxes. He advocates building a reusable ink-enabled infrastructure (often via subclassed controls and a single ink collector) to unlock Tablet PC opportunities across industries, and he invites readers to explore and prototype such capabilities.
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Editorial - Thinking about .NET
Markus Egger argues in this editorial that Microsoft’s Visual Studio.NET aims to integrate development with the operating system to simplify Web and enterprise application development through XML, HTTP, Web Forms, and Web Services (SOAP), while tying tools to the OS via the CLR. He cautions that, despite impressive demos, real architecture and interoperability remain essential, and early hype should not eclipse core skills in Web architecture and low-level understanding. VS.NET could ease development, but debugging and reliability will still depend on solid foundational knowledge.
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How Microsoft Builds Community
In his article, Markus Egger explores how Microsoft strategically fosters developer communities by dedicating significant resources and creating a collaborative ecosystem. Through discussions with key Microsoft personnel, Egger highlights the company’s approach of empowering developers with freedom, information, and support while integrating community feedback into product development. The initiative spans multiple language-specific groups and global efforts, supported by dedicated roles and partnerships like INETA. Egger conveys Microsoft’s shift toward customer-centric engagement, emphasizing the importance of viral knowledge sharing and sustained investment to cultivate vibrant, self-sustaining developer ecosystems.
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Pest Control
Updated
Brian Kernighan [1] once said, "Debugging is twice as hard as writing code in the first place. Therefore, if you write the code as cleverly as possible, you are, by definition, not smart enough to debug it." This quote gets a little giggle out of most developers, but on the serious side, there is a lot of truth in it. Writing code that does cool or useful things certainly is much easier than writing code that does cool or useful things reliably.
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Put Your Team To Work!
Updated
In "Put Your Team To Work!", Markus Egger highlights the challenges of software development collaboration and presents Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005 Team System as a comprehensive solution. Egger explains how this integrated suite supports all roles—from project management to development and quality assurance—through customizable tools, seamless communication, and advanced features like work item tracking, live design diagrams, enhanced source control, and automated testing. By fostering real-time data sharing and process adaptability, Team System aims to improve software quality and team productivity, marking a significant advancement in software lifecycle management.
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The Web at your service
Markus Egger argues that Web Services—driven by XML, HTTP and SOAP and accelerated by platforms like .NET—will transform how business logic and data are published and consumed over the Internet, enabling rich desktop and web applications to interoperate via simple remote method calls; however, he warns that standards, interoperability, security, state/transaction handling and service discovery remain immature, so developers should learn and experiment now despite current limitations to seize emerging business opportunities.
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Thinking About Services
Markus Egger argues that the rise of Web Services will transform software by enabling seamless, server‑driven functionality while outsourcing many control and maintenance burdens to providers. He acknowledges the promise of easier updates and better‑performing reused services, but warns of the painful transition and the erosion of direct control, drawing an analogy to how modern cars and their parts work versus early expectations. Through a candid ISP anecdote, he underscores the practical pain of relying on services and humans, yet remains hopeful that Web Services will ultimately streamline the Internet.
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Using Your Inheritance
Updated
Markus Egger discusses the use of inheritance in Visual Studio .NET applications, in particular WinForms apps.
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Where's Your Logic?
Updated
Markus Egger discusses the role of business logic in modern application architecture.
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.Finalize() - Summer Travel, Blueberries, and Data Binding
Nov/Dec .Finalize() column
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The Mind of an Angry Coder: I Take Exception to That
Many products are taking advantage of the enhanced exception management features that the .NET Framework provides, yet very few are going the extra mile to provide instant solutions.
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.Finalize() - What I've Learned: Airline Lavatories and Strings
.Finalize() Column
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State of .NET Development
September/October 2003 Editorial by Rod Paddock.
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The Mind of an Angry Coder: Kicked to the Curb
In "The Mind of an Angry Coder: Kicked to the Curb," Jonathan Goodyear criticizes Microsoft’s decision to retire Visual Basic 6 (VB6) certification exams prematurely, despite the company's prior promises of extended support. He argues that VB6 remains widely used and vital for maintaining legacy systems, and that retiring its exams risks alienating developers and organizations still reliant on the technology. Goodyear contends that Microsoft’s move appears to force an accelerated shift to .NET, disregarding the realities of the development community and the ongoing need for VB6 expertise. He also highlights the lack of consultation with certified professionals before the decision was made.
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Looking Forward and Back (Editorial)
In this editorial, Rod Paddock reflects on the pivotal technological developments of 2002, highlighting the significance of Visual Studio .NET, the rise of web services, and the expanding influence of SQL Server and Microsoft’s acquisition of Great Plains. He emphasizes the growing importance of security and notes Microsoft’s strategic retreat from My .NET Services. Additionally, Rod points to emerging technologies like Tablet PCs and the Compact .NET Framework as promising opportunities for developers, ultimately encouraging readers to embrace these innovations as they look ahead to the future.
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Threat Modeling
Michael Howard argues that threat modeling is an essential, practical design discipline for building secure systems: assemble a cross‑discipline team, decompose the application (e.g., DFDs), use STRIDE to categorize threats, build threat trees, rank risks, and choose responses (do nothing, warn, remove, or fix). Howard emphasizes that maintaining up‑to‑date threat models uncovers many design bugs and multi‑step attacks, guides appropriate mitigations, and should be required for design sign‑off.
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The Importance of Friends
Rodman (Rod Paddock) reflects on the September 11, 2001 crisis to argue that, beyond professional achievement, the true value in life lies in friends, family, and freedom. He uses the tragedy to illustrate how quickly life and global connections become fragile, and how meaningful exchanges with loved ones sustain us. The piece then broadens to celebrate international collaboration in his field, before urging developers to prioritize human relationships and personal time over constant work, reminding readers to nurture what truly matters.
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A developer's life...
In "A developer's life," David Stevenson explores the non-technical dimensions of developers' lives, highlighting the balance between personal experiences and professional roles. Through travel stories, including his family’s scenic trips in the Pacific Northwest and Barbara Peisch’s musical tour of Europe, Stevenson emphasizes the importance of life beyond coding. The article invites developers to reflect on their diverse backgrounds and interests, fostering a holistic view of their identities beyond software development.
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The diminishing importance of HTML
Updated
HTML-based Web development has dominated application development for the last six years or so and there are no signs of that changing.However, things are changing as the .NET initiative takes hold. Although Microsoft has put a lot of effort into its Web-based interfaces, which include the powerful new ASP.NET Web Forms framework, I am guessing that there will actually be a push back to desktop-driven, forms-based applications once .NET takes hold.
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The Silver Bullet is Found
Updated
Rod Paddock argues that despite recurring claims about miracle tools and methodologies—CASE, Java, the Unified Process/UML, Extreme Programming—none are a true "silver bullet" for software development; instead, he contends that practical common sense, a problem-solving mindset, and judicious use of tools (and even a simple notebook and pen) are what consistently produce successful software.
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User Groups - The Next Generation
Generating Abstract... please wait...
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All for a Box of Onions
Updated
Rod Paddock uses a lighthearted box-of-onions anecdote to argue a serious point about consulting: the value of choosing the best tool for the job, not what’s most familiar or easiest for the consultant. When a client faced Mac incompatibility with Visual FoxPro, Paddock suggested Citrix, and the client’s success validated that recommendation. The story illustrates that good advisers think outside the box and prioritize the client’s outcomes over personal gain, even if that means passing up an opportunity to build a flashy solution.
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Crawl, walk, run. Could be fun.
David Stevenson analyzes Microsoft’s PDC reveal of .NET My Services pricing and rollout, arguing that Microsoft intends to monetize hosting-based services through a staged “crawl, walk, run” approach that favors larger organizations and imposes significant licensing fees on small developers, potentially deterring early participation even as some core services (Passport, Presence, Alerts) may be free. He emphasizes the tension between cutting-edge opportunity and cost, and considers how developers must decide whether to join or observe as Microsoft builds out the hosting infrastructure and business model.
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The slippery slope of Web Services hype
Rick Strahl argues that while Web Services offer a valuable standardized interface for software components, hype outstrips reality because many public services are simply screen-scraped wrappers and providers have little incentive to expose data as services without branding, credit, or payment models. He contends that true value lies in internal or vertical applications and in proprietary, paid ecosystems, where data providers can monetize their assets. Strahl predicts public Web Services will remain limited and slow to mature, while internal, offline or distributed server deployments will drive adoption and architectural advantages.
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Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!
Updated
David Stevenson reflects on three pleasant surprises: his unexpected return to publishing as CODE Magazine’s editor, the persistent shift toward “stateless” business communication (email-driven negotiations) and its tradeoffs, and the exciting independence and advances of Visual FoxPro 7—arguing that the magazine will deepen developer coverage, that distributed communication is here to stay despite its challenges, and that VFP7’s standalone direction and Web Services support bode well for its users.
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Keeping Up
Updated
In "Keeping Up," David Stevenson highlights the significant technological shift brought by Microsoft's .NET framework and Visual Studio.NET, emphasizing that these changes represent a true paradigm shift for developers, far beyond incremental improvements. He underscores the need for developers to actively engage with new tools, languages like C#, and frameworks such as ADO.NET, and advocates using resources like Component Developer Magazine and specialized Tech Conferences to stay current. Stevenson also points to upcoming events and educational materials as essential for mastering these innovations, urging the developer community to embrace this transformative period with proactive learning and adaptation.
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Customers vs. Code: Negotiating Contracts
Nancy Folsom argues that contract negotiation is a critical, mutually beneficial phase in software projects. She emphasizes that negotiators must establish clear terms on scope, costs, deliverables, and risk, and that a well-structured contract helps prevent surprises and protects both parties. Folsom advises contractors to set nonnegotiable minimums, be prepared to walk away, and keep two documents—general contract and project-specific specifications. She also highlights copyright and employment-status nuances, and suggests practical tactics for initiating negotiations with prepared templates and explicit change-management language.
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Converting Your Beta Testers into Brand Evangelists
Brand evangelists can be a powerful force for your product. A brand evangelist is a customer who’s not only a big fan of you and the products you sell, but often makes it their mission to refer or recommend your products to everyone around them.
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Visual Studio Platform and Extensibility
Updated
As a .NET architect and developer I cannot imagine my everyday work without Visual Studio. I was always in a strange excitement when waiting for a new CTP, Beta or RTM of Visual Studio because I always expected some great new features with every release. During the years I have bought a few third-party add-ins and utilities for Visual Studio to make my development tasks easier and even created small add-ins to produce some useful piece of code. I knew that Visual Studio was extensible; I downloaded the SDKs and tried to get familiar with those hundreds of extensibility interfaces. However, due to lack of good documentation I often got frustrated.