You've reached the internet home of Chris Sells, who has a long history as a contributing member of the Windows developer community. He enjoys long walks on the beach and various computer technologies.
Tuesday, Mar 2, 2004, 9:02 AM
BizTalk Server 2004
Microsoft has launched BizTalk Server 2004. For me, the biggest deal is the integration of the schema mapper into VS.NET, which lets me build an XSLT document interactively with a coupla schemas (and I can come up with schemas from instances via Microsoft's schema inference tool).
Monday, Mar 1, 2004, 5:28 PM in .NET
Sample: Avalon DawsonDraw
Ryan Dawson posts a nice sample showing the basics of a drawing program in Avalon, including a floating toolbar and the ability to draw and select lines, rectangles and circles. He also provides the source.
BTW, Ryan's pretty darn prolific on Longhorn and I recommend his blog in general. Also, if I remember correctly, he's 19, so you're getting pure enthusiasm and uncensored truth. Recommended.
Monday, Mar 1, 2004, 4:41 PM in .NET
How fast does Avalon need to be?
Markus Mielke, one of the guys making Avalon go just as fast as possible, posts his guidelines and goals for Avalon performance.
Monday, Mar 1, 2004, 10:46 AM in .NET
Starting from Scratch: The Visual Basic.NET Coach
Sometimes I get aspiring programmers stumbling onto my web site and asking me how to get started having no programming background. I can't really tell them to do what I did, i.e. spend 4 years programming Applesoft Basic, so instead I recommend "The Visual Basic .NET Coach," which is supposed to introduce .NET programming from the ground up, assuming no previous programming experience. Does anyone have any experience with this book or other similiar titles?
Sunday, Feb 29, 2004, 1:03 PM in The Spout
Suggestions for WinForms Programming 2/e
Here.
My co-author for the 2nd edition of Windows Forms Programming, Michael Weinhardt, doesn't have enough to do to with the new features in Whidbey or all of the stuff that I wished that I added to the 1st edition but didn't. No, he wants more, so he asked me to ask you nice folks what you'd like to see.
The goal of the 2/e edition of the book is to cover the features of WinForms Whidbey as well as related .NET features that are important to WinForms programmers. Also, we'd like to continue to encapsulate WinForms community best practices. What did I miss in either of these categories that you'd like to see in the 2/e?
Friday, Feb 27, 2004, 3:48 PM in .NET
Introducing the New Avalon Graphics Model
Ian Griffiths has a very nice piece about the new drawing model in Avalon and how it differs from the drawing model that's we've known and loved since 16-bit Windows. It also includes such tidbits as a reference for the currently under-documented Path.Data attribute. Highly recommended.
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 5:42 PM
Ohhhh.... MapPoint Location Server...
Here. Oh man! I *need* a SmartPhone. Imagine "Find Nearest Starbucks." Dude!
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 4:18 PM in .NET
The .NET Show's Got a Blog
Since it's inception, I've been a big fan of the .NET Show and I've seen most of the episodes. Now, the host, Robert Hess, has got himself a .NET Show-related blog. Subscribed.
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 3:57 PM in .NET
The Selling Point of Indigo
Here.
Right on, Benjamin:
"The selling point of the Indigo Service model is that it is simple and easy to use. The benefits for developers is that they get all the benefits of enterprise-quality features such as transactions, reliable messaging and security without having to write any code. Letting Microsoft do the plumbing allows developers more time to write code that focuses on solving complex and interesting business problems."
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 3:51 PM
Timeshifting Rocks
Here.
My ReplayTV has made me such a bigot that I can't even watch normal TV w/o turning up my nose in disgust anymore. Also, I love download into MS lectures and playing them back at 1.5 speed while I'm on my treadmill; exercising my mind and my body at the same time. All media should be timeshifted. *All* *media*.
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 12:25 PM in The Spout
Same-Sex Marriages *Should* Be Allowed
Being from the Midwest (and big and dumb-looking besides), most folks assume I'm a homophobic. As it turns out, I've known a few homosexuals in my life, but not very many. Or rather, I suspect that I know a lot more of them then I recognize, but I never think about it. I never think about it because it doesn't matter.
Real love is rare enough that people should be able to love and live and *marry* whoever the hell they want to and I resent a government that thinks that they get to decide who's love counts and who's love doesn't count (although I do support parents being able to decide whether their minor children should be able to marry).
BTW, you can save yourself the trouble of responding if you're going to say anything other than "+1", as I won't be responding to any kind of negative comments on this issue. There is literally nothing you can say to change my mind, so don't even try.
Thursday, Feb 26, 2004, 8:36 AM in Fun
A Redundant Chris Sells
When I'm having fun with the Sells brothers, I like to tell them that I don't have two boys, but rather one boy and one redundant backup in case one of them needs "erasing." I have never told which of them is which, however, 'cuz I like to tortune them (hey! I paid for 'em!)
I would if Chris J. Sells in Beaverton, OR or Chris D. Sells in Dallas, TX is the redundant one...
Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004, 10:52 PM
WinXP SP2 Training Course for Developers
The MSDN Security Developer Center has an overview of what XP SP2 will mean for developers. Now is better than later to check this out!
Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004, 5:29 PM in .NET
MSBuild Preview Quickstart Tutorials
Alex Kipman, PM on the MSBuild team, was kind enough to provide several tutorials on MSBuild, each of which includes sample projects and documentation. If you're looking to get up to speed on MSBuild, the nextgen .NET build engine, there's no better way. Enjoy!
Tuesday, Feb 24, 2004, 3:30 PM in .NET
Time for some Longhorn DevCenter Feedback
It's been about 5 months since the Longhorn Developer Center was launched and I'm curious what you guys think of it. Do you like it? What about it don't you like? How could it support your current Longhorn development goals better? What can I do for the budding Longhorn developers that we're not doing? Don't be shy; call it like you see it.