Developer News, Trends and Products

• What System Center Can Do for Developers

  Microsoft System Center 2012 is out, and Microsoft .NET Framework developers everywhere are cheering. read more

• Microsoft, the MVP Summit and the New Normal

  The MVP Summit, from which I've just returned, is a very important event. read more

• The Survival of Microsoft's Fittest

  A certain Darwinian evolution is taking place at Microsoft. Some product species are more fit, with better chances for survival. You can understand and work with Microsoft's changes, rather than being passively impacted by them. read more

• Big Data and SQL Server: Disruption or Harmony?

  By responding to potential threats with thoughtfulness, and a zeal to add value, SQL and Big Data could be big business for Redmond. read more

• The Shifting Sands of the Microsoft Ecosystem

  As the market becomes more diffuse, its practitioners and participants must cope and adapt. read more

• SQL Server Data Tools: a Model Toolset

  Using SSDT means we don't just shout orders at the database; instead, we plan what we're going to say. read more

• Windows 8: Times Are Changing for Developers

  Microsoft's BUILD announcements about Windows 8 and other technologies are a break from the past. read more

• Dev Disasters: Just Following Orders

  A major validation error in the code resulted in a 60 percent failure rate for an expense form. read more

• Can SQL Server Punch Through the Clouds to No. 1?

  SQL Azure has become a major pillar in Microsoft's cloud-based strategy. read more

• The Spaghetti Code Incident

  Henry was the TAXCALC king. But his coding skills were positively peasant-like. read more

• A Bit Unwise

  Was "Calvin code" genius or tomfoolery? read more

• Windows Phone 7: Honorable Mention or Eventual Winner?

  Windows Phone 7, although struggling out of the gate, is poised for big things. read more

• C# Practice Makes Perfect

  For years, nobody cared that the legacy image-syncing application consumed as much bandwidth and processing time as it did. read more

• Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management

  Visual Studio 2010 Lab Management provides a centralized way to create, manage and share environments in your domain-joined Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2010 development shop. read more

• HTML5 Reality Check: Tools and Strategies You Can Use Today

  Let the pundits debate Flash versus Silverlight versus HTML5. You need to develop software and want the real story. HTML5 offers many benefits to developers that are usable today with the right tooling and adoption strategies. read more

• LightSwitch: The Answer to the Right Question

  After nearly a full year in beta, Microsoft yesterday released Visual Studio LightSwitch 2011. Andrew Brust explains why LightSwitch defies categorization and is a lot more than just another framework-based tool for generating code. read more

• Examine Other People's Code with Red Gate Reflector

  Red Gate Reflector lets you open a DLL or EXE and, assuming that the assembly hasn’t been obfuscated, recreate its C# or Visual Basic code. The obvious reason for doing this is to see how something is done; you can learn a lot from other people’s code. read more

• 5 Reasons You Should Care About HTML5

  Before you dismiss HTML5 as not ready for prime time or too lightweight for real developers, consider these five reasons that you should get excited about it. read more

• Innovation in the Margins; Adaptation in the Spotlight

  Andrew Brust on Microsoft's whistle-stop demo tour. read more

• Developer Fail: A Few Precious Seconds

  Power user Alice strikes; can the code save our programming hero? read more

• Don't Combine the Scrum Master and Architect

  Thinking of cutting corners on your Scrum process? Ben Day served as the Scrum Master and the software architect on a recent project, but the back and forth didn't really work. read more

• Boost Silverlight Apps with ComponentOne XapOptimizer

  XapOptimizer is a standalone tool that shrinks XAP files by eliminating unused code and resources. read more

• Reverse the V Model and Test First

  Test-first development is an approach to software development that focuses on results: Tell me the expected outcome, not the requirements. read more

• The 'Groundbreaking and Revolutionary' Update

  For MegaCorp's end-of-quarter presentation, the VP of marketing arranged a demo for a feature that he had contracted an outside consultant to add to the new version of the company's customer-facing online application. read more

• Redmond Unshackled

  On Nov. 2, 2001, Microsoft and the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) reached a settlement in the antitrust action against Redmond. The terms of that decree expired in May. read more

• Cross-Platform Mobile Development with .NET: It's All Up to Xamarin Now

  Krystyna Rosicka-Blonska outlines her recent development experiences in MonoTouch and Mono for Android and points to a few shortcomings that Miguel de Icaza and his development team might want to address in the planned commercial .NET offerings from Xamarin. read more