Embedded Developer

So it has been a week or so since Visual Studio 2010 was released in the wild and the verdict is that it is a great step forward.  It is amazing how simple things like pinable data tips make your life as a developer a lot easier.

One thing I have found irritating is the fact that you need Sharepoint installed in order to use the reporting facilities in Team Foundation Server (TFS).  This is not so much of a problem in a team environment as you are normally using servers to host TFS but it is a bind in a single developer environment.  For those of you who are not aware, Sharepoint will not install on Vista or Windows 7 running on a 32 bit machine.  This is a problem for me when experimenting as the environment where I test my ideas before implementing them is Windows 7 32-bit.  Looks like I’ll be rebuilding an old 64-bit machine in the near future.  On the up side, it will allow me to look at Sharepoint 2010 which has recently been added to MSDN.  As I say, all developers like new toys :).

Update: 25/04/2010

A recent blog posing by Shai Raiten suggests that Sharepoint can be installed on Windows 7 32-bit.  At the end of the post it suggested that an advanced installation was possible (note the Advanced button is highlighted) but this generated several errors.  I have since read the full article on Bamboo Solutions web site and followed their instructions and I now have WSS3.0 SP1 installed on my laptop.  Now all I have to do is get the reporting services working.

The Firestarter event held at the start of this month saw Microsoft announce the future release of Silverlight 5.  A run down of some of the new features can be found here on John Papa’s blog.  There is a also a link to the video of Scott Guthrie’s keynote.

Microsoft have released a training kit for Silverlight 4.  This is available online (through Channel 9) or as an offline download.

Thursday this week found me attending a technical community day just outside Leeds.  The event was organised by Black Marble and covered the recent Visual Studio 2010 launch.  The morning saw an overview of the tools by Matt Dunn from Microsoft along with a demonstration of Team Foundation Server features and how they integrate into the software development life cycle.  The highlight of the day was a talk by Jesse Liberty covering Silverlight.  Whilst light on technical content his talk was very entertaining covering his introduction to Microsoft and the evolution of Silverlight.  If you get the chance I would recommend that you take the time to attend one of his presentations as he is a very entertaining presenter.

OK, so I’m a day late on this one but then I have had my hands full uninstalling the release candidate and updating to the full version.  A fairly comprehensive overview with links can be found on Scott Gutherie’s blog.

The Express editions can be downloaded from the Microsoft Express Website.

I have to admit it but it has taken me far too long get my web site and this blog sorted out.  The stimulus came with the move to a new hosting provider and the fact that I get the flexibiliy I wanted and the ability to work with the technology I was happiest with.  So here we are, a week later and the blog site is up and running.  I suppose I’ll have to address the web site next.

So, what can we look forward to?  To be honest I don’t know.  There will certainly be a fair amount of technology content along with the odd thing I find amusing and want to share.

All I can say is I’ll keep you posted <groan>