Visual Basic Blog
A group blog from members of the VB team
Latest posts
CodeRush Xpress Released Today! (Lisa Feigenbaum)
CodeRush Xpress is a FREE Visual Studio 2008 add-in containing 60+ refactorings, 7 editing features, and full support for C# and Visual Basic. Download hereCodeRush Xpress includes the following features. In addition, you receive the following refactorings.Add Parameter Create Overload Create With Statement Encapsulate Field Encapsulate Field (read only) Extract Interface Extract Method Extract Property Extract XML Literal to Resource Flatten Conditional Introduce Constant Introduce Constant (local) Introduce Local Introduce Local (repl...
CodeCast Episode 20: Biz Apps Team and VB with Beth Massi (Lisa Feigenbaum, Beth Massi)
Code Cast Episode 20: Interview with Beth MassiThis show's interview is Ken interviewing Beth Massi, Microsoft, program manager on Microsoft’s BizApps team in the VS group. Beth discusses her work over the past two years at Microsoft on the VB team and now on the BizApps team, and chats about some cool new features and content in Visual Studio 2010.Topics· Beth Massi (@ 27:28) – Blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/bethmassiLinks· VB Team Blog – http://blogs.msdn.com/vbteam· VB Developer Center – http://msdn.com/vbasic· VSTO Developer Center – http://msdn.com/vsto&...
How Do We Learn to Be Good Programmers? (Matt Gertz)
I’ve always enjoyed writing. Putting pen to paper (or, these days, fingers to keyboard) is something that brings a lot of joy into my life, even more than music or any other hobby that I have. I’ve been writing stories since earlier than I can remember, have faithfully kept a daily diary for many years, and have published countless journals, conference papers, and other articles on this or that technology. So, when I was in my early twenties, it seemed the most obvious thing to try start writing professionally. I wrote out a number of stories (mostly science fiction), which I s...
Ask Kathleen: Working with MEF (Lisa Feigenbaum)
MEF stands for Managed Extensibility Framework. MEF is a new .NET library that enables greater reuse of applications and components. Using MEF, .NET applications can be dynamically composed. Kathleen has a great article on MEF in last month's edition of Visual Studio Magazine. She explains what it is, how to use it, and outlines the application scenarios MEF is designed to enable. Visual Studio Magazine "Ask Kathleen" Column: Working with MEF
CodeRush Xpress 9.1 Beta: 59 Refactorings, 17 Consume-first providers, and Much more! (Lisa Feigenbaum)
Very exciting news! Developer Express is coming out with a new version of the FREE add-in we all know today as Refactor!. The new product, CodeRush XPress, builds on Refactor! by increasing the refactoring count to 59! It also includes a host of other editing functionality, making it a much richer tool for all-around IDE productivity. Consume-first providers enable a different way of programming, whereby you can refer to variables, properties, classes, and other members before they are defined. Then the IDE tools insert the definition for you, so you don't need to write all that plumbing code, or break your thoug...
CodeCast Episode 17: Visual Basic 2010 Preview with Lisa Feigenbaum
I recently recorded a CodeCast interview with Ken Levy. We discussed the VS2010 Editor, VB.NET line continuation removal, interop with dynamic languages, the Microsoft languages strategy, and the upcoming VS2010 Beta1 release. Recording: CodeCast Episode 17: Visual Basic 2010 Preview with Lisa Feigenbaum This episode includes Ken Levy with a part 2 interview with Microsoft’s VB community program manager Lisa Feigenbaum. Lisa discusses many of the cool new features coming in the VB 2010 language and compiler, and some new VS 2010 IDE features. Also discussed is VB within Microsoft’s family of various...
XML Literals, WCF and LINQ Article by Steele Price (Lisa Feigenbaum)
Steele wrote a great article in last month's issue of Visual Studio Magazine on XML Literals, WCF and LINQ. He shows how to use these three technologies together to produce more responsive ASP.NET pages, and more readable code. Lots of great tips for VB 2008.VSM's "On VB" Column: XML Literals, WCF and LINQ by Steele Price
.NET Rocks! with Beth Massi on the Open XML SDK and XML Literals (Lisa Feigenbaum)
Beth Massi shot a couple of great episodes last month on dnrTV! If you are interested in learning more about the Open XML SDK, and how to easily access it using VB.NET XML Literals, be sure to check them out. dnrTV Show #137: Beth Massi on the Open XML SDK Our good friend Beth Massi returns to dnrTV to introduce us to the Open XML SDK, Microsoft's tool kit for creating and manipulating Office 2007 documents. dnrTV Show #138: Beth Massi on Open XML and Office Beth Massi is back to talk about how to generate custom Word documents and Excel spreadsheets with LINQ to SQL and XML Literals in Visual Basic .NET....
TechEd North America, here we come! (Lisa Feigenbaum)
TechEd North America 2009 is right around the corner. For those of you attending, we look forward to spending time with you at the VB.NET sessions and Technical Learning Center (a.k.a. booth). I've pasted the VB.NET session list below. See you in LA!