Today I updated Lesson 01 of the C# Tutorial.  There weren't any errors, but it did need a few tweaks.  I re-worded some of the content to read smoother.  I also disabled the Smart Client console app for Listing 1-2: NamedWelcome.exe after experiencing problems running in IE7. I'll play with it some and re-enable it if I get the time. In the meantime, I'll be updating the rest of the lessons and adding new ones as time allows.

Today, I finished a new lesson in my C# Tutorial.  This one focuses on how C# supports the object-oriented principle of encapsulation.  I hope you like it and thanks to all the people who have provided feedback and support.

 

Here's the new PDC 2007 page:

 

 

PDC is a conference Microsoft hosts for announcing their upcoming and cutting edge technologies.  It's the place to be for previews of what is to come.  The schedule the conference around every 18 months, but unlike annual conferences such as TechEd, there isn't an absolute schedule of when a PDC will occur until Microsoft announces it.

When Microsoft began previews of their Expression tools, I was interested.  The expression tools are a combination of Web, Graphics, and Design tools.  While Microsoft's primary audience for these tools is designers, they look like good tools for developers too.  I put in my feedback for including these tools in MSDN and so did many other people.  Well, it worked.  Somasegar made the announcement today that Microsoft would now ship Expression Web and Expression Blend as part of MSDN.  While you'll have to wait for Expression Blend to ship (after Expression Studion ~Q207), Expression Web is available now for download from MSDN.

Tony just sent me this link, Object-Oriented Data Programming: C# Meets Caché by Jesse Liberty, which shows how easy it is to use Caché in .NET.  Having LINQ and the ideas of eliminating/reducing impedence mis-match so close in mind, this caught my eye.  The article demonstrates a way to persist object-oriented data in a very elegant and natural way.

Scott Guthrie is General Manager at Microsoft, running the CLR, ASP.NET, and several other .NET technologies.  He has been around since the beginning of ASP.NET and has been a major player in the technology's success.  If you ever get the chance to sit in on one of Scott's presentations, I recommend you do so and be ready because this guy delivers.

 

The Archtect's Journal recently conducted an Interview with Scott Guthrie.  He has good advice in several areas.  I particularly like his philosophy on prototypes.  Additionally, he has good words for anyone aspiring to be an architect - especially in the area of "soft" skills.