DevWeek Day 3 wrapped up my attendance with increasingly advanced sessions. Christian Weyer's talks on SOA development using the Webservice Software Factory (and its limitations) and integrating WPF, WCF, and WF were insightful, showcasing practical applications and upcoming open-source tools. Niels Berglund's LINQ discussion, while informative, left me wanting more technical depth and raised concerns about tight database coupling. Jeff Prosise's WPF/E presentation highlighted its potential for rich web UI but also its current limitations regarding input controls and data binding. The lack of VisualBrush in WPF/E and its similarities with the upcoming Flash 9 release were noteworthy discussion points.
Day 2 of DevWeek was packed with insightful sessions. Niels Berglund's talk on ADO.NET v.Next and the Entity Framework highlighted the potential for simplifying database interactions by mapping database models to programmer-friendly models. Kelvin Henney's lecture on streamlined object-oriented analysis emphasized the importance of modeling the current system before designing solutions, using UML and Use Cases. Ingo Rammer's presentations on scalability and performance, and Windows Workflow integration, offered practical advice and cleared up some misunderstandings. I also had a chance to visit vendor booths, with Infragistics' XAML components and Dev Express's slick presentations standing out. Overall, the quality of the lectures has been excellent, but the vendor presence could be improved.
Arrived at DevWeek 2007 last night. Looking forward to the keynote by Jeff Prosise on ASP.NET AJAX and then attending architect track sessions on securing ASP.NET 2.0 apps and practical patterns in .NET. Hoping to post summaries if internet access allows.
