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.
I had a problem getting TypeConverters to work with generic lists in XNA and WinForms. The designer wouldn't generate the code I wanted for properties. I needed a simple way to serialize objects, so I tried a minimalist approach. Overriding CanConvertTo and ConvertTo methods in my TypeConverter was enough for the designer to serialize the objects correctly, generating much cleaner and simpler code.
In this post, I describe a solution to a problem I encountered while working with XNA Beta1 and Vector2 structs. Because Vector2 didn't have an associated TypeConverter, the designer lacked support. Applying a TypeConverter to the property worked in the designer, but Visual Studio 2005 ignored it during serialization, resorting to resource files, which was messy. My workaround involves dynamically adding a TypeConverter to the Vector2 type itself using TypeDescriptor.AddAttributes, which is invoked during the class's construction. By registering the Vector2Converter with the Vector2 type early on, both the designer and code serialization work harmoniously.
I previously doubted the possibility of C# on Xbox 360 and a hobbyist homebrew version. I was wrong! Microsoft announced the release of Visual Studio 2005 Express for Xbox 360 content creation on August 30, 2006. The $99/year dev kit allows non-commercial game development and sharing among hobbyists (no network support yet). I'm excited to get an Xbox 360, Xbox Live account, and the developer account! Check out these resources: XNA Team Blog, Microsoft XNA homepage, XNA FAQ, Game Studio, News Report, another Blog Post.
I'm excited to share (even though it's old news) that all Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions (Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual J#, Visual C++, and Visual Web Developer Express) are now permanently free! This is a game-changer for aspiring developers, opening up access to powerful tools for Windows and ASP.Net development. While there are some limitations (like only one project per solution), the benefits far outweigh the drawbacks. Check out the official announcement and some cool new tools!
Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 doesn't load PATH environment variables during build, causing tools like GACUtil and RegAsm.exe to fail. A simple fix is to add 'CALL "%VS80COMNTOOLS%\vsvars32.bat" > NULL' to your build script before calling these tools. This sets the necessary environment variables, allowing the build to succeed.
Visual Studio 2005 Beta 2 is now available for download to MSDN Universal subscribers. I'm excited about this release and will be posting examples soon. Check out the product page and the uninstallation instructions for previous versions if you plan to upgrade.
