Mainsoft's Grasshopper 2.0 jumps ontoÂ  Visual Studio 2005
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(InfoWorld) - Mainsoft on Wednesday released a technology preview of Grasshopper 2.0, which lets developers leverage Microsoft Windows development skills to run applications on Linux and Java platforms. Grasshopper 2.0 enables deployment of applications on the Apache Tomcat Java servlet container; Mainsoft's Visual MainWin provides the same functionality for deploying applications with commercial application servers. New features in version 2.0 include support of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE and the .Net Framework 2.0. Also, C# developers can use the new IDE as well as C# 2.0 features and ASP.Net controls to develop Web applications. The free Grasshopper 2.0 Technology Preview also can be used to port the Microsoft Personal Web Site Starter Kit to run on Tomcat. "[Developers] can keep programming in VB.Net, C# [and] ASP.Net from Visual Studio and create applications which will run cross-platform on Linux, and we do that by using the open source .Net Framework," which is Mono, said Yaacov Cohen, president and CEO of Mainsoft. With Grasshopper, the Microsoft intermediate language is compiled to Java byte code. Mono, meanwhile, features compiler tools and class libraries as well as a runtime engine for executing .Net applications. A user and reseller of Mainsoft's technology cited its use in an application that required integration between Java and .Net systems. The software enabled Segway Software to write code in C# and reference Java Archive files and byte code inside a .Net environment, said Jon Taylor, CEO at Segway. "It allowed us to basically write in one language that was familiar to us and then port the Web service to a J2EE Web server that we could then use to run it on," Taylor said. Although he has not yet used Grasshopper 2.0, Taylor said he looked forward to being able to leverage .Net Framework 2.0. The general release of Grasshopper 2.0 is planned for the end of the first quarter of 2007. The preview is available online. Visual Studio 2005 integration and .Net 2.0 functionality will be added to Visual MainWin early in 2007. In another integration-related announcement in the tools arena, Sun Microsystems has announced availability of an installation program bundling the NetBeans IDE and the JBoss application server. NetBeans is an open source tools project championed by Sun. âNetBeans and JBoss work well together out of the box for creating Java EE (Enterprise Edition) apps," said Judith Lilenfeld, a product engineering manager at NetBeans. "[The bundle] registers the app server with the IDE so the user can do their start, stop, deploy," functions from within the IDE to the application server, Lilenfeld said. "The integration of JBoss Application Server with NetBeans is about simplifying enterprise Java development and giving developers choice when it comes to their development environment. In addition, this partnership with Sun underscores JBossâ longstanding commitment to supporting multiple hardware, software, and tools platforms,â said Ram Venkataraman, JBoss director of product management, in a prepared statement released by JBoss. The package features the JBoss 4.0.4 application server, which is J2EE 1.4-compatible rather than Java EE 5-compataible. Future releases of the bundle will round out the features of the application server as JBoss moves closer to being Java EE 5 compatible. The NetBeans platform supported in the package is the NetBeans 5.5 Beta 2 release. The final version of NetBeans 5.5 is due by October or November. Developers can download the bundle here. Also, JetBrains on Thursday is announcing JetBrains dotTrace 2.0 beta, which is a tool for profiling .Net applications. Memory profiling is featured, as is integration with the Visual Studio IDE. Windows services in the new release can be profiled in the same way as Web applications, the company said.ADVERTISEMENTMAKE SOA REAL WITH IBM WEBSPHERE PODCASTStreamline processes and maximize efficiency within a proven service oriented architecture. Take back control of your business processes with IBM WebSphere.
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In sync with today's public release of the Office 2007 Beta 2 Technical Refresh, the Developer Tools division at Microsoft has made available the first public beta of the second edition of Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005. Users will now be able to use VS2005 to develop managed code add-ins for Office 2003 and Office 2007 apps.
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Pierre-Alain Joye has made an update to his information about building Cairo on Windows with more fixes and the creation of a dedicated page for the project.   I fixed a possible issue with PDF and PS support, it should work way better now. The cairo_build_windows archive has been updated and a decent freetype2 is now included (from gnuwin32). The build system has been tested with VC++ Express and VC.net 2003. Also a configure.bat is now included, it is a simple "alias" for "cscript /nologo configure.js ". You can call it just like any real configure.   As mentioned, a project homepage has been set up for cairo-win32, and can be found here along with some results of it: PNG file, PDF file.
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InfoWorld - Windows Vista will not support older versions of Visual Studio, a move that will require many developers writing applications for the forthcoming operating system to upgrade to Visual Studio 2005, a Microsoft executive said Tuesday.
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New plug-ins enable the IDE to accommodate newly popular dynamic languages.  Features include visual tools, test support and refactoring.
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Version 5.5 of Q, the equational programming language, has been released. This release sports some bug fixes in the GGI module and examples. The Windows package now comes with the latest GGI from CVS, including Peter Ekberg's much improved DirectX driver.   Q-Synth 1.3 has been released as well. Q-Synth is a library of Q scripts for interfacing to realtime software synthesizers (especially James McCartney's SuperCollider, also available from SourceForge) using CNMAT's OSC protocol. This release fixes some Windows compatibility issues, and a Windows package is now provided.  More information about the Q project can be found on the Q website at http://q-lang.sourceforge.net  You can download the latest versions here: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=96881&package_id=103965 https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=96881&package_id=115655  Enjoy!
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(InfoWorld) - Citing a mistaken filing, Microsoft has abandoned a patent application for technology in its Visual Studio software development platform that originated outside the company, a Microsoft representative said on Tuesday. The application involved Microsoft's implementation of the BlueJ developer environment, which the company calls "Object Test Bench," said the representative, who attributed the company's response to an InfoWorld press inquiry on the subject to Jason Matusow, Microsoft's senior directory of IP and interoperability. "Microsoft mistakenly filed for a patent on a technology included in components of Visual Studio 2005 that was based upon an academic project to help individuals grasp introductory concepts of software programming through pictorial representation of code," the representative said. The company had been notified by Michael KÃ¶lling, the creator of BlueJ, that the patent application covered technology substantially similar to his project. BlueJ is an IDE for teaching object-oriented programming and Java to beginners, according to KÃ¶lling's blog. "Microsoft agrees with Professor KÃ¶lling, and in keeping with the companyâs standards for quality patent filings, [it is] expressly abandoning the patent application with the USPTO (United States Patent & Trademark Office) through normal procedures," the company said. KÃ¶lling could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. But in his blog, he raised the question of whether Microsoft's patent application would be denied because it was based on "prior art," which is technology that already existed. "While I am sure we would have had a good case to file for prior art, and while it is likely that this would have stopped the application, I really have better things to do with my time," he wrote. In a blog entry last Friday, KÃ¶lling had expressed fears that the patent application could destroy BlueJ.
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We are proud to announce the release of version 0.9 or LeafRSS! This version includes full smarty template integration, as well as options to embed the articles in another web page, or even to allow the output of the filter as an RSS feed.   A patch file has been included to upgrade from version 0.8 to avoid any loss of data. Please see the PATCH file for details.  This will be the final major release before we release our first stable version.  If you have any questions or discover any bugs in this version, please post them either in the Help section of our sourceforge forums or in our sourceforge bug tracker. We would appreciate any input you could give us to help us test this release in preparation for moving this project to stable status.  More detail is available at: https://sourceforge.net/projects/leafrss
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In a follow-up to a previous blog post, Alexey Zakhlestin shares a few more thoughts on the project and the proper object hierarchy's going for.   actually, I changed it completely 3 times already in my thoughts. I finally "see the light"(tm) and will implement it on a weekend. I think about converting SCGI-part to a simple "driver" and move all http-related stuff to a separate driver-agnostic set of classes. This way, I would be able to implement FastCGI as anther driver without altering applications. If you have any better ideas - let me know.   He also includes a link to another sample application that uses the functionality to create a pie chart (including some benchmarks) with the help of the eZ components framework.
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How a simple bug betrays Microsoft's disdain for basic best practice principles
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openMSX is the MSX emulator that aims for perfection. openMSX 0.5.0 - Bronze Edition - contains an improved configuration format, significant speedups (including MMX assembly) and many bugfixes. Together with openMSX a new version of Catapult, our user-friendly GUI, was released. Please read the release notes for details, including instructions for upgrading your configurations to the new format.   The latest release can be found here:  https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=38274&package_id=30511
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(InfoWorld) - Microsoft this week released a beta version of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System, enabling developers to leverage new features in the upcoming Office package. The official name of the beta release is the Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition Beta; the product is being referred to as a second edition because the existing edition works with Office 2003. Previously code-named "Cypress," the beta serves as an add-in for Visual Studio available for free to all Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition and Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 users. The Cypress beta is being unveiled in coordination with a refresh of the beta for the 2007 Office System. "VSTO 2005 SE (Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 Second Edition) gives developers the power to take advantage of the 2007 Office System as a development platform and create scalable Office-based solutions," said KD Hallman, general manager, Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System, in her blog. Developers using the beta get add-in support for building Office applications that leverage Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio and InfoPath as well as support for 2007 Office System features. Inclusion of PowerPoint and Visio is new in this release. A developer, for example, could build an application that leverages database information to create a chart in Visio, said Jaye Roxe, group product manager for Visual Studio. Other features in the beta release include runtime support for the Ribbon UI, custom task panes and InfoPath regions. The Ribbon UI in 2007 Office System replaces the current system of layered menus, toolbars, and task panes with a simpler system of interfaces, according to Microsoft. The interfaces are optimized for efficiency and discoverability. The general release of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Office System is expected to coincide with the release of the 2007 Office System itself at the end of this year.
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REDMOND, Wash. -- Help is on the way for developers struggling with using the Visual Studio 2005 development platform with Windows Vista, a Microsoft official stressed at the Microsoft SOA and Business Process Conference here on Tuesday.During a question-and-answer panel session, an audience member characterized the experience of using Visual Studio 2005 with Vista as "miserable." He wondered if the upcoming Visual Studio 2008 upgrade would be an improvement."Is the '08 experience on Vista likely to be better?" the questioner asked. Also known as Orcas, Visual Studio 2008 is due by the end of this year."It unequivocally is better," responded Dino Chiesa, Microsoft director of the .Net Framework. He advised the audience member to download the Orcas beta release and see the difference."We tried to be transparent about that, that Orcas was the Visual Studio release that was built to target Vista," Chiesa said.Other improvements also are awaited in Orcas, such as an improved build system in Visual Studio Team System for continuous integration."The performance and scalability of Team System is way enhanced," said Chiesa.But another audience member took issue with the use of templates in Orcas, saying distribution of templates was ad hoc. Chiesa responded there are some improvements in the general release with regard to templates.In a related issue raised during the session, Microsoft's J.R. Arredondo, senior product manager for Microsoft Office, said the company sees its Popfly technology, for quick creation of applications such as mashups and widgets, as a model for the future. The Office business application strategy at its core is about bringing simplicity and usability to the masses, Arredondo said.Another audience member, apparently a Microsoft business partner, asked how he would be able to sell Microsoft's BizTalk Server integration software with the company making available related technologies in the operating system and .Net Framework such as Windows Communication Framework and Windows Workflow.But Microsoft's Sam Guckenheimer, group product manager, countered that while he is passionate about capabilities for developers, users still would need a server platform for functions such as deploying an application across multiple farms.
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Pierre-Alain Joye takes a look at building Cairo (a vector-based graphics library for PHP) on a Windows system.    While trying to get the cairo (and pimp) PHP binding ready to be released, I finally sit down and port Wez build cscript to cairo. It still needs some cleanup, a nice summary message but it works already. I tested it with Visual C++ Express Edition but it should work with other versions as well.   My next goal is to add the tests (nmake tests) and fix the nmake instal    He describes the process he went through to try to get things up and running, but is still having a few issues and has required a few tweaks to get it working. He also links to two resources: a ZIP of the development libraries and a ZIP ready to use package.
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Hoping to get some work done on a recent train trip to New York, I kicked back, opened my laptop, and clicked on Microsoft Excel. Up popped a prompt asking for the original program disk. Same thing with Word and PowerPoint. Nothing would run.
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SWsoft is preparing a beta version of Parallels Server virtualization and management tools.
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Alexander Netkachev has an update posted about the PHP IDE package and a new version that includes debugger support - 0.1.6.   This is, probably, the first PHP IDE that supports debugging for state-of-the-art PHP 5.2. To turn on debugging on your web server just add ZendDebugger.dll in PHP.ini   You can grab the latest download of the IDE from here or here (win32).