.Net development gets new tools, code initiative
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Avanade on Monday is partnering with Microsoft to release Enterprise Library, which features reusable code, tools, and guidance intended to make it easier to develop in the .Net environment.
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Application developers got several new options last week as Sun Microsystems updated J2SE, Borland upped its CORBA ante, and Compuware announced products that will work with Microsoftâs Visual Studio 2005 toolbox.
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Microsoft has previewed &quot;Whitehorse,&quot; a set of visual design tools intended to support the design and validation of Web services-based applications.
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(InfoWorld) - Castle, which is an open source project to ease development on Microsoft's .Net platform, is nearing its general release. Spawned out of the defunct Apache Avalon object-oriented framework, Castle is built as a set of programming libraries. In addition to .Net, it also will work with Mono, an open source implementation of .Net.Â  "Castle's goals are avoid code repetition, use convention instead of configuration whenever it's possible, and handle common tasks on the programmer's behalf," said project creator Hamilton Verissimo, founder of the Castle Stronghold consultancy in Brazil. A second release candidate of Castle 1.0 is available as of several weeks ago. A general release is targeted for January.Â  Castle can be used for enterprise and Web application development. It features tools including MonoRail, which is a Web framework inspired by Ruby on Rails. MonoRail uses the MVC (Model-View-Controller) pattern for application flow, data, and views. AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is featured as well. Also in Castle are ActiveRecord, for mapping objects to databases, and Windsor, which is an object lifecycle container for making code more maintainable.Â  "[Castle is] a collection of many different tools and features primarily designed for easing development and reducing development time," said Kevin Williams, who is a developer involved in Castle. Ease of use and intuitiveness are the primary draws of Castle, Williams said. "Of all the software that I've used over the years in .Net, I've never seen anything as easy to use or powerful as the Castle tools," Williams said. "It's very intuitive to use and you have a lot of control over things and it's very extensible," Williams said. Users can mold Castle to their environment or use it with the Visual Studio IDE. "Probably the best thing I can say is that as developers improve their practices and learn about new methodologies and techniques and design patterns and all these things, sometimes it's difficult to put all these tool together and make it work," Williams said. "Castle fits all those pieces together for you and gives you a jumpstart in what you want to build." Castle began as an attempt to bridge Avalon to .Net. Planning already is under way for version 2.0 of Castle. The MonoRail component in version 2.0 may be enabled to work with many view engines at the same time. A domain language to generate JavaScript also is eyed, as is a better template engine in the vein of Ruby. Performance improvements also are planned for MonoRail. Initialization and mapping improvements are expected for ActiveRecord in Castle 2.0. The IoC (Inversion of Control) microkernel in Castle may be more configurable as well.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Microsoft said this week that it is now allowing developers to examine source code for .Net Framework libraries as a way to help developers build better software. But developers first will need to upgrade to the newly released Visual Studio 2008 software development platform.Through the .Net Reference Source project, developers will be able to view and debug the source code with the .Net Framework Reference license in a read-only format. Among the software projects covered by the arrangement are: The .Net Base Class Libraries, including System, System.CodeDom and System.ComponentModel; ASP.Net, including System.Web.Extensions; Windows Forms; and Windows Presentation Foundation. Also offered are ADO.Net and XML.The plan first was revealed last October."We think that enabling source code access and debugger integration of the .Net Framework libraries is going to be really valuable for .Net developers," said Scott Guthrie, general manager of the Microsoft developer division, in his blog. "Being able to step through and review the source should provide much better insight into how the .Net Framework libraries are implemented and in turn enable you to build better applications and make even better use of them."Additional framework libraries are to be added in coming weeks and months, including LINQ (Language Integrated Query) and Windows Communication Foundation. Instructions on accessing the code can be found in a blog entry by Shawn Burke, a director in the Microsoft developer division.Access to the code originally was expected to happen by last month. But Microsoft decided to keep taking feedback from developers and postponed the release until this month, a Microsoft representative said. When Microsoft first revealed its code access plans, it was characterized by analyst Greg DeMichillie, of Directions on Microsoft, as not an earth-shattering move now that open source is so prevalent.?Visual Studio 2008 became available at the end of November. Microsoft did not yet have current figures on shipment volumes for the platform this week.
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Release makes use of technology from CodeWeavers to let customers run applications from Microsoft.
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The ADO.Net Entity Framework will allow developers to treat data at a higher level of abstraction.
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Enhancements to Eclipse-based IDE are designed to bring traditional source code and testing tools to hosted Force.com platform.
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Microsoft released on Tuesday a preview version of new tools intended to make it easier for companies to create custom Web applications.
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InfoWorld - Cobra, a .Net-based programming language, is being readied for open source release as an all-in-one solution to address multiple needs in software development.
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WebCenter Suite lets developers use Internet tools like wikis and search to improve applications' user interface.
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NetBeans IDE will give Ruby developers a more productive environment.
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An introduction to using refactoring, unit testing and ZenTest on existing code.
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The product combines development on the Win32, Delphi and .Net platforms, accommodating legacy Windows and new application development.
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Microsoft plans to integrate F#, a functional programming language developed by the Microsoft Research group, into its Visual Studio application development platform, said S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the Microsoft Developer Division, in his blog.?The company, however, has not laid out a formal release schedule, although Somasegar pledged to both integrate F# into Visual Studio and continue evolving it.Pronounced "F sharp," F# is based on the concepts of functional programming, Somasegar said. Functional languages treat computation as the evaluation of mathematical functions. The mathematical slant of functional programming is appealing to professionals in domains described with mathematical notation, including financial, scientific, and technical computing, said Somasegar.F# combines type safety, performance, and scripting with the advantages of running on a on a modern runtime, Microsoft Research said. It supports interactive scripting like Python and the strong type inference and safety of ML. F# can access.Net libraries and database tools.Bloggers corresponding about F# on the hubFS blog had positive responses to Microsoft's plans."I can't overstate how excited I am by this news," one blogger said."I discovered F# a few months ago and since then have made it my primary programming language (moving from Python and Java). I have found it to be a great language for developing simpler scripts or programming 'toy' implementations of algorithms. I've also found it to be a great language for building up real applications because of the ability to leverage everything already existing for .Net," the blogger said.Somasegar cited other functional programming efforts at Microsoft."Language features, such as lambda expressions in C# and generics in .Net 2.0, have roots in functional languages, and LINQ (Language Integrated Query) is directly based on functional programming techniques," Somasegar said. LINQ extends C# and Visual Basic and simplifies how database and XML queries are written in these languages.F# is designed to be a "first-class citizen" on .Net and will run on the on Microsoft CLR (Common Language Runtime), Somasegar said. Object-oriented programming is embraced and F# integrates with the .Net Framework. F# makes boosts .Net in the academic world, Somasegar said."We believe that through F# and languages like IronPython and IronRuby we can help offer students and educators choices beyond the current mainstream and enable the use of these languages across the curriculum. This helps educators have the option to use Visual Studio as a consistent tool set from course to course," he said.Also in the application development realm Monday, the Microsoft Developer Division unveiled its Tester Center Web site. The site enables testers to connect with a community, contribute content and share testing practices and experiences.
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New virtual-machine technology can be used to test software patches and migrate aging Windows NT applications. By John Foley, Paula Rooney, CRN.
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The ability to build Windows Live applications will be added to its Visual Studio toolkit.