.Net in the Palm of Your Hand (or the sole of your shoe)

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:49:41 GMT

Technorati Tags: micro , netfx

Most developers have heard of the .Net framework, some are aware that the framework also runs on mobile devices (the .Net Compact Framework) but many are completely unaware of .Nets new smaller brother: .Net Micro.

The micro framework is a subset of .Net 3.0, although not a subset of the compact framework (it includes serialization features not present in cfx), and weighs in at a miniscule 400K, requiring just 70K of RAM to run. Just let that sink in for a moment. You get a WPF-esque presenation layer, Network Access, garbage collection, the type system, serialization and threading (for starters), all sitting on just 400K of flash with just 70K of RAM. Wow.

The micro framework runs directly on hardware, no operating system (or associated overhead/cost) is required, the devices don't need to be the slave of a PC either: you can literally have micro framework compatible chip with some batteries and a screen sat on your desk running a C# application. The implications of this technology are clearly huge. Suddenly developing new hardware doesn't take years and cost millions, anyone can download the SDK (complete with a customizable, extensible emulation platform) and write managed code to run on a cheap,flexible device. no more low level C/C++, no more bespoke tooling and poor documentation.

I'm hoping to attend another session focused on the micro framework on Wednesday and will be speaking with Dave and Rob a little later for Channel 8.

Microsoft Announces Availability of Visual Studio 2008

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 16:34:37 GMT

At TechEd EMEA in Barcelona today (05 Nov 07) Microsoft announced the availability of Visual Studio 2008 by the end of this month. The product will still launch in February 2008, along with SQL Server 2008 (codenamed Katami) and Windows Server 2008 (codenamed Longhorn), but will be released an incredible four months ahead of schedule.

Visual Studio 2008 and .Net Framework 3.5 include new versions of the C# and Visual Basic (VB) languages with new features to reduce the gulf that currently exists between data (query) languages and tranditional general purpose languages. LINQ, whilst being on of the most talked about features of the new versions, is not the only thing new, however; the 3.5 framework includes the WCF/WF 'silverbits' which improve the interoperability between Windows Workflow and Windows Communication foundataion: enabling services to be called from workflows, and workflows created by service calls.

The new release of visual studio boasts a wealth of new designers, including a new split view for Web Designers and support for WCF applications using Xaml and the designer codenamed Cider.

Will's space: Development

.Net in the Palm of Your Hand (or the sole of your shoe)

Microsoft Announces Availability of Visual Studio 2008