InfoQ Homepage News
-
10 Tips when Upgrading to Visual Studio 2008
Get a jump on upgrading to Visual Studio 2008. Visual Studio 2008 was recently released and developers often want to be the first ones on the block to install the latest versions of their favorite developer tools. Sometimes this comes at price when making the wrong choices during the upgrade process.
-
Visual Basic's Questionable Place in Microsoft's Roadmap
Since the beginning, Microsoft has publicly claimed that Visual Basic and C# would be equally supported on the .NET platform. The community, on the other hand, has constantly accused Microsoft of not supporting VB. So where does the truth lie?
-
New SQL Server Data Type: HierarchyId
Tree-like hierarchies has always a problem in relational databases. Microsoft's first attempt at addressing this was in SQL Server 2005 with the implementation of Common Table Expressions. While CTEs work over existing schema, Microsoft has sought a way to treat hierarchies as first-class concepts. To this effect, they have introduced the HierarchId data type in SQL Server 2008.
-
Jonathan Allen on Equality Operator Overloading
Jonathan Allen provides guidance through a systematic walkthrough of both a reference type and value type that support equality. Jonathan provides code samples in both VB and C# to demonstrate the nuances of each .NET language. He also covers usage in both structures and classes.
-
Microsoft Updates Software-as-a-Service Reference App LitwareHR with S+S
As more enterprises are looking at software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions, Microsoft has augmented their LitwareHR reference application to include the Software + Services (S+S) model. Enabling the integration of local and "in the cloud" software, S+S allows for the disconnected and offline scenarios lacking in today's hosted solutions.
-
Buzzword – RIA Word Processor: Built Using Adobe Flex / AIR
Adobe recently acquired Virtual Ubiquity, the creators of Buzzword - a web based word processor. InfoQ.com connected with David Coletta and Tad Staley of Adobe Systems to learn more about the product, the challenges and benefits of using Adobe Flex for its development, and what the future holds for the product.
-
Debate: Scaling teams up in productivity rather than in personnel
Larger team size prevents from adopting the whole range of language abstraction tools and puts constraints on productivity. Reg Braithwaite believes that tools should not be tuned to the size of the team. He advocates for building teams around the tools and keeping them small. It appears however that team growth is often inevitable. What can be done then to maintain quality and productivity?
-
Parallel Processing Framework JPPF offers Load Balancing, Failover and J2EE Integration
Java Parallel Processing Framework (JPPF) project team recently announced the first Release Candidate (RC1) of Version 1.0 of the product. JPPF is an open source grid computing framework that can be used to run Java applications in parallel in a distributed execution environment. JPPF team is planning on Version 1.0 GA release next month.
-
Oniguruma Java port speeds up JRuby
Joni, the Java port of the Oniguruma Regex engine, has been merged into the JRuby trunk. This promises to be the final step in implementing compatible and fast Regexes for JRuby... and initial tests with REXML seem to back that up.
-
A Second WS-CDL Tool-Suite Is Born
Hongbing Wang and his team in China become the second group to release a WS-CDL based tool-suite. Several people have suggested that WS-CDL is the an often overlooked critical component in developing Web 2.0 and SOA applications, but until now (and for the past few years) there has been only one tool-suite.
-
Performance Tuning Spring Applications
In a new white paper from SpringSource, Adrian Colyer explains the Spring from a new perspective - the runtime environment - and provides tips for performance tuning.
-
Beta for XNA Game Studio Released with Support for Networked Games
XNA Game studio is a game development toolkit that supports both Windows and the XBox 360. The initial edition was targeted directly at hobbyists and released as an extension to C# Express Edition. The beta for XNA 2.0 brings the toolkit closer to the world of professional developers.
-
No More Self-Organizing Teams?
Jim Highsmith has suggested that the term self-organizing team "has outlived its usefulness in the agile community and needs to be replaced". He suggests that Light-Touch Leadership is more appropriate. But does this negate the need for self-organizing teams and the focus on individual team members "doing what it takes" to get things done?
-
CrossFrame - Safe, Cross Domain Widget Coordination for Mashups
Julien Lecomte has announced the availability of CrossFrame - a JavaScript library for cross domain communication between widgets hosted on different hosts. The technique, while inherently dangerous, solves an outstanding problem facing Mashup developers.
-
GigaSpaces goes free for small business
Gigaspaces earlier this month announced that it will now be offering small business free perpetual use of its eXtreme Application Platform (XAP) product. Business with < 5M in revenues can get free licenses of the software platform, in perpetuity. GigaSpaces platform is primarily Java-based but also has .NET clients. InfoQ spoke to Geva Perry from GigaSpaces to find out more.