Looking to write for MSDN?

Mar 4, 2004 1 min.

Someone recently asked me for our template, style guidelines and other details about writing for MSDN. I wanted to find the public page about this, so I dug around for what seemed like ages and couldn’t find anything even though I knew this was up on MSDN somewhere. Eventually, I resorted to search and tracked it down at http://msdn.microsoft.com/aboutmsdn/submit.asp. Since it was so hard for me to find, I thought I should bubble it up to the front page of VB and C#, in case anyone else is looking for it 🙂

Frequently Asked Questions, or Frequently Requested Code (FRC?)

Mar 4, 2004 2 min.

Hey folks…. I’ve been thinking (dangerous, I know) and I’ve decided that you need to see more code. This might mean more code in this blog, more on the site, more pointed to that lives on other sites…. whatever, just more code in the end. I’m looking for topics though, what do you see as the most common topics that need code snippets? What comes up again and again when you are on the newsgroups and on the web forums out there?

Paul Vick on two new operators in VB Whidbey

Mar 3, 2004 1 min.

In a recent post to his blog, Paul Vick discusses the new IsNot Operator (and the history/rational behind the Is operator), which allows you to write; instead of `If Not myString Is Nothing Then` and then, [in another post](http://www.panopticoncentral.net/PermaLink.aspx/0d6ba439-8126-427e-952e-3f5fbba33904), he covers the new **TryCast** operator (which is like C#'s ‘as' operator), which will allow you to save a bit of extra work (and produce a slight perf improvement in some situations) when checking to see if an object can be cast to a specific type .

Code Project just continues to amaze…

Feb 27, 2004 1 min.

I love the recently posted “Enhanced BrowseForFolder styled TreeView” (a C# control by Jerry Maguire), and the list of new content from the last week is just amazing; A Piano Key Control in C# – Leslie Sanford (a cool article if you are into control building) Code Access Security from the perspective of the Developer and Administrator by Benjamin Wootton (brief discussion of a complex, but essential topic for .

Tonight’s best posts…

Feb 27, 2004 1 min.

Forgive me in advance… I’m not posting about .NET, in fact I’m not going to say much at all except to post to two great posts Chris Sells: Same-Sex Marriages *Should* Be Allowed Harry Pierson: In Support of Gay Marriage and then to a little web-shop that I heard about tonight… if you are into t-shirts with a message, forget about thinkgeek.com, check this out — http://cafeshops.com/getequal In case you are wondering, I’m certainly adding a +1 to the posts and the shop, but really… isn’t that just common sense?

A chapter from my KickStart VB.NET book is up on Code Project

Feb 27, 2004 1 min.

Hmm… I had no idea it was going up, but there it is… [**Click to read Chapter 3: Building Windows Applications **](http://www.codeproject.com/books/vbdotnetkickstart.asp) The Way Things Were The Windows Forms Model Handling Events in .NET Coding Without Control Arrays Configuring Your Form for Resizing Programming Without Default Form Instances Working with Multiple Forms in VB .NET In Brief For more information on the book, and supplemental resources for all of the chapters, you can always check out my personal site at http://www.

MSDN TV episode on the IDE enhancements in C# Whidbey

Feb 25, 2004 1 min.

Dan Fernandez presents how Visual C# “Whidbey” will include several IDE enhancements including a first-class code editor with rich editing features, a powerful debugger, and drag-and-drop visual designers. Click here to check it out in this recent installment of MSDN TV!

ASP.NET Resource Kit now available

Feb 25, 2004 1 min.

This bit of news is getting quite a bit of airplay, so you’ve likely heard already, but the ASP.NET Resource Kit is now available… full of tons of code, videos, free book chapters, white papers, controls, and more… how can you miss it? Click here for more information!

Oh geez… now I’m all hot and bothered

Feb 21, 2004 1 min.

Writing my last post started me thinking about the C64… and I found this page detailing software releases over the years the C64 was hot (really, it was…) I can remember PaperClip was my word processor, Bard’s Tale I and II were my pastime…. and Gary Kitchen’s Game Construction Kit was my hobby… yep, very cool stuff. And to think, I don’t have it anymore… hmm… I should go fire up the Intellivision.

Broderbund Software… and C#

Feb 21, 2004 2 min.

This is so cool, even if you might take it as mostly marketing (sorry in advance)… Having spent many years using a Commodore 64, and owning “Print Shop”, “Loderunner”… geez, I even remember “Reader Rabbit”, but I think that was for my Mom’s school computers… the Broderbund name carries a lot of meaning to me… so when I saw their name on a recent case study for C#, it really jumped out at me…