Monday, 18 October 2010

• Understanding the Microsoft Application Server: AppFabric, WF, WCF, and More (APS201)
• What’s New in Windows Communication Foundation in .NET Framework 4 (APS306)
• Using the MVVM Design Pattern with the Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 XAML Designer (DTL323)
• Code Contracts and Pex: Power Charge Your Assertions and Unit Tests (DTL207)
• Why functional programming matters – A look at F#, C#, and more (DTL304)
• Building RESTful Applications with the Open Data Protocol (DTL310)
• My Favourite Windows Presentation Foundation 4 Features (WCL206)
• 10 Ways to Protect Users of Your Web Applications (WUX303)

Tuesday, 19 October 2010

• LINQ, take two – realizing the LINQ to Everything dream (DTL414)
• WCF: The Unified Services Programming Model for SOAP, REST, Data, and RIA Communication (WTB327)
• Behaviour-Driven Development: Taking Unit Testing to the next level (DPR303)
• RIA & Rich Client Applications: There is life beyond HTML (WUX311)
• The Windows API Code Pack: Add Windows 7 Features to Your Application (DTL316)
• Rx: your prescription to cure asynchronous programming blues (WTB324)
• Designing and Developing a Windows Phone 7 Silverlight Application End-to-End – (part 1 of 2) (WPH202)
• Designing and Developing a Windows Phone 7 Silverlight Application End-to-End – (part 2 of 2) (WPH303)
• Windows Server AppFabric Caching: What It Is and When You Should Use It (APS309)

Wednesday, 20 October 2010

• Best Practices: Building a Real-World Microsoft Silverlight Line-of-Business Application (WUX407)
• Task Parallel Library: Design Principles and Best Practices (DTL424)
• WCF Made Easy with Microsoft .NET Framework 4 and Windows Server AppFabric (APS310)

Happiness and Sadness

I’m really looking forward to the AppFabric and Windows Phone 7 sessions and am excited about both sets of technologies. I am bitterly disappointed though that the following two Tech-Ed North America 2010 sessions are not being presented given that Udi Dahan is in South Africa this week delivering his Advanced Distributed System Design with SOA & DDD (5 days) course:

• Command Query Responsibility Segregation (ARC302)
• High Availability: A Contrarian View (ARC308)

Where is the detail ?

The screenshot below demonstrates the basic nature of the diff tool built into Visual Studio Team System. There is no indication of the number of differences between the files being diff’ed or even the actual differences on a particular line …

WinMerge

There is an alternative and it is both open source and free ! From the WinMerge site:

WinMerge is an Open Source differencing and merging tool for Windows. WinMerge can compare both folders and files, presenting differences in a visual text format that is easy to understand and handle.

Download WinMerge and install it.

Configure Visual Studio

Open Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation under the Tools > Options menu in Visual Studio.

Click on Configure User Tools … and the Configure User Tools dialog will become available.

Add the WinMerge details for the Compare Tool. Click on the Add … button on the Configure User Tools dialog and configure as per the screenshot below. The arrow button next to the arguments text box exposes details about the information that Visual Studio can provide the tool being configured.

The configured arguments below are:
/e /u /wl /wr /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2

Add the WinMerge details for the Merge Tool. Click on the Add … button on the Configure User Tools dialog and configure as per the screenshot below. The arrow button next to the arguments text box exposes details about the information that Visual Studio can provide the tool being configured.

The configured arguments below are:
/e /u /wl /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2 %4

The Compare and Merge Operations should now be configured to use WinMerge.

WinMerge Command Line Options

WinMerge contains a number of command line options. The following are the ones used in the configuration above.

Finally a decent diff !

Now a Compare in Visual Studio is more meaningful, It shows the number of differences, their positions within the compared files and actual differences per line. WinMerge supports custom syntax colouring and diff colouring.

Quick Guide

This quick guide offers a no frills/get things done approach to replacing the diff/merge tool in Visual Studio Team System with WinMerge. There is a detailed guide for those that want to have a little more detail.

Quick Steps

1. Download and install WinMerge.
2. Open the Configure User Tools dialog for Team Foundation based source control in Visual Studio. Tools > Options > Source Control > Visual Studio Team Foundation > Configure User Tools
3. Add the details for the Compare (diff) Tool by clicking on the Add… button. Extension: .* Operation: Compare Command: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe Arguments: /e /u /wl /wr /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2
4. Add the details for the Merge Tool by clicking on the Add… button. Extension: .* Operation: Merge Command: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMergeU.exe Arguments: /e /u /wl /dl %6 /dr %7 %1 %2 %4

Quick Guide

This quick guide offers a no frills/get things done approach to migrating a virtual machine from Virtual PC to Hyper-V. There is also a detailed guide coming for those that want to know the why and not only the how.

Quick Steps

1. Hyper-V Manager – Create a new Virtual Machine. Use an existing virtual hard disk and specify the location of the vhd file you want to use.
   New > Virtual Machine
2. Virtual Machine – Uninstall the Virtual Machine Additions which are extensions specific to Virtual PC.
   Control Panel > Programs and Features > Virtual Machine Additions > Uninstall
3. Reboot.
4. Virtual Machine – Install Integration Services from the Action menu in the Virtual Machine Connection console.
   Insert Integration Services Setup Disk > Install (from AutoPlay)
5. Reboot – updates will install.
6. Virtual Machine – Without this step the mouse will not work within the virtual machine. Restart will result in the mouse working.
   Run > MSConfig > Boot tab > Advanced Options > Detect HAL
7. Reboot – new hardware will be detected and mouse will work.