Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 a 6.2+ Gig Update????

Why in the heck is a service pack a 6.2+ Gig, several hour update??? WOW!!!!!

My install took 2 hours (4.5 hours total with the attempted repairs- see "Was the install worth it?"- below) and used up 2.6 Gig. So I assume the 6.2 Gig can happen if you have the Tester, Database, and TFS VSTS tools installed.

At the beginning of the installation processes, the install processes consumed more that 1 Gig of memory, probably around 1.3 Gig. Then it settled down to 600M most of the time, but went back up over 1G during each install.

I wouldn't attempt this install with less than 2 Gig of memory.

I have VSTS 2005 premier partner installed, which gets its own update, as well as Architect and Developer installed. They each got their own update too.

I have a virtual instance that has all of VSTS 2005 and TFS, I think I will install that over night, or maybe never. The installation process stops along the way and you have to accept the licensing agreement for each installation. So you can't just start it and let it run through.

At this rate we will all soon be carrying desktops around instead of laptops.

Was the install worth it?????????????????????
Well it does build big solutions faster, but all my .NET 3.0 stuff was completely trashed (WWF, WCF, & WPF). After attempting repairs, uninstalls, and reinstalls, most of the WPF xaml that displayed in the designer previous to the install, now errors out.

Will I install it on my other dev boxes? NOPE. Not until I have an absolute need to. The only one I may install it on is the virtual instance I mention above, and that is because I am evaluating TFS for my company and it may improve some of the performance and features. WCF, WWF, and WPF are not on that install. I am evaluating them on a different box. If they were, I wouldn't do it.

Over all I give the experience two thumbs down, and do not recommend it, especially if you want to use the .NET 3.0 tools.

Well have fun if you decide to suffer the install... you can get it from links found here.

Microsoft has become an Abstraction Factory- ADO.NET vNext, ObjectSpaces and Opath in the Entity Framework, Entity Data Model, and, Entity SQL

Welcome back ObjectSpaces, or something of the sort. I remember looking at Microsoft's introduction of ObjectSpaces back in 2002 - 2003. Although ObjectSpaces is suppose to be officially dead now, the MS O/RM movement seems to have been resurrected along with an army of data layer abstraction tools that we will be dependent on. The way I see it we are entering into a critical time for Microsoft. They have created, or are in the process of creating a development environment in which we are dependent on their skill sets to develop a ton of abstract tools.

Windows Workflow Foundation (WWF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) are abstraction layers built on the .NET Framework which will be available to us to use as the building blocks for our applications. Now with the coming release of ADO.NET vNext, they have covered every layer of a typical application.

So will this be a good thing or bad thing? I am not sure yet, since I haven't had the opportunity to use these technologies for anything more than play toys. I guess the future will bring about a true test of getting over the "It must be built here" syndrome.

I have no real opinion on the tools I discussed above yet. My only thought is that there is a lot to learn, and there are not very many developers available that are taking the time to learn. At least not fast enough for our environments, which is only a .NET 2.0 environment. So how quickly will there be developers available that understand software development processes as well as these new .NET 3.0 tools coming out? We are having trouble just finding developers for C# smart client development. No one seems to have an understanding of the CAB, which we use as part of a custom framework we have put in place, very few have even opened VSTS 2005 or used 2005 Reporting Services, or Enterprise Library 2.0. Finding people experienced with TFS is also not a possibility.

Admittedly we are in a location where many of the projects around here are government, and they seem to do their best to remain a decade behind the current technologies. But being on a project that does not have the latest technologies doesn't usually deter the good developers from learning the latest technologies. I think it is a case of overload. Microsoft has buried the average learner, and presented quite the challenge for the best workaholic out there.

There is a ton of info available about ADO.NET vNext, and I have provided some of the links I have been drawn to below.

OakLeaf Systems- ADO.NET vNext and Entity Framework Resources

ADO.NET vNext screencast

ADO.NET vNext on MSDN

The ADO.NET Entity Framework Overview (June 2006)

Next Generation Data Access (June 2006)

ADO.NET vNext Performance Q's

ADO.NET vNext CTP (Community Technology Preview) - August 2006

ADO.NET vNext Entity Data Model Designer Prototype, CTP

Essential Unified Process (essUP) coming through MSDN

In this blog I asked if anyone had news on how EssUP was going to be made available.

A representative from Ivar Jacobson Consulting sent me a note saying "We will be making EssUP available through both Ivar Jacobson Consulting as a work package and as a part of MSDN. The timing is still in the works."

So that is great news!!!!

If you are interested in what the essUP has to offer, click here. The document contains all the practices in one document.

Due to 2007 installation headaches the Microsoft Office Team just went from an A+ team to F- team.

Due to 2007 installation headaches the Microsoft Office Team just went from an A+ team to F- team. What Kinda @#$%@@ CRAP is THIS!!!!!

In order to redeem themselves we will need to see a picture of the installer engineer hanging from the flag pole in Redmond!!!!

In addition to all the stuff mentioned in the above blog, if you are getting "Language of this installation package is not supported by your system" you are most likely really getting:

"Setup is unable to proceed due to the following error(s): The 2007 Microsoft Office system does not support upgrading from a prerelease version of the 2007 Microsoft Office system. You must first uninstall any prerelease versions of the 2007 Microsoft Office system products and associates technologies."

Running the setup.exe from a mounted ISO image produced the second error, but running the setup.exe from the extracted files produced the first error.

Essential Unified Process (essUP) and Team Foundation Server (TFS)

I was considering the Essential Unified Process (essUP) Team Foundation Server (TFS) template when I thought MS was offering it as a free resource. In this blog I point to a couple of articles that lead me to believe it would be a free resource delivered by Microsoft. I thought it was their solution to offering a middle ground between their MSF for Agile Software Development and MSF for CMMI Process Improvement process guidance. I guess not.

I have not heard anything about the essUP except that you can now buy the essUP through a services purchase here.

Here it is posted as being accessible from within Visual Studio Team System (VSTS). But it does not say if there will be a charge for it or not. Any one out there hear anything about it????

If it is not a free resource that comes with the price of TFS and VSTS, I doubt we will use it.