Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2.

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2010 Feature Pack 2.

Overview from the download site:
Cumulative feature pack that extends testing, code visualization and modeling capabilities in Visual Studio 2010.

Testing features:
Use Microsoft Test Manager to capture and playback action recordings for Silverlight 4 applications.
Create coded UI tests for Silverlight 4 applications with Visual Studio 2010 Premium or Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.
Edit coded UI tests using a graphical editor with Visual Studio 2010 Premium or Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.
Use action recordings to fast forward through manual tests that need to support Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and 3.6.
Run coded UI tests for web applications using Mozilla Firefox 3.5 and 3.6 with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium or Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate.

Code visualization and modeling features (requires Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate):
Use the Generate Code command to generate skeleton code from elements on UML class diagrams. You can use the default transformations, or you can write custom transformations to translate UML types into code.
Create UML class diagrams from existing code.
Explore the organization and relationships in C, C++, and ASP.NET projects by generating dependency graphs.
Import elements from UML sequence diagrams, class diagrams, and use case diagrams as XMI 2.1 files that are exported from other modeling tools.
Create links and view links from work items to model elements.
Create layer diagrams from C or C++ code and validate dependencies.
Write code to modify layer diagrams and to validate code against layer diagrams.

Get it here

In the Box MVVM Training by Karl Shifflett Rocks

If you want to learn MVVM, this is the way to do it. This is simply AWESOME!!!!!

In the Box - MVVM Training

PRISM 4 (aka Composite Application Guidance for WPF and Silverlight) is Available

Prism 4.0 has been released!!!!

Overview (from MSDN download site)

Prism provides guidance designed to help you more easily design and build rich, flexible, and easy to maintain Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) desktop applications and Silverlight Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Windows Phone 7 applications. Using design patterns that embody important architectural design principles, such as separation of concerns and loose coupling, Prism helps you to design and build applications using loosely coupled components that can evolve independently but which can be easily and seamlessly integrated into the overall application. Such applications are known as often referred to as composite applications.

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN THIS RELEASE (from the read me file)
The following assets are shipped with Prism 4.0:
· Signed Prism Library for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Silverlight
· Signed Prism Library for Windows Phone 7
· Batch file to create custom Prism Library binaries
· Batch file to register the Prism Library binaries with Visual Studio
· Model-View-ViewModel Reference Implementation (MVVM RI)
· Stock Trader Reference Implementation (Stock Trader RI)
· Prism 4.0 documentation
· QuickStarts:
o New or updated QuickStarts in Prism 4.0:
- Basic MVVM QuickStart
- MVVM QuickStart
- Modularity QuickStarts (with MEF and Unity)
- State-Based Navigation QuickStart
- View-Switching Navigation QuickStart
- UI Composition QuickStart
o QuickStarts ported from Prism 2.x:
- Commanding QuickStarts
- Event Aggregation QuickStarts
- Multi-Targeting QuickStarts
- Hello World QuickStarts

Get it here.

Check out the documentation here.

.NET Architecture and Development Book Recommendations 2010 End of Year

UPDATE: This list has been updated here.

I have decided to push out another book recommendation blog.  There have been a ton of books come out this year both good and bad.  Please don't miss the Shiny Turds Books that do not Cut the Mustard *-Do not Buy-* section. It is next to the last in the list.  We have also added a new SharePoint recommendation list and deleted some of the older ones that do not have much value in today's market.

These are all books we use, or plan to use when they are released.  We have reviewed a lot of them here.

Software Process Engineering

Product Line Engineering

Software Architecture

SOA: Service Oriented Architecture

Component Development

Coding Guidelines

Frameworks

Patterns

OOAD

Brownfield Development

Scalability

Security

.NET 4.0 and VSTS 2010

SharePoint .NET 3.5 and VSTS 2008

ASP.NET, AJAX, MVC, and Silverlight

SQL Server and T-SQL

Shiny Turds Books that do not Cut the Mustard *-Do not Buy-*

.NET 3.0 Platform

Architecturally how dead is Silverlight?

Earlier in the week I cancelled my order for Pro Silverlight 4 in C# and ordered Pro HTML5 Programming: Powerful APIs for Richer Internet Application Development.  After spending a few hours with Pro HTML5 Programming: Powerful APIs for Richer Internet Application Development I reordered Pro Silverlight 4 in C# this morning.

I got to also spend a few hours with the PDF ebook version of Pro Silverlight 4 in C# yesterday that a friend bought. There are a few new chapters.  One on File Access and one on Out-of-Browser Applications. I also read a new section on commands.  The book looks great.  Look for a review in a week or two.

I am currently lucky enough to be doing a Silverlight SharePoint web part project which is still a go. Anyone who has had to work with SharePoint web parts knows what a mess they can become. Silverlight allows for well architected and clean coded solutions.  It also integrates very well with the SharePoint API.

As far as using Silverlight as a far reaching Internet application goes, it is off the table until I hear Microsoft recommit. I don't think they will. Reading all the posts from the Silverlight gurus out there reaffirmed that.  So externally I will push for ASP.NET or MVC.  As for internal Intranet applications go, I will still push for Silverlight.  If they want it in ASP.NET, MVC, or HTML, they can go get a browser lover to do that.  I know the browser was responsible for the success of the web, and it still is, but when you control the network and the boxes on it, going browser is just an anti-pattern and a poor architectural choice.

I am still baffled by PDC 2010.  Personally I would fire (or move to another job) the people responsible for orchestrating it.  I know Bob made an ID ten T error (ID10T), but the impact was so great because it was on the tail end of a horrible message sent from PDC.

So...  Architecturally Silverlight is still alive and well.  I can't speak for the money men and women though.  Only time will tell how much damage was done to the image of Silverlight.  So far in my camp it has been a 50/50 split.  One project still a go, one cancelled.

Silverlight Project Status- CANCELLED

I would like to take a moment to thank Microsoft for this year's PDC. Thanks to you bringing to light the fact that Silverlight is not far reaching, and according to the message sent won't be, my weekends are now free for the winter.

An application I planned on helping build for the travel industry is now on hold pending further research into a different front end technology. The deal was pretty much sealed after Bobs response, but a final decision was made last night to postpone.

PDC did a great job of pointing out the fact that a lot of users would never get to use the application right away. We planned 2 interfaces for the application. Silverlight was to be done first, and then a second using the same services if the app took off.

Doing Silverlight first was not a problem. Now it is a big problem. ASP.NET will probably be used (just a guess), but building an ASP.NET app just is not worth wasting weekends on, especially summer weekends. That will probably be when things kick off now. That is if the application is still viable.

I guess I am finally going to get to clean out the attic this winter.

Free 1000-page ebook by Charles Petzold entitled Programming Windows Phone 7

Microsoft has released a free 1000-page ebook by Charles Petzold entitled "Programming Windows Phone 7". It is actually pretty sweet, especially for free.



Overview from download page:
Develop your first applications for Windows Phone 7 using Microsoft XNA and Silverlight—expertly guided by award-winning author Charles Petzold. This book is a gift from the Windows Phone 7 team and Microsoft Press to the programming community.

Get it here.

Silverlight is Dead, Long live HTML 5??? Really? HTML 5

So according to Bob…

“We think HTML will provide the broadest, cross-platform reach across all these devices. At Microsoft, we’re committed to building the world’s best implementation of HTML 5 for devices running Windows, and at the PDC, we showed the great progress we’re making on this with IE 9.”

“The purpose of Silverlight has never been to replace HTML, but rather to do the things that HTML (and other technologies) can’t, and to do so in a way that’s easy for developers to use.”

Personally PDC bored me to death (until Bob did his interview). I didn’t go, that may have kept me awake during the Keynote. I only made it through John Papa’s presentation (and a few of the framework presentations) without getting bored enough to turn it off, and I have started a ton of the recorded sessions. Clouds, phones, and HTML… whooooo hoooo.

I do not need to pay 5K a year to maintain a software license just so MS can help me develop HTML 5. EVERYONE will be doing that. If they have nothing special to offer, like Silverlight, then have nothing to offer.

I understand they will always target the largest audience they can to make the biggest buck they can, but this time they went way overboard. I understood targeting the VB community and making sure they are happy, but come on, HTML. I don’t give a crap how complex it can be, how amazing it can be, IT ISN’T YOURS!!!! IT’S EVERYONES!!!!! Implement the crap and get on with it. It’s just another step in the ongoing browser mess. It may be a big one, but that is all it is.

It sucks to be so enmeshed with MS technology. Oh how I miss the days of Coldfusion and C++, the days that offered a different path to accomplish your technical goals.

Have you Googled Microsoft's "strategy with Silverlight has shifted" yet this morning

Have you Googled "strategy with Silverlight has shifted" yet this morning. What a mess. I don't know what the outcome will be of all this noise, but I can guarantee Microsoft just cost a lot of us a ton of money and just handed us a ton of issues. Political problems with Silverlight that took a long time to resolve have just been reset with this stupidity.

Personally I am too disgusted to comment much more... I’ll just say that I cannot believe that this was handled in such a poor way. Upper management will not read anything but the headlines, and all I can say is that I can't blame them. This is exhausting.

UPDATE:
Here are a few posts in response to the mess
Silverlight is dead. Long live Silverlight!
PDC and Silverlight
Committed to Silverlight

All of that is great, but it will not fix the damage that was done. Projects will be cancelled, money will be flushed, and time will be wasted trying to rebuild a confidence in a product that in the eyes of most CTOs and CIOs is on shaky ground.