rwandering.net
The blogged wandering of Robert W. Anderson
Archive for November, 2005
November 10, 2005 at 8:35 pm · Filed under .NET
In Renaming ASP.NET 2.0 Assemblies Redux, I detail a way to handle renaming ASP.NET 2.0 assemblies without aspnet_merge. The release of Visual Studio 2005 Web Deployment Projects (Beta Preview) pretty much obviates the need for my solution (unless you need exact control over your per-folder assembly names). If you haven’t heard about the new add-in (and aspnet_merge), read this Scott Guthrie post for an overview: VS 2005 Web Deployment Projects.
All in all, it seems to work well — thanks to the ASP.NET 2.0 team for getting this together so quickly. I did come across the following (very minor) issues:
- If I happen to click on the VS IDE while building the deployment project, I get a “Microsoft Visual Studio is Busy” warning in a notification icon ballon.
- It is cool that you can open the build deployment project without unloading the project (as you do for other project types); however, it doesn’t warn you if you edit the project file and (without saving) then change the properties. It does detect the problem when you try to save the project file, but this is a bit late.
Also, I was looking forward to the ability to replace sections of the Web.config, but found that I basically wanted to replace something in nearly every section. I ended up going back to what I used to do: have two config files stored in my development project: Web.config and Web.release.config. The former is used during development and I copy the latter for use in deployment. An easy way to do this with Web Deployment Projects is by editing the project file and using the MSBuild Copy task:
<Target Name="AfterBuild">
<Copy
SourceFiles="$(SourceWebPhysicalPath)\\Web.release.config"
DestinationFiles="$(OutputPath)\\Web.config"
/>
</Target>
The functionality provided in this addin resolves the issues I had with the new ASP.NET 2.0 deployment model. We get many more choices including the old-style single assembly. Yes, this is more complex than ASP.NET 1.1, but the greater flexibility and benefits of the new model make it worth it to me.
Tags: asp.net, aspnet_merge, vs2005
November 7, 2005 at 10:36 pm · Filed under .NET
I’m here at the Visual Studio 2005 / SQL Server 2005 Launch.
I would have blogged this “live” but there is no WiFi.
The keynote started out with a big bang: Cheap Trick played a song introducing the theme: “are you ready to rock“. Then Steve Ballmer came out and gave the keynote. This launch is certainly a big deal for Microsoft. Steve Ballmer et al are really pushing the scalability of this new platform and suitability for mission critical apps. Intel CEO / President Paul Otellini came on stage to talk about how the Intel compilers are now a part of the VS product launch (critical for the success of the Itanium, I think). After that, it got kind of flat.
I had to fight the feeling that this launch is all old news. I am excited about Vista (and the related Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Communications Foundation, and Windows Presentation Foundation technologies), Web 2.0, and more. And of course this is a launch event, not an announcement event (like the Windows Live announcement last week).
Don’t get me wrong — I am very happy to be using the new tools announced today and do think this is something big worth celebrating. And of course, I’ve adopted the new Microsoft tools, but Microsoft has to convert / convince a lot of other people.
I suppose this feeling of “old news” is a necessary result of Microsoft’s increased transparency. Product launch used to be the first time a large number of people really started using the new tools — but the first VS beta some time ago now. Of course, this transparency is a good thing.
So I enjoyed this for what it was: a chance to celebrate the latest release of the most productive development platform in the (known) universe. And better: a chance to meet prospective customers and partners.
Plus Cheap Trick really rocks. No kidding, they sounded great. Here are a couple pictures:
Congratulations to Microsoft and thanks for a great launch party!
November 6, 2005 at 11:27 pm · Filed under .NET
John Powers (the Digipede CEO) and I went to the Microsoft Partner Appreciation Party at Frisson in San Francisco as prep for the VSLaunch event at Moscone center tomorrow. John and I had a great talk about how the Digipede Network is a great fit for SaaS in general.
The party was fun. They had a custom drink menu for the event:
The “Visual Studio 05” wasn’t bad.
As we were heading out of the city, we found ourselves driving into a dead-end loading zone.
John said: “What we are doing here is slightly illegal.”
It became clear that If we continued we would have had to drive over a sidewalk.
I said: “No, what you are about to do is illegal. That is what makes you a visionary.”
And, no, we didn’t have too many drinks at the party!
Tags: .NET, vs2005
November 4, 2005 at 8:28 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
This is the third and, I hope, final destination for my blog. It started out as Mind From R. Wandering at Blogspot. Then over to GeeksWithBlogs as “Expert Texture”. Then here. I moved from Blogger in search of a community (after all, blogger is a bit too broad as communities go: everyone on the planet who blog. I moved here out of a desire for more control over my blog.
This is just a quick post to make sure Feedburner is picking up my new blog correctly.
No time to blog right now — we have a lot to do today to get ready for the Visual Studio 2005 / SQL Server 2005 launch in San Francisco on November 7th. Come by and see us at kiosk NC-12.
Cheers!
Tags: blog
November 2, 2005 at 7:25 am · Filed under Miscellaneous
I stopped posting over the last few days due to the service changes at GeeksWithBlogs. They have decided to include advertisements on all of their hosted blogs and feeds. I can understand their need: the community is growing rapidly and it’s costing more money to support.
I would have preferred it if we (as a part of this community) had been given a chance to comment on this change and even been given the option of ponying up some money. My guess is that many members here would pay in advance for the service or even just donate money to keep it running free of ads. (Jeff Julian implies that there may be options for an ad-free premium service in the future once they get their new blogging system in place.)
Instead, we received an e-mail on Sunday morning. By Monday morning, my blog had an advertisement on it. BTW: I don’t object to advertisements, I just object to having no control over the advertisements.
This is kind of ironic for me as I have been trying to figure out how to get more control over my blog’s CSS template only to find that I now have less.
In Jakob Nielsen’s article Weblog Usability: The Top Ten Design Mistakes, he says that you don’t want to let someone else control your blog. He even sites this very issue as a reason (see issue #10).
Yup.
Now what? Well, I am evaluating other options. And maybe I will move again. If you are a subscriber, please make sure you have subscribed to http://feeds.feedburner.com/MindFromRWandering — this will ensure that if I do make a move, you will come along.
Update: One thing I forgot to say in this post: I do appreciate the community that GeeksWithBlogs is building here. I don’t actually expect service for free (and of course, that is what I have gotten and continue to get from GeeksWithBlogs). And I do fully appreciate Jeff’s need to make this change.
Tags: blog
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