DevTopics » Tools

.NET Code Converter: C# or VB –to-> C#, VB, Python or Ruby

timm — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 14:53:11 +0000

DeveloperFusion offers a free .NET code converter. Simply paste your C# or VB.NET code into this web-based tool, then select your target language: C#, VB.NET, Python or Ruby. Supports syntax up to .NET 3.5.

Code Converter

SharpKit C#/JavaScript Web Toolkit

timm — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 17:07:03 +0000

I ran across a novel new tool called SharpKit that generates JavaScript code from C#. I’m not using JavaScript in my current projects, so I haven’t tested this tool yet, but anyone who has worked with JavaScript knows what a hassle it can be compared to the polished managed code environment of C# and Visual Studio.

SharpKit is a free Web Toolkit that enables you to write and maintain code in C#, then convert it to JavaScript during compilation. SharpKit enables web development teams to take advantage of C# and Visual Studio benefits such as compile-time syntax verification, code-completion, XML documentation and refactoring. Many developers prefer this managed code environment versus the expensive and error-prone world of JavaScript programming.

In addition, SharpKit is a nonintrusive, compile-time solution. SharpKit does not change native JavaScript syntax, require server-side changes, nor affect your existing file structure. This non-lock-in model enables you to stop using SharpKit at any time and work directly with the JavaScript source code, if desired.

You can also use SharpKit with VB.NET, and use SharpKit to create iPhone and SmartPhone mobile browser applications.

SharpKit Home Page

Microsoft Popfly Has Been Swatted

timm — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 13:59:52 +0000

Microsoft Popfly is a set of online visual tools for novice programmers and end-users to build Web pages, applications and games. This was Microsoft’s attempt to bring programming to the masses, similar to Hypercard on the Macintosh, or the original Visual Basic on Windows before it became a real (complicated) object-oriented language under .NET.

But this fly lived for only two years. Microsoft has just announced that on August 24, 2009, the Popfly service will be discontinued and all sites, references, and resources will be taken down. At that time, access to your Popfly account, including any games and mashups that you have created, will be discontinued.

However, Microsoft says it is “still very much dedicated to helping you express your creativity and pursuing a path to software development” and thus offers you some alternatives. If you’re interested in refining your skills in Web applications, visit Microsoft Web Platform Installer. For those interested in programming on the Xbox, then visit Microsoft XNA or Microsoft Kodu. And for those who are interested in Windows programming, visit Microsoft Express.

Unfortunately, any investment you have made in the Microsoft Popfly development platform has been a waste of time. The lesson here is that proprietary development environments are a risky bet, even when backed by a major company such as Microsoft.

Popfly Website

P.S. – Speaking of flies, did you see Ninja President Obama kill a fly during a national TV interview?

What is Silverlight?

timm — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:13:33 +0000

An overview of the Silverlight technology and the workflow using Expression Studio:

See more Silverlight videos

Free Developer Tools

timm — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 13:34:31 +0000

Following are some simple but useful FREE tools for software developers. Each tool is freely distributable and includes the original C# source code so you can modify the tool to your needs. These tools are not supported. Enjoy!

Color Gadget

Select a .NET KnownColor or other color, copy RGB and hex values to the clipboard.

Free Download

Guid Generator

Generate a new globally-unique ID and copy it to the clipboard.

Free Download

Hex Converter

Quickly convert between hex and decimal numbers.

Free Download

Shortcut Replace

Search/replace the path and working directory in a collection of shortcut (.lnk) files.

Free Download

Visual Studio Toolbox Installer

Console program that installs/removes tabs and custom controls and components in the Visual Studio .NET Toolbox.

Free Download

Window Watcher

Shows the form and client bounds of the active window.

Free Download

Visual Studio 2008 and .NET 3.5 Released

timm — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 16:23:27 +0000

Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework v3.5. These upgrades enable .NET software developers to rapidly create more secure, manageable, and reliable applications and take advantage of new features found in Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007.

MSDN subscribers can download VS 2008 here. Non-subscribers can download a 90-day free trial here. The smaller, free versions of Visual Studio Express are here. Or if you just want the .NET 3.5 framework, you can find it here.

Key features of VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 include:

Multi-Targeting – Select the .NET version against which to build an application. Thus, you can use VS 2008 to build .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.5 applications.
Web Designer – Faster and much improved HTML designer with rich CSS support.
AJAX – Now built-in to ASP.NET with many improvements.
LINQ to SQL – Built-in OR/M (object-relational mapper) to model relational databases using .NET objects, then query and manage these databases using LINQ.
Query Syntax – Declarative shorthand for expressing queries using the standard LINQ query operators.
Anonymous Types – Concisely define inline types within code without having to explicitly define a formal class. Anonymous types are particularly useful when querying and transforming data with LINQ.
Lambda Expressions – Provide a more concise, functional syntax for writing anonymous methods.
Extension Methods – Add new public methods to existing types without modifying or sub-classing the original type.
Automatic Properties – Automatically create a private field and public get/set properties.
Object and Collection Initializers – Shorthand code for initializing objects and object collections.

Note that VS 2008 runs fine on the same PC as VS 2005, so you can install and test VS 2008 without compromising your existing VS 2005 setup. Or you can use VS 2008 and multi-targeting to build and maintain your existing .NET 2.0 applications. Also, .NET 3.5 is built upon the .NET 2.0 framework, so your .NET 2.0 applications should run fine on PCs with only .NET 3.5 installed.

VS 2008 and .NET 3.5 are terrific upgrades that continue to advance the .NET development environment. The only negative is that once again, Microsoft is releasing .NET 3.5 as a separate download and not as a required component of Windows Update. As a result, it will be at least 2-4 years before software developers can expect a majority of Windows users to have .NET 3.5 installed on their PCs, which is a real shame.

Popfly: Programming for the Masses

timm — Tue, 29 May 2007 17:26:50 +0000

The promise of end-user programming has been a fleeting one.

First there was Hypercard for the Macintosh. Hypercard was powerful enough to produce commercial applications but simple enough for a child to use. Unfortunately, Hypercard proved too difficult for Apple to market properly, and besides, most developers don’t care about the Mac anyway.

Microsoft followed in 1991 with Visual Basic, which retained the simplicity of the BASIC programming language while upgrading it for use on the new graphical Windows platform. VB was such a smash success with both novice and professional programmers that at one time, over 60% of software developers reported using Visual Basic for some of their projects. But along the way, Visual Basic matured into a real (read: complex) object-oriented programming language, leaving behind its simple roots and unfortunately many of its fans. As a result, VB use has plummeted 35% in just the past year.

There are also new efforts by IBM and smaller companies such as DabbleDB and Zoho to turn novices into programmers. But none have the excitement or momentum of Microsoft’s new programming tool for the masses: Popfly.

Introducing Microsoft Popfly

Microsoft Popfly is a set of online visual tools for novice programmers and end-users to build Web pages and applications. There are three key Popfly components:

Mashup Creator

The Mashup Creator tool enables users to drag “blocks” from the Popfly library and drop them on a design surface. The user can then link these blocks into a working web page or application, with no coding required. Integrated text and video tutorials help users create Popfly mashups.

Under the hood, blocks are just code that wraps complex operations, like retrieving data from a Web site or displaying an animated slideshow. An advanced view enables developers to modify the block code, which can be in C#, Visual Basic, HTML, Silverlight (JavaScript), or any .NET supported language. There is also a live preview that updates the mashup in real-time as users drop & link blocks.

Web Page Creator

The Web Page Creator tool enables users to build web pages without HTML coding. Users can choose from 150 predefined themes, 10 styles and 30 unique color schemes, and customize them as needed. Users can also easily drop in completed mashups, gadgets and other dynamic content to create feature-rich web sites.

Popfly Space

Popfly Space is a social network that enables Popfly creators to interact, share and rate their blocks. Each user will have 25MB of free Popfly space, where they can store their completed web pages and Popfly blocks.

Users can also download Popfly mashups as gadgets for the Vista Sidebar and Windows Live, with support coming for other blog service providers. There is also a Popfly Space plug-in for Visual Studio Express that enables developers to download and modify mashup code.

See more at Popfly.com.

Microsoft Silverlight: Flash Fighter

timm — Tue, 08 May 2007 14:20:30 +0000

Silverlight is Microsoft’s answer to Adobe Flash.

Officially, “Silverlight is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.”

Why Use Silverlight?

Given that Flash has over 98% market penetration, why would a developer want to use Silverlight instead? Here are a few good reasons:

Use Your Favorite .NET Language. Whereas Flash developers must use Adobe’s proprietary Flash development tool, Silverlight uses the same core CLR engine found in .NET. Thus, .NET developers require minimal additional training to use Silverlight, and the same .NET code can be used for Silverlight, ASP.NET, WinForms and WPF applications.

Applications are Searchable. A compiled Flash application is essentially a sealed binary package that cannot be penetrated by Google and other search engines. As a result, developers often wrap Flash-heavy web sites with keywords that search engines can crawl, resulting in extra work for developers and search penetration nowhere near as good as what the search bots could do on their own. Silverlight, however, is delivered to the browser in the text-based markup language XAML, and hence is completely searchable.

Program the Browser. Silverlight simplifies browser programming like never before. A managed API enables developers to access and modify HTML in a browser using any .NET language (for example, you could add a click handler to an HTML button using C# or VB). Silverlight also allows JavaScript code in an HTML page to call .NET methods and share data with a Silverlight control or application.

High-Def Video. Silverlight can display high-definition video files and other graphical content with ease, and Microsoft will optionally store and deliver these files over the Web. This will enable smaller companies to deliver large video files quickly and reliably, without paying network distribution fees. Microsoft is promising 700kbps throughput and free distribution on its Live network for one year.

Tools

Developers can build Silverlight applications in Notepad, but that’s like cutting your lawn with scissors.

Fortunately, Microsoft has released a beta version of Microsoft Expression Studio, a suite of tools for web developers and creative designers to deliver rich applications for the Web and Windows Vista. Expression Studio is targeted for a June release, and is a competitor to Adobe’s recently released Creative Suite 3. Expression Studio includes the following products:

Expression Web for building standards-based Web sites
Expression Design for professional illustration and graphic design
Expression Blend for creating engaging Web-connected experiences for Windows. This special Expression Blend 2 May Preview is compatible with creating content for Silverlight 1.0 Beta and Silverlight 1.1 Alpha.
Expression Media for assets management as well as media encoding. This version also includes the Expression Media Encoder tool for transcoding video content.

For More Information

Check out these links: