For those who haven’t been paying attention, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is the next generation platform for Windows Forms Application development.  I recently decided to investigate.  It was something of a whim as I’ve not been working on Rich Client applications in some time.  Most of the work we do at CIBIS is focussed on web applications development but I figured that the skills would be transferrable to Silverlight.  Given his reputation I decided to read Charles Petzold’s book “Applications = Code + Markup”.

It just so happened that before I started reading the book I was talking to a well regarded expert in the WPF field.  I mentioned that I was about to start reading and was told that several other books would have been a better place to start.  When pressed he said that this wasn’t Charles Petzold’s best book, not that it was a bad book, just that he expected better of someone so great.  I was nonplussed to say the least.

I pressed on regardless and worked my way through the book.  At around a thousand pages it’s fairly solid book with numerous examples and exercises.  Now that I’ve read the book I can honestly say that I disagree with my friend’s assessment of the book.

A lot of technical manuals are written using very simple language and are deliberately written to make it easy for the reader to reference information in the book as and when they require it.  This type of manual has always served a rather important purpose for programmers – as a vital information source on syntax and architecture when we’re actively engaged in the process of creating software.  In recent years this type of book has been supplanted largely by blogs and technical references on the internet.  The ability to access information on demand enables you to search and find the information faster than it would take you to walk to the bookshelf and open the book.

However, looking back to when I began programming there were a number of books that I would consider to have been instrumental in my development as a programmer.  These manuals were well written and made the concepts they were explaining approachable, but were written specifically to be read through in order to initiate the reader into a broader understanding of the underlying concepts.  These are the books we look back at years later and revere as inspirations that made us pursue one technology or another.  Perhaps with the advent of blogs and new media I’m just showing my age.  But for anyone who still sees value in the act of reading, “Applications = Code + Markup” is such a book.

As per the title, the book itself is broken up into two sections reflecting the two main aspects to WPF programming: “Code”, the instruction and control structures of the language and “Markup” the declarative and descriptive side of the language.  Please note, this book is written for programmers, not designers.  While the mark-up section could very easily have focused on how to use tools like Expression to create the required Markup, the book instead focuses on how to write Markup directly in the Visual Studio designer in the same way a web developer may write html code without accessing the design tools.  Petzold is encouraging developers to gain a deeper understanding of how to build WPF applications without simply dragging and dropping objects onto a form.

The book begins simply, walking the user through the basics of WPF, but the explanations are quite erudite.  Overall the level of knowledge included in this book is impressive.  For someone like myself who has primarily worked on business applications, I’ve rarely had to delve into complex mathematics underlying Bezier curves to describe the path of animated objects.  With the focus of WPF on the ability to present data in new and visually appealing ways understanding such concepts becomes imperative.  There are extensive examples that demonstrate how to simply and easily build applications to do a wide range of tasks.  The chapters on animation and graphics manipulation are particularly enjoyable.

Petzold not only explains the how of WPF but also the why.  He gives insight into the reasons that the WPF team have constructed the language in the way that they have.  His insight into the history of application development and the place of WPF in the technological landscape give this book a unique perspective.  In short, I really enjoyed this book and would definitely recommend it to others who were interested in learning WPF.

I think by now it has been established that I’m not much of a blogger.  Two posts and then nothing for years.  And yet I’ve been thinking that I should get back into this. 

Last night at the May meeting of the Newcastle Coders Group we were treated to Adam Cogan presenting on SharePoint.  Despite having just flown back from Brisbane and dealing with a crisis back in Sydney, Adam was on form and sporting a new ‘biker’ look to go with his ‘Yamaharley’.  The talk mostly dealt with lists and workflow. 

I think the tip of the night was probably the discussion about how many task lists we have these days and how SharePoint gives you the ability to integrate them all.  I’ve implemented SharePoint previously but certainly didn’t make the most of it.  Fortunately we’re in the process of setting up a new SharePoint server at CIBIS at the moment so a lot of the tips Adam went through will come in handy.

Edit: Adam dropped me a line to let me know that he has gone through his suggestions page on sharepoint and is looking for feedback.  You can see his latest ‘whinges’ about sharepoint here.

I must admit I’ve not had all that much to do with the open source community. However, the advent of Open Source has had a distinct effect on the nature of development. In recent years Microsoft has changed its approach in response to this change. One of the most encouraging aspects of these changes has been the adoption of the principle of standards compliance.

At the last coders group meeting, Andrew Coates talked about the OpenXML standard that Microsoft has used for Office 2007. The standard is now ratified and publicly available for download. As someone who has had to struggle with document management systems incorporating Office documents in the past I am fully aware of how important this step is. Andrew is a great speaker and an enthusiastic advocate of this technology. Yes he is employed as a Microsoft Developer Evangelist, but his enthusiasm seems genuine and infectious. He also has a solid background in coding, so he can speak with authority.

It’s hard not to get caught up in his presentations and the audience threw questions at him left and right. Our group can be quite cynical when it comes to new technologies. There were a number of questions relating to the need to create another standard instead of using an existing one such as Open Office’s. I think he managed to answer most of the questions on the night.

I’ve had so much positive feedback since the meeting that I wanted to remark on it. More generally though I think the best speakers we get at the meetings are those that involve the audience taking questions and attempting to answer them as they go. Lively debate has often ensued although fortunately no fights have broken out at time of writing. It really isn’t possible to get any level of discussion going unless you have a speaker with a good understanding and passion for the subject. Knowledge and Passion: there are no doubt many other elements that combine to make a good speaker, but I suspect those two are the key factors.

After reading numerous blogs for a number of years I’ve decided to start one for myself. I’m not really one for self promotion, so I’m not really sure why I’m doing this. Well, other than the fact that I enjoy reading blogs and have met a few of the authors. Lately I’ve been on the receiving end of comments like “you should really start a blog”.

So it’s peer pressure really.

The blogging phenomenon seems to be something more than just a vanity exercise. Publicly airing your thoughts, feelings or (particularly in the technical blogs I gravitate towards) your expertise may seem extroverted. I suspect that the people involved may in fact be wildly different with perhaps only one thing in common: the desire to participate in a larger community.

There has been a lot written on the subject of online communities to which I won’t be adding much right now. Suffice to say the technical community, particularly in relation to coding has been something that I’ve been giving a great deal of consideration to lately.

Let me introduce myself. I’m a software developer with a small software house that produces a product sold to an international market. My role tends to be 1 part developer, 1 part business analyst and 1 part support person. Not that I mind this last role. Unlike many of my fellow programmers, in addition to enjoying wrestling with coding problems I quite enjoy meeting the end user and helping them to deal with their difficulties. At the end of the day that bit of code I’m writing has to be used by someone or else it would all be a pointless exercise.

I live near Newcastle with my fiancé. We’ve only been in the area for a few years but have already begun putting down roots. Newcastle really is a great place to live and work.

For the last year and a half I’ve been the public face of the Newcastle Coders Group. Between me and another couple of guys we’ve managed to get some really impressive speakers to stand up and talk about their favourite subject, coding! The aim is to provide Newcastle with access to learning opportunities that have previously been only available if we were prepared to head south to Sydney. It’s also a chance to meet the people in the area also battling problems to share ideas and ‘war’ stories.

While we aren’t solely a Microsoft based group, the majority of the presentations have come from the Microsoft community. This has largely been in response to the preparedness of speakers to come forward from within that community and share their expertise. I’m a Microsoft developer, a background in MS Access, VB6, SQL server and most recently .NET. Even so, we’re always keen to hear from anyone, as long as it’s related to coding.

So that’s it; my first blog entry. Perhaps to read by one or two people who’ll leave a comment. If so, perhaps I’ll be inspired to continue making entries on this thing.