Visual Studio provides a rich set of tools for finding bugs, though most developers aren't aware or don't take advantage of all of them.
A good first impression is critical for an Android app. Learn the principles of Android UI design.
- By Wallace McClure
- 11/01/2011
The Windows Azure Marketplace has a hidden jewel: a host of free and nearly free databases ready for monetization.
HTML5 introduces client-side caching for local and session storage. Learn how to boost your app's performance through the new functionality.
- By Mark Michaelis
- 11/01/2011
The advantages of using virtualization, and specifically VirtualBox, to develop on the Windows 8 platform.
Joe Kunk sifts through the Windows 8 announcements at BUILD and offers advice on next steps.
How to use global lists in work item type definitions.
- By Mickey Gousset
- 10/21/2011
A primer on how to update objects, including adds and deletes, in the Entity Framework.
The new Windows Runtime integrates beautifully with the .NET Framework. Building this app will demonstrate just how well.
The "Mango" update to Windows Phone 7 includes LINQ to SQL abilities. Use them while building a movie review app.
- By Nick Randolph
- 10/13/2011
If you want to call a service you can—but the service can't call you back. WebSockets offers the potential for real, two way communications -- and it's as simple as calling a Web Service.
Chocolatey is a powerful installation program for open-source software.
Rather than try to ensure that he's getting the right config file for his production and test systems, Peter Vogel lets the application configure itself, using the Managed Extensibility Framework to enable automatic selection of the right connection string
CLR functions that perform string manipulation and substring extraction perform very well in SQL Server.
Peter Vogel explains why adding associations to Entity Framework navigations helps you avoid using Joins.
The ASP.NET DataViews are powerful tools when coupled with a DataSource. But you can skip the DataSource and use the DataViews to handle displaying and updating any collection of objects you want, with a few lines of code.
Learn MVVM fundamentals by building this simple Twitter app.
Use Inversion of Control to decouple views and viewmodels in WPF.
- By Patrick Steele
- 10/01/2011
IComparable and IComparer sound the same and work in similar ways, but there are important differences you need to know.
- By James McCaffrey
- 10/01/2011
If you start "thinking in LINQ" you'll get more done with less code, and what you write will be simpler than using SQL.
Peter Vogel introduces you to the new dynamic event model for JavaScript that's available in all the contemporary browsers.
Mickey Gousset dives into modifying the states and transitions of a work item.
- By Mickey Gousset
- 09/23/2011
The number of built-in Activities that you can use to create a service that handles a long running service is small. Fortunately, it's easy to add additional Activities that wrap up business logic.
Reading the Visual Basic language specifications may sound boring, but it actually reveals important information for developers.
Learn how to easily create a toggle button in Expression Blend by retemplating a control and adding visual states.