Everything Anyone Could Possibly Want to Know About .NET 7 Performance Improvements

Here, I'll save you hours of time with a quick TL;DR: .NET 7 is fast.

But I come here not so much to talk about that, but the sheer size of the blog post announcing that.

Published today, Aug. 31, the post by Microsoft's Stephen Toub, "Performance Improvements in .NET 7," weighs in at more than 76,000 words, according to Microsoft Word. It must have taken me a couple minutes just to copy the thing to get a word count. I didn't time it; I just resolutely kept by finger down on the mouse button as I gritted my teeth and grimly came to terms with how long it was going to take to copy the text, scrolling through page after page after page, determined to finish the monumental, seemingly Sisyphean task. I thought Trump might be re-elected before I finished and could go out to vote. (Yes, later I realized I could have saved some time by clicking on the first word, holding the Shift key down and then clicking on the last word -- but I'm accustomed to the click-and-scroll method, which usually takes a second or two.)

Posted by David Ramel on 08/31/20220 comments

Can You Name Top C# IDEs Provided by Microsoft? I Couldn't

C# coder looking for a job?

Can you name the top IDEs for C# development provided by Microsoft?

The editor of Visual Studio Magazine couldn't.

I learned my inadequacy while browsing the morning tech news when piqued by "Top 20 C# Interview Questions and Answers" on the site of Simplilearn, an online bootcamp and certification training provider.

Posted by David Ramel on 04/05/20220 comments

(Really) Quick Tip: Blazor App Hosted as Azure Static Website in Blob Storage

Every once in a great while I like to torture myself and waste a few days trying to program a simple app. So I just tried Blazor.

For those of you who don't know about this "red-hot" project (as I describe it every time on VSM), it lets .NET coders use C# for Web development, rather than that pesky JavaScript.

Posted by David Ramel on 09/13/20190 comments

OData Lives! 12-Year-Old RESTful API Protocol Put to New Use in Age of Blazor and ASP.NET Core

Back in 2016, I asked Microsoft about the status of OData -- the RESTful API protocol it developed back in 2007 -- because it seemed its initial buzz had tapered off dramatically. I was assured by the company that "both within the standards organizations and the industry, OData is alive and growing."

Posted by David Ramel on 05/20/20190 comments

Your .NET 5 Questions Answered (Kinda Sorta), Part 1: WCF

In early March I submitted a media inquiry to Microsoft, asking about the No. 1 (in terms of votes) item on the Developer Community site for Visual Studio and the subject of much developer discussion: "Create a Ubiquitous .NET Client Application Development Model."

Posted by David Ramel on 05/07/20190 comments

2018: When VS Code Eclipsed Visual Studio IDE

I wonder if Microsoft knew what it had on its hands back in 2015 when it created Visual Studio Code, the little code editor that could.

Did the VS Code team even envision the free, open source code editor could, in less than four years after its debut, become the No. 1 development tool in a major development survey, eclipsing its namesake IDE that can cost some $6,000 per year?

Posted by David Ramel on 12/19/20180 comments

Notes from Visual Studio Live! No Typical Developer

As the newly incumbent editor in chief of this online magazine, I eagerly anticipated attending the recent Visual Studio Live! conference in Orlando.

I looked forward to the opportunity to mingle with developers, talk about their concerns, their motivations, their challenges, their likes and dislikes of working within the Microsoft developer environment.

Posted by David Ramel on 12/22/20170 comments

Coding iOS Apps with Visual Studio and Xamarin (but No Mac?)

There's no doubt iOS development is hot right now, with all the iPhone 8/iPhone X hoopla, the new iOS 11 recently shipping with cutting-edge features and so on.

But there's that pesky Mac thing. Apple requires that you have a Mac machine for a full development cycle that includes deploying an app to the App Store.

Posted by David Ramel on 11/14/20170 comments

So What's Microsoft SQL Operations Studio?

One week from today, a public preview of Microsoft SQL Operations Studio will be available for download. Microsoft provided a "sneak preview" of the tool at the recent PASS Summit for SQL Server developers and DBAs, but details remain scant.

I, for one, wonder how this new offering will fit into the Microsoft data ecosystem, which already has tools like SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for wrangling the company's flagship RDBMS.

Posted by David Ramel on 11/08/20170 comments

Ouch! Stack Overflow Devs Really Don't Like Microsoft

So much for the "new" Microsoft.

I thought Microsoft had transformed from a hated, closed-off corporate predator into an openness champion, embracing other technologies and pleasing developers by seeking their feedback and enhancing its tooling accordingly.

I was wrong.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/31/20170 comments

Facing Developer Anger, Microsoft Reverses VS Code Icon Color Change

Citing "passionate feedback" from developers (some called it "backlash") that was "very helpful, painful, and entertaining all at the same time," Microsoft reversed its decision to change the color of its icons for the Visual Studio Code editor.

Sans the color reversal, however, the new design remains in place. Stay tuned for the coming "feedback" on that.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/25/20170 comments

Developers Revolt Against New VS Code Icons

I knew this was going to happen.

Developers are revolting against the new icons introduced by Microsoft for Visual Studio Code, the open source, cross-platform little cousin to the Visual Studio IDE.

Besides venting their frustration on forums and GitHub issues, the coding community has launched petitions to revert back to the original scheme, and developers have figured out on their own how to do a manual replacement.

Posted by David Ramel on 10/16/20170 comments