Satter Ramblings

MVC 4 - Game Changer

During the //build/ Day 2 keynote, Scott Guthrie announced a new release of MVC. MVC 4 is a developer preview meaning "danger, Will Robinson, danger". However it is definitely worth a look as it makes building mobile web applications easier. It is also what I have been waiting for to get moving on Web LOB Accelerator. Read on for how to build a multi-device site using MVC 4.

WURFL .NET API

The WURFL team has introduced a new .NET API. The first pass does not have a Nuget package but they are working on it. So it should eventually show up on Nuget.

Creating a Multi-Device Web Site

One of the things I have always wanted to do was write the Mobile LOB Accelerator as multi-device application. One of the things that has held me back is the lack of ADO.NET in Silverlight. Yes I know I can use a lot of database implementations for Silverlight. The problem is that I have yet to find a way to spoof in ADO.NET. I would like a class library that device specific UI then consumes. Ah but how about a web site with device specific UI. This is very doable.

.NET 4 on Server Core

In March a version of .NET Framework 4 was released to run on Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. You can download the RTM version but what do you get?

Post PC Era

By now there has been a lot of press about the Post PC Era. Ok I will bite lets do the math.

Let us break down the numbers. The IDC says that tablets sold 14-16 million units in 2010. A lot of people in the media are saying that this is the dawning of a new age in computing aka Post PC. Or some of the more blunt commentators are saying the PC is dead. 16 million is a large number. Let me give you another number 346.2 million. The estimated number of PCs shipped in 2010. Yup more than 21 times the number of tablets.

Ok, but certainly the tablets will cut into the market in the following years. Flashback to 2008 when netbooks were all the rage. The media said netbooks would replace the PC. I bet you that tablets will replace netbooks which are replacing PCs or so the argument goes. Here is a dose of reality again sticking with IDC. IDC projects that netbook sales are down. Netbooks are being replaced with low priced laptops and all in one desktops. The PC market will be over half a billion machines by 2014. Tablets will certainly compose a chunk of the portable devices. The IDC is predicting 50 million tablets in 2011. If you quadrupled sales by 2014 which is highly unlikely that is still less than half.

My point in this is that just reading news is not enough. You need to dig into the research to understand what is really going on in a particular area.

.NET 4 on Windows 2008 R2 SP1 Server Core

One of the most asked features of .NET 4 is the ability to install on Server Core OSs. I am pleased to let you know that you can now do this with a caveat. You must be running Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1. So you must upgrade your server to SP1 before installing .NET Framework 4 Server Core Profile.

One other thing to note you must also turn on .NET 2.0 support as well as WOW support. While we are installing the Full Framework be aware that not everything will function on Server Core for example WPF and ClickOnce do not work on Server Core.

The WebMatrix is Here

WebMatrix Beta 3is now available. WebMatrix is a lightweight development environment to enable Razor development, a new syntax for .NET web pages. Lightweight does not mean less features. It is very full featured and cool.

Porting LOB Accelerator to iPhone using MonoTouch

People who have read my blog probably knew this was coming. I assisted Rob Tiffany in writing the second version of his Windows Mobile Line of Business Solution Accelerator. So it is only natural that I try and port it to MonoTouch.

.NET Development for OS X

Yes you read that right. This entry will show you the basics of building a Mac application in .NET. How can this be .NET is a Microsoft Windows technology? Enter Mono. And no I don't mean the disease. I mean the Mono Project a Novell project that has ported .NET to Linux and other platforms including Mac OS X. What follows is a step by step guide to using .NET and no PCs were killed in the writing of this blog entry.

PDC 2010

Yes we are having another PDC. This time it will be right here on the Redmond Campus for 2 days, October 28th and 29th. There will be tracks on my three favorite topics - .NET, Azure, and Windows Phone 7.