My Toolbox column in the January 2009 issue of MSDN Magazine is available online. The January issue examines:
- Script# - Script# is a utility created by Nikhil Kothari that translates C# code into JavaScript code, allowing you to create ASP.NET AJAX components and behaviors and Windows Vista Sidebar gadgets writing using a strongly-typed language (C#) with compile-time error checking, familiar OOP syntax and semantics, and better design-time tool support.
- Blogs of Note - Eric Lippert. Eric is a Senior Software Design Engineer at Microsoft. His blog offers some of the best in-depth looks at features in C#. He's also a very witty and talented writer, and has a knack for describing and illuminating complex topics in an interesting and lighthearted manner. For example, check out this blog entry, which looks at why getting a 'simple' change in one of Microsoft's products is not as easy as one might naively expect: How many Microsoft employees does it take to change a lightbulb?
- IntelliSpell - IntelliSpell is a Visual Studio Add-In that checks the spelling of your comments, strings, and markup. It's a stand-alone spell checker (you don't need Microsoft Word installed on your computer, for instance), and offers a host of features like as you type spell checking, custom dictionaries, and foreign language dictionaries for spell checking multi-lingual projects.
This issue's Bookshelf section reviewed Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide, by Michael Coles. An excerpt follows:
I recently finished the book Pro T-SQL 2008 Programmer's Guide (Apress) by Michael Coles, which provides a thorough review of the T-SQL syntax and language features. The book begins with a look at the new features in T-SQL 2008, such as the MERGE statement and new data types. The author then moves on to the core T-SQL constructs—user-defined functions; stored procedures; triggers; XML, XQuery, and XPath support. He then continues with coverage on encryption, common table expressions and windowing functions, SQL CLR programming, and error handling, among others. Each of these topics is given its own chapter with in-depth discussion and examples. And each chapter concludes with a series of exercises whose answers are provided in the appendix.
Enjoy! - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd315418.aspx
As always, if you have any suggestions for products, blogs, or books to review for the Toolbox column, please send them to toolsmm@microsoft.com.