My Toolbox column in the April 2009 issue of MSDN Magazine is available online. The March issue of MSDN Magazine has a focus on the Web and my reviews in Toolbox follow suit and include:
- The Microsoft Chart Controls - Did you know that Microsoft has released a free, robust set of charting controls for both WinForms and ASP.NET applications developed using the .NET Framework version 3.5? With this control suite you can add pie charts, line charts, bar graphs, and a host of other chart types to your .NET applications.
- Snippet Designer - Visual Studio 2005 introduced code snippets, which are task-oriented blocks of code that can include replaceable regions. In a nutshell, a code snippet can be used to inject common code blocks, such as the stock code for sending an e-mail message, or the skeleton of a try/catch block. Unfortunately, Visual Studio does not include much in the way of tool support for building these code snippets. Snippet Designer, an open-source project hosted on CodePlex.com, provides a straightforward user interface that integrates with the Visual Studio IDE and makes creating and editing snippets a much more intuitive and pleasant experience.
- Blogs of Note - Sara Ford: Sara Ford is a Microsoft employee who, over the years, published 382 tips on getting the most out of Visual Studio. Her blog serves as a great resource of Visual Studio tricks and tips. Spend an afternoon pouring through her old blog entries, and I guarantee you that you'll learn a few new things about Visual Studio.
The Bookshelf section reviewed two books: More Effective C#, by Bill Wagner, and Refactoring SQL Applications by Stephane Faroult and Pascal L'Hermite. An excerpt of Effective C# follows:
More Effective C# assumes the reader is already familiar with C# and language features like generics, LINQ, multithreading, and so on. You won't find any discussions on what generics are or the syntax for lambda expressions. Instead, the book states a specific guideline, such as "Distinguish between IEnumerable and IQueryable data sources," and then provides a deep and detailed discussion on the why of the guideline with illuminating prose and helpful code snippets. And each guideline stands on its own and can be read and digested without having first read other guidelines, meaning that you can jump around to what guidelines interest you the most or are the most relevant for your current projects. ... More Effective C# is a must-read for experienced C# developers who are already familiar with C# language features such as generics, extension methods, lambda expressions, anonymous types, and LINQ, but who want guidance on how best to use these features.
Enjoy! - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd569763.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.