In a surprise move, Microsoft said today it is releasing the reference source code for the .NET Framework libraries, a key step toward opening up the proprietary development platform.
Developers will be able to review and debug .NET source code with Visual Studio 2008 and .NET Framework 3.5. Released under the Microsoft Reference License, developers are able to view, but not modify or distribute, the reference source code.
Read the full Microsoft Takes Step Toward Opening .NET 3.5 Framework
Silverlight?
“Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.”
Silverlight Vs Flash discussions are all over the web now. Here is a post with lots of links to some of the decent comments on the subject: Silverlight Vs Flash
C# comprises an object-oriented syntax based on the C++ programming language that shares features of several other programming languages (Delphi, Visual Basic and Java being the most prominent names) and places an accent on simplification, reducing the number of symbolic requirements characteristic to other programming languages.
C# is primarily suitable for use in developing software components and for ulterior deployment in distributed environments. The primary characteristic of C# is the simplicity of use, this modern object-oriented programming language eliminating or restricting a considerable number of symbols.
Among other purposes, C# has been designed to facilitate the writing of applications for both hosted and embedded systems, ranging from extensive systems that use complex operating systems to smaller systems with fewer functions. Along with its implementations, C# provides support for software engineering tasks such as strong type checking, array bounds checking, automatic garbage collection and efficient detection of attempts to use uninitialized variables.
The innovative C# is, nowadays extensively used inside a wide range of IT companies worldwide. Over the years, this well-structured object-oriented programming language has proved to be very stable and efficient, becoming very popular among programmers that also have a good level of experience with C++, Delphi, Java or Eiffel.
Persons who hold expertise in utilizing C# and its implementations are nowadays in high demand and have great career opportunities. Persons who have no experience with Microsoft C#, but wish to rapidly familiarize with this programming language in order to expand their professional prospects should attend to an appropriate form of C# training.
Depending on your level of experience with Microsoft C# and programming in general, you should choose one of the numerous different packages of C# training programs available at present; there are many different forms of C# training, ranging from C# introductive courses (which help students familiarize themselves with the basics of the C# language), more advanced C# courses (primarily suitable for object-oriented programmers), or extensive C# courses, which account for both the basics and advanced features of Microsoft C#.
By attending a set of introductive C# classes, you will be able to rapidly learn the basic features of the C# language, usually using Visual Studio .NET. Introductive C# classes generally debate topics such as the .NET platform features, Microsoft Intermediate Language, Visual Studio profiles, XML features, and all the C# features required for creating various Web or Windows applications, familiarizing students with data types, variables, operators and flow control structures.
By attending to more challenging C# courses, you will learn more advanced aspects of programming using Microsoft’s new C# programming language. During C# classes, you will learn all the important aspects of object-oriented programming in C#, the relation between C# and the .NET Framework, creating GUI programs using Windows Forms and many more.
Regardless of the form of C# training you are interested in booking, you should verify that it is based on Microsoft Official Courseware and that it is taught by experienced, reputed instructors. This way you will have the guarantee that by the end of the training program you will be able to leave with an extensive baggage of knowledge and practical skills on using Microsoft C# programming language.
Microsoft has announced it will license third-party developers to build applications that have the look and feel of Office 2007 on a royalty-free basis.
The overall concept is to give users the ability to have a common user interface between Microsoft and third-party applications but, if the past is any indication, will also help Microsoft sell Office 2007 in the marketplace. Common UI elements and components means lower training costs and can help customers make an easier transition to the new Office.
High on the list of changes to Office’s interface is the so-called Ribbon that provides users with more contextual control of application operations. But the license also covers other UI features such as galleries and the Mini Toolbar.
Besides the royalty-free license, Microsoft is also going to provide comprehensive design guidelines to help independent software vendors (ISVs) create programs that are consistent with Office 2007, the company said in a statement. However, the company is not licensing any code so ISVs are on their own on that point.
The license will be available as a simple click-through agreement on the licensing Web site, according to Microsoft’s statements.
More information on the royalty-free Office 2007 UI license is available here, although the license itself and the design guidelines have not been posted yet.
Developers can get free add-ons to build programs for Vista and Office 2007 and to create AJAX-style Web applications.
Microsoft will hand out three developer toolsets on Tuesday, in hopes of spurring programmers to create applications for Windows Vista, Office 2007 and the Web.
The software giant is hosting two developer conferences–Microsoft TechEd Europe in Barcelona and VSConnections in Las Vegas–where it plans to announce the release of the tools.
One announcement will be for .Net Framework 3.0, the software “plumbing” needed to run and build Windows Vista applications. The software, available as a plug-in to Microsoft’s Visual Studio 2005, lets developers write applications that use Vista’s new user interface, security features and communications system.
Microsoft is expected to make Windows Vista available to business customers at the end of this month and to consumers in January of next year.
The second launch is for a plug-in to Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office, for building applications that use Excel, Word and other programs in Office 2007. The update is expected to be in broad release early next year.
This add-on will enable developers to write applications that take advantage of the new “ribbon” user interface and other features with Office 2007, said Brian Goldfarb, a group product manager at Microsoft.
Microsoft is also scheduled to release the second beta to its Web development tool kit, called ASP.Net AJAX and code-named Atlas.
This test version is expected to be generally available around the end of this year, when it will be offered as a free download under one of Microsoft’s Shared Source licenses, Goldfarb said.
The Atlas AJAX tool is designed to speed up development of Web applications that run in a browser or on a server, he said. Goldfarb added that the software complies with standards and will work with other server-based scripting systems, such as PHP.
One customer, Burton Snowboards, said that using the AJAX Web development technique with Microsoft’s Atlas tool has allowed a team of programmers to add more interactivity to its public-facing Web site.
Rather than hire or train more engineers in Adobe’s Flash Web development technology, Burton Snowboards decided to train its Visual Studio programmers on the Atlas tool, said Ben Noonan, Internet project and development manager for Burton, in a press briefing arranged by Microsoft.
“Now that our pages are enabled with Atlas, we’ve seen nearly double the traffic,” Noonan said. “The learning curve on the Atlas tool kit was minimal.”
This morning, Microsoft Security announced it has been alerted to proof-of-concept code that may already have been referenced in the creation of a malicious exploit.Although details about the exploit itself have not yet be revealed, according to this morning’s advisory, the point of weakness is a Windows library that is shipped with Visual Studio 2005, called wmiscriptutils.dll. Apparently a call to this library, placed from within a script executed in some installations of Internet Explorer 7 with default settings, on operating systems other than Windows Server 2003, can trigger possible unguarded remote malicious code execution.
“WMI” refers to Windows Management Instrumentation, which is Microsoft’s system for making thousands of different points of constantly measured performance data accessible to outside programs. In this case, the dynamic link library in question is not WMI itself, but a collection of functions referred to as the “WMI object broker,” that make WMI data more readily accessible to scripts written from within Visual Studio.
Many Windows systems have WMI installed, especially in the workplace where they may be actively monitored by tenacious system administrators. However, only development systems that use WMI will have this particular library file, which significantly reduces the number of computers in which the exploit may be effective.
Security companies have yet to analyze this threat, especially with details being kept confidential for now.
This is not the first time this particular library file has been the target of an exploit. Early this year, proof-of-concept code was published concerning an exploit that could enable remote code execution through misappropriating the CreateObject statement for invoking COM objects involved with Data Access Components (DAC). WMIScriptUtils.WMIObjectBroker2.1 was one of those objects.
Last April, Microsoft responded with a series of updates to all Data Access Components modules, in an attempt to thwart any such exploitation to the entire library set. There’s no indication at this time that the earlier exploit is related to the current one.
Random Programming Tips 