Visual Basic Language Specification 9.0 (Beta 2) Available For Download

Table of Contents
The Visual Basic Language Specification 9.0 (Beta 2) document is available for download. The document contains 328 pages. Below is the Table Of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Lexical Grammar
3. Preprocessing Directives
4. General Concepts
5. Attributes
6. Source Files and Namespaces
7. Types
8. Conversions
9. Type Members
10. Statements
11. Expressions
12. Documentation Comments
13. Grammar Summary
14. Change List

Download the document here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=39de1dd0-f775-40bf-a191-09f5a95ef500&displaylang=en

New Hands-on Labs and Samples Available for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2

Original source: http://blogs.msdn.com/charlie/archive/2007/07/26/visual-studio-2008-beta-2-released.aspx

The C# Language Specification Version 3.0 is now available for review.

There are samples and hands on labs available to help you explore this release:
LINQ and language samples for Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2
LINQ Hands On Labs
C# 3.0 Language Enhancements Hands On Lab

Screencast: Enabling LINQ: Kit George Shows Off His Favorite VB 9.0 Language Features

Channel 9 has published their latest screen cast. from the site:

In this interview Kit George, a Program Manager on the Visual Basic Team and a former member of the CLR Team, shows us his favorite language features that enable LINQ without actually talking about the queries themselves. His excitement about Extension Methods, Anonymous Types, Object Initializers, Type Inference and the new Refactor! shows through in typical Kit fashion. It's an interview that's as much fun to watch as it was to produce!

00:00 Intro
01:22 Extension Methods
07:31 Anonymous Types and Refactor!
13:16 Object Initializers
14:15 Type Inference
17:30 Option Infer
21:41 Making Inferred Types Explicit with Refactor!


Watch the screencast(WMV)

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 June 2007 Community Technology Preview Released

Brief Description
Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 contains many new features that are compatible with both .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0. .NET Framework 3.5 includes servicing for .NET Framework 2.0 and .NET Framework 3.0.

Overview
.NET Framework 3.5 builds incrementally on the new features added in .NET Framework 3.0, for example, Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace. In addition, .NET Framework 3.5 contains a number of new features in several technology areas. These new features have been added as new assemblies to avoid breaking changes. They include the following:
Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness. This new feature will let you write code written in LINQ-enabled languages to filter, enumerate, and create projections of several types of SQL data, collections, XML, and DataSets by using the same syntax.
ASP.NET AJAX lets you create more efficient, more interactive, and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers.
New Web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM, and several new WS-* standards.
Full tooling support for WF, WCF, and WPF, including the new workflow-enabled services technology.
New classes in .NET Framework 3.5 base class library (BCL) address the most common customer requests.

Download it here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=e6fd8663-8b77-4649-8d36-3830e18528fa&DisplayLang=en

Visual Studio 2008 Shell Interview

Craig Skibo, developer on the Visual Studio Tools Ecosystem team, talks technical to Ken Levy about the the new Visual Studio 2008 Shell. Discussion includes how to use the VS SDK with VS to build applications (integrated or isolated) for the new free VS 2008 Shell.

Watch it here: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsxteam/archive/2007/06/26/Craig-Skibo-talks-technical-about-the-Visual-Studio-2008-Shell.aspx

Podcast: A conversation with Justin Smith about syndication and REST in the Orcas release of Windows Communication Foundation

In version 3.5 of the .NET Framework, the Windows Communication Foundation will define a set of types that abstractly represent syndication feeds and items in feeds, and will provide mappings from those abstractions to RSS and Atom. In this conversation we discuss how this new support for syndication will work, and explore interesting scenarios for using it. We also discuss one of the underpinnings for syndication support in Orcas/WCF: a new ability to produce and consume services in a RESTful manner.
Listen to the podcast(MP3)
Listen to the podcast(WMA)

The Evolution Of LINQ And Its Impact On The Design Of C#

C# PM Anson Horton explains the relationship between LINQ and the new features in CSharp 3.0 such as extension methods and lambda expresssions.

This article discusses:
C# and LINQ
The evolution of LINQ
SQL querying from code

Contents
Lambda Expressions
Extension Methods
Anonymous Types
Implicitly Typed Local Variables
Object Initializers
Query Expressions

Webcast Series on VB.next and Orcas

The Visual Basic Team has put together a webcast series about the next version of Visual Basic and Orcas.
Here is what is offered:

Live From Redmond: VB9 - Deep Dive into LINQ May 23rd, Presented by Amanda Silver

Live From Redmond: VB9 - Building Service-Oriented Applications May 30th, Presented by John Stallo

Live From Redmond: Using the Interop Toolkit to Migrate your VB6 Applications to .NET June 6th, Presented by Jonathan Aneja

Live From Redmond: VB9 – LINQ Best Practices June 13th, Presented by Lisa Feigenbaum

ASP.NET Podcast: Silverlight and Managed JavaScript

Download.
View in Flash.

Show Notes:
Silverlight .NET 1.1 Alpha.
Debugging.
Running in VS.NET Orcas Beta1
Managed JavaScript

Original URL: http://aspnetpodcast.com/CS11/blogs/asp.net_podcast/archive/2007/05/16/asp-net-podcast-show-92-silverlight-and-managed-javascript.aspx

Video: Luke Hoban: Orcas - Compiling LINQ, C# Futures, Intellisense

Chanel 9 has made avalable their latest video: Luke Hoban: Orcas - Compiling LINQ, C# Futures, Intellisense

From the site:"Meet Luke Hoban, Program Manager on the C# Compiler team. Here, we talk about how LINQ works, from a compiler point of view. As you know by now, LINQ is a construct that is built of new language level innovations which of course must have compiler support... As you might imagine, given the nature of LINQ's requisite language level components, we talk about functional programming and it's new role in our good old imperative world. In Orcas, you shouldn't talk about LINQ without showing it in action inside of Visual Studio. "

Media Length: 00:41:39
Download the video here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=308323#308323

Anonymous Types In Orcas Article

Anonymous types are a convenient language feature that enable developers to concisely define inline CLR types within code, without having to explicitly provide a formal class declaration of the type. Although they can be used in lots of scenarios, there are particularly useful when querying and transforming/shaping data with LINQ.

Scott Guthrie has a nice article on his blog that covers anonymous types

Here are the sections:
What are Anonymous Types
Anonymous Type Example
Understanding the Var Keyword
Declaring Anonymous Types
Using Anonymous Types for Hierarchical Shaping
Data Binding Anonymous Types
Summary

Read the article here: http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/2007/05/15/new-orcas-language-feature-anonymous-types.aspx

Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Beta 1 Available For Download

Overview
The Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Beta 1 is a preview release of the latest version of the .NET Framework. Many ISV’s, enterprises and Microsoft product teams are successfully building on the new features Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows CardSpace in the .NET Framework 3.0. Microsoft plans to continue to invest in the .NET Framework developer platform and in support of existing users the .NET Framework 3.5 has a minimal number of breaking changes. So that existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 should continue to run without requiring changes. The .NET Framework 3.5 adds new features in several major technology areas; including:

Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness

ASP.NET AJAX for quickly creating more efficient, more interactive and highly-personalized Web experiences that work across all the most popular browsers

New web protocol support for building WCF services including AJAX, JSON, REST, POX, RSS, ATOM and several new WS-* standards

Full tooling support for WF, WCF and WPF including the new workflow-enabled services technology

New classes in the base class library (BCL) for the .NET Framework 3.5 address the most common customer requests.
.NET Framework 3.5 is planned to release at the end of 2007 and will ship with Visual Studio code name ”Orcas” and will also continue to be available for separate download from MSDN.

For more detail about the features being introduced in .NET Framework 3.5 and Visual Studio code name “Orcas”, click here http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa700830.aspx


For more information about the .NET Framework, click here http://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework

Download Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 – Beta 1 here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=E3715E6F-E123-428B-8A0F-028AFB9E0322&displaylang=en

ADO.NET Entity Framework will not be included in Orcas

Microsoft has announced that the ADO.NET Entity Framework will not be shipped with Orcas (Visual Studio 2007/8 and .NET Framework 3.5). The previous news was that the ADO.NET Entity Framework would be released with Orcas, but without the designers. The designers would be released at some point afterwards.

Microsoft has decided to ship the ADO.NET Entity Framework "during the first half of 2008 as an update to Orcas".

Video: Team Foundation Server Orcas Improvements to Administration and Operations

If you’ve ever slugged through an installation of Team Foundation Server (TFS) or pondered how you would configure TFS for disaster recovery then this interview is for you. Sudhir Hasbe, Program Manager for Team Foundation Server, talks us through some of the improvements to TFS Administration and Operations which his team is setting out to tackle for the “Orcas” release.

Media Length: 00:23:52
Download the video here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303400#303400

Visual Studio Orcas Express: Building "Hello World" using Windows Presentation Foundation in 5 Minutes Screencast

Channel9 Has posted a Visual Studio Orcas Express screencast:

Chad Royal from the Cider team walks through building and debugging a simple "Hello World" Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application using the Cider designer.


Note: You must update the WPF Project templates to get Visual Studio Orcas Express to work correctly. This update should be released very shortly.

Get the screencast here: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=303344#303344

Visual Studio Orcas Lambda Expressions, LINQ, DLINQ And XLINQ Samples

Microsoft has made available a bunch of samples that show how Lambda Expressions, LINQ, DLINQ And XLINQ work in Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1

This is what is available right now
C# LINQ Samples and content for Beta 1
C# LINQ Samples and content for March CTP
VB LINQ Samples for Beta 1


If you install C# LINQ Samples and content for Beta 1 then you will see the following examples
Data
DynamicQuery
ExpressionTreeVisualizer
LinqToNorthwind
ObjectDumper
PasteXmlAsXLinq
Reflector
Rss
SampleQueries
SimpleLambdas
WinFormsDataBinding
XLinqIntro
XQuery

In addidion to the samples there are also these five whitepapers
LINQ to SQL Overview for CSharp Developers.doc
XLinq_Overview - Feb.doc
LINQ Project Overview.doc
CSharp 3.0 Specification.doc
Standard Query Operators.doc

This is all a must read if you want to get started with .NET 3.5

Here is the download link in case the URLs above change: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/bb330936.aspx

Video: Orcas 1 Beta And Beyond

Channel 9 has posted their latest Orcas video. From the site:
"Orcas Beta 1 has shipped!!! Who better to tell us all about VS Orcas and related technologies than our good friend Soma, VP of the developer division (that's the group that makes all of our development tools and programming languages). Orcas Beta 1 is a major milestone for the next version of VS and related technologies.

Install Orcas (on Vista, baby!) and experience firsthand the plethora of innovations it contains. Did you know you can write VS2003/2005 applications in Orcas? Did you you know that LINQ is deeply integrated into the Orcas IDE? Did you know that there is now JScript intellisense? Have you played with Cider (design surface for WPF)? Did you know...

As always, your feedback is critical. Soma and team anxiously await learning about your experiences with Orcas."

Download the Video
Watch the Video

Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1 Available For Download, Star Playing With LINQ and Lambda Expressions Now!

Download Visual Studio Orcas Beta 1 now and start playing with LINQ and Lambda Expressions

Visual Studio Code Name “Orcas” Beta 1
Visual Studio code name "Orcas" is the next generation development tool for Windows Vista, the 2007 Office system, and the Web. Beta 1 consists of multiple releases including, Visual Studio Professional Edition, Visual Studio Team Suite and Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, which are available as installation media ISO images you can use to install the products. Alternatively, you can download VPC images with the software pre-installed. In addition, you can download prerelease versions of Visual Basic Express, Visual C++ Express, Visual C# Express, and Visual Web Developer.
For a better download experience, MSDN Subscribers should use MSDN Subscriber Downloads for both installation media ISO images and VPC images.

These downloads are currently unavailable on Microsoft Downloads, but will be available soon. MSDN Subscribers can download these files from MSDN Subscriber Downloads.
Visual Studio Professional Edition ISO Image
Visual Studio Team Suite ISO Image
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server ISO Image

VPC Images
If you prefer the convenience of evaluating prerelease software in a virtual machine environment, you can download VPC images that include pre-installed instances of the prerelease software indicated, including any required prerequisite software.
Visual Studio Team Suite-Only VPC
Visual Studio Team Suite with Team Foundation Server VPC

Note: If you wish to use the Virtual PC image you will need Virtual PC or Virtual Server to run this image. Depending on your hardware the download files make take between 30-60 minutes to decompress these self-extracting files.

Visual Studio Express Editions
Visual Studio Express Editions are lightweight, easy-to-use and easy-to-learn tools for the hobbyist, novice and student developer.
For more information, see Visual Studio Code Name "Orcas" Express Editions.

Upcoming Webcast Series on Visual Basic 9

The Visual Basic team has put together a "Live from Redmond" webcast series covering many of the new features in the next version of Visual Basic and Visual Studio ("Orcas"). Here's the schedule:

• Live From Redmond: VB9 - Orcas Overview April 18th, Presented by John Stallo
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - LINQ Overview April 25th, Presented by Kit George
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - LINQ to SQL & O/R Designer Deep Dive May 2nd, Presented by Young Joo
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - Building N-Tier Applications May 9th, Presented by Young Joo
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - Offline Data Caching May 16th, Presented by Milind Lele
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - Deep Dive into LINQ May 23rd, Presented by Amanda Silver
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 - Building Service-Oriented Applications May 30th, Presented by John Stallo
  
• Live From Redmond: Using the Interop Toolkit to Migrate your VB6 Applications to .NET June 6th, Presented by Jonathan Aneja
  
• Live From Redmond: VB9 – LINQ Best Practices June 13th, Presented by Lisa Feigenbaum

Visual Studio Orcas - Sync Designer, going N Tier w/WCF

Here is part two of the screen cast: Visual Studio Orcas - Sync Designer, going N Tier w/WCF

In part 2, Steve Lasker takes the cached lookup tables and split up the client and server sync components using WCF to glue them together.
For more info about the Occasionally Connected Services scenarios, and Sync Services for ADO.NET, you can use the following links:
Sync Services CTP
Sync Services Forum