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An Early Look At IE9 for Developers

We're just about a month after the Windows 7 launch, and wanted to show an early look at some of the work underway on Internet Explorer 9.  At the PDC today, in addition to demonstrating some of the progress on performance and interoperable
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: ie announcements
Nov 20 2009 10:23 AM
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HTML5, Hardware Accelerated: First IE9 Platform Preview Available for Developers

When we started looking deeply at HTML5, we saw that it will enable a new class of applications. These applications will stress the browser runtime and underlying hardware in ways today’s websites don’t. We quickly realized that doing HTML5 right – our
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: ie announcements html5 hardware acceleration
Mar 16 2010 06:52 PM
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Challenge: Robust enumeration over external code

Here is an interesting little problem: public class Program { private static void Main() { foreach (int i in RobustEnumerating(Enumerable.Range(0, 10), FaultyFunc)) { Console.WriteLine(i); } } public static IEnumerable<T>
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: c#
Mar 04 2010 06:35 AM
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IE9 Platform Preview Feedback

Getting specific feedback directly from developers about their experiences with the platform is super important to us. It’s a critical part of how we optimize for real world performance and real world code patterns. This post is about the changes we’re
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: testing feedback platform preview
Mar 17 2010 05:29 AM
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How to edit the security attributes of more than one file at a time

In Windows XP, you could select multiple files, right-click them, then select Properties. The resulting property sheet includes a Security page which lets you edit the security attributes of those files. But when you repeat this exercise on
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: tips/support
Apr 07 2010 07:06 PM
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Suggestions for a new laptop?

Okay, the previous time I asked this question, I decided that buying a big desktop machine would be preferable, but I am currently traveling and I am pained at the speed of my current laptop. Therefore, I am going to need a new one. I am the happy owner
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: miscellaneous
Feb 13 2010 04:34 AM
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Microsoft Joins W3C SVG Working Group

As a part of Microsoft’s continued commitment to interoperability and standards support, yesterday we submitted our request to join the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Working Group of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). We’re excited to take part in
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: w3c
Jan 06 2010 02:52 AM
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Introducing IE9’s User Agent String

This post introduces IE9’s User-Agent (UA) String and it builds on previous blog posts and documentation. An important change for site developers to know is that IE9 will send the short UA string by default. This change improves overall performance,
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: developers compatibility
Mar 24 2010 06:41 AM
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Silverlight 4 Beta – A guide to the new features

At the Microsoft Professional Developer (PDC) conference, Scott Guthrie announced the availability of Silverlight 4 Beta. WHAT?! That's right, we've released an early beta of the next version of Silverlight. It's really amazing to think what the team is
Method ~ of ~ failed by Tim Heuer
 
Tim Heuer
tags: developer expression pdc ria silverlight
Nov 19 2009 09:40 PM
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In which hints become facts: XNA Game Studio 4.0

Today we announced what I've been hinting at this past few weeks: XNA Game Studio 4.0 is coming soon* to a phone near you! Quick summary: New platform Windows Phone 7 Series New features Integrates with Visual Studio 2010 Dynamic audio output Microphone
Shawn Hargreaves Blog
 
ShawnHargreaves
Mar 10 2010 04:32 AM
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Scala is Unfit for Serious Development

Scala is Unfit for Serious Development (where serious means you want to make money from it, compared to a hobby). Fact. Because it’s object oriented? No. Because it’s functional? No. Because of the complex type system? No. Because of the love
Code Monkeyism
 
stephan
tags: scala
Jul 10 2010 03:18 AM
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Germans are falling for the same trap as the Japanese: Importing words from English and changing the meaning, but the Germans do it even though the

Languages borrow from each other all the time. English has historically been a happy perpetrator of word-theft, but in recent decades, it has been serving as the source for a lot of theft, too. What I find particularly interesting, though, is when a word
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 22 2010 09:52 PM
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Documenting Standards in IE

This post discusses some of the work we’re doing on the IE team to fulfill our commitment to document our support of web standards. A good starting point is Microsoft’s interoperability principles, something we’ve written about here on this blog before,
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: ie announcements w3c
Feb 25 2010 03:33 AM
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Stories of anticipating dead computers: Windows Home Server

Like most geeks, I have a bit of history with dead computers. In the past, I used the "wait until it breaks, and then panic" model, but recently I've begun being a bit more anticipatory, like replacing an old laptop before it actually expires.
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other dead computers
Nov 09 2009 11:17 PM
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Can you hack this out?

I recently had to take a really deep look into how to cheat the CLR, that brought about some interesting discoveries, including the fact that it is, surprisingly, possible to do so. Let us say that you have this code in some 3rd party assembly that you
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
Nov 19 2009 03:06 PM
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Hey, is there somebody around to accept this award?

Back in the late 1990s, some large Internet association conducted a survey in order to bestow awards in categories like Best Web server and Best Web browser, and one of the categories was Best Web authoring tool. We didn't find out about this until the
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: history
Nov 03 2009 08:45 PM
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Only an idiot would have parameter validation, and only an idiot would not have it

The great thing about parameter validation is that there are people who say that only idiots would have it, and other people who say that only idiots wouldn't. Back in the old days, Windows didn't do parameter validation. If you called a function with an
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Nov 10 2009 10:11 PM
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Little-known command line utility: clip

Windows Vista includes a tiny command line utility called clip. All it does is paste its stdin onto the clipboard. dir | clip echo hey | clip For the opposite direction, I use a little perl script: use Win32::Clipboard; print Win32::Clipboard::GetText();
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: tips/support
Oct 11 2009 08:34 PM
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What can EF 4.0 do that NHibernate can’t?

I am trying to formulate my formal response to "NH vs. EF" question, and while I have a pretty solid draft ready, I found out that my response is pretty biased. I am not happy with that, so I wanted to pose this as a real question. So far, I came up
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Dec 24 2009 12:04 PM
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Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the yardstick for Wikipedia entries

I use Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Wikipedia entry as a yardstick for other Wikipedia entries. At the time I'm writing this blog entry, her Wikipedia article is 1600 words long. So 1600 words is how many words Wikipedia assigns to the 20th most powerful woman
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 29 2010 08:50 PM
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When computer programmers dabble in making change

My colleague who dabbled in economics when deciding how many lunch vouchers to buy had a number of other money-related quirks. One of the ones that I remember is that when paying for a purchase, my colleague would double the balance and give the cashier
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Nov 25 2009 12:04 AM
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NHibernate vs. Entity Framework 4.0

This is a question that I get very frequently, and I always tried to dodged the bullet, but I get it so much that I feel that I have to provide an answer. Obviously, I am (not so) slightly biased toward NHibernate, so while you read it, please keep it in
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Jan 05 2010 04:43 PM
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Email tip: When you say that something didn't work, you have to say how it didn't work

I illustrate this point with an imaginary conversation, inspired by actual ones I've seen (and, occasionally, been a frustrated party to). From: X I want to do ABC, but I don't have a DEF. Anybody know of a workaround? Somebody has an idea: From: Y Try
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Apr 21 2010 09:41 PM
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Why did the word Start disappear from the Start button?

Commenter Mike Dunn would like to know why the word Start disappeared from the Start button in Windows Vista. After all, adding the word Start helped new users figure out what they should click first. I don't know but I can guess. To emphasize that these
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: other
Dec 15 2009 12:06 AM
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Voicemail security, even stronger than bank security

Microsoft's telephone department takes security very seriously. Your voicemail password must be at least eight digits long. By comparison, the password for my ATM card is only four digits long. Because voicemail is that important, I guess. (Yes, I know
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 03 2010 08:01 PM
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Working with the HTML5 Community

We’re always excited to engage with members of the W3C including the developers of other browsers as well as the broader web development community to help shape the direction of emerging Web standards, particularly HTML5.  This includes
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: w3c
Mar 10 2010 05:51 AM
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Actor Myths

Actors are the new concurrency. They are everywhere. People make bold claims about actors, and while I do not agree with many of them, two in particular I regard as myths. Here they are: Actors are a shared nothing architecture Actors are easier to get
Code Monkeyism
 
stephan
tags: java
Jul 21 2010 11:16 PM
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Advocating the overthrow of the government of the United States by force or subversion

It has been widely reported that South Carolina now requires "subversive groups" to register with the Secretary of State (and pay a $5 filing fee). Curiously, the list of organizations which must register include "an organization subject to
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Feb 15 2010 10:48 PM
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Responding to how EF is better NH commentary…

My last post caused quite a bit of furor, and I decided that I wanted to respond to all the comments in a single place. EF has a designer, NHibernate does not. This is actually false, NHibernate has multiple designers available for it. Active Writer
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers
Dec 25 2009 06:22 PM
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What should I work on next?

As we near completion with EF Prof, I am starting to think about what the next project* would be. I got some ideas, but I would like to see what you think. Note that I won't necessarily follow this, but it would be a good indication about where to
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: miscellaneous
Dec 10 2009 10:11 PM
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Slaying relational dragons

I recently had a fascinating support call, talking about how to optimize a very big model and an access pattern that basically required to have the entire model in memory for performing certain operations. A pleasant surprise was that it wasn’t horrible
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: o/r mappers databases
Feb 22 2010 12:46 PM
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You are listen to Radio Free Bob, a pirate radio station broadcasting on the Microsoft corporate network

Back in the late 1980's, when NETBIOS ruled the land at Microsoft, one of my colleagues ran a pirate radio station on the Microsoft corporate network. Let's call this colleague Bob, my generic name for a Microsoft employee. Bob had converted a bunch of
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: history
Dec 15 2009 08:57 PM
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3
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How would you learn a new platform?

Here is an interesting problem that I am facing. I have a pretty good working knowledge of computing, and while I can usually manage to get the gist of a new technology in a short amount of time, that is only useful for talking about it, not actually
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: development
Nov 23 2009 03:00 PM
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ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta Released

Today at PDC09 (the keynote was streaming live), Bob Muglia announced the release of ASP.NET MVC 2 Beta. Feel free to download it right away! While you do that I want to present this public service message. The Beta release includes tooling for Visual
you've been HAACKED
 
Haacked
tags: asp.net asp.net mvc software development
Nov 17 2009 10:58 PM
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A guide to what has changed in the Silverlight 4 RC

At MIX10, Silverlight 4 released an update, the Silverlight 4 RC (release candidate). A few things have changed since the beta which was released in November. If you haven’t read my guide to Silverlight 4 you may want to check that out. The features
Method ~ of ~ failed by Tim Heuer
 
Tim Heuer
tags: developer expression mix ria
Mar 15 2010 08:32 PM
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How IE8 Determines Document Mode

This post describes how IE8 determines what Document Mode such as Quirks or Standards Modes to use for rendering websites. This topic is important for site developers and consumers. It’s related to the Compatibility View List that we recently
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: compatibility
Mar 03 2010 12:52 AM
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Profiler Subscription?

One repeated request for the profiler is to have a personal version (which a price to match). I am not really happy with the idea, for several reasons. One of the major ones is that I have enough variability in the product already, and adding a new
Ayende @ Rahien
 
Ayende Rahien
tags: uberprof
Feb 24 2010 06:30 AM
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The New JavaScript Engine in Internet Explorer 9

The last five years have seen a remarkable series of advances in use of JavaScript on the Web. JavaScript has gone from a language for adding interactivity to a key driver for innovation on the Web. A new generation of applications such as Gmail and
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: performance
Mar 18 2010 11:54 PM
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Why is the fine for a basic traffic infraction in the state of Washington such a random-looking number?

Willy-Peter Schaub was puzzled by a sign reminding drivers that the fine for obstructing an intersection is $101 and wonders what the extra $1 is for. The laws of the State of Washington defer the monetary value of traffic fines to the Infraction Rules
The Old New Thing
 
oldnewthing
tags: non-computer
Mar 09 2010 08:45 PM
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Tab Isolation

Tab isolation has recently become a more popular topic. This post is a quick survey of what tab isolation is, how it works, and what it provides. What is it? Tab isolation is a way to improve a browser’s reliability by containing the impact of a crash.
IEBlog
 
ieblog
tags: engineering pov
Mar 05 2010 05:36 AM