Coding For a Living

Related Posts

• Responsive and Modern UI with CSS for WinJS Apps

  Rachel Apel has written a concise easy to understand article about building a responsive and modern UI with CSS for WinJS apps.

   

  The Windows Library for JavaScript is a library of CSS and JavaScript files. It contains JavaScript objects, organized into namespaces, designed to make developing Windows Store app using JavaScript easier. Windows Library for JavaScript includes objects that help you handle activation, access storage, and define your own classes and namespaces.

   

  In Rachel's article includes plenty of good examples of markup, designer, and code which show how CSS for WinJs apps can be used to create a modern responsive design.

   

  Read the article: Build a Responsive and Modern UI with CSS for WinJS Apps

• DB Schema Design–Rethinking ‘Type’ Tables Pt 1

  If you are a typical business application developer you probably work with a database which is cluttered with ‘type’ tables e.g. InvoiceType, CustomerType, PaymentType, CreditCartType, OrderType, ItemType, ProductType – which all have a schemas similar to these:

      

  There are the same number of columns in each type table above. 

  The data type of the columns are the same in all the tables. 

  Some column names are the same in all the tables. 

  Columns names that are not the same in all tables do follow the same naming rule in each table e.g. ItemTypeId, OrderTypeId, ListTypeId which all end with ‘Id’.

  Given how similar these tables are, why not use 2-3 tables for all standard ‘type’ data, maybe something like this?

   

      

  More to follow in part 2 of ‘DB Schema Design–Rethinking ‘Type’ Tables’

• Windows Store apps Dev Center 2013

  Have you checked out the Windows Store apps Dev Center lately?

  It’s been filled with excellent resources for learning about and developing Windows Store apps. From code, to design guidelines, it’s chuck full of what you need to develop Windows Store Apps.

  

  Windows 8.1

  Feature guide

  Product guide

  Getting started

  Support forums

  

  Design

  Design downloads

  Our design principles

  Index UX guidelines

  iPad to Windows Store app

  

  Migrate

  iOS

  Android

  Windows 8

  WPF/Silverlight

  

  Develop

  Samples

  API reference

  Downloads

  Certification requirements

• Possible Features of C#.6 and VB.12

  Below are some features that may be a part of C#.6 and VB.12.  For current information visit Language feature implementation status for Dev14

  Feature status as of 10/3/2014:

  Feature	Example	C#	VB
  Primary constructors	class Point(int x, int y) { … }	No	No
  Auto-property initializers	public int X { get; set; } = x;	Done	Exists
  Getter-only auto-properties	public int Y { get; } = y;	Done	Done
  Ctor assignment to getter-only autoprops	Y = 15	Done	Done
  Parameterless struct ctors	Structure S : Sub New() : End Sub : End Structure	Done	Done
  Using static members	using System.Console; … Write(4);	Done	Exists
  Dictionary initializer	new JObject { ["x"] = 3, ["y"] = 7 }	Done	No
  Indexed member initializer	new JObject { $x = 3, $y = 7 }	No	No
  Indexed member access	c.$name = c.$first + " " + c.$last;	No	Exists
  Declaration expressions	int.TryParse(s, out var x);	No	No
  Await in catch/finally	try … catch { await … } finally { await … }	Done	Maybe
  Exception filters	catch(E e) if (e.Count > 5) { … }	Done	Exists
  Typecase	Select Case o : Case s As String : …	No	Maybe
  Guarded cases	Select Case i : Case Is > 0 When i Mod 2 = 0	No	No
  Partial modules	Partial Module M1	N/A	Done
  Partial interfaces	Partial Interface I1	Exists	Done
  Multiline string literals	"HelloWorld"	Exists	Done
  Year-first date literals	Dim d = #2014-04-03#	N/A	Done
  Binary literals	0b00000100	No	No
  Digit separators	0xEF_FF_00_A0	No	No
  Line continuation comments	Dim addrs = From c in Customers ' comment	N/A	Done
  TypeOf IsNot	If TypeOf x IsNot Customer Then …	N/A	Done
  Expression-bodied members	public double Dist => Sqrt(X * X + Y * Y);	Done	No
  Event initializers	new Customer { Notify += MyHandler };	No	No
  Null propagation	customer?.Orders?[5]?.$price	Done	Planned
  Semicolon operator	(var x = Foo(); Write(x); x * x)	No	No
  Private protected	private protected string GetId() { … }	No	No
  Params IEnumerable	int Avg(params IEnumerable numbers) { … }	Maybe	Maybe
  Constructor Inference	new Tuple(3, "three", true);	No	No
  String interpolation	"\{p.First} \{p.Last} is \{p.Age} years old."	Planned	Planned
  TryCast for nullable	Dim x = TryCast(u, Integer?)	Exists	No
  Delegate combination with +	d1 += d2	Exists	No
  Implicit implementation	Class C : Implicitly Implements I	Exists	No
  nameof operator	string s = nameof(Console.Write);	Done	Planned
  Strict modules	Strict Module M	Exists	No
  Faster CInt	Dim x = CInt(Math.Truncate(d)) |	Exists	No
  #pragma	#Disable Warning BC40008	Done	Done
  Checked and Unchecked blocks	Checked : x += 1 : End Checked	Exists	No
  Field targets on autoprops	Serializable> Property p As Integer	Maybe	Maybe
  If(b,e1,e2) uses type context	Dim x As Integer? = If(b,1,Nothing)	N/A	No

• Visual Studio 2013– New and Improved

  Visual Studio 2013 is new and improved.

  Visual Studio 2013 provides support for Windows 8.1 App development.

  It includes features to make it easier to develop across all Visual Studio languages and platforms:  tools, controls and templates, new Coded UI test support for XAML apps, UI Responsiveness Analyzer and Energy Consumption profiler for XAML & HTML apps, enhanced memory profiling tools for HTML apps, and improved integration with the Windows Store.

  Blend for XAML has been enhanced with significant new capabilities for Windows Store app design. Blend includes the addition of rulers and custom guides for more precise content layout as well as improved styling capabilities. Blend for HTML also inherits these enhancements and adds specific new capabilities for building Windows Store apps with HTML, such as the new timeline for animating changes in CSS.

  Visual Studio 2013’s One ASP.Net unifies your web project experience so that you can create ASP.NET web applications using your preference of ASP.NET component frameworks in a single project. This new unified experience includes the ability to easily create hybrid applications that include improved versions of ASP.NET WebForms, MVC or Web API, all in a single project. Now you can mix and match the right tools for the job within your web projects, giving you increased flexibility and productivity when developing for the web.

  ‘Browser Link’ syncs HTML and CSS changes in Visual Studio with one or more open browsers‘Browser Link’ allows you to connect Visual Studio 2012 to one or more open browsers.

• Visual Basic 2012–Iterators

  Iterators are used to perform custom iteration over collections such as lists or arrays.

  Iterators make it possible to use the iterator programming pattern. Wikipedia states: “In object-oriented programming, the iterator pattern is a design pattern in which an iterator is used to traverse a container and access the container's elements. The iterator pattern decouples algorithms from containers; in some cases, algorithms are necessarily container-specific and thus cannot be decoupled.”

  Iterators can be used to create a custom iteration over array or collection class.

  Iterators can increase performance because they allow you to asynchronously consume the elements of a large collection.

  Iterators can decrease memory use too.

  Learn more by clicking: What's New for Visual Basic in Visual Studio 2012