February 28th, 2007
Walt Ritscher, an instructor and consultant with Wintellect  presewnted Windows Presentation Foundation. 

By now you?ve probably heard of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). But how well do you really know WPF? It?s been my experience in talking to .NET developers that many have no idea of how powerful WPF is. Some think it is a watered down graphics engine that can animate buttons on a form. Others think it is a new API for Vista and has no impact on applications they are currently building. But they are wrong. WPF represents the first significant change to the Windows graphics engine in over ten years. What is trivial to build with WPF is difficult or impossible in Microsoft's current Winforms technology. The WPF API is chock full of improvements for constructing rich client applications. WPF is hardware accelerated, using the graphics rendering engine in your GPU for faster processing of UI primitives. It is vector based, via Direct3D, which provides truly scalable and resolution independent UIs. WPF makes it easy to integrate video, audio, text, animation and 2D-3D graphics into a seamless montage You may not need 3D in your business application but I bet you have UI ideas that are difficult to accomplish with the current set of graphics tools - like GDI. If you truly care about creating a great user interface, you owe it to yourself to see what WPF can do.

2003-2004 Meetings

1/26/2005
The evening's program will be presented by Patrick Chefalo. The following is a summary of what he has planned to discuss:

In pre .Net days, did you ever want a Windows form control that was more powerful than what came in the normal Visual Basic toolbox? (Assuming you used Visual Basic, otherwise there was no toolbox at all!) For instance, did you ever want to add properties, additional events, different event actions, validation logic, a more user-intuitive look?

In the old days, you could sometimes use API code to access properties that were inherent in the Windows controls but not exposed by Visual Basic. You could add events by sub-classing the control, peeking at the Windows message loop for messages addressed to the control, and then add or substitute actions. You could use the more obscure events to trap keyboard and mouse actions and write code to handle them. Or you could BUY a more sophisticated control from a third party -- an industry developed around third-party controls! It was pretty difficult to "roll-your-own" controls. Anything that required a visual interface required delving into low-level graphic calls, etc.

Distributing was impossible without third-party help since VB DLLs were "persona non grata". However, VB.Net makes it very easy to combine standard controls into a single user control that becomes a class library (dll) that can be re-used with your projects. A significant number of properties and events are inherited. You can easily add custom properties in the constructor and handle events across the control.

Pat Chefalo is a long-time member of VDUNY (actually at the first meeting.) Recently he started a project that involved user input of data that was destined for a database, where it would be the object of queries, etc. Validation of the data is therefore important. To reduce the validation code for the various forms involved, "smart" data input controls are desirable.

Pat will interactively demonstrate the creation of a user-control, with some guidance on pitfalls into which he fell (and will show you his bruises --- NOT) and will also seek advice from the audience on improvements from their experience. This will hopefully be a give-and-take, learning experience for all involved.

March 24th, 2004
Speaker: Jeff Leist (Microworx Serviceland)
Topic: PC Hardware: Upcoming Changes
This presentation will discuss the big changes that are expected for PC hardware in the coming months (64 bit, AGP buss going away, etc.) and how they may affect all of us. We will also have an opportunity to ask Jeff a few questions and to learn some of the things to watch out for when building a PC from component parts or upgrading an existing machine.

February 25th, 2004
Speaker: Pat Chefalo
Topic: The VB Shuffle ? Dancing From VB 6 to VB.Net
A look at the porting of a simple, fat-client database query tool from the old VB to the new. Features: Programming philosophy; Thunder versus Win Forms; Bah, who needs control arrays?; Cursors, Foiled Again - ADO and ADO.Net; The simple replacement for the very complex Printform.

January 28, 2004
Speaker: Jason Sherron
Topic: Internationalization With .Net
We will examine the successful internationalization of a large-scale consumer Web site, with an emphasis on the tools in Microsoft's .NET environment. We will cover the fundamentals of internationalization in .NET, review the history of globalization on the Microsoft platform, discuss major "lessons learned" from a technical and functional standpoint, and demonstrate a "live" site that uses the new .NET globalization facilities. If time permits, we will view a short code demonstration.

November 19, 2003
Speaker: Timothy Lippa and Perry Pellerino
Topic: Building Dynamic Applications With C# .Net Reflection And XML
The software community strives to build reusable applications quickly. The .Net platform assists software developers in this area. Using C#, Microsoft provides an environment with which software developers can build dynamic applications easier than in the past. This tutorial will cover C# .Net Reflection in depth. It will also include a short introduction to XML. The tutorial will culminate with a real world example of using .Net Reflection and XML to build dynamic C# .Net applications.

October 22, 2003
Speaker: Keith Bozek (Kodak)
Topic: Storing And Transforming Data In The .NET Framework
One of the best features of the .NET framework is its data management subsystem. A developer has a rich set of storage, pattern matching and transformation tools in the .NET framework. Via .NET streams, a developer can easily transform data from one format to another and even encrypt this data. ADO.NET provides the developer with tools to both store and shape data. This presentation will help a developer better understand of these systems by providing a live demonstration of working VB.net and C# applications.

September 24, 2003
Speaker: None
Topic: General discussion of plans for the year. We also had a few programming questions and related topics that were discussed.

May 28, 2003
Speaker: T.R. Kolankiewicz
Topic: Moving from VB6 to VB.Net...Part 2
Part II of the presentation from April. Tom covered many of VB.NET's new features and changes, and some of the ?oddities? which one experiences as they proceed to implement IT Windows Forms applications using VB.NET.

April 23, 2003
Speaker: T.R. Kolankiewicz
Topic: Moving from VB6 to VB.Net for Windows Application Development
At our past two user group meetings, David Stevenson presented us with well-organized overview of many of the VB.NET (and C#) language features. In this first part of a two-part presentation, Tom led a wide ranging discussion of VisualBasic.NET, with a focus on Windows Application Development. The intended audience was developers who are adept with VB6 and transitioning to VB.NET. He was able to toggle between the VB6 and VB.NET IDEs to some of the key differences.

March 26th, 2003
Speaker: David Stevenson
Topic: Introduction to Visual Basic.NET, Part II
David returned to give a follow-up talk to his talk from February. He continued to provide excellent sample Visual Basic.NET (and equivalent C#) programs, covering the following language features: Accessibility modifiers for data, methods and classes; Properties, parameterless and parameterful; Delegates and events; Arrays; Namespaces and Imports; Late binding (no C#); Conversions; Exceptions; Boxing and unboxing; Cloning. It was a very informative presentation. And David was good enough to provide CDRs with the presentation info, sample files, and more. For those who attended, you can download the updates to the CD files. If you missed the talk here are the complete presentation materials (1 MB).

February 26th, 2003
Speaker: David Stevenson
Topic: Introduction to Visual Basic.NET
Visual Basic.NET now truly supports Object Oriented Programming, including features such as inheritance, interfaces, parameterized constructors and overloading. With Object Oriented Programming, data takes center stage, supporting not only reference types but also value types. However, pitfalls await the unwary for those who do not understand the nuances of copying and boxing. Error handling takes a major step forward with Structured Exception Handling. You can throw away your old On Error GoTo statement. You won't be needing it. For those more inclined to C#, I will be providing examples in both Visual Basic.NET and C#. This will be bi-lingual education at its finest. We'll begin with a fast-paced tutorial with lots of code. We'll conclude with a brief description of the differences between VB.NET and C#.
Presentation Materials (1 MB).

January 22nd, 2003
Speaker: Patrick Chefalo
Topic: .Net On A .Diet - The Web Matrix Project
How long did it take to install VS.Net on your development PC? How much disk space did it take? How much did it cost? Wasn't .Net technology released to standards groups for use by third parties for free? This talk was an interactive introduction to the Web Matrix IDE, an alternative way to build ASP.Net solutions, well within the budget of any developer -- it's FREE for downloading to a licensed Windows 2000 or XP PC! It consumes less than 3Mbytes of disk space ... and takes about twenty minutes to install. In addition to the IDE, there's more to be had: a developmental Web server and a database engine. Of course, the amenities are a little Spartan compared to the play-for-pay tools, but they beat Notepad and xBase. Pat took us through the user interfaces and contrasted the Web Matrix-MSDE with the VS.Net IDE ? SQL Server Enterprise Manager.
Download the PowerPoint presentation and supporting materials

2002

November 20th, 2002
Speaker: Thomas Stone
Topic: Converting an ASP Classic site to ASP.NET, Part II
Due to the wealth of topics that can be discussed in ASP.NET, Tom Stone was asked to speak again and pick up where he left off in October. During that presentation he described the approach he took in upgrading a dynamic, database-driven website formerly coded in ASP Classic to the new ASP.NET platform. During this second presentation Tom provided additional code example handouts for much of the earlier material and quickly discussed some of these details. He then covered new material, including Post-Back forms with Validation controls, Sending an Email in ASP.NET, Banner Ad Rotation options, and his file deployment approach. He closed by pinpointing the parts of the .NET SDK that he has found the most helpful, and also noted the Quickstart Tutorials and the IBuySpy application as helpful for learning ASP.NET programming. There was a wealth of ASP.NET discussion throughout the presentation.
Download the combined Oct/Nov presentation PowerPoints

October 23rd, 2002
Speaker: Thomas Stone
Topic: Converting an ASP Classic site to ASP.NET
Tom Stone discussed his experiences in converting a dynamic, database-driven website from ASP Classic to ASP.NET. The site, EpistemeLinks.com, has a database with approx. 10,000 records, and has a couple of dozen data-display pages, including several calendars. It has been online since early 1997, was converted to an ASP/VBScript site starting in 1998, and has recently been converted to a site that uses ASP.NET and C#. Tom discussed his general approach, what .NET goodies he used (User Controls, Code-Behind, Components, DataGrid control, Repeater Control, Calendar Control, Web.Config settings, etc.), and what problems he encountered while doing the coding. Lively discussion took place throughout the presentation.
Download the combined Oct/Nov presentation PowerPoints

September 25th, 2002
Speaker: Chuck Baldo
Topic: C# Whois & C# IPlookup Presentation
Chuck Baldo will did a demonstration using C# that highlights the System.Net.Sockets namespace (class). One of the functions and classes presented was TcpClient(), which allows a programnmer to connect to a host via a specific port. He used a stream reader to retrieve data via a byte[] array. He also used the new and valuable StringBuilder() class. All of this was embedded in an ASP.NET web page.

April 24, 2002
Speaker: Beth Laffey
Topic: Access Reports Tips and Tricks
Beth Laffey provided us a host of her tips on how to use Access reporting features in a more robust way. The first group of topics were Data Source related tips, such as changing a record source flexibly, using a form to create flexible filters and creating reports based on cross tab date information. Next were sorting and grouping tips, including the use of flexible sections and sort order based on the choices made in a form, using odd and even pages, using different info for first, middle and last pages in a report, changing the starting page number, and using Roman numerals for the page number. There were also some general formatting tips, including putting a border around the page, concatenating information, using conditions to show information, and using sums and counts. And finally, Beth showed a completely flexible report where using a form you could choose the fields, order, sorting groups and totals.
Access Database from Presentation

March 27, 2002
Speaker: Tom Stone
Topic: XSLT and Some Practical Uses
Tom Stone gave a presentation on XSLT, which can be used to ransform one XML document into another, or into HTML, plain text, or most any other format. Knowing that most in the audience were not poised at present to use XSLT at work yet, Tom set the following as a challenge for himself for the talk: to get everyone excited about learning XSLT for use at home, that is, for personal projects. He began with an overview of what XSLT is, how it is used in conjunction with XML, and then discussed some of the most essential elements of the language (using simple datafile demos as he went along). He met his challenge during the second half of the presentation. He first demonstrated how you can use XSLT to transform data in a RealJukebox playlist?which is stored as XML when exported?into an HTML page that is arranged to print correctly as a CD label. In this way, you can easily create CD labels (with graphics!) when burning your favorite tunes. His second example was a solution to the problems of IE Favorites/Bookmarks being specific (local) to each computer you use (varied sets, never in sync, etc.). By using a simple database and ASP, you can naturally store your favorite links online and then access them from any computer. XSLT comes in for Tom as he actually sends an XML data island with the URLs to the browser, which is then transformed into HTML for display. The links can then be sorted by category or by the date last accessed by reapplying the XSLT stylesheet, bypassing the need for a run-trip to the server. Standards-based, client-side data manipulation is here!
PowerPoints from presentation

February 27, 2002
Speaker: Barb Brenner
Topic: An Introduction to XML
Barb Brenner provided an extremely valuable introduction to XML (eXtensible Markup Language), a technology that is becoming more and more pervasive in the industry everyday. She began with an overview of the numerous XML-related technologies that exist, including the various versions of the MSXML Parser, providing a solid context for the rest of her presentation. She then proceeded to define what XML is, what an XML Document, and what the relationship between XML and HTML is. Next came the concepts of Well-Formedness and Validity, which included a discussion and quick introduction to both DTDs and XSD Schemas. Validation was demonstrated using a simple VB application and the MSXML parser. The talk concluded with a discussion of the issue of elements vs. attributes as data containers, and also what kinds of XML tools are available on the market. Throughout the presentation, Barb kept the audience involved by having interactive activities and discussions. Those who attended certainly walked away with a better knowledge of XML.
Powerpoint Presentation

January 23, 2002
Speaker: Sandy Kinnear
Topic: .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR)
Sandy Kinnear spoke on the .NET Common Language Runtime (CLR). She explained that the CLR is the .NET Framework runtime environment?the software components that work together to provide managed execution of code. She focused on the unique structure and functionality of the CLR, and described how using managed code enables simple, fast development, improved application performance, cross-language inheritance, multiple-language integration, increased scalability, safe and easy application development, and more. Helpful PowerPoint slides were used to explain key concepts. An interesting discussion and exchange of ideas took place both during and after her presentation.

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