I created a presentation in November of last year with the goal of helping folks make sense of the vast number of Microsoft technologies from development tools, language, data, windows, web and SOA development. This blog post holds the latest links to resources and code for each section.

System Requirements

The links below use the following technology platforms:

• Visual Studio 2005 and .NET 2.0 
• .NET 3.0
  • NET 3.0 Runtime (installed with Vista)
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=10CC340B-F857-4A14-83F5-25634C3BF043&displaylang=en
  • Windows SDK for .NET 3.0
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C2B1E300-F358-4523-B479-F53D234CDCCF&displaylang=en
• Visual Studio 2005 Orcas Extensions for .NET 3.0:
  • WCF&WPF (Nov 2006)
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=F54F5537-CC86-4BF5-AE44-F5A1E805680D&displaylang=en
  • WF (Nov 2006)
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D61409E-1FA3-48CF-8023-E8F38E709BA6&displaylang=en
• ADO.NET and LINQ CTP for VS 2005 (May 2006)
  • LINQ CTP
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=1e902c21-340c-4d13-9f04-70eb5e3dceea&displaylang=en
  • ADO.NET vNext CTP
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B68F6F53-EC87-4122-B1C8-EE24A043BF72&displaylang=en
  • ADO.NET vNext Entity Data Model Designer Prototype, CTP
    • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=74bda7b2-9ca9-4eea-a33f-31942ddc9dbe&displaylang=en
• Visual Studio Orcas CTP (March 2007)
  • Instead of using Orcas plug-ins to Visual Studio 2005, you can install Visual Studio Orcas CTP (for now, safer to run as VPC)
  • http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=cf76fcba-07af-47ac-8822-4ad346210670&displaylang=en&tm

Development Tools

In this section I reviewed the stack of development tools and explained how to choose between them.

• Express Editions
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/
• Visual Studio
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/future
• Visual Studio Team System
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/teamsystem
• Expression Products
  http://www.microsoft.com/products/expression

Language Enhancements

In this section I talked about moving from .NET 1.1 to 2.0, and discussed the key features of 2.0 that folks should be leveraging. Then, I focused on the language enhancements forthcoming with C# 3.0 and VB 9.0.

• C# Developer Center
  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vcsharp
• VB Developer Center
  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vbasic

Demos:

• VB8.zip (211.26 KB)
• CSharp2.zip (326.47 KB)
• CSharp3.zip (40.65 KB)

Data Access

In this section I focused on data access technologies, designing the data access tier, and key features of ADO.NET 2.0, vNext and LINQ to give you some idea how to prepare for the next set of innovations.

• ADO.NET 2.0
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/adonet
• ADO.NET vNext
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/adonetnext
• LINQ
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/data/ref/linq

Demos:

• When you install ADO.NET vNext and LINQ there are literally 100s of samples that will really help you get up to speed here. I show a selection of these in this presentation.

Windows Development

In this section I review Windows Forms 2.0 innovations, primarily ClickOnce, and then talk about how to prepare for WPF, explaining the various deployment models. I also talk about practical approaches to choosing the right platform for your development efforts.

• Windows Forms Home
  http://msdn.microsoft.com/windowsforms
• WPF Home
  http://wpf.netfx3.com/

Demos:

• Find my ClickOnce samples in this post: http://www.dasblonde.net/PermaLink,guid,aa492057-3a39-4ab4-87c4-5adb36d3d41f.aspx
• I create this WPF before your very eyes: WPFApp.zip (416.81 KB)
• And I also showed several WPF samples from the SDK, believe me, there are PLENTY of samples there.

Web Development

In this section I showed an ASP.NET sample application that illustrates key features of ASP.NET 2.0 and practical application of those features. Then we looked at AJAX and discussed trends on the Web compared to Windows development.

Popular AJAX Frameworks:

• ASP.NET Developer Center
  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/asp.net/
• ASP.NET AJAX Home
  http://atlas.asp.net/
• AJAX.NET
  http://ajaxpro.info/
• Anthem.NET for ASP.NET 1.x/2.0
  http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=151897
• MagicAjax.NET
  http://sourceforge.net/projects/magicajax

Demos:

• ASP.NET Essentials code:
  http://www.dasblonde.net/downloads/Profiles.zip
• This demo from the winner of the AJAX Mashup contest, pretty cool illustration:
  http://atlas.dotnetslackers.com/Mashup.aspx
• I also showed the monster sample that came with the AJAX Control Toolkit that illustrates literally every control - sweet!

Distributed System Programming

In this section I reviewed the typical use for earlier distributed computing technologies like remoting, enterprise services and ASMX web services with WSE, and compared them with WCF.

• Advanced .NET Remoting, Ingo Rammer
  http://www.amazon.com/Advanced-NET-Remoting-Second-Rammer/dp/1590594177
• Programming .NET Components, Juval Lowy
  http://www.amazon.ca/NET-Component-Services-Juval-Lowy/dp/0596001037
• Learning WCF, Michele Leroux Bustamante
  • Book Blog: www.thatindigogirl.com
  • Get WCF samples from my book here: http://www.thatindigogirl.com/LearningWCFCode.aspx
• WCF Home
  http://wcf.netfx3.com/

BPM and Workflow

In this section I discussed BPM, BizTalk and workflow and trends for BizTalk vNext.

• WF Home
  http://wf.netfx3.com/
• Understanding BizTalk Server 2006
  http://www.microsoft.com/biztalk/techinfo/whitepapers/understanding.mspx
  

DinnerNow

To pull it all together, there is a sample you can download here: www.dinnernow.com that illustrates all of the technologies in a practical example. It includes WCF, WF, WPF, AJAX, Vista gadgets and mobile apps.