February 2010

Managed Extensibility Framework: Building Composable Apps in .NET 4 with the Managed Extensibility Framework Glenn Block explains how the Managed Extensibility Framework, a new library coming in .NET Framework 4.0, tackles the longstanding issue of building applications and components that can be reused and extended by others. Learn how to build apps that can use new functionality introduced by developers, framework authors and third-party extenders. Glenn Block Dynamic .NET: Creating Interactive Bing Maps with Silverlight and IronRuby Silverlight provides support for dynamic languages such as IronRuby and IronPython. We’ll walk you through the creation of a custom Silverlight control using Bing Maps and IronRuby. Ashish Ghoda

Cloud Computing: Microsoft Azure for Enterprises
Learn all about Microsoft’s Azure at the architectural level and how it addresses enterprise cloud computing concerns including economics, security, storage and more. Included are an Azure pricing table and a sample cost calculator.
Hanu Kommalapati

Beyond MVP: Extending the MVP Pattern to Simplify UI Architecture
MVP has become a dominant pattern for UI design, but there are many interpretations of how to implement MVP. We take a look at some MVP-extending pattern and pull them into a holistic view of UI architecture.
Haozhe Ma

Robotics: Writing and Testing VPL Services for Serial Communication
VPL, part of Robotics Developer Studio is intended for novice programmers, but is also useful for testing and prototyping. We write a simple serial port service that allows you to send and receive data.
Trevor Taylor

Columns

Editor's Note:
Not Your Father's MSDN
Changes are coming to MSDN Magazine. They begin this month, with the unveiling of a number of new, monthly columns.
Keith Ward

UI Frontiers:
Sound Generation in WPF Applications
A good case could be made that computers should not make noise except in response to a specific user command. We’re going to ignore that and show you how to play custom sounds in a WPF application.
Charles Petzold

Test Run:
WCF Service Testing with Sockets
There are many ways to test WCF services, but the socket-based approach is flexible and very useful for security and performance testing. We show you show you how to test a WCF service using a network socket based approach.
James McCaffrey

CLR Inside Out:
Formatting and Parsing Time Intervals in the .NET Framework 4
Learn about enhanced TimeSpan formatting and parsing features coming in the .NET Framework 4, and some helpful tips for working with TimeSpan values.
Ron Petrusha

Cutting Edge:
Predictive Fetch with jQuery and the ASP.NET Ajax Library
Dino Esposito builds upon his exploration of new data binding features coming in the ASP.NET Ajax Library, explaining how to implement the predictive fetch design pattern.
Dino Esposito

Security Briefs:
Security Compliance as an Engineering Discipline
Many companies starting out with the SDL are doing so in combination with a security compliance program. We’ll show you some best practices and pitfall we’ve seen when employing SDL principles for compliance.
Brad Hill

Don't Get Me Started:
The Human Touch
People aren't computers; keep this in mind when developing software. When developers confuse people and computers, bad things happen.
David Platt

Going Places:
Gesture Magic
Windows Mobile 6.5 is the first version of the OS to expose gesture support to developers. Marcus Perryman explains how five touch screen gestures are handled, detailing message routing, the physics engine and some handy tips and tricks.
Marcus Perryman