October 2010

Thread Pools: Scalable Multithreaded Programming with Thread Pools Getting the most out of multicore systems means diving head-first into multithreaded programming. In this issue, Ron Fosner demonstrates some simple methods for adding parallel operation to your code, along with techniques for measuring how much you’ve improved execution. Ron Fosner Bing Map Apps: Building a Real-Time Transit Application Using the Bing Map App SDK Learn how to use the free Bing Map App SDK as we walk you through the creation of a real-time transit application for bus routes in King County and show you how to submit apps to the Bing Map site. Luan Nguyen

Embedded Programming: Connected Devices Using the .NET Micro Framework
Learn how .NET Framework programmers can now easily develop apps for the increasing number of small devices that are becoming interconnected—while you build your very own bicycle computer!
Colin Miller

Interoperability: Runtime Data Sharing Through an Enterprise Distributed Cache
Learn how an enterprise distributed cache can help .NET and Java apps share data at run time, providing high performance and scalability.
Iqbal Khan

Mobile Apps: Getting Started with Windows Phone Development Tools
Windows Phone 7 has shipped, and now it’s your turn to start developing apps for it. We’ll introduce you to the Windows Phone Developer Tools and walk you through the creation of a Windows Phone application that accesses a web service.
Joshua Partlow

WCF Architecture: Microsoft Azure Serivce Bus Discovery
Learn how to roll your own discovery mechanism as we walk you through a small framework the author wrote to support discovery over the service bus, bringing it on par with the built-in support for discovery in WCF.
Juval Lowy

Columns

Editor's Note:
A Few of My Favorite App Things
For Windows Phone 7, mobile apps will be one of the keys to its success. Keith Ward lists what he thinks are the four most important features a Windows Phone 7 app should have.
Keith Ward

Don't Get Me Started:
The Devs and the Designers Should Be Friends
Instead of being at odds, developers and designers should work together from the beginning. Better software will result.
David Platt

The Working Programmer:
Multiparadigmatic .NET, Part 2
Finding the commonalities and variabilities within a system, and expressing them, forms the heart of design.
Ted Neward

UI Frontiers:
Multi-Touch Inertia
One of the ways in which a multi-touch interface attempts to mimic the real world is by introducing inertia. We’ll show you how easy this is to duplicate in your own WPF apps.
Charles Petzold

Cutting Edge:
Action Filters in ASP.NET MVC
Here’s an in-depth exploration of a powerful feature of ASP.NET MVC controllers that can greatly help you in the building of aspect-oriented Web solutions.
Dino Esposito

Data Points:
Entity Framework Preview: code first, ObjectSet and DbContext
With the code first feature in Entity Framework, there is no visual data model and no XML describing that model. You simply create the classes for your application domain and go. We’ll show you this and several other nifty new features in the latest EF CTP.
Julie Lerman

CLR Inside Out:
New Features and Improved Performance in Silverlight 4
Silverlight 4 brings a number of important changes including new GC modes, improved startup performance, and new base class features that enable new offline scenarios. We’ll walk you through the details.
Justin Van

Forecast: Cloudy:
Performance-Based Scaling in Microsoft Azure
One of the great features of cloud computing is the ability to scale up or down to serve the needs of the application owner. We’ll show you a technique for programmatically scaling your app in Azure based on application performance.
Joseph Fultz