Digipede 2.4

July 6, 2010 at 10:41 pm · Filed under .NET, Grid Computing

We recently released the Digipede Network 2.4.  Among other things, this release provides  support for hosting .NET 4 applications, some new features to improve management and control, and enhanced server-side performance. The entire list and downloads are available on the community site.  You can read more about it on the Interwebs:

• The intrepid John Powers dives into it more in his post, Digipede Network 2.4 — Beyond the Press Release.
• Also, Michael Feldman of HPCwire wrote about the release here Digipede Sticks to Its Grid Computing Roots. 
• The press release (this is a link to the PDF).

Those paying close attention might ask "what happened to 2.3?"  The answer is Digipede trivia.

• Part of a failed experimental branch? No. 
• Is 2.4 actually numbered 2.3.1 under the covers? No. (A minor dig at Windows 6 R2).

The actual reason dates back to the days when .NET 2 was released.  Back then, we were ready to release Digipede Network 1.1 with .NET 2 support.  To avoid naming confusion with .NET 1.1, we decided to skip the “.1” and went straight to “.2”.  Was it in fact less confusing?  Probably not materialy.

So, why no 2.3?  It is an ever so slight (and obscure) homage to those early days: for .NET 4 we decided to release something that ends in “.4”. 

Like I said: trivia.

Tags: .NET4.0, Digipede, grid

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No contract-first in Workflow Services

March 18, 2010 at 12:09 pm · Filed under .NET

I’ve been looking a bit at .NET 4 Workflow Services as a part of AppFabric.  I’m surprised to find no way to build these services from existing message contracts.  I can understand imposing limitations on doing so – even that there might be no reasonable tool support – but this is a real stumbling block.

Certainly contract-first is not the only way to build services, but it is if you are implementing a published standard.  Maybe there is some way to tinker around with the output of the tools sets to make a Workflow Service compatible with some existing WSDL, but would it be worth it?

One answer might be to put a pure WCF facade over the Workflow Services.  Kind of a headache, but maybe workable.

This makes me think that .NET 4 Workflow Services are really targeted to be internal to the enterprise or at least where contract definition is flexible and controlled by one entity.

This follows a standard Microsoft pattern: help the enterprise dev in V1 and then expand from there.  This strategy makes sense, I just want it all in VS 2010, not in V.next.

Tags: .NET4.0, AppFabric, VS2010, WCF, WF

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PDC 2009 Day #2: Silverlight 4

November 18, 2009 at 4:05 pm · Filed under .NET, Attention, Miscellaneous, Web 2.0

Lots of great new stuff in today’s beta.  A few things that stand out:

• Hosting HTML
• Context menus
• WCF and REST enhancements
• Support for RIA Services
• Drag & Drop
• Running out of sandbox for trusted apps
• Sharing components between .NET 4 and SL 4

Lot of other things too.  I’m excited to start using this.  Also a shout out to Tim Heuer – he has helped me on a few things before and I got a chance to meet him today.

Those of you following NewsGang will know why I am very excited about these Silverlight developments.

Tags: .NET4.0, NewsGang, PDC09, PDC2009, Silverlight

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From PDC2009 Day 1: Entity Framework 4

November 17, 2009 at 6:41 pm · Filed under .NET, Grid Computing

Lots of improvements to EF for 4.0:

• Model-first development.
• Lazy loading through relationships (i.e., no longer have to call Load)
• POCO (i.e., define your own data classes against a model).
• POCO only (i.e., define the model fully in code).
• Code Generation options using the new T4 facility of VS 2010.
• Testability improvements through IObjectSet
• Can override SaveChanges
• Better disconnected workflow (both by writing a little code and a no-code option that uses a different code generator).
• Much better SQL (more compact, more efficient)
• Execute arbitrary SQL
• Easier Stored Procedures
• Functions (a little strange how this was implemented, but now they are available).
• Foreign Keys in the entities (no more manual interpretation of the Reference!)
• Better Binding for forms apps and WPF

Pandelis, what do you think?

Tags: .NET4.0, Entity Framework, PDC09, PDC2009

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