Internet Explorer 7: What is new?

Microsoft has recently released Beta 2 of Internet Explorer 7 for public which has a number of new features.

· Improved Navigation and cleaner Toolbar
· Tabbed Browsing
· RSS Support
· Enhanced Printing
· Built-In Search
· Enhanced Security like anti-phishing technology
· Support for transparent PNG files
· CSS consistency,
· CSS 2 fixed positioning
· International domain name (IDN) support and more

It can be downloaded from following URL

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie7/ie7betaredirect.mspx

HelpStudio Lite: A Tool to develop Help Files

HelpStudio Lite is a tool to develop Help files using Visual Studio.Net. HelpStudio Lite includes a template based authoring concept that makes it easy for developers to customize and change over time the look and feel of a help system without requiring rework to existing content. HelpStudio Lite ships with two default templates; one that reflects the look and feel of Visual Studio .NET 2003 technical documentation and another implementing the new style introduced with Visual Studio 2005 technical documentation.

Microsoft is distributing HelpStudio Lite with the Visual Studio 2005 SDK. HelpStudio Lite is included free and automatically installed along with the SDK. The full version of HelpStudio has pricing starting at $425.

To view details browse following URL

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/extend/helplite/

Comparing XML Performance Java,.Net and Mono

XML Mark is an XML parsing benchmark originally created by Sun Microsystems to test the performance of Java against .Net Framework 1.1.

Sun's source code for the original benchmark can be downloaded from http://java.sun.com/developer/codesamples/webservices.html#Performance and the white paper which discusses this performance can be found at http://java.sun.com/performance/reference/whitepapers/XML_Test-1_0.pdf.

Using XML Mark XML performance is tested for different technologies like java, .Net and Mono.The result is as follows.

The .Net Framework 2.0 beats every other platform in Xml performance by a huge margin. Such a huge difference cannot be due to better Xml libraries alone, it should also be the result of improvements in the execution efficiency of the Common Language Runtime (CLR), sitting at the core of the .Net Framework. The 32-bit .Net 2.0 scores were nearly double that of the highest Java scores. Microsoft has also done a good job with the 64-bit CLR, which consistently outperformed the Java results by about 60%. The performance gains are even greater, when comparing with .Net Framework 1.1. So from a performance perspective, it does make sense to move to v2.0.

The Java 64-bit runtime is an interesting contender, even though there is still scope of improvement. The Java 32-bit runtime posted really disappointing results; at least running with default settings.

To Visit the result details visit the following url
http://www.process64.com/articles/xmlmark1/

Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer(Sparkle)

Microsoft has relased first CTP of Microsoft Expression Interactive Designer code name Sparkle which runs with WinFx January CPT Release.

Expression Interactive Designer is a design tool used to create user interfaces for desktop, Mobile and web applications using Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML.You can try out its innovative features such as rich 2D & 3D graphics, animation, dynamic layout, data binding, style & template editing, and resource management by downloading it from following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=ed9f5fb2-4cfc-4d2c-9af8-580d644e3d1d&displaylang=en&hash=M8J5SPD

The New Generation of Microsoft Certifications

The new generation of Microsoft certifications is more specific and targeted to reflect the detail of what you do and to prove your expertise to those who need to know.

Consisting of three series and four credentials, the new generation of Microsoft certifications provides a simpler and more targeted framework for IT managers to validate core technical skills, professional skills, and architectural skills. It also provides professionals in the IT industry with a more relevant, flexible, and cost-effective way to showcase their skills.

For more details please visit the following URL

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/newgen/

Microsoft Customer Care Framework (CCF)

Microsoft's Customer Care Framework (CCF) is a modular XML Web Services architecture for rapid development and deployment of contact center solutions. Service Providers can transform and expand their call center operations to reduce costs while improving the quality of their customer service, CCF increases call center agent productivity by prefetching customer information and sharing it in smart ways between different applications, dramatically cutting the time agents must spend searching for and entering data to complete a call.

To know more details please visit following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/solutions/ccf.mspx

Visual studio 2005 Starter kits

Visual studio 2005 Starter kits a new features available for creating projects template for all type of applications in different .net languages. . Project templates provide all the files necessary to create a new project and can include references, classes, forms, and project settings. So using this lot of rework and defects can be avoided.

Visit the linkbelow to know how to create project templates.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/default.aspx?pull=/library/en-us/dnvs05/html/CreatStrtKt.asp

TryParse

For parsing base type the .NET Framework 2.0 introduces a pattern across all the relevant base types called TryParse, which mimics Parse. The difference in behavior is that Parse will throw an exception when the data check fails, while TryParse simply goes to an else statement

Example:

Dim iVal As Integer
If Int32.TryParse(someString, iVal) Then
' code which deals with the valid integer
Else
' code which deals with an invalid input
End If