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Book Review: Open Source .NET Development

It's easy to think of Microsoft and open source as implacable enemies. But in fact, many people are building open source code with Microsoft tools, and others use open source tools to build proprietary software. In this book, Brian Nantz surveys some of the intersections and provides plenty of pointers to good tools and sample code.

Review: VMware Workstation 5 beta

VMware has long been the leader in virtual machine technology for Windows and Linux developers. The recent acquisition of Virtual PC by Microsoft has brought new competitive pressures to bear, but a peek at the next version of VMware shows that they're not about to give up.

Review: Arcadia PowerButton

Sure, your IDE includes a button control. But isn't it sort of boring? If you're looking for an inexpensive way to make your applications look more exciting, Arcadia PowerButton may be the answer.

Omnicore tackles the IDE

Does the development world really need another IDE? Well, maybe not. But whether it's needed or not, Omnicore's X-develop (now in open beta) offers an interesting feature set with some worthwhile innovations.

Book Review: Return on Software

If you want to get corporate management to approve your software projects, it helps to be able to speak their language. That's the basic premise of this software engineering economy book. You might find it heavy going at times, but if your job involves making the case to people with suits, Steve Tockey's work can help you out.

Review: OurayCM

OurayCM is a relatively new cross-platform configuration management package that supplies fully ACID operations and complex branching in a solid package.

Unit testing for .NET gets even easier

Many developers have found themselves on the unit testing bandwagon, setting up tiny tests to check all of their code whenever they make a change. In the Visual Studio .NET world, this has required running an external tool to exercise the tests. With the advent of TestDriven.NET, that's no longer true.

2004: The big events of the past year

Oracle wins PeopleSoft, Microsoft and Sun make nice, Eclipse declares independence. These were some of the big events ADT covered in 2004. Here's a look back at the year that was.

Microsoft Office: system, platform, or plergb?

Microsoft is making a big deal right at the moment about their first ever Microsoft Office System Developer Conference. But really, this event is just the most recent of a long line of Office developer conferences. Still, it might prove worth your while to attend.

Christmas with the gurus

Here's a selection of insights, opinions and practical tips gathered this past year from gurus of the software industry.

Book Review: Effective XML

By now, just about every developer knows the basics of XML. Indeed, it's getting hard to find a development environment or distributed application that doesn't involve XML. But there's a difference between just knowing the basics and knowing how to make effective use of XML. That's where Elliotte Rusty Harold's book comes in.

Briefing: JMSL Numerical Library 3.0

Want a numeric, financial, charting, and statistical package written in 100% pure Java? Then JMSL ought to get your attention.

It's survey time

Have you been transferred from a corporate position to a service provider as part of an IT outsourcing contract? Here's a chance to make your voice heard.

Review: AutoMate

Automation utilities are traditionally seen as tools for systems administrators. But why shouldn't developers use them too? Some time spent with AutoMate suggests interesting possibilities here.

Review: MyGeneration

MyGeneration is an object-relational mapper and code generator for .NET. It supports a great variety of databases, handles regeneration of existing code, and it's even free.

Review: SSW eXtreme Emails!

Instead of building e-mail into your bug-tracking system, why not build bug-tracking into your e-mail client? That's what SSW eXtreme Emails does, bringing an agile bug-tracking system to users of Microsoft Outlook and Exchange.

What's on your keychain?

Like more and more developers, I'm carrying a USB drive around with me these days: 256MB of faux disk that I can load up with software. Besides my current working project files, here's what I've loaded it up with.

Desktop search: who cares?

Desktop search is the latest software niche where Google and Microsoft (along with smaller competitors) are going head to head. But what's the big deal here?

Book Review: Find the Bug

There are lots of books out there that tell you how to write correct code. But we all know that there's a lot of incorrect code out there in the world. Adam Barr's new book is one of the few that actually helps you deal with this incorrect code by showing you plenty of examples and explaining how to find the bug.

WinFS slips into oblivion

The next-generation storage system known as WinFS has been a long time in coming - and now it looks like it will be even longer. By the time it actually ships, will anyone care? I doubt it.