C# has humble beginnings as an object-oriented language of the purest kind. It was class-based, it was imperative, and it was component-oriented. For many years, the classic object-oriented design principles served class library designers well, and the programming world rejoiced.

Chaos began creeping its way into the world of C#. They were minor things at first: a generic list here, a nullable type there. Developers used these elements to enhance their work. But those that understood utilized them to varying degrees. Some applied the new techniques with wanton abandon. Some kept the old traditions in mind.

Then the dark specter of functional programming infiltrated the language. For those that were doomed to a life of incoherent language usage, there was no hope. But those that held onto the old traditions managed to get by.

There is another way. C# is no longer a purely object-oriented language. It is no longer just an imperative, class-based, component oriented discipline. It is also a generic, declarative, functional discipline.

I will reexamine the object-oriented principles and introduce new principles. I will then introduce new refactorings as we move toward a more declarative, fluent world.

Additional Info: This meeting will be held in the MPR Room which is diagonally across from the usual room we use. Food will be provided.

* note: there will be some additional Telerik goodies.

Sign up here: http://anyvite.com/events/home/yggwfs6u19/

The Parallel Extensions Library (PFx) is a new system from Microsoft that makes it much easier to make code run in parallel. This makes your code run a lot faster on modern hardware, with much less effort than is traditionally required. Justin James will be covering the basics of PFx, how to use it, and where to use it. In addition, Justin will provide "real-world" use case information for this new technology.

Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 6:30 PM at the Microsoft Charlotte Campus.

Please sign up here

Food will be provided.

Source Code
http://groups.google.com/group/sharp-architecture

Project Home and Wiki
http://www.sharparchitecture.net

Billy's presentation to Virtual ALT.NET from earlier this year. (about
2 hours)
http://www.viddler.com/explore/virtualaltnet/videos/25/

Historical Reading
http://www.codeproject.com/kb/architecture/nhibernatebestpractices.aspx
(the precursor to SA)
http://devlicio.us/blogs/billy_mccafferty/archive/2008/04/21/asp-net-mvc-best-practices-with-nhibernate-and-spring-net.aspx
(this one describes why he started SA)

Eric Sabine's Sharp Architecture Presentation.pptx (117.48 kb)

***Note: Virtual ALT.NET will present Sharp Architecture again on 11/4/09
http://groups.google.com/group/virtualaltnet/t/d9fed113b810c4b6?hl=en

This month we have 5 short-form presentations covering a variety of topics. You're guaranteed to learn something! Food will be provided.

Please sign up if interested. Invite here.

Sharp Architecture (S#arp)
Sharp Architecture is an ASP.NET MVC template which builds a specific web and file system framework that enforces concepts and patterns such as loosely-coupled components, Domain Driven Design, dependency inversion, mocking, and more. Sharp Architecture comes preconfigured with NHibernate, Castle Windsor, log4net, MvcContrib, NUnit, and T4 Templates for your objects. In this demo I'll walk you through the structure of the template and discuss some important features that make Sharp Architecture worth checking out.

Publish/Subscribe Messaging framework
A Publish/Subscribe Messaging framework can be a great way to have an event driven architecture that reaches outside of the machine boundaries. Such a messaging framework can be used for gaining a better understanding as to what an Enterprise Service Bus might look like under the hood. I will demonstrate a Pub/Sub Messaging framework that was built using WCF and what benefits it gave me in providing key flexible functionality. We will be looking at a functional demo and diving into the code of an application that was used to manage real time scoring of a robotic sporting event.

An Overview of Hyper-V on Server 2008
- Hardware Requirements
- Determining if your hardware is supported
- Systems Supported
- Features and Capabilities
- How to Install Hyper-V
- Creating a virtual machine
- Additional Resources on Hyper-V

Silverlight 3
With the release of Silverlight 3 in July, Microsoft's RIA platform continues to grow in popularity and capability. A walk through some of the new features and a demo using the .NET RIA Services framework.

HTML/JavaScript RIAs
Due to the increasing power of web technologies, you can now build rich user experiences with just HTML and JavaScript. A survey of approaches, runtimes, helpers, and a demo or two. There will also be a focus on portability and reuse.

If you've heard about ASP.NET MVC, TDD, Dependency Injection, Inversion of Control, jQuery, and Unity, and you've wondered why in the world using all those things to make an application would make your life easier and offer more flexibility with less code, you're in luck. Brady Gaster, Development Team Lead at ORCS Web, will introduce you to all of these topics in a hands-on run-through. You'll get a quick look at each as they're used together to create a pluggable architecture that will evolve and allow endless extension.

Dinner will be provided.

When: July 9th, 2009 at 6:30 PM
Where: Microsoft Charlotte Campus
Questions: email me mjlefevre (at gmail.com)

Please sign up on the invite: http://anyvite.com/events/home/ubgva2qjbk

SQLite Resources

sqlite-howitworks-20090604.pdf (2.15 mb)

alt-net-20090604.pdf (3.92 mb)

Blog posts about the Tools for Agile / PowerShell meeting.
Mike Linnen's Presentation Materials
beefycode.com Blog
Coding Context

Details coming soon!