Firoz’s Blog - » Murphy’s Laws of .NET This is great!  A Must read for anyone involved in .Net Development :0)

Aptana realeased Milestone 7 today.  Milestone 7 introduces Debugging to the application so you can debug your scripts from within the application itself.  Screencasts on the new features are available from Aptana.tv.

Thomas reports today on mir.aculo.us  that he has extended Script.aculo.us to include morphing and transforms.  Looking at the demo’s I have to say I am mightily impressed.  As you’d expect from the man behing Script.aculo.us, the implementation is smooth and he makes it look so easy.

The more I work with Script.aculo.us the more impressed I am.

If you want to have a look for yourself visit mir.aculo.us read the blog entry, play with the demo’s then go get the Beta for 1.7.

Excellent Work Thomas!

I wrote a while back about the new IDE for Javascript Development called Aptana.  I now use Aptana on a daily basis and I have to admit it rocks.

The folks at aptana are having a community testing day this friday, you can join in by following the instructions on their website.  This will give you an opportunity to get hold of the next version of Aptana which will include the debugging capabilities.

Another fine Aptana resource is Aptana TV which is a fantastic collection of video’s that will help you get started with Aptana and get the most out of an awesome resource.

I cannot recomend this enough.  If you do any Javascript development at all… get this App.  Oh, not sure If I mentioned that it’s CSS and HTML capabilities make it an all-round web developers cornerstone utility.

Hot on the heels of Beta 1 Beta 2 has arrived. There’s been another  renaming of what was the value added pack, it’s now known as Ajax Futures.

There’s beena bit of confusion regarding exactly what you need to get if you want to use ASP.NET Ajax so here’s how I see it:

Core
ASP.NET Ajax Beta 2 - this is the main Ajax code that will hook into Visual Studio and give you the ability to create an Ajax project from a template as well as the core tools in the toolbox.  Download this if you want to use the Server and client side ASP.NET Ajax functionality to build your site.

ASP.NET Ajax Control Toolkit - This is the core control toolkit, you may need to add these manually to the toolbox, these controls and extenders get you up and running very quickly with ASP.NET Ajax.

Optional 
Microsoft Ajax Library Beta - This Library is the Client-Side only javascript library released by Microsoft. The general idea here is that it allows ASP.NET Ajax development on non windows systems but there’s no reason you can’t extend this to be non Visual Studio development as far as I can see.

ASP.NET 2.0 Ajax Futures November CTP - This adds some extra stuff to the Beta 2 and Control Toolkit.  Theres some stuff in here that was included in the original CTP’s (Community Technology Previews) but didn’t make it into the Beta either for compatibility reasons or simply due to time constraints.  the general Idea is that stuff will be gradually ported over to the Beta’s or final release eventually when it can be, without compromising the stability.

Advisable
Sample Applications - These prove invaluable when you are trying to figure out how to do something, worth having and churning through from time to time.

ASP.Net Ajax is worth a look so if you have the visual Studio Express or Full versions you can download and play with the ASP.NET parts otherwise take a look at the library it may prove useful.  Download ASP.NET Ajax here.

Yup it’s almost here, the Zune peronal media device is soon to be released. I have to admit I’ve largely ignored the lead up the the release and I was surprised today to see that the Zune includes Wireless Zune to Zune sharing (not sure how the DRM (Digital Rights Management) copes with this), as well and a built in FM radio and a 3 inch LCD.

The looks of the Zune are not far off most Personal Media Devices out there, the screen and wheel are in the obvious places, which should make it easy enough to get to grips with. I’ve not had my hands on one yet (happy to review it though if I get sent one ;0) ), so I can’t tell you what the operational aspects are like. Price-wise, it’s being advertised at $249.99 for an estimated retail price on the Zune site and that looks like it’s a 30GB version.

As part of the celebrations for the release Windows XP SP2 users can download a free theme for windows. This is a signed Microsoft theme so there’s no need to worry about fiddling about patching important windows files to get it to work. The best thing about the theme is that it is a very useable black theme, contrast between the screen elements is good and I have to say I am impressed, it’s worth the download.
Installation is simple, download the file, run it agree to the usual licensing and then choose the theme from the desktop options, couldn’t be simpler.

Isn’t it just typical though that Microsoft release a new theme for Windows XP, that is official and does not require a patch for the uxtheme.dll, right before they release a new OS…

It seems to me that JavaScript is seeing a real boost of late, mostly due to the hype around Ajax and the many new javascript libraries available for download. One of the things that put me off Javascript when I first started using it was that I just couldn’t get used to not having the IDE help me along. Being one of those developers that can’t remember everything in a framework, scripted or otherwise, seems to be a curse I’ll live with forever.

I have some knowledge of the DOM and over the years I have picked up bits that I use every day but I still don’t know everything and I doubt I ever will. So I’ve always been on the lookout for a tool that would help me along on my quest to perfect my javascript skills. Initially I found First JavaScript Editor, a very nice IDE that gives you intellisense and debugging for your JavaScript. It’s a paid for application and does a damn good job too, coming with some great tutorials as well as scripts to help get you started. I found it to be an excellent application despite it’s dated looks (no disrespect here, building an app this good takes a lot of effort).

Then along came a surprise contender for my affections, Aptana . Aptana is an open source application, for which the source was recently released.

Aptana still has a little way to go before it includes all the features available in First Javascript Editor but it has the advantage of being free, and damn good looking. It too sports Intellisense, spots errors as you code and additionally has an awesome project management facility that allows you to maintain some complicated (or simple) javascript libraries. You can easily switch between different ‘perspectives’ that allow you to quickly arrange the interface to suit the current task, debugging and team synchronising being two of the options.

You can also hook it into a source control system which allows for easy sharing of projects, and coming very soon is another upgrade that will give us debugging as well as a few bug fixes.

Aptana Is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and has a plugin for the Eclipse source control system.

So if you are looking for a tool to help you get the most from your JavaScript, these two options are well worth a look.

First Javascript Editor - Aptana - Boost your Javascript productivity…

I expect that anyone who has worked for any time in Visual Studio, especially on the web side, has earned themselves a few more grey hairs due to the odd bug or two.

I’ve been neta testing SP1 for a few weeks now and apart from one or two issues it does correct a few of the more painful bugs, it’s not perfect though and I’d expect it to be a while before it’s released.

The good news is that Microsoft seem to have recognised the pain users have to go through to get hotfixes and seem to have done something about it.

you can get more details from Frans Bouma’s blog.

The Windows Vista Team have announced some late changes to the license terms for Vista . these changes mean that enthusiasts who like to build their own P.C’s and the hundreds/thousands of people tha get a copy of Vista in the new year then realise they need to upgrade, won’t end up in a situation where they can’t validate because they used up their two device quota.

Yay! Common sense prevails.

It was a silly mistake but with amusing consequences… typing in the wordpress address I inadvertantly typed www.wordpad.org go a head try it…

Ah the internet, there’s entertainment a plenty :0)