One of the most powerful and appreciated extensions for Firefox is the Web Developer toolbar. This is the extension that helped convert me from an independent IEvangelist to a Firefox promoter and standards advocate. This tool puts the keys to client-side web development into the hands of the developer.

With a quick click of the mouse, the developer can now see all elements of a certain type, can disable or enable various portions of development ( i.e. JavaScript), or can view otherwise hidden form information. It's such a powerful tool that you'll never be able to do client-side web development again without it.

I do apologize for being so slow in the posting of these videos. There will be a few more in the future. These videos are from September 2005 and are for Firefox 1.0.x, but are still appropriate for Firefox 1.5.x (and Firefox 2.0)

• Part 4 - Using the Web Developer Toolbar
• Part 3 - Introduction to the Firefox Console
• Part 2 - Introduction to the Firefox JavaScript Console
• Part 1 - Setting up your Firefox Development Environment
• Part 0 - Introduction to the Firefox Web Developer Series.
• Visual Web Developer 2005 Express
• Firefox 1.5

Since most of the WinFX (.NET) world is going to declarative programming, I think it would be wise for us API designers to starting thinking the same way. Xaml is really our key to that. We don't need to have our own XML dialect to provide a declarative model to developers, we just need to realize that Xaml isn't just a markup language for graphical controls... nor is it solely for Microsoft created frameworks (i.e. WPF, WWF). We too can tap into the beauty of Xaml by simply understanding how simple it is.

In this video I demonstrate how to create a simple data-bound WPF application using Xaml using a C# class to feed the data. Then I alter the WPF application to be purely in Xaml... even the data binding to LLBLGen.

This video is really just a proof of concept of something that I personally consider very experimental at this stage. In the future however, I do expect most WinFX coding to go hand in hand with declarative programming. In fact, you can already see how ASP.NET, Atlas, WPF, WCF (the config file), and WWF are strongly declarative based. Since Xaml is not much more than an XML representation of .NET objects, exposing an API shouldn't be that difficult for us. Most of the time I'm sure a simple framework built with SOA principles in mind should be OK.

Here's the link to download the video:

• Using Xaml to Represent Objects

October 11, 2006 Update

About the time I released the video, the API changed... and for some reason I didn't post this update until just now! So here's an update for it.

In the video I put this at the top of the Xaml file.

<?Mapping XmlNamespace="NorthwindCollections" ClrNamespace="Northwind.DAL.CollectionClasses" Assembly="Northwind.DAL" ?>

That's not how we do things anymore. These days we do this...

<Window x:Class="..."
xmlns="..."
xmlns:x="..."
xmlns:ns="clr-namespace:Northwind.DAL.CollectionClasses;assembly=Northwind.DAL">

I've been waiting for this one! The public version of the .NET 2.0 source code has been released! Otherwise known as the SSCLI 2.0 (Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure 2.0), this is basically the .NET 2.0 framework source code (among other things). With Reflector you can view the framework code, but this is the original code before any compilation thus leaving the developer comments in tact. It's also a bit cleaner here.

Not only that, but you get a load of unmanaged code. I'm talking about real hardcore CLR stuff. It also includes the C# compiler source code as well as the code for ILASM, ILDASM, and a bunch of other utilities. It's going to be really awesome seeing how generics and anonymous delegates are implemented.

My favorite piece that came with SSCLI 1.X is still here: there C# code for the JScript compiler (yes, the JScript compiler is written in C#). I actually used the original source code for the basis for a brain bender quiz in my .NET class. I highly, highly recommend the use of this SSCLI for your educational endeavors. Either to help you learn more, or to help others out.

Here's the link to download the SSCLI 2.0:

• Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure 2.0 Download

A friend of mine told me someone tasked him with creating an O/R mapping tool. My first reaction was...well, of course, your company likes to reinvent the wheel, loves useless legacy technology, and is very anti-productivity. He said that nothing is easy to use and everything has useless error messages. So I of course reminded him of the great gift to humanity known as LLBLGen, which is very easy to use and is very clearly designed. I've mentioned LLBLGen to him before, but this time was a real marketing opportunity. (Actually, I'm very annoying about promoting .NET 2.0, Firefox, Gmail, and LLBLGen -- absolute life savers).

Anyways... I told him I would create a quick overview video of LLBLGen as a marketing pitch to his company. Well, the "quick video" turned out to be almost a half hour long. Err, yeah... So, I've decided to share this video with the rest of the world. It's actually not like my usual videos, so I'm marking this version as "Special Edition". I'll probably release the "final" version in the future.

Below is the link to the LLBLGen Overview (Special Edition) video.

• LLBLGen Overview (Special Edition) - Recommended for all users

Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Solution Design or any Solution Design/LLBLGen product. The above video is in no way endorsed by Solution design and is unofficial in every sense of the word.

Heres just an update on the popular resources on WCF on the web.

Some links worth looking at...

• Windows Communication Foundation Architecture Overview
• Get the Betas
• MSDN Nuggets
• Dec 2005 Article - Designing Service Contracts with WCF
• Bustamante's Book
• TopXml's WCF Section
• windowscommunication.net Resources Page

Here's a list of the video Mike has up at the MSDN Nuggets website (link above).

• "Hello World"
• Type Serialization
• DataContract Serialization
• Typed and Untyped Messages
• Bindings
• Message Encoding
• Message Patterns
• Sessions
• Instancing
• Concurrency
• Exceptions
• Transactions
• HTTPS Transport Security
• Message Security
• Authorisation
• Auditing