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MSDN Event: Visual Studio 2008 - Easton

Today I'm attending the MSDN Visual Studio 2008 launch event at the AMC Theatres at Easton Town Center in Columbus, OH. William Steele, Microsoft Developer Evangelist is fielding the discussion for the entire day: Visual Studio 2008, Astoria and Silverlight in the morning and IIS7/ASP.Net in the afternoon.

I've never seen William speak but I receive his updates via MSDN emails. He's handling the crowd well and is smooth with the slides and demo. After delivering a bunch of presentations and seeing others present, I just have the greatest respect for folks who can not only pull off a big event like this but do it with comfort and a bit of humor.

Topics included:

  • Visual Studio 2008 - what's new
  • .Net 3.0/3.5: C# 3.0/VB.Net 9.0, LINQ, anonymous types, etc.
  • LINQ
  • WCF/WF/WPF
  • ADO.Net Entity Framework - abstract/extrapolate physical data model into conceptual model (Beta 3 released 12/5/2007...RTM expected Q2 2008)
  • Codename Astoria - expose entities via RESTful web services (Official Name: ASP.Net Data Services)
  • IIS7
  • ASP.Net 3.5

As I've written before, I'm still in the "live events aren't the best use of time" camp but Microsoft does a great job of extending knowledge to the community in a free, all-encompassing event such as this. Further, when there's so much that's new and different, I find this "breadth blast" format is optimal. When I get free time, I can then drill down on topics I need or want to explore further (ADO.Net Entity Framework!)

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