PDC05: Day One #1

I failed to stay up late enough last night so here I am at 3:45 am local time unable to sleep any further. At least I had gone to bed at 8:30pm local time, so I have had more than enough rest. I was added to the PDCBloggers.net attendee blog directory, so now my pointless nattering will be shared. Today is the start of the PDC Pre-Conference. I have signed up for the two C++ tracks: C++ Patterns and Practices and C++ Internals. Ooh! The Birds of a Feather tracks have been announced, this is what I signed up for:

Tuesday

Time	Description
9:00pm-10:00pm	.NET vs. Java (I ought to attend the Avalon UI BOF)
All zealots are welcome! Let the religious wars begin! What's better, .NET or Java? Is one stealing ideas from another? Both platforms have recently released new versions, which one provides better strategic vision and foundation for development? Join our friendly debate.
10:00-11:00pm	Visual Studio 2005 Team System -- Blessing or Anathema?
Visual Studio 2005 Team System clearly plays a role in increasing the productivity and predictability of software development through the careful integration of tools and process. There are many positive aspects the product suite professes that may very likely herald a new era of efficiency for software architects and developers. Is all what Team System promises a good thing? Are there drawbacks to this approach? Join us to discuss what you feel are the best and worst things about the Team System vision.

Tuesday is a split between tracks I really ought to attend and tracks I really want to attend. I am going to .NET vs. Java so I can just to sit back and watch the feathers fly, a sort of WWF for geeks. I probably ought to be going to the Avalon UI session. The Visual Studio 2005 Team System I really need to attend to hear both sides of the VSTS story, but I also want to attend Future of the Deep Coder.

We are split at work between going to VSTS or moving away from back-end Microsoft tools and using something else. We already moved to Visual Build Pro for our nightly builds when we made the switch to Visual Studio.NET (2003). I cannot say enough good things about Visual Build Pro: easy to learn easy to configure, capable of quite rich builds and just all-around awesome.

Thursday

Time	Description
9:00pm-10:00pm	SQLCLR - Best Practices
SQLCLR integration creates great opportunities to develop and define your own datatypes, aggregates and functions. But these opportunities also have a dark side, so it is very important to discuss principles of architecture, deployment, versioning and especially defining/checking the compliance to SQL - Standard rules of custom datatypes and functions.
10:00-11:00pm	Your Favorite Design Patterns (error in vCalendar)
The idea of this session is to give the audience an opportunity to talk about their favorite design patterns in .NET, and how people can benefit best by using them. The patterns do not have to fit the designs mentioned in the "Gang of Four" book, they just have to be something that can be used for day-to-day problems faced by developers. The patterns should focus more on increasing developer productivity than just be cool. I am more than willing to moderate :) The vCalendar file associated with this session is marked as a "lunar schedule," so Outlook cannot import it.

I voted for three of the four Birds of a Feather sessions I am attending: VSTS, SQLCLR and Design Patterns. I feel like I just got a good answer from the Magic 8-ball: "Signs point to yes."

Now I have to check-in the code changes I made on the plane. If the developers who worked on Visual Studio's "Work Offline" feature read this: YOU ROCK! When we upgraded to Visual Studio .NET (2003) it was the new interface feature I loved most (remembering that "interface" excludes better ISO C++ and a new STL). I have used the feature extensive when I code away from a network connection, my many thanks go out to the mystery coders of "Work Offline."