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Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings

elcome to this first issue of 2003. We have some interesting things in this issue for you. The first item to note is our coverage of Visual C++ 2003. YES, Visual C++. It seems that when we did our Visual Studio .NET languages issue we overlooked a language used by a few developers () Visual C++. We received quite a few letters; one actually describing what finger C++ would represent (think Fred Durst). Well I had the opportunity to discuss coverage of VC++ in CoDe Magazine with Nick Hodapp (Product Manager Visual C++ .NET, Microsoft). Nick agreed to write an article for us and help us find authors to write about Visual Studio .NET and C++. I agreed to run C++ content. So here you have it: CoDe Magazine and Visual Studio C++.

This month we’re featuring a number of articles on building Windows Forms. Nick’s C++ article contains some of the first coverage about WinForms and C++ integration, especially as it will work in Everett. John V. Petersen and Dino Esposito have contributed articles covering extender classes and the WinForms DataGrid. Finally, CoDe publisher Markus Egger developed an article on non-standard shaped forms (one of the coolest articles I have read in a while). Along with this “themed” content we provide our usual assortment of great articles, including SQL Server, .NET Remoting, .NET Reflection, MS-Office data types. I really enjoyed reading the content in this issue myself. I hope you enjoy it.

Coming Soon
This year we’re working on some great ideas to further evolve CoDe’s content. One is the idea of post-mortems. Game Developer is one of my favorite magazines and I like it for a number of reasons. First, it has information on some of the most complex aspects of computer game development. Will I ever use this information? Probably not, but it helps stretch my thought process into new directions. Second, I really enjoy Game Developer’s post-mortem articles. Every issue features an extensive article describing how a specific game was developed. Articles discuss things that went well and things that did not. Post-mortems require software developers to be critical of their own development process and can help to improve a programmer’s own software development process. I know Microsoft does this for all of its projects. I would love to go through Microsoft’s archives and read these post-mortems. Imagine the knowledge that could be gained from this information.

This is where you come in.
I need developers from our readership to help create post-mortem articles for us. We want to know about your development experiences. I have been working on an extensive Visual Studio .NET project for the last year and will try to write about those experiences in a future issue. What can you contribute? Talk to me at [email protected].

Anniversary
This is actually the sixth issue I have edited for CoDe Magazine. Editing a magazine is a rewarding yet tiring experience. Every other month we gather articles, edit them, lay them out, proof them, and send you a magazine full of what we hope is useful content for your every day work. Then this process begins again. I hope you enjoy our work because we sure enjoy bringing this magazine to you.

One of the greatest things I like about this job is that I get one page a month to say whatever is on my mind about the software world in general. This issue is just a set of random thoughts. Next issue I’ll try to return to an article on one of my favorite subjects like: Onions, Friends, Trends and Waves.

Finally, We Want To Hear From You
How are we doing here at CoDe? Are we covering the content you want? What would you like to see? What content have you liked in past issues? We do listen to your feedback (as you can see by the C++ content) and would like to know if we are living up to your expectations. Watch out or we’re going to send you a reader survey! Or maybe that isn’t such a random idea after all…

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