I just finished reading this book by Jimmy Nilsson, and I have a mixed review of it. The general consensus (e.g. see here and here) out there is that this book is one of the most fantastic books out there on how to architect systems using C#. I do agree that the book is well-written, with a very unique insight into the thoughts and decisions to make along the way in designing a robust application from an OO viewpoint. It got me thinking about how I view TDD and architecture from a domain model perspective.

The negative for this book outweighs the benefits, in my opinion. The fact that there is no sample/reference application leaves the reader frustrated. If the design techniques can't even be proven in a simple application that was discussed over 450 pages, how can one have faith to apply the techniques in their own production applications? I searched on the book's forum, but the general attitude there is "If you need a sample, you can't understand all the decisions made to create your own application". My reply to that is "Hogwash". As mentioned earlier, 450 pages were used to talk about why certain architectural decisions were made.

All in all, I would skip this book until the major deficiency of no sample application is fixed.

When John Kaster of CodeGear (formerly Borland) came to Milwaukee last year, he showed a demo of some software running on a Pocket PC (PPC). The cool part was he was working on the actual PPC device itself but broadcasting the PPC screen to the overhead projector through his laptop.

I checked with him this week as I'm doing more work in this area now, and he told me that the free tool to get this done is called ActiveSync Remote Display. It is part of the Windows Mobile Developer Power Toys, available from Microsoft. I also tested it this week, and I can report that it still works with Active Sync 4.2.

Rory Blyth has a couple of good videos on MSDN TV, showing how to use MSSQL Mobile Edition on a CF device. They are older, so they don't cover all the new nomenclature (and probably newer features), but there are a couple of good tips and tricks in there, and it contains good coverage of Remote Data Access, a technology that will help synchronize data to/from MSSQL Compact Edition.

Links:

• Introduction to Data-Aware Windows Mobile Applications, Pt. 1
• Introduction to Data-Aware Windows Mobile Applications, Pt. 2
• ADO.NET Sync Framework for Occasionally Connected Systems, which also has links to webcasts and screencasts that explore the topics in more detail.

Here's my experience getting this combination of tools to work properly. At times, it was extremely frustrating, and other times it was confusing. MS has not helped much what with obsolete, out-dated, mis-named, and near impossible to find products. Hopefully the RTM version will have everything stitched together nicely so all you have to do is double click a setup file. It would be even better to have log information easily and readily available for the installs. If you want to develop with these technologies, give these steps a try. I don't claim that they are authoritatve or complete, but I documented as much as I could capture.

1. ActiveSync Setup 4.2 - required for several other installs later on.
2. Windows Mobile 5.0 PPC SDK - adds new platform targets and emulators to support PPC development with WM 5.0. There is also a Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK for Smartphone download available if you prefer that instead.
3. VS.NET 2005 SP1 Beta - I couldn't get to this page from the MS site anywhere, but I was able to find a link to take me to the download location. I can't swear that this is entirely required, as I installed the other tools without it on one PC, and it seemed to work OK.
4. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Everywhere Edition Tools for Visual Studio 2005 Service Pack 1 Beta - This install specifically states that VS.NET SP1 Beta is required. As you can see from the title, it also mentions SqlServer Everywhere, but ignore that inconsistency. The MSSQL team has renamed the product to SQL Server Compact Edition. This naming problem is supposed to be fixed by the time MS releases MSSQL Compact Edition.

   I also ran into a problem when uninstalling this application. I would get the following error when trying to reinstall it:
   

   
   The upgrade patch cannot be installed by the Windows Installer service
   because the program to be upgraded may be missing, or the upgrade path
   may update a different version of the program. Verify that the program
   to be upgraded exists on your computer and that you have the correct
   upgrade patch
   

   
   I finally did a Repair install on VS.NET, and I was able to install the tools again.

   However, even with all of that, I would recommend installing this because it allows for things like Server Explorer to be used on SDF files.

5. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition RC1 - This installs MSSQL Compact Edition. Note that there are numerous naming changes throughout the web (Mobile, Everywhere, Compact), but Compact Edition is going to be the final answer - allegedly.
6. Windows Mobile 5.0 SDK for Pocket PC - This install will give you some more power within the IDE, e.g. it will bring up the Data Configuration Wizard to generate DataSets when adding an SDF to your project. It also installs the latest version of Northwind.sdf for you to play with. By default, it gets installed to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SmartDevices\SDK\SQL Server\Mobile\v3.0\northwind.sdf.
7. (Semi-optional) SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition Books Online Community Technology Preview (CTP) - Reference information is always good, right?

Additional notes:

• You can manage an SDF file from your desktop machine, by using Server Explorer within VS.NET, or by selecting SQL Server Mobile as the Database Type in SQL Server Management Studio. On the PPC device, you can use QueryAnalyzer (located at /Program Files/SQL Mobile/EN/isqlw30.exe), or open the sdf file on the PPC device.
• To deploy an SDF to the PPC, just add it to your solution and it will get deployed to the PPC device automatically.

Good luck, and I hope this helps someone through the corn field maze that is CF and MSSQL CE installation.

I've been working on a .NET Compact Framework (CF) 2.0 application, and one thing that this applciation needed was access to a local database on the PDA. In addition, I was hoping to leverage some of the MS Application Blocks, specifically the Data Access Application Block, to make things easier and more uniform for the developers.

I came across a library that ported the .NET 1.1 version of the Data Access Application Block to CF: Data Access Application Block for .NET CF. It was pretty good, but there were several things that needed fixing for my situation, namely: removal of OpenNetCF, upgrade to .NET CF 2.0, upgrade to Windows Mobile 5.0, and upgrade of the Northwind.sdf database to the latest version provided by Microsoft.

Here is my port of the original work. I'll post updates (like upgrades to Enterprise Library for .NET Framework 2.0, January 2006) to the blog here, and my web site.

I've been listening to the non-technical blog, Mondays, for a while now. It's pretty funny, and people like Carl Franklin and Richard Campbell (of DotNet Rocks and DotNet Rocks TV fame), and Mark Miller showcase their humor outside the realm of all things technical.

One running segment in the show is where Richard finds cool gadgets and toys on the web. On the 10/23/06 show, he highlighted a USB charger. That led me to browsing through the English version of that web site and I came across something that I MUST have: a Watch with integrated MP3 player and wireless FM transmitter!! For $140, it seems like a reasonably priced geek gadget. If I pick it up, I'll be sure to blog back here to review it.

Postscript: If you enjoy Mondays, be sure to check out Mark Miller's MillahSeconds, too.

I had a situation the other day where I put my USB drive in and it wasn't being fully recognized. It was actually there according to the Add/Remove Hardware program, but it wasn't being assigned a drive. I noticed that this PC had drive letters C:-E: taken locally, and a network drive was being assigned for me to F:. After some digging on the web, I found this page talking about some problems and solutions for USB drives.

My problem turned out to be the one in the section "Drive Letter Conflict with Network or Subst Drives". After I went in to Disk Management and followed the directions, everything started working again.

CodeRush and Refactor! are 2 very powerful VS.NET add-ins that let you program faster. They are made by Developer Express, which is a software company that I have had nothing but incredible dealings with over the years in the Delphi area. As a matter of fact, I used CodeRush for about a year on Delphi way back in the day (maybe 1998?). Even though Mark Miller is the lead man responsible for these products, I'll still use it. (Just kidding, Mark!). In all seriousness, Mark is one of those unique developers who has the passion, vision and technical chops to back it up. I've also known Mark for years from the BorCon speaker circuit. I would highly recommend paying attention to whatever he does, because he does things right.

CodeRush is integrated into the IDE, "bringing you new ways to look at code, new ways to generate code, new ways to navigate through code, and new ways to create your own extensions to your development environment." It is very configurable. There is also a nice training window that will help remind you of what keystrokes to press to generate code. Once you have the keystrokes mastered, you can turn it off.

Refactor! Pro is just unbelievable. It provides over 50 refactorings built-in that work with C#, VB, and C++. At the heart of this product is the mindset that you should never lose workflow with modal dialogs. The result is a thing of beauty, with some of the best eye candy out there. Beauty is fine, but I really want a tool that doesn't miss refactorings, and this tool has proven incredibly reliable on that side as well. For a quick overview of Refactor, check out this 3 Minute Overview on MSDN.