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Guidelines
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If you have recently come across software related to .Net or Windows technologies and would like to submit a review, please send it to Software Review Chairperson.
HUNTUG gives away software as door prizes at the each monthly meeting.
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Software Reviews
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Resharper 3.0 review by Derek Morrison |
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ReSharper for Visual Studio by JetBrains is a Visual Studio add-on that, after using for about a week, I realize I can no longer live without. It has helped me to look at existing code in a new light and has even shown me several good coding tips and tricks. Before using the tool, I was appreciative of the many coding tools included with Visual Studio 2005 (such as code formatting, refactoring, and code snippets support), but after using ReSharper for a substantial amount of time, I realize that I have been missing out on more advanced, helpful, and more productive features that 3rd party tools like this can offer. ReSharper comes in editions for C#, VB.NET or both, and is priced at anywhere from free for a classroom license to $350 for a commercial license. The current version that I evaluated is 3.0 for Visual Studio 2005. They also offer a version for Visual Studio .NET 2003, and are tentatively planning a version 4 release for Visual Studio 2008 (including support for C# and VB.NET 3.5) sometime after next spring. While ReSharper has many features (which are highlighted on the tool's website), I foundseveral to be particularly useful. The tool gives more detailed error messages and more advanced warnings that Visual Studio does by default and includes the ability to rectify many of these potential problems automatically. ReSharper includes a more advanced "find usages" dialog and list that is more polished than the default feature. Also, the add-on makes navigating to references easier by providing a hyperlink interface on class or method names from anywhere when the control key is depressed (it even does this for declarative event handlers in aspx files). ReSharper is not without its faults, however. It re-routes many of the standard Visual Studio keyboard shortcuts and, although this can be configured to closely mimick the default behavior, it is still confusing sometimes. Visual Studio takes a performance hit when running ReSharper too (especially when first loading a project or if working on a slow machine). Also, the tool leaves a few meta data files and directories littered about your project folder (which are fairly harmless but can be a little annoying if you're a neat freak like me). All in all, highly recommended.
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36 K |
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0 |
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Fri 04/24/2009 @ 10:54 |
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NetAdvantage 2005 review by Jim Lauria |
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NetAdvantage 2005 Volume 2 is a very comprehensive presentation layer toolset. It is great for designing, mostly by dragging and dropping, applications for all Microsoft environments – Windows Forms, ASP.NET, Tablet PC and COM. NetAdvantage provides an appealing look and customization, it is easy to work with, and has lots of updated features added to the Windows Forms Tree, Grid, Chart and TabbedMDIManager as well as to the ASP.NET Grid. I have been using NetAdvantage 2005 with VS.NET 2005 beta 2 and it integrates itself neatly within Visual Studio. NetAdvantage has a wide range of graphical interface elements that can be dropped into ASP.Net or Winforms applications and NetAdvantage provides the needed tools for configuring these elements. The interface elements are accompanied by designer tools that can be accessed by right-clicking on the element which was dragged into the form. These designers are organized according to the lists of configuration options available for each element into dialogs which are quite easy to use. All the NetAdvantage Web elements, and the grid element for Winforms applications, include a wizard that walks through the design options. NetAdvantage also includes .NET source code with Subscription & Priority or Subscription only options, it ships with a good set of code samples, as well as somewhat comprehensive documentation which can be easily accessed from Visual Studio. Infragistics provides access to Devcenter for peer to peer help and more current documentation. NetAdvantage is easily installed and can also be uninstalled just as easily.
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2 K |
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Fri 04/24/2009 @ 10:52 |
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Microsoft AntiSpyware beta review by Jim Lauria |
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I’ve just finished installing today’s new beta release of Microsoft AntiSpyware software. The 6385KB software downloaded quickly and installed easily. After the installation I ran the program-using the recommended deep scan and came up with 22 spyware/adware hits. On the previous day I ran Adaware Spyware remover--my usual software for spyware removal--it found the usual 5 spy/adware cookies which always show up on that software’s scans. The MS AntiSpyware found 18 previously unseen-at least to the Adaware program-cookies and 4 adware programs which the Adaware had missed. The MS product can be scheduled to run daily, weekly, or monthly at the user’s preferred times and also has full scan, ie. memory, drive/folders, and deep scan options as well as a quick scan option. I like it so far but keep in mind it is a test/beta release and has no support offered other than a newsgroup. You might like to give it a try and see how it works for you, especially if you are using a different flavored spyware removal software. Oh yeah, right now it is a free download whether it will continue to be free remains to be seen
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5 K |
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Fri 04/24/2009 @ 10:49 |
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PerfectDisk 6.0 review by Doug Mitchell |
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Fragmentation is one of the causes of what has become known as Wintropy, or the steady decline in peformance over time of most Windows boxes. PerfectDisk V6 is the latest entry from Raxco in the continuing war against disk fragmentation. There are de-fragmenting tools available in the base operating systems from Microsoft since the 9x era, but they are limited in capability and suitable only for the basic job of interactively defragmenting a disk with ample (>20%) free space. Multiple aftermarket entries have extended these capabilities to improve the utility of the product and these features, such as command line and unattended operation, boot-time defragmentation of system files, and scheduling have now become standard. Raxco delivers on these features in this release. They also claim the ability to defragment drives with as little as 5% free space. I can confirm that an XP machine with ~10% was successfully defragmented to a great degree. The only real failing was not fully defragementing a large (almost 1 GB) multimedia file. This is probably too much to ask of any product, especially considering horrendous state the drive started out with.Boot-time defragmentation worked without any problems, and the product still has the ability to move directory locations to the "front" of the drive on FAT32 systems. The usual set of tools is available, and the interface is consistent and intuitive. A feature I have not personally seen before is the ability to export the report in a format easily importable into Excel or Access (or compatible programs) to allow tracking of fragmentation over time.The ability to save reports has been there for a while in programs in this category, but the approach to export in an import friendly fashion is a nice touch. Also of interest to large facilities is ActiveDirectory integration, allowing system administrators to push deployment via AD, and set permissions to allow users to perform their own maintainance based on their AD group policy. Deployment via Windows Installer and SMS is alsosupported. For mixed environments, V6 supports Windows 2000 and above, and V4 is still available for Windows 9x, ME, and NT, without a reduced feature set. While it is impossible to fully evaluate a product of this nature in a short time period without a fully stocked test lab, PerfectDisk V6 is a solid product that fills a niche for those who simply are not satisfied with the built-in tools provided in Windows. At $44.95 and $239.95 for the workstation and server flavors (download edition), the pricing is veryaffordable. Quantity discounts are available at www.raxco.com
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8 K |
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Fri 04/24/2009 @ 10:44 |
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NetAdvantage 4.0 reviewed by Jim Lauria |
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I recently installed Infragistics NetAdvantage 2004 Vol.2 and am enjoying (in a masochistic way) using/learning this toolset. The learning curve for using the product is quite high, but it is no better or worse than other products of the same quality and complexity. I should say that I am spending more time learning and I haven’t heavily used this suite or all of the available tools it offers, but I have implemented the toolbar and dock components. I found some bugs, which I have reported to Infragistics. They confirmed the bugs, and advised me to get the hot fix. I have been using UltraWebGrid and ASP.NET Grid editor. When I use the grid I just bind to datatable object, so I'm sure I am missing out on a great deal of the Grid functionality. What I have used successfully, after a lot of trial and error learning, is ExplorerBar, TabControl, and Toolbars, and Grid . I have also used the ASP.NET CellEditor which holds some interesting potential for me for inventory purposes. I need to use some of the other components to make a more educated evaluation of the product, but for the components I have used, its pretty neat. The knowledge base could be better, the documentation (in the form of help files) are among some of the least helpful I have seen. I have tried to discover which properties I need to use to make the controls do what I need them to do. It basically becomes a trial and error method because the help files aren’t a whole lot of help. The better documentation is the VS.NET integrated help and the PDF help files. The best help files I've encountered are their sample code projects and the product source code. By picking at the source I was able to better understand and use the product, although getting through the source is also a challenge. It is not a good choice for the novice-(like me) or someone wanting a quick implementation without taking the time to learn the product (which I have every intention of doing). Quite frankly there are times when I have no idea what I am doing or should be doing. They do have some good tools that help you build and manage your components, although some of their methods are obscure, perhaps a more experienced programmer would find their methods more easily. The tools have the flexibility to fit almost any development need. I recommend this product to anyone desiring a clean professional look and functionality for the project. This company focuses heavily on features and an eye pleasing look for putting a "face" on apps. The version I have been using-which by the way installed easily- includes the subscription. The subscription service-available at extra cost- provides upgrades and updates for 1 year and web support and email support for registered members. The source code and ASP.NET elements are also included with the subscription service. They also include what they call DevCenter--community online resources for the developer, see what others are saying and what bugs are being found as well as tips and tricks. The cost for the toolset--(version 2 is $495, with subscription is $695, with priority (telephone) support is $995)--may seem kind of steep but when you consider the time it would take to write the code, and cost of acquiring .NET components it balances out for the Infragistic suite. You might want to try the demo/resource disk which was a give away at July’s HUNTUG meeting and which available at the Infragistics website for download before shelling out any cash to see if it meets your needs or if you're up to investing the time necessary to get a handle on this product.
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2 K |
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| Date |
Fri 04/24/2009 @ 10:41 |
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