The Developers Group http://www.richplum.net 12th April, 2005 Meeting POSK, Hammersmith Group Leader Brian Long http://blong.com

Agenda 1:00 - 2:00 – Welcome, News & Problem Clinic 2:00 - 2:55 – An Introduction to Using Arcana Components to Develop Intraweb Applications Russell Weetch 2:55 - 3:15 – Tea/Coffee & Biscuits

Agenda 3:15 - 4:05 – Address Formatting Components Sandy McCourt 4:05 - 5:00 – Yes, No or Maybe Joanna Carter 5:00 - 5:05 – Brief Fidget Break 5:05 - 6:00 – Compact Framework In C# Jim Cooper

News DevCon (née BorCon) 2005 announced To be held in San Francisco 7th – 10th November Focusing on developers (not managers) http://www.borlandevents.com/devcon05

News Delphi 2005 Update Pack 2 has been released http://www.borland.com/products/downloads/registered/download_delphi.html Fixes many problems! Keep posting issues in Quality Central

News APress release some of their books as free eBooks Notable examples: COM and .NET Interoperability A Programmer's Introduction to PHP 4.0 Dissecting a C# Application: Inside SharpDevelop Oh, and there’s one on VB.NET too http://www.apress.com/free

News Bob Reselman’s acclaimed novel Coding Slave about being a developer is available free online: http://codingslave.blogspot.com/2005/03/q-wheres-it-going.html

News Two new free .NET command-line tools available: ILMerge – merge multiple .NET assemblies into one (was on MSR originally): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=22914587-b4ad-4eae-87cf-b14ae6a939b0&DisplayLang=en http://tinyurl.com/4ur5l LibCheck – report assembly differences in terms of removed and added APIs http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=4b5b7f29-1939-4e5b-a780-70e887964165&displaylang=en http://tinyurl.com/3rbzs

News MSDN Technical Briefing at Microsoft on Thursday 12th May, 09:30-16:30 Visual C# and Windows Forms in Visual Studio 2005 User Group Tour The Visual C# and Windows Forms teams are coming to a city near you! Sign up now for this full day event covering Visual C# and Windows Forms enhancements in Visual Studio 2005. You’ll get one-of-a-kind expert advice directly from the product team on how to build powerful applications that leverage the .NET Framework 2.0. Registration: https://msevents-eu.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-GB&eventid=118758224 http://tinyurl.com/55rga

News Free event at Microsoft on Saturday 14th May 09:30-16:30 (welcome time at 09:00) DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! For the first time ever in the UK, Microsoft is hosting a unique, event for Developers to learn, share and hear from other Developers - NO Microsoft speakers will present. DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper is designed to be an informal day; the agenda will be determined by the developer community. You will have the opportunity to see new faces present in a relaxed atmosphere. Activities will include presentations on a wide range of topics, a networking area and fun zone. And as it’s often it’s hard to justify a day off work to attend training and events, the DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper day is being held on a Saturday and is FREE. Registration: https://msevents-eu.microsoft.com/cui/EventDetail.aspx?culture=en-GB&eventid=118757999 http://tinyurl.com/6e8vs

News Next meeting on Monday, May 16th at Microsoft Campus, Building 3 Topics to include Driving Office with Visual Studio MS Windows Installer .NET ClickOnce Registry delvings Full agenda at http://richplum.net/meeting/20050516.pdf

News As .NET 2.0 Beta 2 nears readiness/is ready, we see that MS are dropping the .NET moniker: VB.NET (aka Visual Fred) -> Visual Basic JScript.NET -> Jscript Some feature drop ENC for C# Performance enhancements, e.g. in JIT

News Beer not fattening: official http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4329323.stm What actually causes the beer belly is the overwhelming desire to partake of an enormous kebab or plate of curry after a particularly robust session, the BBPA (British Beer & Pub Association) says

News