PDC 2005 - Day Three Review
PDC is now over and I finally have time to tell you about Day 3. :-)
It started with an outstanding session "Advanced Data Access Patterns" by Pablo Castro. We saw Pablo in a great Data session (DAT200) the day before (he coded by hand avoiding code snippets which drew some jokes among the speakers) so we knew we were in for a good one with a whole session by him. The format for the session was fantastic - he planned the agenda based on the 4 most common ADO.NET problems based on customer feedback and then proceeded to answer them all with examples and implementations in ADO.NET 2.0. He showed off the new SqlDependency class and how it can be used for "smart" caching with notifications of changes being sent back from SQL Server (wow!). He also delved into how DataSets can now be used as an efficient caching system (harking back to the late 90's idea of the "in memory database") and then proceeded to layer a series of custom Qxxx classes with the DataSet to show how joins, projections and filters could be used on the tables in the DataSet. Pablo stated that the new DataSet in ADO.NET 2.0 has been significantly reworked to improve performance - putting a million records in it is no longer a problem. They have eliminated the exponential performance issues where things degraded based on the volume of data. Definitely look for Pablo's session (DAT408) in the post-conference slides and downloads.
I caught a Team System presentation (TLN312) in the afternoon but it had a few glitches (the first I had seen at PDC). The demonstration of testing (both unit and web/recorded tests) and coverage analysis seemed a little rough around the edges. Being seasoned TDD'ers, we might be a little critical but the IDE seems a little cluttered and might not be optimal for productivity. The web/recorded tests are also a strange thing for TDD since they appear to require the UI to exist to generate the test. The presenter did show a "convert to code" feature so maybe the recorded is still useful. To explain: writing the test first (as TDD requires) is difficult if the UI has to already exist. Bearing in mind that Team System is a first release and carries loads of features, I think it is fair to give a little slack and say that it is a remarkable platform and achievement by Microsoft. I can't wait to free up a full system (not a VPC) for an install!
I got to meet up with our local Microsoft Developer Community Champion, Geoff Snowman, in the Track Lounges to compare PDC impressions. Geoff was impressed with the tracks to date and pointed out the strategic vision across all technologies that PDC provides which was something that hadn't occurred to me.
Bob (yes, the Bob) and I also started discussions on a new thycotic venture, project ihawu, in the afternoon. Keep posted for more info on ihawu.
The trip was rounded out by a fantastic steak dinner at the local Morton's that evening which was a fabulous end to an exciting week.