Please Don’t Read This Blog Post
Scott Hanselman, who has the most popular blog in the world, will tell you that if you want to have a popular blog you must never make promises – you’re certain to disappoint. I’m sure he’s right, as I’ve done so in the past (made promises and disappointed), so please don’t read this blog post because I’m about to tell you what videos and tutorials I expect to create in the next few months and we all know that the unexpected will change my plans.
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Isn’t that a bit of a tautology? If it were expected, then I’d be a fool not to have planned for it. So clearly it must be the unexpected that changes my plans, even if it is just that I turn out to be unexpectedly stupid and lazy. Can you imagine if the expected came up and changed my plans? How would I explain that? “Sorry this is late, but just what I thought would happen did, and so I couldn’t get to it. Hate when that happens.” |
The reason I have to ignore (or at least bend) Scott’s guidance is this: I’m finding there are quite a few developers who want to learn about (for example) data binding and other Silverlight topics but who would like a bit of help with some of the more advanced and/or newer topics in C# (/VB), including:
- Anonymous Types
- Linq
- Linq to SQL
- Linq to Entities
- Linq to Objects
- Linq to XML
- The var keyword
- Lamda Expressions
- Extension Methods
- Web Services
- Object Initialization
- Exchanging data to and from ASPX pages
This Ain’t No Bell Curve
All my unscientific surveys indicate that the folks who are reading this blog and coming to this site do spread out along the spectrum of experience, but there is a noticeable clustering at two distinct points: “getting started” and “getting serious”
I will readily admit that we (I?) have been a lot better at talking about meeting the needs of the latter group than actually doing so.
The Next Three to Six Months (or less) (or more)
Clearly we need more videos and tutorials on…
- Templates and Custom controls including exploration of Dependency Properties and the Parts and States Model
- The Data Grid (and Data Binding) including interacting with Data Sources, Data Services, and the artist formerly known as Astoria
- The Graph Controls
- Interacting with ASP.net Pages
- Streaming
- Isolated Storage
Because these topics will use many of the techniques and skills listed above (Linq, web services, etc.) I plan to create mini-tutorials in my blog covering this background material with 27 8 by 10 color glossy pictures with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one is, to be used as evidence against us.
VB As A First Class Citizen
As part of my vow never to say anything political on this blog again, I will not even go near the VB/;C# debate discussion except to say that my VB book tanked, but I do like the language and I’m committed to making sure all my tutorials are in both VB and C# and that my videos have their code available in both languages. That said, the blog is in C# because, to be totally honest, it is the language that I’m more fluent in. (unlike English as you can see). (Kurt Vonnegut said “English is my second language; unfortunately I don’t have a first language.”)
I apologize to those of you who prefer VB and I’ll do what I can to make myself equally obscure in both languages.
Schedule
The developers at Silverlight Geek™ have not yet announced a release schedule, but I understand they are working hard and expect to have something for you “Real Soon Now.” We’ll be on a RSN schedule for the foreseeable future, what has the incredible advantage of always being on time. (Have you noticed that the airlines are now 97% on time through the expedient of increasing the estimated time by 25%?)
Thank you for not reading this and I look forward to actually having something to say very soon.
-jesse