Pete Brown's Blog (POKE 53280,0)
Pete Brown writes on a variety of topics from XAML with the Windows Runtime (WinRT), .NET programming using C#, WPF, Microcontroller programming with .NET Microframework, .NET Gadgeteer, Windows on Devices, and even plain old C, to raising two children in the suburbs of Maryland, woodworking, CNC and generally "making physical stuff". Oh, and Pete loves retro technology, especially Commodore (C64 and C128). If the content interests you, please subscribe using the subscription link to the right of every page.
Archive for tag:
Silverlight
-
I recently upgraded my main desktop PC to Windows 8. When I did
that, the Microsoft LifeCam software stopped working. It was
recognized as incompatible with Windows 8. For most people, this is
not an issue, as it works perfectly fine with the built-in Windows
8 camera app.
For me, however, I need a small camera app sitting on my desktop
so I can see the hallway leading to my office. I...
-
It's customary for a Manning book to be the Deal of the Day
shortly after it is released. My book, Silverlight 5 in
Action, is the Manning Deal of the Day for June 6, 2012.
Using the information and code below, you can get half off
(50% off) the retail purchase price. This deal is good
only for 24 hours, so be sure to pick it up now!
Buy it Here
http://www.manning.com/pbrown2...
-
Today we released the Windows 8 Release Preview (RP)! I haven't
been this excited about an operating system since Windows 95 first
came out, when there was no such thing as downloading an OS, and we
had to actually wait in line in a store to get our blue cloud box
full of floppies (or was it a CD? I forget).
Windows 95 was a big deal for users and developers alike. It had
a brand new ...
-
It took forever to edit and print such a huge tome, but I'm
happy to say that Silverlight 5 in Action is now in. You should see
them available from Manning this week, and from Amazon next week.
Here are my four boxes, just delivered today. The UPS man
probably hates it when he has to deliver books to my place. At 968
pages each, they're pretty heavy. That top box: 1 book. Plu...
-
Last September, I introduced the idea of Tasks in Silverlight.
One of the things I really like about .NET 4.5, and the C# compiler
that comes with it, is the ability to simplify asynchronous code by
using the async modifier and await operator. Just yesterday, I posted a bit on how these two keywords are used by
the compiler to take care of all the heavy lifting of asynchronous
code.
T...
-
This past Monday (May 14th), I officially started a new role at
Microsoft. I like to be as transparent as possible, so I thought
I'd share with you all the details of this role as well as where I
was before I moved to it.
TL;DR:
XAML. Windows. Developers. 'nuf said.
A little (optional) history
I've been working for Microsoft for a bit over two and a half
years now. In that...
-
A reader tipped me off that the AdventureWorks schema has
changed since I (and my tech reviewers) last downloaded a copy.
Some of the schema changes make the database unworkable with the
in-book examples for Silverlight 4 in Action and Silverlight 5 in
Action. In particular, the Person table is no longer there in
recent versions.
A version of the database that is compatible with the e...
-
This connect bug describes an issue with creating certain types
of Silverlight projects in Visual Studio. If you're referencing
Silverlight 4 DLLs from a Silverlight 5 project, you may run into
this
code analysis/FXCop issue yourself if code analysis is part of
your process. The core of the problem is a versioning decision in
Silverlight 5 which results in compile-time violation due ...
-
You may have noticed that your current copy of Expression Blend
for Silverlight 5 expires in the next day or two. A new version of
Expression Blend Preview for Silverlight 5 is now out. Get it here.
This new version has the all important go-live license, and also
extends the expiration date to June 20, 2013 (over a year from
now)..
More information on the Expression Blend Team Blog.
-
Recently, a reader asked how they should go about
setting the Typography properties from code-behind.
The original question was about Silverlight, but the approach
works in WPF, Windows 8 and more.
Given the following markup:
<StackPanel>
<TextBlock x:Name="OriginalText"
FontSize="72"
FontFamily="Gabriola"
Text="Hello ...
-
Over the years, I've conditioned myself to use the Uri class
when surfacing web URLs in my application. Early versions of
Silverlight couldn't bind an image source directly to an instance
of a Uri because they lacked an appropriate type converter; the
usual workaround was to change the property to a string type.
Subsequent versions Silverlight added that capability and the
converter. ...
-
At the South Florida Code Camp last week, I gave an early
morning talk titled "Getting Started with XAML". In this talk, I
covered the basics of XAML, the property system, layout, and other
things you need to know as a XAML developer for WPF, Silverlight,
or Windows 8.
Slides
Attached to this post
Demos
It was all real-time stuff in this talk. No downloadable demos.
I...
-
At the South Florida Code Camp I gave a newer version of the
REST Silverlight talk using the just released MVC 4 Beta and
ASP.NET Web API.
This talk shows how to share code between different versions of
the framework, how to use the ASP.NET Web API from Silverlight, and
how to integrate a Silverlight application into an MVC 4 site.
Powerpoint Slides
Attached to this post
...
-
At the South Florida Code Camp, I gave the "Lap Around
Silverlight 5" talk. The slides and code are all available via the
links below.
Powerpoint Slides
Attached to this post
Demos and Examples
The Big List of What's New or Improved in Silverlight 5 - Pete
Brown's 10rem.net
Threading Considerations for Binding and Change Notification in
Silverlight 5
Crea...
-
The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of
interest to Windows Client Developers, including WinRT XAML, WPF, Silverlight, Visual
C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows
7, Windows
Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services and
more. Sometimes I even include a little jQuery and HTML5. If you
have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you
blog regu...
Published
Wednesday, February 8, 2012 |
Tagged:
.NET, WPF, Silverlight, XNA, CPP, WindowsClient, WindowsClientRoundup, Kinect, Windows8, XAML |
-
While doing the (long!) tech review for Silverlight 5 in Action,
my friend and former coworker Tom McKearney mentioned
that we should put together some code to make handling windows
across multiple monitors a reasonable task in Silverlight 5. Then,
on a mailing list, I recently saw the question:
Hi all -- I'm wondering if there is a maximum window size for
Silverlight documented any...
-
Late last week, I cracked open the Commodore 64 emulator
code once again, in preparation to post it. However, I had to
have a change made to the source control on CodePlex, so I had a
few days to make some changes. So far, it's shaping up quite
nicely:
I went back to the latest version of the Frodo C64
emulator source code and decided to port some of their changes
over to this ve...
-
The Windows Client Developer Roundup aggregates information of
interest to Windows Client Developers, including WinRT XAML, WPF, Silverlight, Visual
C++, XNA, Expression Blend, Surface, Windows
7, Windows
Phone, Visual Studio, WCF RIA Services and
more. Sometimes I even include a little jQuery and HTML5. If you
have something interesting you've done or have run across, or you
blog regu...
Published
Wednesday, January 11, 2012 |
Tagged:
.NET, Silverlight, 3d, XNA, CPP, WindowsClient, WindowsClientRoundup, Kinect, Windows8, XAML |
-
A reader of my Silverlight 5 book recently reached out to
me about threading and why I create some objects on the UI thread
in the examples. We discussed some of the reasons, but I felt this
would be a good topic to share with everyone. In fact, this is one
area where it would have been fun to go into great detail in my
book, but there simply wasn't the space. Threading and cross-thread
...
-
I recently posted an updated version of Silverlight reporting on
codeplex. Here's the overview.
This project, a unofficial project by Pete Brown of Microsoft,
provides a a very basic framework for building simple, short,
multi-page reports using Silverlight 5.
The intent is not to be an all-encompassing reporting solution,
or a solution for large reports. Instead, this is a set ...
-
This talk was an adaptation of two chapters from Silverlight 5
in Action. I started with a brief explanation of REST, and then
explained the solution we were going to build during the session.
The idea was to show how you can use REST in place of the heavier
Soap approach in many cases, and make your services accessible to
far more clients.
I also showed how to share model objects bet...
-
Look what just came out, and well in time to beat the Christmas
rush :) Yes, it's Silverlight 5. We had originally announced that
Silverlight 5 would be out by the end of this year, and I'm glad to
report that it has made it in in time to give everyone something
interesting to play with over the holidays. My congratulations to
the engineering, marketing, support, and documentation te...