23 May 2006

Add Intellisense to SQL Server

SQL Server
Have you ever wished you could have Intellisense when writing queries in Visual Studio's Server Explorer, SQL Server's Query Analyzer, or SQL Server 2005's Management Studio? Well, now you can! red-gate is currently offering their SQL Prompt product for free until September 1st, 2006.SQL Prompt gives you the power of Intellisense for SQL. Here are a list of features:Table/View name completionColumn name completionStored procedure name completionUSE completionJOIN/JOIN ON completionAuto-uppercasing of keywordsAuto-popup after keywords This utility is a great time saver. Get it while it's free!
Read More
19 May 2006

Team Foundation Server Dog Food

TFS
Brian Harry has posted an article on how Microsoft has started eating their own dog food by implementing Team Foundation Server within their own ranks. He details several of the issues they have ran into so far - most of which are related to the sheer size of their various projects. For example, one of the statistics he posts is the number of files and folders currently in their TFS system - 13,137,178 files and 1,677,668 folders. That's a lot of files although, according to his post, it will be a lot more than that by the time they're through.Brian…
Read More
19 May 2006

Planning a Team Project

TFS
I came across a nice document today on Microsoft's MSDN site that helps with planning new Team Projects. Although this document has probably been around for a little while, this was the first time I had seen. It provides a nice flowchart-like approach to planning Team Projects (e.g. do you create a new project or add to an existing project?).Before creating a team project, you should carefully plan the scope of the project and consider the future path for the modification, growth, and maintenance of the team project. This topic presents a list of questions you must answer to determine…
Read More
16 May 2006

Microsoft Launches CodePlex

TFS
Microsoft has launched a beta version of its new community software project development site - CodePlex.CodePlex is an online software development environment for open and shared source developers to create, host and manage projects throughout the project lifecycle. It has been written from the ground up in C# using .NET 2.0 technology with Team Foundation Server on the back end. CodePlex is open to the public free of charge.Since CodePlex is based on Team Foundation Server you can connect to the CodePlex site via the Team Client which will then display all projects for which you are a member.You have…
Read More
15 May 2006

Tech-Ed 2006 – Boston Sold Out

Conferences
It's official... Tech-Ed 2006 in Boston is now officially sold out! Luckily I was able to register early on so I'll be there. If you were not able to register and would still like to attend, you can sign up for the waiting list.See you there!
Read More
12 May 2006

Class Designer PowerToys

Utilities
Although the PowerToys for the Visual Studio 2005 Class Designer and Distributed System Designers have been around for a while now (last release was December 1, 2005) I have just recently started to use them. There is some very useful functionality built into these PowerToys. Actually, there is surprising amount of functionality built in and I've only started to make use of some of it.You can download the source code and the installer from the gotdotnet workspace.Here is a list of features:Design Tools EnhancementsDiagram SearchFormatting CommandsFloating Property GridPan/Zoom Window (a personal favorite)Design Surface Scrolling ImprovementsCreate Comments with Double-ClickDesign Surface GridClass…
Read More
05 May 2006

INDC Talk: Top Ten Tips for Team Foundation Server

TFS, Tips
Martin Woodward blogs about his list of Top 10 Tips for Team Foundation Server. There is some very good information in these tips as well as links to other useful Team Server related information. He also inlcudes a link to his PowerPoint presentation.
Read More
04 May 2006

Consolas Font Pack for VS 2005

Visual Studio
Microsoft has released a set of monospaced ClearType fonts, called Consolas, intended for use in programming environments (e.g. VS 2005). In the past, I've not been a huge fan of ClearType fonts (they tend to look a little fuzzy to me). However, I've been using the Consolas fonts for about a day and, so far, I like it. I did have to bump my original font size up to 11 (from 10) to get rid of most of the "fuzziness". Per the Consolas download page:Brief DescriptionOptimized for Microsoft ClearTypeThe Microsoft Consolas Font Family is a set of highly legible fonts…
Read More
04 May 2006

New Sidekicks

TFS
A while back I blogged about the Workspace Sidekick from Attrice. They have released a new version of Workspace Sidekick as well as a brand new sidekick called Status Sidekick.Status Sidekick allows you to view pending changes for your Team Projects in a hierarchical format. The best feature of this utility is that it allows you to unlock one or more locked files/folders and/or undo pending changes on files/folders. Very handy if you don't want to break out the command line documentation :-)Check out the Sidekicks page for more details.
Read More