CodeGuru Update eNewsletter – August 16th, 2005

–> Editorial -
… Recently Published Books

–> New Articles on CodeGuru:
==> C#
- New Features in C#
==> C# Syntax
- Using Nullable Types in C#
==> Chat
- Remoting Chat Application
==> Controls
- How to Display UNICODE Characters in a CListCtrl or a CEdit
==> Database
- FREETEXT Searches with SQL Server and ADO.NET
==> Internet
- [Updated] A C# FTP Server
==> Regular Expressions
- [Updated] TIP: A Quick Way to Write Public Properties in C#
==> Samples
- Airplanes: Bomber, a Socket-Based Game

–> Discussion Groups — HOT Threads
– this.textBox1.GetLineFromCharIndex
- Construction Limitations
– Will sizeof( long ) always be 4?

–> Highlighted new articles on Developer.com
1. Open Source Article Index
2. Building a J2ME Application in NetBeans 4.1
3. AJAX: Asynchronous Java + XML?

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Comments from the Editor
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It has been an interesting week. One of the most interesting topics I’ve come across has been in regard to version numbering for programming languages.

Consider a language such as C++. What is the version number of C++? If you think about this for a while, you will hopefully respond that there isn’t really a version number, but rather a specification standard that defines the C++ language.

For C++, this is ISO/IEC 14882:2003.

The same is true for the C language. The ISO/IEC 9899-1999 standard defines the C language. Of course, there are fixes to the C standard from 2001 and 2004.

Looking at C and C++, you’ll see that such standard languages don’t really have version numbers. If they did, what would the version number be based on? Would it be the number of standards specifications that were released? Would it bae based on the number of times the compilers were updated (which compiler)?

It gets interesting to ponder this. Maybe there is an answer and I’m just unaware. If there is and you know it, share it with me and I’ll pass the information on to the other readers of this newsletter.

Why my sudden interest in version numbers? It is simple.

C# is a new language. The Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (Whidbey) product will be supporting the latest standard for the C# language. You are going to see lots of articles on “C# 2.0.” The question is, what makes this 2.0? If you check out the standards specification for C# (ECMA-334), you’ll find that it is labeled as a third edition. So would that really make C#’s version number 3.0?

Based on feedback from a person at Microsoft, the next release of C# is 2.0. For Microsoft, it is their second version of C#; however, that means it is really version 2 of Visual C# .NET — their language compiler. Microsoft, however, is not the owner of the C# language specification, so you can’t base the langauge’s version number on the Microsoft product!

The bottom line is that version numbers on programming languages can quickly cause mass confusion. Add to that the version numbers on the tools and it only gets worse. With C#, the third edition of the specification was accepted. Whether this results in the second edition of the language (or the third) isn’t as important as making sure you know which standard your compiler supports.

Until next week

Brad! (version 1.1)
—————————
Bradley L. Jones (version 1.0)
www.CodeGuru.com
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… Recently Published Books

For those of you keeping up by reading books. The following are just a few of the new books that have been recently released. If you’ve read any of these, feel free to write a review to be posted on CodeGuru. See the submission guidelines at:

https://www.codeguru.com/review-guidelines.php

–> Service-Oriented Architecture
By Thomas Erl for Prentice Hall/PTR
780 pages, hardbound for $44.99
http://books.internet.com/books/0131858580

–> Building Websites with teh ASP.NET Community Starter Kit
By K.Scott Allen & Cristian Darie for Packt Pubilshing
280 pages for $44.99
http://books.internet.com/books/1904811000
(From 2004)

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New & Updated Articles on CodeGuru
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Following are short descriptions of new articles on CodeGuru. If you are interested in submitting your own article for inclusion on the site, then you will find guidelines located at

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,fka1,909i,jorm,i5r0

This week’s posted CodeGuru articles:

==> C#

– New Features in C#
By Bradley Jones
A list of the key new features in from the ECMA-334 C# 3rd Edition and ECMA-335 CLI specifications. (From the July 26th CodeGuru newsletter)

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,8p1w,6pvr,jorm,i5r0

==> C# Syntax

– Using Nullable Types in C#
By Bradley Jones
The next release of C# (ECMA-334, 3rd Edition) includes the ability to use nullable data types. If you are unfamiliar with nullable types, this introduction is for you!

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,ly9v,h23b,jorm,i5r0

==> Chat

– Remoting Chat Application
By Jayant Kulkarni
The application is designed using .NET remoting framework 1.0. .NET remoting provides a very powerful framework for the distributed application.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,j9e2,eza3,jorm,i5r0

==> Controls

– How to Display UNICODE Characters in a CListCtrl or a CEdit
By Alin
Here’s an easy way to incorporate Unicode characters into your programming.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,2zbt,i95a,jorm,i5r0

==> Database

– FREETEXT Searches with SQL Server and ADO.NET
By Paul Kimmel
Learn how to install, configure, and use the MS Search Engine with SQL Server. Once installed, MS Search permits you to perform fuzzy searches of small and large amounts of character-based data.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,emw,j0kn,jorm,i5r0

==> Internet

– [Updated] A C# FTP Server
By darwen
An example FTP server written in C#.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,i1bd,fswo,jorm,i5r0

==> Regular Expressions

– [Updated] TIP: A Quick Way to Write Public Properties in C#
By pete#
Learn about a very quick and easy way to create public properties for member variables inside a class using regular expressions.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,hph1,disi,jorm,i5r0

==> Samples

– Airplanes: Bomber, a Socket-Based Game
By williamx
An online puzzle game.

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,ijsz,7mac,jorm,i5r0

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Discussion Groups
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Check out the CodeGuru discussion forums at:

http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,bcr8,cx5j,jorm,i5r0

Forums include Visual C++, General C++, Visual Basic, Java, General Technology, C#, ASP.NET, XML, Help Wanted, and much, much, more!

… HOT THREADS …

Some of the current threads with the most activity are:

==> this.textBox1.GetLineFromCharIndex
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,a8h9,h95t,jorm,i5r0

==> Construction Limitations
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,lf0p,eab9,jorm,i5r0

==> Will sizeof( long ) always be 4?
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,x2o,8x0z,jorm,i5r0

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New Articles on Developer.com
==========================================================

Below are some of the new articles that have been posted to Developer.com (http://www.developer.com).

1. Open Source Article Index
By Developer.com
Looking for information on an Open Source language or tool? Here is a good place to start.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,9pqv,jw0b,jorm,i5r0

2. Building a J2ME Application in NetBeans 4.1
By Dick Wall –
Write a Java Mobile Edition Application quickly and easily using NetBeans 4.1 and the Mobility Pack.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,t4e,npf,jorm,i5r0

3. AJAX: Asynchronous Java + XML?
By Coach K. Wei –
Discover the world of AJAX, the generic application model that can enable more interactive, more responsive, and smarter Web applications.
http://nl.internet.com/ct.html?rtr=on&s=1,1tro,1,1cov,42sp,jorm,i5r0

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