-
-
Collaborative Development Part 1 - Source Control
Lauren Clarke argues that effective collaborative software development—especially for distributed teams—requires robust source control: she explains core versioning concepts, practical benefits (rollback, diffs, branching, sharing, deployment), and gives a how-to for Visual SourceSafe while evaluating SourceGear’s SOS Collab for remote access and integrated project tools, concluding that adopting automated version control is indispensable for team productivity and reliability.
-
Understanding the Crypto API
You know about the importance of securing your data.But, how do you add industrial strength security to your program? The answer is simple: use the Windows Crypto API.
-
Testing SQL Server 2000: Inspecting Configuration Information
Testing SQL Server is an often-overlooked area of the software development process, because programmers primarily place testing focus on code residing in the middle tier or the client desktop, rather than the database. However, as SQL Server databases become a more important component of applications, they cannot be left out of the developer's testing process. An important place to start, to ensure your code works the way you want it to, is with SQL Server configuration.The focus of this column is to examine issues dealing with testing SQL Server 2000 databases using SQL Server's built in language, Transact-SQL, as the primary testing tool.
-
Top 10 .NET Framework Classes
Microsoft .NET brings many important advances to the software engineering world.We believe that Windows developers everywhere have reason to celebrate the arrival of .NET, but Visual Basic developers should be the most ecstatic. We get true inheritance, structured exception handling, and a state-of-the-art IDE?but, perhaps the coolest thing .NET provides us as VB developers is the Framework Class Library (FCL). To commemorate the release of .NET, we thought we would present what we consider to be the top ten most useful, utterly awesome (and coolest) classes bundled inside the .NET FCL.
-
20 Cool Visual Studio .NET IDE Features
For the first time ever, Visual Studio has a language independent Integrated Developers Environment (IDE), which includes a number of new productivity enhancements. However, many of the most powerful features are not obvious.
-
UML Sequence Diagrams
In this article, Kevin McNeish explains how UML sequence diagrams document the time-ordered message exchanges that implement use-case logic, describes their core elements (objects, lifelines, messages, focus of control), and shows step-by-step how to create diagrams (including object creation/deletion, recurrence, color/notes) using a checkout example; he argues sequence diagrams clarify object responsibilities, reveal unnecessary interactions, and improve design of process-intensive application logic.
-
Review: xCase v. 6.01
Daniel Leclair reviews xCase 6.01 as a cost-effective, full-featured desktop data-modeling tool that now offers improved forward/reverse engineering, broader DBMS support (including built-in Visual FoxPro), faster performance, and enhanced diagramming, making it a strong alternative to pricier packages; he notes remaining quirks (UDF handling, export limits, strict relation detection) but concludes the improvements and responsive vendor support make xCase a highly recommended solution for everyday database design and maintenance.
-
Providing User Assistance
One of the painful realities of software is that as it becomes increasingly rich with features, it becomes increasingly difficult to use.Despite the best intentions of software companies to design usable software, there is often a large conceptual gap between what users know and what software designers expect users to know. For a simple application, the gap may be small. For complex applications, the conceptual gap can be huge. As this conceptual gap widens, users are more likely to rely on software documentation and support services, resulting in decreased user productivity.
-
Is it live or is it Memorex?
David Stevenson surveys the trajectory of technology and brand adaptation, tracing Memorex’s shift from audio cassettes and data tapes to modern media and flash solutions, while paralleling the excitement and uncertainty surrounding Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET launch. He contrasts hype with hands-on experience, urging readers to test new tools as they become available and to trust practical usage over speculation. The piece also promotes CODE Magazine’s evolving distribution, the DEVX partnership, and community participation, inviting readers to engage with ongoing innovations and future-oriented resources.
