Red Gate SSMS Ecosystem - The free SQL Server Management Studio Add-In Framework and Store (with both paid and free items)

simple talk - David Pond - Introducing the Red Gate SSMS Ecosystem

The Red Gate SSMS Ecosystem is a framework that makes it easy to develop, share and manage SSMS add-ins. We aim to help add-in developers build everything from homegrown solutions and community-driven projects to commercial solutions provided by partner companies. We hope that DBAs and database developers will benefit from better integrated tools.

Red Gate has lots of experience developing tools that integrate with SSMS. Over time, we’ve built a collection of common libraries and APIs that make developing SSMS add-ins much simpler. We’ve made these available free, so developers can build their own SSMS add-ins and integrate them with other tools.

The SSMS Ecosystem is a work in progress. Over time, we’ll be introducing new API features and adding add-ins to our directory. The initial benefit is the ability to integrate your tools with SSMS. In the future, we want to enable add-ins to use more Red Gate technologies and integrate with each other. Eventually, the SSMS Ecosystem will have a distribution platform similar to the Visual Studio Gallery where you can share, discover, and manage add-ins.

...

The Red Gate SSMS Ecosystem is a framework that makes it easy to develop, share and manage SSMS add-ins. We aim to help add-in developers build everything from homegrown solutions and community-driven projects to commercial solutions provided by partner companies. We hope that DBAs and database developers will benefit from better integrated tools.

Red Gate has lots of experience developing tools that integrate with SSMS. Over time, we’ve built a collection of common libraries and APIs that make developing SSMS add-ins much simpler. We’ve made these available free, so developers can build their own SSMS add-ins and integrate them with other tools.

The SSMS Ecosystem is a work in progress. Over time, we’ll be introducing new API features and adding add-ins to our directory. The initial benefit is the ability to integrate your tools with SSMS. In the future, we want to enable add-ins to use more Red Gate technologies and integrate with each other. Eventually, the SSMS Ecosystem will have a distribution platform similar to the Visual Studio Gallery where you can share, discover, and manage add-ins.

SSMS ecosystem project

The SSMS ecosystem project aims to enhance the SQL Server Management Studio experience by enabling tighter integration of SQL Server tools. The project will make it easier for DBAs and developers to customize their SSMS environment and optimize it for their work.

Get started

1. Install the framework. Click here to download.
2. Visit our Add-in directory and install something.

Tool developers

The project should make it easier to add functionality to SSMS. We hope this will encourage many people to develop and share tools. If you would like to develop a plugin, visit our Writing an add-in page.

Note

The ecosystem has to benefit all participants; users of SSMS, plugin developers and Red Gate. We reserve the right to withdraw the ecosystem if this is not the case.

Getting started

Notes

Add-ins using .NET 4.0 runtime can't be loaded in SQL Server Management Studio 2008R2 and earlier. NET 3.5 runtimes can be loaded into all SQL Server Management Studio versions.

Shared interfaces

You can download the latest shared interfaces from here: https://github.com/red-gate/SIPFrameworkShared

Framework

You will need to install the add-in from SSMS ecosystem project.

Installation

You need to make an entry in the Registry to tell our add-in host where to load you add-in from. You should create the registry entry in either:

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Add-in directory

• Premium with 30-day free trial

  • SQL Enlight
  • SQL Prompt
  • SQL Source Control
  • SQL Test
  • T-SQL Source Code Unscrambler
• Free
  • SQL Search

...

Free

SQL Search

Category: Navigation

SQL Search is an add-in for SQL Server Management Studio that lets you quickly search for SQL across your databases: find fragments of SQL text within stored procedures, functions, views and more; quickly navigate to objects wherever they happen to be on a server; find all references to an object.

Interesting project and one that I think there's a good deal of need for. Visual Studio has a very healthy Extension gallery, but SSMS much, much less so. If Red Gate by helping themselves also helps the community, well that's the definition of a win-win, isn't it?

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Two SQL Server Resources that you might want to take another look at...

Brent Ozar - Two SQL Server Resources That Improved When You Weren’t Looking

SQL Server learning materials seem to live at two extremes. Blog posts are short and to the point, but they don’t cover material in depth. Books are long and detailed, but to quote a famous philosopher, ain’t nobody got time for that.

Enter two resources that have been out for quite a while. They aim to cover subjects from start to finish, but in a way that you can digest in an hour.

Microsoft Books Online (Yes, Books Online!)

Microsoft Books Online earned a terrible reputation for being the last place you’d ever want to look for help. Look up the sys.databases view, for example, and you get gems like this:

...

SQL Server Central Stairways

SSC’s Stairways series covers topics start to finish with 5-15 tutorials from one or two authors. I love the consistency on these – you can settle in with one author and really dig into a topic with a logical flow. Think of it as an interactive book chapter, often with lots of demos you can run to illustrate concepts.

They’ve added stairways for T-SQL, indexes,

..."

Remember when we all hated, or even worse, ignored with disdain, MSDN doc's? You might want to take another look at them. They've improved dramatically over the last few years, and dare I say it, are even really useful now. Useful to the point I'm suggesting to vendors that they might want to take a look at them as a model for their doc's...

Brent's also seen this in the SQL Server docs.

As for SSC’s Stairways, this is the first I've heard of that (well I've heard of SQL Server Central and read its feeds daily, but not its Stairways feature), so I guess I'm revisiting it for the first time. :/

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[Kickstarter of the Day]Making your paper airplane smart (and powered) - "PowerUp 3.0 - Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane"

Kickstarter - PowerUp 3.0 - Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane

PowerUp 3.0 turns your self-made paper airplane into a smartphone-controlled flying machine

1. Fold It: Simply fold a piece of copier paper into a paper airplane
2. Attach It: Attach the Smart Module to your paper plane with the patented clips underneath the Smart Module.
3. Connect It: Start the app to connect to the Smart Module with your iPhone.
4. Fly It: Push throttle to full and launch the paper airplane high up into the sky. Tilt your smartphone to the left or to the right to steer your plane, increase or reduce throttle to go up or down.

...

...

Now if there was a Windows Phone or Windows Store App I'd be all over this. Even without it's pretty darn cool...

(via DIY Drones - PowerUp 3.0 - Smartphone Controlled Paper Airplane)

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Infographic for the English Grammar Challenged...

Daily Infographic - Basic English Grammar [infographic]

While English is my first language–and only fluent language–I sometimes have a hard time with its grammar, and I know I’m not the only one. I was an English major, and have only been out of school a few months now, but at times I can feel my basic grammar skills slipping away from me. Adjectives and tenses of words I have down pat, but some of the other English concepts mentioned in today’s graphic have become almost forgotten. (Spelling has started to get away from me too…thank goodness for spell check!)

...

(via Visual.ly - http://visual.ly/basic-english-grammar)

I can hear you all already, "Oh yeah Greg, you SO need this..."  I say this with all due respect, um shut? (Or was it, "byte me"... hummmm... yeah... LOL  ;)

Anyway, I thought this a great 1,000 words kind of thing (and yeah, some I need... again, um... shut up?)

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Taking File Explorer to 11! (Okay 10... ) - 10 Tips about Windows 8.1. File Explorer you might not know

next of windows - 10 File Explorer Tips You May Not Know You Can Do in Windows 8.1

Because I deal with folders and files almost on daily basis, Windows Explorer, now called File Explorer in Windows 8, is still my best friend and the program I use the most on my day to day work. Guess what? I actually quite like what the new File Explorer offers. It’s powerful, smooth, efficient, and user friendly, even the Ribbon bar looks quite nice to me. You may not agree but let me share with you these tips you may not be aware that you can do in this version of File Explorer.

1. Things you can do with Easy Access

...

There are a number of cool features and tips in this article. Some I knew but a bunch I didn't. If you use the Windows 8.1. File Explorer you should scan this article...

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Creating Per-Monitor DPI-Aware Applications Code Sample

Microsoft Developer Network - Samples - Per-Monitor Aware WPF Sample

This sample demonstrates updating a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application to be per-monitor DPI-aware.

The sample consists of two projects:

• NativeHelpers.vcxproj The native helper project that implements the core functionality to make a WPF application per-monitor DPI-aware
• WPFApplication.csproj A sample WPF application that inherits from the PerMonitorDPIWindow base class and showcases how the application window resizes when the user moves the window to another monitor with a different DPI or when the user changes the DPI by adjusting the Display slider in Control Panel.

...

In the coming year we're going to start seeing more and more of this, where our uses not only have multiple monitors but have them set at different DPI settings. This code sample will help you handle that gracefully in your LOB/WPF applications.

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Windows 8.1 Store App Paper Prototyping Templates

Jason Roberts Don't Code Tired - Paper Prototyping Templates for Windows 8.1 Store Apps

These are updated paper prototyping templates for Windows 8.1 Store apps.

The changes from the previous 8.0 versions are mostly to do with the removal of snapped and filled modes in Windows 8.1 Store apps; there are new versions for the new default minimum width of 500px and also for the optional minimum width of 320px.

...

Perfect Meeting-ware. Print out some of these bring them to your next meeting and you'll seem really engaged as you scratch away making those "notes" in your notebook. :)

To get them, just click through, right click on them and Save...

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Having your Amiga and Pi to... Using Raspberry Pi to Emulate an Amiga 500 Floppy Drive

Hack A Day - Raspberry Pi Emulates an Amiga 500 Floppy Drive

[Maurizio] loves using his Amiga 500. His classic piece of hardware has been serving him well for years, except for the floppy drive, which recently gave out on him. No problem for [Maurizio], he just cracked his case open and added a Raspberry Pi as a real-time floppy emulator. [Maurizio] didn’t want to make any permanent changes to his A500 case, and more importantly he wanted to use the Amiga’s original floppy drive interface. The latter placed some rather stringent timing requirements on his design.

The interface hardware is relatively simple. Most of the circuit is dedicated to level shifting from the 5v Amiga 500 to the 3.3V Raspberry Pi. A 74LS06 Hex inverter converts the signals to the open collector outputs the A500 requires. [Maurizio] powered his Raspberry Pi from the floppy power connector of the Amiga. His model A Raspberry Pi works fine, but a model B would pull a bit more power (700ma) than the Amiga floppy power supply is capable of providing (550ma). The user interface side of the equation is simple: Two buttons, one used to switch disks, and one to “Write to SD”. Live disk images are stored in the Raspberry Pi’s ram, so the user needs to hit the “Write to SD” button to store any changes to disk before swapping floppies.

The software is perhaps the most interesting portion of this build. ...

My week is not complete unless I hunt down that off the wall Amiga news item, post or project. This is the top for the month. :)

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[Humor] Death by Cube...

Agile Scout - The Slow Cubicle Death – Welcome to Corporate America [Funny]

This guy does say:

“Pushing me to the brink of homicide… maybe lose my mind… maybe kill him.”

Since people at work might (maybe, could be, okay they never do, but just in case...) I'm going to keep my comments to myself. But I did have a sympathetic laugh at this this morning...

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Happy VM Day! The Visual Studio 2013 RTM ALM Virtual Machine is now available

Brian Keller just shot me this email and I thought it important to blog about is ASAP (so you have a chance to download the VM's while on a faster work network... ;)

Just in time for Thanksgiving, I’m pleased to announce that the Visual Studio 2013 RTM ALM Virtual Machine is now available!

This virtual machine replaces the previous Visual Studio 2013 ALM virtual machine which was based on Preview bits. This is a publicly downloadable set of content, so you may feel free to share this with your customers, partners, etc. It’s designed to be both a tool for demonstrating our ALM story and as a self-paced training environment for learning how to use our ALM tools.

This virtual machine is configured with: · Microsoft Windows Server 2012 Standard Evaluation · Microsoft Visual Studio Ultimate 2013 · Microsoft Visual Studio Team Foundation Server 2013 · Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2013 (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook) · Microsoft Visio Professional 2013 · Microsoft Release Management for Visual Studio 2013 · Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Standard · Sample users and data required to support hands-on-lab scripts which accompany this download and exercise 4 new ALM scenarios.

Public URL: http://aka.ms/vs13almvm

More ALM virtual machines and hands-on-labs / demo scripts (including VS 2012, Project Server/TFS, and SCOM/TFS) can be found at http://aka.ms/ALMVMs.

What’s next? In the next sprint we will be working on the following:

• Porting the hands-on-labs, demo scripts, and sample data from the VS 2012 ALM virtual machine to work with the Visual Studio 2013 ALM virtual machine.
• Building a set of assets and scripts to enable the Microsoft field to effectively learn and demonstrate Application Insights.

Enjoy!

Brian Keller
Principal Technical Evangelist
Visual Studio ALM
Blog: blogs.msdn.com/briankel
ALM 2012 Book: Professional ALM with Visual Studio 2012
TFS 2012 Book: Professional Team Foundation Server 2012
Visual Studio ALM Demos / hands-on-labs

Related Past Post XRef:
The HOL "Building a Release Pipeline with Team Foundation Server 2012" thing
Featuring Agile Planning and Portfolio Management with TFS2013 in these Hands On Labs
Visual Studio 2013 ALM and HOL VM now available...
VS2012 Update 1 ALM VM and HOL / Demo Scripts now available
The VS 2012 ALM Virtual Machine and VS 2012 Update 1 (In short, there's an updated VM coming, don't install it on this VM if you don't have too)
The big BK has updated the Visual Studio 2012 RC ALM Virtual Machine and Hands-on-Labs
VS 11 ALM DemoMates updated for the Beta
Visual Studio/TFS11 ALM Demo's... Mate! See the VS/TFS 11 ALM's hands-on-labs in DemoMate form
Visual Studio 11 ALM VHD's, VirtualBoxed (and even on x86 hosts too)
Want to play with Visual Studio 11 & TFS 11 Dev Preview but don't want to install it (and have access to a Hyper-V server)? Here's a VHD just for

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Being smart when opening SkyDrive Smart Files in Desktop app's/ .Net

.NET Framework Blog - Opening Files from SkyDrive using .NET

Summary First;

Summary

SkyDrive for Windows 8.1 introduced a new technology, called smart files. These files can be consumed just like regular files by using Windows Runtime APIs. However, applications that uses System.IO APIs will have problems when opening a smart file unless its content is fully downloaded on the device. With this blog post, we provided you a sample code that invokes Windows.Storage APIs by reflection. This sample code will enable you to write desktop apps that operates on smart files available on Windows 8.1 and also supports running on non-Windows Runtime platforms.

Back to the top;

Since Windows 8 I fell in love with SkyDrive and use it all the time now. Windows 8.1 has improved this a lot by introducing a new concept that requires some changes to the way you interact with files. In, this post Gaye Oncul Kok, Program Manager on the .NET Framework team, explains the key things .NET developers need to know when they read and write files stored on SkyDrive.

SkyDrive for Windows 8.1 introduced a new technology, called smart files, which gives access to the files in the cloud by providing their content on demand. The technology was designed to minimize the disk space utilization on your Windows 8.1 device. You can think of the smart files as the avatars of your cloud files on a device. They have the same appearance as regular files, allowing you to browse, search and do common file operations like viewing the properties or a thumbnail of the file without downloading the full content locally. When you want to open the file, or explicitly want to make it available offline, only then are the file’s contents streamed to your device.

...

SkyDrive's placholder files are smaller

From a .NET developers’ perspective, if you are developing a Windows Store App or a desktop app targeting platforms that has Windows Runtime support, your app can consume smart files just like regular files by using Windows.Storage APIs. However, applications that depend on .NET Framework System.IO APIs, such as File.Open() or FileInfo.Open(), will have problems, when operating on a smart file unless its content is fully downloaded on the device. This is due to the fact that the smart files are supported in the Windows Shell layer and above, whereas System.IO APIs resides on the Win32 layer.

If you want your desktop app to run on non-Windows Runtime platforms, such as Windows 7, and also work with SkyDrive smart files available with Windows 8.1 you can either use the related Shell APIs through COM-interop and platform invocations or provide two different implementations and distribute two versions of your app; one for Windows Runtime and the other for non-Windows Runtime platforms. There is a third option, which is provided in sample code. This code uses reflection to utilize Windows.Storage APIs, such as StorageFile.GetFileFromPathAsync and StorageFile.OpenAsync(), if the Windows Runtime types are available on the platform or falls back to System.IO APIs otherwise.

...

Sample Code to Open Smart Files in .NET Desktop Apps

Introduction

SkyDrive for Windows 8.1 introduced a new technology, called smart files, which gives access to the files in the cloud by providing their content on demand.  If you are developing a Windows Store App or a desktop app targeting platforms that has Windows Runtime support, your app can consume smart files just like regular files by using Windows.Storage APIs. However, applications that depend on .NET Framework System.IO APIs, such as File.Open() or FileInfo.Open(), will have problems, when operating on a smart file unless its content is fully downloaded on the device. This is due to the fact that the smart files are supported in the Windows Shell layer and above, whereas System.IO APIs resides on the Win32 layer.

If you want your desktop app to run on non-Windows Runtime platforms, such as Windows 7, and also work with SkyDrive smart files available with Windows 8.1 you can use this sample code to call  using reflection Windows.Storage APIs, such as StorageFile.GetFileFromPathAsync and StorageFile.OpenAsync(), if the Windows Runtime types are available on the platform or falls back to System.IO APIs otherwise.

Building the Sample

The sample contains one solution file: WindowsRuntimeLightup.sln. This solution file includes a single class library project: WindowsRuntimeLightup.csproj that targets .NET 4.5. This project can be built in VS 2012 or VS 2013. Since the calls to Windows Runtime APIs are through reflection,  no special project setting are required for using Windows Runtime APIs. After building the project, the output class library, WindowsRuntimeLightup.dll can be referenced in .NET desktop applications.

Description

This code uses reflection to utilize Windows.Storage APIs, such as StorageFile.GetFileFromPathAsync and StorageFile.OpenAsync(), if the Windows Runtime types are available on the platform or falls back to System.IO APIs otherwise.

The code provides the following public static methods in SmartFileLightUp class:

...

With this sample your app can be automagically adaptive and use the best API for your SkyDrive file access needs.

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If you're not cheating, you're not... using these new Windows Runtime Network API cheat sheets

Windows App Builder Blog - Network API cheat sheets available now in the download center

The network APIs have tremendous depth and enable your app to work in many ways.  But it can be hard to figure out how and when to use the different APIs.  To help you out, the Windows Networking Team has created poster-sized cheat sheets with overviews and code samples of the most popular network APIs.  And, we’re working on more!

The cheat sheets tell you about the different APIs. But which API is the right one to use, and when? Here's an easy way to figure it out:

• Are you connecting to an HTTP server?
  • For small, interactive transfers and to connect to web services for a mash-up type app, use the Windows.Web.Http HttpClient family of APIs. 
  • For larger transfers, or transfers that work even when your app is suspended, use the Windows.Networking.BackgroundTransfer classes.  It can also do FTP transfers. 
  • To pre-load data for your app, you can use Windows.Networking.BackgroundTransfer.ContentPrefetcher (which also works with the HttpClient classes)
• Are you connected to a classic TCP or UDP server?  Or to Bluetooth? Use the Windows.Networking.StreamSocket (TCP and Bluetooth) or DatagramSocket (UDP and Multicast) classes.
• Are you connecting to one of the new "WebSocket" servers?  They aren't classic sockets (and don't interoperate with classic sockets), but they can tunnel through corporate proxies and interoperate with up-to-date HTML5 browsers.  Websockets are in the Windows.Networking.Sockets namespace.
• Are you connecting to people in the same room? (For example, with Near Field Communication (NFC) tap to connect)?  If so, use the Windows.Networking.Proximity PeerFinder and related classes; this can give you back a StreamSocket that you can use to communicate with peers.

Our first pack of cheat sheets are for the HttpClient, Sockets, and Background Transfer APIs.  Download the pack now from the Microsoft Download Center. And let us know what other cheat sheets you need! [GD: Post Leach Level: 99%]

Microsoft Downloads - HttpClient. Background Transfer, and Sockets Network API Poster for Windows Runtime Developers

Windows runtime developers! This Network API poster describes some of the most popular Network APIs in the Windows Runtime classes. The set of posters includes HttpClient, Background Transfer, and Sockets 

Version: 8.1

Date Published: 11/13/2013

WinRT81-HttpClient-BT-Socket-Poster.pdf, 502 KB

The poster is provided in PDF format. When you print it from the PDF, specify the dimensions as landscape Tabloid size (11 inches by 17 inches).

Worse case, this will make for nice Cube Poster-ware... Best case it will help you build even more awesome .Net'enabled Windows Runtime app's... :)

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No If's here.. Jason Haley Web Appifys his Interesting Finds blog as SPA at ifreader.com

Jason Haley - The New IFReader (ifreader.com)

Last month, some of my project work slowed down – so I took the time to redesign and rewrite a useful single page application for reading the Interesting Finds blog entries.

The new site design is now out at http://ifreader.com (I have also started moving my other sites to the same style … the blog site is next).

IFReader.com has been around for awhile, but only provided the ability to see a daily or weekly listing.  The new app, allows you to filter and load more items of any of the sections that you want.  This is something I often want to do – just browse some links for a particular subject instead of all links for only a single day.

The new style uses bootstrap3, so it looks decent on a mobile device too.  I purchased a template from https://wrapbootstrap.com/ – which I first learned about from one of Shawn Wildermuth’s PluralSight videos (big thanks to him for mentioning it).  Saved me a ton of time.

The Views Count is incremented whenever someone clicks on the link (and yes if you click it multiple times I currently still increment each time).  The view count functionality has been there since the beginning – though now it is tied together using a custom knockout binding.

...

ifreader

I think it's a shame that Jason isn't a MVP yet. But maybe with his new SPA push, he can make to Web MVP'dom... And if not, we'll at least be able to follow him along on his journey.

In this case he's doing what I've always suggested to anyone who wants to learn a new dev area, technique, thing. Build around something you are personally interested in. And given how long Jason's been blogging, well...

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Jason's Spa (err... I mean, Jason Haley's new SPA, Single Page Application, Resource page)

A Feed You Should Read #1 – Jason Haley’s Interesting Finds
You're reading Jason Haley's link blog... right?
Jason Haley - Human Feed Aggregator Extrodinare

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Viasfora - Your new favorite Visual Studio Text/*ML Editing Extension?

Winterdom - Introducing Viasfora

A couple of days ago, I unveiled Viasfora, my latest attempt at building a decently packaged extension for Visual Studio 2010, 2012, and 2013. I had already published a few VS Extensions before (Keyword Classifier, BetterXml, Line Adornments, and Xaml Classifier Fix), but it was not overly successful. The reasons for this were several:

What is Viasfora?

Viasfora is a combination of my 3 most significant previous extensions. Keyword Classifier, BetterXml and Line Adornments. It puts them all in a single, nice package that includes full customizability through the Tools -> Options dialog in Visual Studio, including the ability to turn individual features on/off.

So what does Viasfora offer? Check the website for the full details, but here are some highlights:

• Current Line Highlighting, a native feature in VS2013, but supported on VS2010 and VS2012.
• Custom highlighting of Control Flow keywords, LINQ-related Keywords and Visibility keywords for C#, C/C++, JavaScript and Visual Basic (new!).
• Highlighting of character escape sequences in C# strings, which makes it real easy to spot them!
• Custom highlighting of XML namespace prefixes in XML/XAML/HTML documents.
• Highlighting closing element tags in XML/XAML/HTML documents in a different color as the opening element tag. This is one of my favorite features and one I often miss from Vim.
• Matching (through highlight) of opening/closing element tags in XML documents (new!).
• Tooltips for easy lookup of XML namespace prefixes.

Hopefully having a nice (if simple) website for the extension with all the information makes it easier for people to find and get interested in it. As with my previous extensions, complete source is available on the https://github.com/tomasr/viasfora/ repository.

...

Viasfora v1.1 Published

Tonight I pushed a new version of my Viasfora extension for Visual Studio. In this version, I fixed some features that were not working on Visual Studio 2013 due to the introduction of a new HTML editor, particularly highlighting closing HTML tags.

What’s exiting to me, however, is the new feature: Rainbow Parentheses:

This is a Visual Studio version inspired by one of my favorite Vim plugins. Features:

• Supported for C#, C/C++ and JavaScript files.
• Highlights {}, [] and () braces.
• Supports 4 different nesting levels, format for each one can be customized through the Tools -> Options dialog (Rainbow Parentheses 1-4).

Viasfora

A Visual Studio 2010, 2012, and 2013 extension that adds miscellaneous (but useful!) enhancements to the VS text editing experience.

Just caught this today and I think the new Rainbow Parentheses is worth the price (well, it's free and open source, but you get the idea)...

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Battling the Console Wars, one mini-3d print job at a time. Add this Mini Xbox One to your arsenal

Dave Nunez's Blog v2.0 - Mini Xbox One

To fight a console war, you need a console army. But at $500 a pop, it’s going to be expensive to draft your Xbox One battalions. Never mind, you can just print a bunch!

The latest in my mini gaming machines series – grab the files to print your own at Thingiverse.

Okay Santa, forget what I said before, a 3D Printer is what I really want... I've been, well, um, not bad this year... mostly. :)

(Via: Mini Xbox One 3D Printed Model: Xbox 0.1)

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[Book Review] 'LÖVE for Lua Game Programming'

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming

Preface
Chapter 1: Getting Started with LÖVE
Chapter 2: LÖving Up!
Chapter 3: Before You Build a Game
Chapter 4: Making Your First Game
Chapter 5: More About Making the Game
Chapter 6: Pickups and Head-Up Display and Sounds
Chapter 7: Meeting the Bad Guy!
Chapter 8: Packaging and Distributing Your Game

What you will learn from this book

• Create different environments to make your games more interesting
• Add sound and music to your games
• Apply game physics and real-time particle collisions
• Animate game characters using sprites
• Deploy your games to Windows, Linux, and Mac platforms

In Detail

LÖVE is a game development framework for making 2D games using the Lua programming language. LÖVE is totally free, and can be used in anything from friendly open-source hobby projects, to closed-source commercial ones. Using the Lua programming framework, one can use LÖVE2D to make any sort of interesting games.

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming will quickly and efficiently guide you through how to develop a video game from idea to prototype. Even if you are new to game programming, with this book, you will soon be able to create as many game titles as you wish without stress.

The LÖVE framework is the quickest and easiest way to build fully-functional 2D video games. It leverages the Lua programming language, which is known to be one of the easiest game development languages to learn and use. With this book, you will master how to develop multi-platform games for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. After downloading and installing LÖVE, you will learn by example how to draw 2D objects, animate characters using sprites, and how to create game physics and game world maps.

LÖVE for Lua Game Programming makes it easier and quicker for you to learn everything you need to know about game programming. If you’re interested in game programming, then this book is exactly what you’ve been looking for.

...

I read this book on Friday (while waiting for UPS to deliver my Xbox One... ;) and found it well paced and easy to follow. The book takes an incremental approach easing you into programing with LOVE and Lua. It is NOT a programming tutorial. It assumes you have some programming background and doesn't waste space on the things you are assumed to already know (like looping, functions, variables, etc, etc).

The author also does a nice job introducing you to common game dev tasks, like level design, tile usage, character animation, and so on. With 106 pages, you don't get depth but you do get a great initial introduction and in the end, a working game.

The "who this book is for" is spot-on;

This book is for aspiring game developers with a decent understanding of Lua scripting language, and anyone who wants to learn video game design. If you are looking for a step-by-step approach to learn how to design a game from idea to prototype quickly with a robust and easy-to-understand game engine, this book is for you.

If you are looking for a fun way to get started writing games, using all free tools, games that run cross platform, this book will help you get started.

 

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received one or more of the products or services mentioned above for free in the hope that I would mention it on my blog. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe my readers will enjoy. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

 

Related Past Post XRef:
[Book Review - Preview] 'LÖVE for Lua Game Programming'

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The TMI Infographic of the day... aka the world's saddest view of today's work environment?

Global Nerdy - The saddest infographic in the land

Let's see... Me, me, me, me, me, me and me... sigh...

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Windows Azure Learning Resource Link Round-up

Windows Azure Technical Support (WATS) Team Blog - Windows Azure Learning Resources

Microsoft has loads of resources to help you learn, understand and leverage Windows Azure cloud platform. This is our effort of listing the resources that are available to help you learn about the Windows Azure architecture, security, features and implementation.

• Architecture
• Features and Offerings
• Implementation Guide
• Understanding IaaS
• Windows Azure Security
• Windows Azure Training Kit

One of those days I'm going to have to Azure "for real" so thought to capture this nice and consolidated list of Azure training links...

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Opening EntLib - The Microsoft Enterprise Library moves to the Open Development Model

Grigori Melnik: Thoughts on Agile Software Engineering and Beyond - Microsoft Enterprise Library - Open Development Model

Microsoft Enterprise Library has a long and prominent history. Over the years, it has evolved into a mature collection of application blocks, each focused on addressing specific cross-cutting concern. New blocks have been introduced, while others become deprecated with the evolution of the .NET Framework and other Microsoft technologies.

In p&p we highly value openness and transparency, and we always look for opportunities to encourage these values. That’s why we are particularly thrilled and proud to announce the Open Development Model for all application blocks which make up Microsoft Enterprise Library.

Concretely, this means:

1. Starting Thursday, Nov 21, 2013, we will be accepting community contributions to the codebase (both new features and bug fixes), subject to the contribution guidelines.
2. Microsoft patterns & practices continues to staff the project to curate as well as engage in active development and sustained engineering together with the community.
3. In the spirit of true open source, the p&p project team will use the same process for making updates to the application blocks as any community member. No secret repositories, hidden issue trackers, or internal-only processes.
4. Our quality bars are not lowered in any way.

We target friction-free consumption and contribution:

We target friction-free consumption and contribution:

1. We’ve tried to make each block into a small single purpose library to lower the barrier of entry for both use and contributions. Dependencies have been minimized and most blocks can be used independent of one another.
2. The entlib.codeplex.com repo has been refactored and split into 10 individual repos and projects on CodePlex, 8 for the blocks, 1 for the common infrastructure and 1 for the reference implementation:
   • EntLibCommon.codeplex.com
   • Unity.codeplex.com
   • SLAB.codeplex.com
   • LAB.codeplex.com

   • EHAB.codeplex.com

   • DAAB.codeplex.com
   • Topaz.codeplex.com
   • VAB.codeplex.com
   • PIAB.codeplex.com
3. Each project site contains a dedicated product backlog and discussions forum.

...

EntLib pictured;

I swear, someone has kidnapped the old Microsoft and brainwashed it or something... Not that I'm complaining or anything! I love the Microsoft of the Teen's... :)

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Office/Exchange File Format,Specification and Protocol Documentation refreshed

Microsoft Office File Formats Documentation

The Microsoft Office file formats documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary file formats.

The documentation includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of file format relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

Version:	Date Published:
1113	11/20/2013
File name:	File size:
OfficeFileFormatsProtocols.zip	70.8 MB
[[ReadmefirstOffFileFormat]].pdf	137 KB
[MS-CTDOC].pdf	356 KB
[MS-CTXLS].pdf	419 KB
[MS-DOC].pdf	19.1 MB
[MS-DSEXPORT].pdf	485 KB
[MS-FFCHGTR].pdf	139 KB
[MS-ODCFF].pdf	840 KB
[MS-ODRAW].pdf	23.3 MB
[MS-OFCGLOS].pdf	1.6 MB
[MS-OFFCRYPTO].pdf	2.8 MB
[MS-OFFDI].pdf	766 KB
[MS-OFORMS].pdf	5.9 MB
[MS-OFREF].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-OGRAPH].pdf	5.9 MB
[MS-ONE].pdf	3.1 MB
[MS-ONESTORE].pdf	3.5 MB
[MS-OSHARED].pdf	6.3 MB
[MS-OVBA].pdf	2.9 MB
[MS-OWEMXML].pdf	1.1 MB
[MS-PPT].pdf	23.3 MB
[MS-PST].pdf	5.7 MB
[MS-WORDLFF].pdf	599 KB
[MS-XLDM].pdf	3.8 MB
[MS-XLS].pdf	41.5 MB
[MS-XLSB].pdf	41.1 MB

Microsoft Office Protocol Documentation

The Office protocol documentation provides detailed technical specifications for Microsoft proprietary protocols (including extensions to industry-standard or other published protocols) that are implemented and used in Microsoft Office client programs to interoperate or communicate with Microsoft products.

The documentation includes a set of companion overview and reference documents that supplement the technical specifications with conceptual background, overviews of inter-protocol relationships and interactions, and technical reference information.

Version:	Date Published:
1113	11/20/2013
File name:	File size:
OfficeProto.zip	59.4 MB
[[ReadmefirstOffProto]].pdf	147 KB
[MS-ABS].pdf	2.5 MB
[MS-AVEDGEA].pdf	916 KB
[MS-CONFAS].pdf	1,009 KB
[MS-CONFAV].pdf	2.0 MB
[MS-CONFBAS].pdf	4.1 MB
[MS-CONFIM].pdf	1.6 MB
[MS-CONFPRO].pdf	1.5 MB
[MS-CONMGMT].pdf	738 KB
[MS-DLX].pdf	936 KB
[MS-DTMF].pdf	551 KB
[MS-E911WS].pdf	755 KB
[MS-EUMR].pdf	748 KB
[MS-EUMSDP].pdf	458 KB
[MS-GRVDYNM].pdf	982 KB
[MS-GRVHENC].pdf	4.5 MB
[MS-GRVPROT].pdf	1.7 MB
[MS-GRVRDB].pdf	584 KB
[MS-GRVSPCM].pdf	3.7 MB
[MS-GRVSPMR].pdf	1.7 MB
[MS-GRVSSTP].pdf	4.4 MB
[MS-GRVSSTPS].pdf	2.5 MB
[MS-GRVWDPP].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-H264PF].pdf	772 KB
[MS-ICE].pdf	738 KB
[MS-ICE2].pdf	1.1 MB
[MS-ICE2BWM].pdf	946 KB
[MS-IMESYN].pdf	416 KB
[MS-INFODCF].pdf	662 KB
[MS-MERX].pdf	623 KB
[MS-OBPAS].pdf	1.0 MB
[MS-OBPRS].pdf	1.0 MB
[MS-OCAUTHWS].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-OCDISCWS].pdf	667 KB
[MS-OCER].pdf	5.6 MB
[MS-OCEXUM].pdf	544 KB
[MS-OCGCWEB].pdf	404 KB
[MS-OCHGTR].pdf	231 KB
[MS-OCPROTO].pdf	1.9 MB
[MS-OCPSTN].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-OCSMP].pdf	1.7 MB
[MS-OCSPROT].pdf	3.6 MB
[MS-OFCGLOS].pdf	1.6 MB
[MS-OFREF].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-OMPWHP].pdf	606 KB
[MS-OMWWH].pdf	1.0 MB
[MS-PRES].pdf	4.3 MB
[MS-PSOM].pdf	1.9 MB
[MS-PWBDPS].pdf	643 KB
[MS-PWBHPS].pdf	1,002 KB
[MS-PWBPS].pdf	756 KB
[MS-PWEDPS].pdf	4.7 MB
[MS-PWPHP].pdf	478 KB
[MS-PWVPDP].pdf	2.4 MB
[MS-PWVRSC].pdf	760 KB
[MS-QoE].pdf	2.7 MB
[MS-RGSWS].pdf	902 KB
[MS-RTASPF].pdf	455 KB
[MS-RTP].pdf	2.3 MB
[MS-RTPRADEX].pdf	427 KB
[MS-RTVPF].pdf	775 KB
[MS-SDPEXT].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-SIPAE].pdf	1.1 MB
[MS-SIPAPP].pdf	950 KB
[MS-SIPCOMP].pdf	836 KB
[MS-SIPRE].pdf	2.4 MB
[MS-SIPREGE].pdf	2.2 MB
[MS-SRTP].pdf	510 KB
[MS-SSRTP].pdf	599 KB
[MS-STWEB].pdf	1,016 KB
[MS-TURN].pdf	1.8 MB
[MS-TURNBWM].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-UDCX].pdf	848 KB
[MS-WOPI].pdf	1.1 MB
[MS-XCCOSIP].pdf	1.5 MB
[MS-XMLMC].pdf	511 KB

Word, Excel, and PowerPoint Standards Support

This documentation provides detailed support information for the Open Document Format (ODF) and Open XML (ECMA-376 and ISO/IEC-29500) file formats implemented in Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Version:	Date Published:
1113	11/20/2013
File name:	File size:
MSOFFSTAND.zip	38.8 MB
[[ReadmefirstOStand]].pdf	140 KB
[MS-CUSTOMUI].pdf	11.1 MB
[MS-CUSTOMUI2].pdf	3.3 MB
[MS-DOCX].pdf	2.4 MB
[MS-ODRAWXML].pdf	4.8 MB
[MS-OE376].pdf	17.3 MB
[MS-OFCGLOS].pdf	1.6 MB
[MS-OFFMACRO].pdf	930 KB
[MS-OFFMACRO2].pdf	828 KB
[MS-OFREF].pdf	1.4 MB
[MS-OI29500].pdf	15.6 MB
[MS-OODF].pdf	8.7 MB
[MS-OODF2].pdf	9.0 MB
[MS-OODF3].pdf	8.4 MB
[MS-OSTANCHGTR].pdf	128 KB
[MS-OWEXML].pdf	565 KB
[MS-PPTX].pdf	2.6 MB
[MS-XLSX].pdf	6.4 MB

Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook Standards Documentation

The Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook standards documentation describes how Exchange and Outlook support industry messaging standards and Requests for Comments (RFCs) documents about iCalendar, Internet Message Access Protocol – Version 4 (IMAP4), and Post Office Protocol – Version 3 (POP3).

 

Version:	Date Published:
17.0	11/20/2013
File name:	File size:
Exchange_Standards.zip	4.0 MB
[[ReadmefirstMSExStand]].pdf	143 KB
[MS-OXGLOS].pdf	668 KB
[MS-OXREF].pdf	710 KB
[MS-STANOICAL].pdf	2.3 MB
[MS-STANOIMAP].pdf	548 KB
[MS-STANOPOP3].pdf	400 KB
[MS-STANOXCHGTR].pdf	111 KB
[MS-STANXICAL].pdf	2.0 MB
[MS-STANXIMAP].pdf	510 KB
[MS-STANXPOP3].pdf	414 KB

That's some lite reading for the coming holidays... :)

 

Related Past Post XRef:
Microsoft Format and Specification Documentation 0712 Refresh (Think Office 2013 CP update). Oh and some SharePoint Doc's too
Microsoft Format and Specification Documentation Refresh ("Significantly changed technical content") [Updated: Includes updates for Office 15 Technical Preview ]
Microsoft Office File Formats and Microsoft Office Protocols Documentation Refreshed
Microsoft Office File Formats and Protocols documentation updated for Office 2010 (Think “Now with added ‘X’ flavor… DocX, PptX, XlsX, etc”)

Microsoft Open Specifications Poster

XAML Language Specification (as in the in the full XAML, WPF and Silverlight XAML Specs)

"Microsoft SQL Server Data Portability Documentation"

MS-PST file format specification released. Yep, the full and complete specification for Outlook PST’s is now just a download away.
Microsoft Office (DOC, XLS, PPT) Binary File Format Specifications Released – We’re talking the full technical specification… (The [MS-DOC].pdf alone is 553 pages of very dense specification information)
DOC, XLS and PPT Binary File Format Specifications Released (plus WMF, Windows Compound File [aka OLE 2.0 Structured Storage] and Ink Serialized Format Specifications and Translator to XML news)

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