Far from it. Visual Studio is without question the most productive environment for developing for Windows.

When everything is going well it functions like your little robotic code-monkey assistant. Memorizing a million API calls and settings is dumb. They will change. Your little robo-minion, however, has those APIs hardwired into his mechano-simian brain. Start typing and he will start suggesting possible matches.

So, relax, sip some nice, calming herbal tea and rest-assured that I’m not asking you to give anything up. Prying things from your cold, dead hands will not be required.

Having said that, [click] you have to admit [click, click] that Visual Studio [click] sure does make you [click] reach for the mouse WAY too often [click, click, clickety-click].

It also displaces memory the way the Titanic displaced water. It also occasionally behaves like the Titanic in a very crash and sink way.

Sometimes you need something light, fast and simple. In true “pick any two” fashion, you can try Vim. It is light and fast. It sure as heck isn’t simple.

Vim In All Its Glory - Click for full-size. Really. It's animated. ANIMATED. CLICK IT!

OK, I’ll admit it, it’s a tough sale.

On one hand you have the aforementioned all-singing, all-dancing robot-monkey vs. what appears at first glance to be a dead monkey.

Don’t be fooled. THAT MONKEY IS NOT DEAD.

You don’t see that in print very often. That makes me sad.

What’s So Great About Vim?

Let’s start with the obligatory Top-n List.

Top 5 Things I Like About Vim

1. Runs anywhere
2. Keep hands on the keyboard
3. Macros become easy and wildly useful (not at first!)
4. Lightweight
5. Configurable

The first thing you hear about is the keyboard-centric nature of Vim. Vim, like it’s predecessor Vi can be used without ever touching the mouse.

This was why I decided to take a deeper look at Vim. I find the frequency with which I have to reach for the mouse in Visual Studio distracting. Downright annoying.

You may already know that you can move around using home-row keys instead of those distant arrow keys, but what you don’t know is that after a few days that won’t be moving one character at a time as often as you will be leaping around.

The richness of text navigation options in Vim is a great strength.

You can jump to:

• Start/End of word
• Start/End of line
• Start/End of document
• Start/End of tag (opening or closing curly-brace for instance)
• Start to specific text
• Start to text specified by regular expression
• More and More and More

Why does this matter?

Remember the mention of macros?

Once you get in the flow of navigating your code in this manner, then creating macros becomes trivial. Literally 2 keys and you are recording a macro. Two more and you play it back.

So What Now?

First things first, do this:

1. Install Vim
2. Open it
3. Shut it down
4. Curse
5. Laugh at me for suggesting you look at this crap!

Now that you have that out of your system, get ready to watch some screen-casts. You cannot learn what is good about Vim by just playing around with it.

Start With Derek Wyatt’s Screencasts

Derek Wyatt made a series of screencasts a few years back that are found on his blog.

Derek is very funny and full of energy and enthusiasm for Vim. Watch his Novice and Intermediate level videos to get an idea of why you might care about Vim.

Move On To VimCasts.Org

Drew Neil put together a great series of tutorials as well over at VimCasts.org. Drew’s videos are typically short and sharply focused.

Decide If Vim Is For You

Once you’ve watched some videos from Derek and Drew, you should have a good idea whether you want to pursue delving into Vim.

You might not. That’s OK.

Some of you might.

For me, it isn’t an either/or question. I use Vim with Visual Studio.

Options For Integrating With Visual Studio

1. Keep them separate. Use Vim occasionally as needed.
2. Install Visual Studio plug-in:
1. VsVim (free)
2. ViEmu (not free)
3. Make Vim an External Tool

If you remember my Titanic analogies back in the days when you were young and had just started reading this ridiculously long post, you’ll probably agree that the last thing the Titanic needed was more cargo. Making that ship heavier would not have helped.

In much the same way, I try to avoid putting too many plug-ins into Visual Studio. Bare weight right now for me without a project loaded is around ~90 MB. Once I load a project, it will go way, way up.

For that reason, I have opted for the “Make Vim an External Tool” approach.

I have my F-1 key mapped to launch Vim (well GVim, actually) with the current document open at the current line I’m editing. I even have a Vim plug-in for working with Team Foundation Server.

For details on how to set this up (plus more), check out Integrate gvim with Visual Studio over at the Vim Wiki.

Summary

I can’t say if you will like Vim. I’m guessing 90% of you will not.

I also can’t say if a year from now I will be using Vim heavily.

I consider my current set up to be an experiment. For some things Visual Studio is perfect. For some things Vim is perfect. Neither is perfect for everything.

As long as I have to SSH into a server and edit files, I will use Vim or Vi to some extent. Now I will use it far more effectively.

Oddly enough the factions were almost split by the side of the room they were on (tastes great, less filling). Essentially the left side argued that the UI changes in Windows 8 will be rejected by users and the right side of the house argued that users will simply adapt to the changes.

The bulk of our conversation centered around the missing “Start” button.

As I mentioned in my previous Win 8 post, I think the scariest thought is deploying Win 8 in a large corporate environment to thousands of users. To sacrilegiously misquote Star Wars: “It was as if thousands of voices cried out at once, ‘Who Moved My Cheesey Start Button’”.

GGMUG member Curtis Wellborn pointed out on our Meetup.Com page that in Windows 7 the “Start” button no longer said “Start” and he is absolutely correct.

I’m going to quote my response to him here since I can a) put it in one section unlike the multiple comments on their site, b) change “hid” to “hide” and other fixes to my egregious spelling, and c) use italics because I love to use italics.

In general use I think the hover over spot to trigger the start screen is fine, but what I’d like to see is something in that spot (start button, windows swirly, or even a smiley face) that pops up a message the first time you click it saying, “Hey, you know you don’t need this? Would you like to hide it? By the way, you could also just hit the Windows Key on your keyboard.” I think that would settle the issue.

My point here is that it would be easy to leverage the user’s existing knowledge and experience to help them transition to the new UI. The change from a pop-up menu to a full screen start screen WILL be jarring to them at first, but they will get used to it. Not being able to figure out how to get it the first time will leave them with a bad taste in their mouth, and reduce their willingness to learn the new UI.

When it comes to introducing change, I think the game industry has the best model. Lots of games expect you to learn a new system for interacting with the device, but the game devs have become masters of training users. Most games start with some variation of a tutorial level. The best ones incorporate the experience so seamlessly that you don’t notice it is happening.

That’s what I’d like to see. Windows 8 on install gently guides you through the changes as you use it.

To your point about Win 7 not having a button labeled “Start”, you are correct. Win 95 needed the word “start” since users hadn’t had that UI element before. By the time Win 7 came out users were accustomed to looking for *something* in that spot and tried the button they saw.

The only problem I have with the Win 8 approach to the start button is the implementation. Once you get the user through the first day, they’ll be fine, but they need help with the transition.

If you aren’t familiar with Make Magazine, you are in for a treat. That is if you like building things. If not, then move along, there’s nothing to see here.

My Take On It

I have to admit I’ve been a fan of the concept of Make Magazine from the beginning. O’Reilly have been a big part of the open source movement for a long time, and the obvious extension of making open source software is making physical objects and sharing the “how to”.

The focus of this issue is DIY Superhuman, and as such includes projects to augment your senses and capabilities. No really. Sounds like a comic book, but there are some plausible and slick projects in here.

Tacit: A Haptic Wrist Rangefinder

The one I most want to try is “Tacit: A Haptic Wrist Rangefinder”. The basic premise here is that you combine sonic rangefinders, a glove, and little rubber-hand-slappers (I’ll explain)  to allow you to feel how close objects are. Tiny servomotors spin faster when objects are closer and smack your hand with little rubber bits. Think “buzzing” not “flogging”.

I think this would be an excellent aid for someone who was vision impaired. This is clearly a hobbiest version, but it wouldn’t take much to turn this into a prosthetic product.

If you have an ereader or tablet that can support PDF files, I recommend the eBook version. I have a KindleDX (larger screen, but still eInk), and it worked fine.

If you are into building things, I highly recommend you pick this one up.

Disclaimer

I received a copy of the magazine as part of the O’Reilly Blogger Review Program. They require I actually write and post a review to continue receiving review copies, but they do not dictate what I write.

What is wrong with this picture?

Don't look at me! I'm HIDEOUS!

In a word, transparency.

In more than one word, the title bar and edges of the screenshot show the orange and red nightmare that is my wallpaper image.

I’m a n00b at blogging and didn’t even think twice when I snapped a screenshot and plopped it up here on my Visual Studio 11 First Impressions post.

Thanks to a tweet from Scott Hanselman linking to a blog post he made last year, I have seen the error of my ways. Lo, it was as if scales fell from my eyes, and I could see the wretchedness that was my screenshot and did weep and verily didst I try to put the scales back before mine eyes that they might not behold the countenance of noxious red and orange hues.

You know how sometimes when you are sitting in church and the minister/priest/rabbi/shamen speaks of unholy acts and behavior “unbecoming to a human being” and you think, “Has he been looking at my Facebook wall?”

That’s how I felt when I read Scott’s post.

When the crying subsided to the point I could mostly see again, I booted back up into Windows 8 and used a supremely helpful tip from Scott’s post: Put a full-screen Notepad instance in all its pure, white beauty behind whatever you are trying to capture. Duh. I mean it seems so obvious once you hear it. Can’t believe I never thought of it.

If you look at my post now it is much, much cleaner. At least the screenshots are. I still swear like a sailor who has smashed his thumb with a ball-peen hammer, mind you, so it’s not cleaner in that sense. And, if you are now rejoining us after having gone to see if I really did swear like a hammer be-smashed sailor, I apologize for lying simply to generate an extra click. Just so you don’t feel totally ripped off: poopy.

“Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas any more.” — Dorothy to her little doggie in The Wizard Of Oz

I’ve been putting this one off a bit because I’m not sure what I think about Windows 8 and certainly not what to say about it.

Windows 8 Consumer Preview

It is a big move for Microsoft in so many ways. They HAVE to make some big, bold moves if they want to regain relevance outside of the corporate world. Yet those very gambles may cost them dearly inside the corporate world.

The story I’d like to tell is this: Microsoft debuted its new Metro styling with the hugely popular Windows Phone 7. Critics loved the simple, intuitive interface and the buying public flocked to it en masse. That success has really paid off and now the venerable Windows platform is receiving the long-overdue makeover the public has been demanding. Metro For The Win!

I would sure love to tell that story but only parts of it are true. The critics by and large have loved Windows Phone. The buying public, however, has not.

My reactions upon first using Windows 8 went something like this:

• This looks awesome!
• So… pretty…
• Try app
• Hmm. Full screen, eh? Guess I can get used to that.
• How do I close it? Oh, I don’t?
• Oh wait, I can grab it and throw it offscreen to close it. I’m a WebOS device owner, I’m used to doing that.
• This would totally ROCK on a touch device
• Shame I don’t have a touch device

OK, I’ll summarize the next few hours: “Where’s the…”, “What happened to the…”, “How do I…”, etc.

Sounds pretty negative, so I will say that after a week or so with Windows 8 there are things I really like. I will also say that there is NO doubt I’ll be productive in Windows 8 and get stuff done once I’m more familiar with it.

As a developer I really like certain aspects: WinRT with dev options for XAML/C#/C++ and HTML/CSS/JavaScript. Brilliant. Sandboxed apps that are vetted in an app store. Brilliant. Far more efficient use of memory and processor. Outstanding (my notebook runs noticeably cooler on Win 8).

Now for the “uh-ohs”.

First, it won’t matter whether I as a developer like Win 8. If the public at large rejects it, I can’t put my development efforts there. Lesson learned on Windows Phone… “If a developer fails in the forest and there are no users, will anyone make the sound of one hand clapping?”

Next, when I am casually using Win 8 I love it. I especially like browsing in the Metro world with no plug-ins. Down right liberating. I really didn’t expect that reaction. Yes, I could block plug-ins in any browser, but I never realized I wanted to until I used Metro IE.

Bit of an identity crisis for IE, however, since it behaves differently in Metro than in “Destktop” modes. Desktop mode can have plug-ins and behaves like a “normal”, windowed browser. In Metro it is full screen and plug-in free.

Interestingly enough, so far I have DENIED all plug-ins when in desktop mode IE. When I say I like the browsing experience in Metro, I mean I like it so much that I GLEEFULLY click the DENY/REJECT/REPENT-YE-SINFUL-WEBSITE button when the inevitable “Do you want to install our proprietary ad delivery system” plug-in dialog pops up.

Speaking of an identity crisis… What do you call a product called “Windows” that decides to do away with “windows”? Kind of like driving a Ford Horseless Carriage named for a horse (Mustang, anyone?).

Now for a HUGE problem. Youtube. If I visit Youtube and my browser says the video codec won’t work with my browser, then MY BROWSER IS BROKEN. I really do not care about Microsoft vs. Google and my codec is bigger than your codec. On video Youtube wins. Period. No excuses, Microsoft, fix this or your users will flee.

<<Please Insert Your Own Seque Here, I’m just going to veer off at a 97.4° angle.>>

I also need to mention that the pinball game deserves recognition too. It really rocks. Seriously better than Minesweeper and Solitaire, combined. Almost as much fun as playing “Whack-A-Plug-in”.

OK, having said that… When I need to get REAL work done, I find myself booting back into Win 7. Part of that is because things are in beta, and I understand that. Part of it is the fact that I haven’t learned all the ins and out of how to be productive in Win 8. Part of it is that Visual Studio 11 is also in beta. Bottom line, unfortunately, is my desire to stay in Win 8 is lower than my desire to be productive right now.

My experience with Win 7 was totally different. From the first time I loaded a pre-beta version I never looked back. It was MORE productive right away. Not only did I not have to learn a new way of working with it, things were more intuitive than before.

I cannot imagine the gray/beige/be-cubicled world adopting Windows 8 as is. They don’t care that it is new. They don’t care that it may be better. They do care about being productive. Now. Not just now. NOW NOW.

Were the Metro side of Dr. Metro/Mr. Windows fully optional, then they would adopt Windows 8 in turn. Some would use Metro, some would not. I suspect the sandboxed nature of Metro apps would drive corporate adoption over time.

For Microsoft to force the use of Metro strikes me as a strategic mistake.

If I want to install Windows 8 on my home system and spend time learning it, great!

If I want to buy a shiny new tablet with Windows 8, great!

If I want to roll-out Windows 8 to 10,000 corporate desktops, then I have a serious nightmare scenario on my hands. I know in my gut that I would receive 7,648 calls (AFTER mandatory training) that began, “Something has happened to my Start button.” My “inner-corporate IT guy” and “inner-CFO” are both scowling at me. I think they may have pitchforks.

So far the Metro interface feels like a novelty to me. I find it interesting and fun to play with, but so far it seem to be a bit of an impediment to my productivity.

Doug Winnie has a well thought out post that says pretty much the opposite of everything I’ve said here. I recommend you read it for an excellent counter view. He takes the approach that change is inevitable and nay-sayers should “Get over it”. For me, personally, I can’t argue with him. I will get over any negative reactions. Heck, I like the Metro interface for the most part. I’m just not sure that the public at large, and especially the corporate world, will be willing to “get over it.”

I think very few companies can pull off the “We’re changing, so just get over it” approach. Apple under Steve Jobs could do that. It is yet to be seen if Apple without Steve Jobs can. Steve Ballmer is no Steve Jobs. No one is.

I’ve rarely seen a company take so many bold chances at once.

Windows 8 is quite the departure from the past. I’ll blog about that one separately.

This post is about Visual Studio 11.

As soon as you fire it up BAM!

Dude! I can't see colors! Light Theme

Yep, that is one gray interface.

AND THE TABS ARE SHOUTING AT ME.

Lots of people are really hung up on the UI change, but I know that I’ll get used to it. I like the idea of putting the focus on the code and not the NON-code areas. Heck I like the gray.

Visual Studio 11 Beta Dark Theme

Having said that, it would be pretty darned hard to NOT mention it right up front since it is the first thing you notice.

The best way I can describe the initial feeling is this: imagine you go to work one day and when you come home you find that someone painted your house inside and out and replaced all the flooring. All your belongings are in exactly the spots you left them. You KNOW where the spatula is. You KNOW where your Kindle is. You just can’t help but think, “Am I in the right house?” (Cue the Talking Heads)

I think it might be easier to accept if it looked and behaved LESS like the older versions.

The problem is that we have spent so much time in Visual Studio that we have retinal burn-in. We see it in our sleep.

If you plopped XYZ Corp’s brand new Hipster Edit 5000 down and it looked exactly like this everyone would snap their fingers and stroke their goatees and say things like “Heavy, man” and “Groovy” and “Spork”.

Here’s the other thing. Since the ’80s we’ve been conditioned to think things that are gray are not valid choices.

Think about that for a second. What do you call it when a UI element is NOT enabled? You call it “grayed out”. It has become part of our language both visually and verbally.

Since this is just a first impression post, I’ll stop here and repeat what I said earlier: I will get used to the new look. I’ve spent enough time in Expression Blend that it isn’t a long-term trauma, just a speed bump.

Once I’ve spent more time with it, I’ll talk about the new features. Things like omni-present search. Open older projects without ruining them for the 2010 version. Make no mistake, there’s a bunch of good stuff in there. It just looks different.

My slides

My slides are posted here at the GGMUG site.

Here are some links to help get going with the jQuery stack.

jQuery.com (obvious) From here you can get to the other bits of the stack: jQueryUI, jQuery Pluggins and jQuery Mobile.

Pluralsight has 3 jQuery related video courses as of this writing.

TekPub also has screencast training for jQuery.

The TekPub class is conducted in part by Dave Ward. Dave lives in the Atlanta area and is a real expert. You can follow his blog at Encosia.com. I highly recommend you check it out.

As for books I would recommend:

• jQuery Cookbook
• JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
• JavaScript: The Good Parts

Those aren’t the only books, but the ones I have read and recommend.

Hope this helps!

A review implies that you are going to impartially talk about something, but you can’t be impartial about something you are super-happy-fun-time enthusiastic about, now can you?

That’s how I feel about Pluralsight.

What Is Pluralsight?

Simply put, Plurasight is a library of training videos to which you can subscribe. The videos are arranged into courses based on a wide variety of programming related topics.

The courses are primarily Microsoft centric, but there is a smattering of non-Microsoft topics such as iOS and Android development, plus a number of topics that are not specific to Microsoft like HTML 5, CSS, and Javascript.

Each course is broken into a series of modules that consist of one or more screencasts. The modules are usually around 40 minutes to an hour.

Quality

The quality of the screencasts is top notch. The effect is that of watching over the shoulder of a really smart friend who is showing you how to do something. Awesome.

Price

If this were Youtube with a bunch of cute kitteh videos, the price would be exorbitant at $30/month ($25 if you pay for the whole year at once). For high quality training videos to help you be a better developer, the price is very reasonable.

Quibbles

To maintain some semblance of blogger rather than shill, I’ll try to come up with some quibbles.

Because they keep things simple, it is not easy to quibble.

One thing that would be nice, would be variable speed playback. Sometimes I watch a video that includes stuff I already know. For those sections it would be nice to crank the speed up to 2x or 4x so that I can be sure there are no hidden nuggets without devoting the full measure of time to the endeavor.

Wider mobile access would be nice, but I suspect that is a matter of time.

A wider range of topics outside of the Microsoft sphere would be interesting. Since there are some now, I’m guessing more will follow. Of course there is nothing wrong with a Microsoft focus. There is pretty much an army of MS devs out there.

Lunch And Learn

Despite years of research that eating at your desk is a bad idea, many of us do so.

I love to watch Pluralsight videos while I eat. I don’t do it everyday, but I find it a great way to “sharpen the saw” as the 7-Habits folks would say.

In addition to the training videos, I also enjoy the weekly webcasts. I believe these are free, and give you a chance to interact with the course authors.

If you want to watch the recorded webcasts, you need the second level of subscription also known as “The One I Don’t Have”. Tune in live, however and it is free.

Summary

Short version:

Pluralsight: good.

Subscribe: you should.

If you manage developers and need to spend a small amount of training dollars (pesos, euros, yen, etc. – I doubt they take shiny beads), then this is an excellent place to spend them.

Of Course!

Saw this on CNN’s website. Sometimes when you read the headlines in sequence, the story becomes more interesting.

Thought I’d take a second and share the results here.

Overall everyone seems to have liked the session, and the criticisms that were offered were all fair and accurate.

In a nutshell the criticisms seemed to be:

1. Too much info for the time allotted
2. Had to rush as a result
3. Spent too much time on Web Forms (many in audience were well versed in Web Forms)

A couple of folks had hoped the session would be less of an intro, but acknowledged that it was listed as a beginner session, and that I warned everyone before the talk that it was geared towards beginners.

You always walk a fine line with beginner sessions. Beginners and intermediate/advanced users need very different sessions. It’s not easy to make one session appeal to both groups.

I decided to err to the side of the beginner. Code Camps tend to have primarily sessions for intermediate and advanced developers since those sessions are the most fun to do if you are intermediate or advanced yourself. This can leave newbies feeling left out.

I don’t have any data on the experience levels of each person, but I have the feeling that most were at least familiar with Web Forms. If I had known when preparing the session what the mix of skillsets would be, I could have tweaked the session better.

That would also have allowed me to get farther with the MVC app I wrote for the demo.

I have done variations on this talk several times and have attended talks given by others, including the Web Camp hosted at the Microsoft Offices in Alpharetta a couple of months back.

So far I have yet to give or see a presentation that compared MVC and Web Forms that didn’t result in the Web Forms users shaking their heads at MVC. In the time you have for a demo, Web Forms looks really, really good. Once the audience sees you drag and drop a grid onto the screen and get paging/sorting/in-place-editing essentially for free, they have to question why you would choose anything else. They keep asking it as they watch you implement paging and sorting in the MVC app. IF you have time.

So why would I ever recommend MVC?

Again, I would love to give hard data on this, but I haven’t implemented the same large scale web apps in MVC and Web Forms. That means what I’m about to say is more from my gut than scientific data…

If we were to begin parallel projects in MVC and Web Forms of more than trivial nature, I suspect that we would reach the 80% complete point far, far faster in Web Forms. This is where I think the switch in which is more productive would occur.

In Web Forms you can jumpstart yourself a long, long way with controls. Bada-boom-bada-bing lookie what I built.

In MVC you pretty well have to build everything from scratch each step of the way.

To me that means I would expect the progress graph to look something like this:

Remember when I said this isn’t from data? Well it still isn’t. This is just my best guess based on gut feel.

My reasoning here is that you can drag/drop/bind your way to the 80% point very, very quickly with Web Forms. That gives you the initial spike.

With MVC you are pretty slow and steady.

The last 20% is likely to be very detailed work. You could easily get stuck if you relied on controls and those controls don’t do what you need. With MVC, you are doing everything yourself, so you should be more flexible in your response to those detailed tasks.

You really, really get the plateau if you are working with designers who need to take your output and apply heavy CSS and javaScript. MVC doesn’t put anything there you don’t tell it to (take all generalities with a grain of salt of course), but Web Forms may do unexpected (or at least unpopular) things with IDs, etc.

If you have spent the last 5 years working with Web Forms, you would likely NOT experience the same plateau. You KNOW the pain points and how to work with them.

If you are building an internal app that doesn’t live or die by the UI, you might be satisfied with the 80 – 85% level. That means you are done and done quickly. Great!

If you are trying to compete on the internet with EVERY OTHER WEBSITE, then you need to get as close to 100% as you can because other people are there already. Your customers don’t care how productive you were. They want the best experience. Your competitors are a short URL away.

Again, if you are highly experienced with Web Forms you can work around most of problems, ESPECIALLY with the new bits in 4.0 like routing and ListView.

It is difficult to say for sure that MVC would be more productive over the long-haul on a real-world, large-scale project, but it is SUPER easy to say that Web Forms is ABSOLUTELY the best choice for a quick demo…