Tim sneath shares its list of WPF & WPF /E bloggers :

For the last couple of years, I've undertaken the thankless task of trying to maintain a list of active bloggers on WPF. Unfortunately, I've let it languish for a little while, so I've taken some time out to revamp it completely: making sure that people still are actively blogging on WPF-related topics and checking that all the links work.

At last, I'm pleased to present the latest list. I've added a new section for WPF/E blogs, removed a few somewhat arbitrary subcategories in the organization, and greatly expanded the list of independent community blogs (with some selectivity - I've not included everyone who has ever included the term WPF on their blog, for obvious reasons). There's an OPML version as well for easy importing into your feed reader. If you have IE 7, for some reason the feed import function is pretty buried. Hit Alt+F to bring up the "hidden" File menu and then choose the Import and Export menu option.

Hope this is useful - apologies in advance if I missed anyone.

Source: WPF and WPF/E Bloggers List: Updated for 2007
Originally published on Mon, 08 Jan 2007 22:27:35 GMT

Here is the map of my neighbourhood in Paris, France.

Microsoft SoapBox is a video repository site just as www.youtube.com but the encoding is of much higher quality..

As the title says, this site is maintained by a former Flash designer that takes a walk on the WPF side of the street. Great and easy to understand tutorials videos at www.contentpresenter.com

A full set of new downloads are available on the Microsoft site. Especially interesting is the january CTP pre-release of the Visual Studio "Orcas" version (can be found here). This release is available as a standard install or as a Virtual PC image, which thus lets you test the new features without screwing your main development machine.

To get you to try it, here are some features included in the download :

• Extended, more powerful data APIs with the ADO.NET Entity Framework and LINQ to ADO.NET
• C# 3.0 Language Support: This CTP implements all of the C#3.0 language features from the May LINQ CTP including:

• Query Expressions
• Object and Collection Initializers
• Extension Methods
• Local Variable Type Inference and Anonymous Types
• Lambdas bound to Delegates and Expression trees

• VB 9.0 Language Support: This CTP implements all of the VB 9.0 language features from the May LINQ CTP
• LINQ to Objects API
• ClickOnce improvements
• Managed classes for Elliptic Curve Diffie Hellman and Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm cryptographic functionality
• Runtime and design-time support for Office 2007 (including Outlook 2007)
• Support for advanced lifetime management of add-ins and their AppDomains
• Client service support for Login/Logout, Role management and Profiles
• A trace listener that logs event to ETW, event tracing for Windows in Vista
• Jscript Intellisense support
• A new numeric type that provides support for very large numbers (Beyond the range of In64)
• LINQ over XML (XLinq)
• SQL Server Compact Edition (SSCE)

This is all good news because the Visual Studio 2005 WPF graphic designer is really very very slow (about 30 seconds to load/display a simple WPF window). Hopefully, there is Blend which tends to be open all the time on my dev box, running alongside VS 2005. Although it is still in beta version, one can see straightaway that this is a well-crafted product..

What I wonder though is if the "Orcas" WPF graphic designer will beat Blend or not..

Oh, and some other thing for Microsoft readers : PLEASE include the Expression tools suite as part of the MSDN Subscriber downloads..

There is a new release of the nice "Kevin Bag of WPF tricks" :

Many interesting controls such as :

Animating Tile Panel: another custom panel. This one has animation.

BlockBar: Example of a simple FrameworkElement control.

ColorPicker: Includes a simple style in the Library and a pretty style in the app. Remember: templates = skinning for controls.

Hex: a game. An example of composing visuals using FrameworkElement as a base class.

List Pager: (New!) I've heard this request a lot: "How can I show a ListBox/ListView with pages?" This is a super simple way to do it. New control not required.

Mine sweeper: a (more familiar) game. Similar implementation to Hex.

This is the complete list of all available shortcuts keys in the Query Analyser :

• CTRL-SHIFT-F2             -- Clear all bookmarks.
• CTRL+F2                       -- Insert or remove a bookmark (toggle).
• F2                                -- Move to next bookmark.
• SHIFT+F2                      -- Move to previous bookmark.
• ALT+BREAK                  -- Cancel a query.
• CTRL+O                        -- Connect.
• CTRL+F4                       -- Disconnect.
• CTRL+F4                       -- Disconnect and close child window.
• ALT+F1                         -- Database object information.
• CTRL+SHIFT+DEL          -- Clear the active Editor pane.
• CTRL+SHIFT+C              -- Comment out code.
• CTRL+C or Ctrl+Insert   -- Copy
• CTRL+X or Shift+Del     -- Cut
• SHIFT+TAB                   -- Decrease indent.
• CTRL+DEL                    -- Delete through the end of a line in the Editor pane.
• CTRL+F                        -- Find.
• CTRL+G                        -- Go to a line number.
• TAB                              -- Increase indent.
• CTRL+SHIFT+L              -- Make selection lowercase.
• CTRL+SHIFT+U              -- Make selection uppercase.
• CTRL+V or Shift+Insert -- Paste.
• CTRL+SHIFT+R              -- Remove comments.
• F3                                -- Repeat last search or find next.
• CTRL+H                        -- Replace.
• CTRL+A                        -- Select all.
• CTRL+Z                        -- Undo.
• F5 or Ctrl + E               -- Execute a query.
• F1                               -- Help for Query Analyzer.
• SHIFT+F1                    -- Help for the selected Transact-SQL statement.
• F6                              -- Switch between query and result panes.
• Shift+F6                     -- Switch panes.
• CTRL+W                     -- Window Selector.
• CTRL+N                      -- New Query window.
• F8                              -- Object Browser (show/hide).
• F4                              -- Object Search.
• CTRL+F5                    -- Parse the query and check syntax.
• CTRL+P                     -- Print
• CTRL+D                     -- Display results in grid format.
• CTRL+T                     -- Display results in text format.
• CTRL+B                     -- Move the splitter.
• CTRL+SHIFT+F           -- Save results to file.
• CTRL+R                     -- Show Results pane (toggle).
• CTRL+S                     -- Save
• CTRL+SHIFT+INSERT -- Insert a template.
• CTRL+SHIFT+M         -- Replace template parameters.
• CTRL+L                     -- Display estimated execution plan.
• CTRL+K                     -- Display execution plan (toggle ON/OFF).
• CTRL+I                      -- Index Tuning Wizard.
• CTRL+SHIFT+S           -- Show client statistics
• CTRL+SHIFT+T           -- Show server trace.
• CTRL+U                     -- Use database

No doubt.. I WANT ONE OF THESE ! (watch the "iPhone introduction video).