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Debugger Canvas is a new user experience for the debugger in Visual Studio Ultimate. It pulls together the code you’re exploring onto a single pan-and-zoom display. As you hit breakpoints or step into code, Debugger Canvas shows just the methods that you’re debugging, with call lines and local variables, to help you see the bigger picture.
Debugger Canvas is the result of a collaboration between Brown University and Microsoft, integrating ideas from Brown University’s Code Bubbles project into Visual Studio. Features include:
- Step into methods on a canvas using the debugger
- Use the normal debugger features in the canvas
- Share a canvas as an XPS image
- Take snapshots of local variables so you can make comparisons as you step through code multiple times
- Add related methods to the canvas using Go to Definition and Find All References
Debugger Canvas at Microsoft DevLabs
Microsoft has released the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK Release Candidate (RC). This includes the “Go Live” license, which means developers can now build Windows Phone 7.1 apps and submit them to the Windows Phone Marketplace. The following components are included:
- Windows Phone SDK 7.1 (RC)
- Windows Phone Emulator (RC)
- Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Assemblies (RC)
- Silverlight 4 SDK and DRT
- Windows Phone SDK 7.1 Extensions for XNA Game Studio 4.0
- Microsoft Expression Blend SDK for Windows Phone 7
- Microsoft Expression Blend SDK for Windows Phone OS 7.1
- WCF Data Services Client for Window Phone
- Microsoft Advertising SDK for Windows Phone
Download Windows Phone SDK 7.1 RC
Silverlight for Windows Phone Toolkit offers developers additional controls for Windows Phone application development, designed to match the rich user experience of the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK.
This toolkit includes common Windows Phone user interface controls such as toggle switches, page transitions, and picker controls. The toolkit has also been localized into all of the Windows Phone “Mango” languages.
Download Toolkit at CodePlex
Download Toolkit at NuGet
Toolkit Features
Microsoft has released the SQL Server code name “Denali” Community Technical Preview 3 (CTP3) Product Guide. The 400+MB download contains the latest datasheets, white papers, click-through and auto-running demonstrations, hands-on lab previews, technical presentations, and other useful links to help you evaluate the SQL Server “Denali” CTP3 release. The Product Guide organizes the content for easier viewing.
Download Denali Product Guide
Microsoft has released the Bing Maps WPF Control software development kit (SDK). You can use this control to build your own applications that use Bing Maps.
Download Bing Maps WPF Control SDK
Microsoft has released Reliability Update 1 for the .NET Framework 4. It fixes some stability, reliability, and performance issues in .NET 4, such as:
- Access violation may occur when you run a .NET Framework 2.0 SP2-based application that calls a mixed assembly that is domain-neutral
- Updating the .NET Framework may fail and some files in the GAC may be deleted
- The String.IndexOf method takes longer than expected to finish, and the .NET Framework 4.0 performance decreases significantly
Reliability Update 1 for .NET 4
Brandon Watson, Senior Director of Windows Phone 7 Development at Microsoft, tweeted an offer to WebOS developers on August 19:
To Any Published WebOS Devs: We’ll give you what you need to be successful on #WindowsPhone, incl.free phones, dev tools, and training, etc.
The response has been good so far, with Watson receiving over 500 replies in the first day alone.
Visual Studio Async CTP extends Visual Studio 2010. It provides streamlined syntax for asynchronous development in C# and Visual Basic.
Microsoft has released a set of videos demonstrate how to use asynchronous programming in Visual Basic and Visual C#.
Here is the first video in the series: “Introduction to the Async CTP”:
Visual Studio Async Videos
Microsoft has launched a “Building Windows 8” blog billed as “An inside look from the Windows engineering team.” The blog opens by saying:
“Windows 8 reimagines Windows for a new generation of computing devices, and will be the very best operating system for hundreds of millions of PCs, new and old, used by well over a billion people globally.”
Building Windows 8 Blog
