VB SIG

The Visual Basic SIG will be hosting our own Community Launch of Visual Studio 2008 Tuesday June 3rd, 2008 at 7PM.

Here’s more powerpoint slides from the SIG meetings.

Session 4 ppt 

Sesion 5 ppt

In December (4th, 7pm), we’ll do an all-skate on where we’re at with C#.

 We’ll try some real world samples, beating the heck out of some Classes and other review topics.

See you there.

Finally, Microsoft has announced a product to help protect you Intellectual Property (IP), not just theirs!

Read about Microsoft’s Code protection technology here.

It’s not your father’s obfuscation. It’s called Secure Virtual Machine (SVM), purportedly to be a one-way transformation.

If it’s really secure, then perhaps my customers may embrace the Dot Net platform, because up until now, obfuscation was insufficient to prevent reverse engineering.

Microsoft had supplied a lame version of an Obfuscator along with Visual Studio, but if you wanted the (almost) good stuff, you were out $1000 bucks per developer seat! That;s more then VS itself.

So it’s about time.  hope it’s for real. the DotNet platform has so much promise, protecting IP has been what’s stopping it’s adoption for commercial softer.

Now… we have to find out what the commercial version costs.  The free download is for evaluation only, it only will do three functions (boo hiss!) 

For those who attended, I hope you all were able to follow along. We covered chapters 4 and 5, so at the next meeting we’ll cover chapter 6 and possibly chapter 7.

The Powerpoint  has chapter 4 in it, so that’s where we’ll pick up.

Click  to download or view the Slides (Right-Click the link and save-as to save to your own computer).

For those who attended, I hope you all were able to follow along. We only got through chapters 1 through 3, so at the next meeting we’ll cover chapter 4 and possibly chapter 5.

The Powerpoint  has chapter 4 in it, so that’s where we’ll pick up.

Click  to download or view the Slides (Right-Click the link and save-as to save to your own computer).

July 3rd, we’ll be digging into C# for real. If we can, we’ll attempt to cover the first four chapters (note this is not set in stone!). 

If you have a laptop, bring it along, you may work along during the meeting.

Be sure to speak up if you are not grasping something as we progress… I tend to ramble on, full steam ahead and I might not see a raised hand. And don’t feel shy thinking that you may be the only one not “getting it”, the person beside, infront or behind you might not. And finally, don’t hesitiate to correct me if I misstate or am wrong about something … it would be my first (fiscal year July 2007-2008).

I hope I didn’t bore or scare anyone off on Tuesday.

For those who are getting the book, try to read chapters 1 through 4. If you get stuck, or it’s not making sense, we’ll try to bring it all to light for the July meeting. If we don’t get through chapter 4 at the next meet, that’s OK, we’ll go as far as we can.

Also, if you bring your laptop, you can work along, trying some of the samples we’ll review.

 Again, don’t be intimidated. The object is to learn. There will be no final exam!

Things you’ll need for the Visual C# classes:

1) Visual C# (Express, or full product or Visual Studio 2005)
Visual C# Express is a free download from Microsoft >HERE<

2) The Book Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Step by Step.
Choose your best price or favorite merchant >HERE<

3) Optionally for future developement, Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express .
You can download from Microsoft >HERE<

While the Book and SQL Express are both optional, they are both recommended to get the most out of the sessions and for self study.

Remember to check back to this blog from time to time for any updates and other communications. If something needs to be clarified, or is of help to the group in general, you may find it here!.

June 5th, 2007 7PM at the TBCS resource center.

Mark your calendar for Tuesday June 5th, 7:00pm

The Visual Basic programming SIG (VB SIG) of the TBCS is going to do something that is, well, perhaps a little different for a VB SIG… A learning series on Visual C#… from Scratch

Why C# in the VB SIG might one ask?

A quick look at job postings and articles on programming, C# is usually the language of choice. Also, practically all concepts will apply to VB.NET or any other .NET language. We’ll be setting aside an hour or more of each VB-SIG meeting for learning to program in C# from the ground-up.TBCS Members can attend and participate at no cost, however, purchasing the study book will enhance and reinforce learning.The first meeting, Tuesday June 5th will be set aside for introductions, discussions in more detail the path we’ll take, what is needed for the series in terms of development software (free), the book (under $30), and other startup details.

Visual C# from Scratch?

The book and our series starts with the assumption that the reader knows little or nothing about C# and perhaps just a bit of programming in general. The aim is to leave no student behind.

A general synopsis is that we’ll be following the book for the most part, a mostly structured path, along with discussion from the group and editorial comment.

How long all this will take is an unknown, we’ll just go with the flow.

Hope to see you there!

Tom Kiehl, VB SIG
(727) 517-8121