VBUG 2009 conference agenda

8.45 - 9.15

Registration Tea and Coffee

9.15 - 9.30

Introduction by Tim Leung, VBUG Chairman

9.30 - 10.30

Concurrency using functional patterns in C# - Oliver Sturm

The multi-core scalability issue is being widely discussed these days, and one solution that is regularly proposed involves the application of patterns from functional programming. One of the paradigms of FP is the immutability of data, which is what makes it appealing when it comes to concurrency. In this session, Oliver uses a practical example to show concurrency in action, based on immutable data and other functional approaches.

10.30 - 10.45

Break for Tea/Coffee and refreshments

10.45 - 11.45

An introduction to Windows Presentation Foundation - David Ringsell  

Windows Presentation Foundation provides a radically different approach to creating User Interfaces. By employing XAML to design the UI, a much richer user experience can be provided. Sound and video can easily be included. Using XAML as hierarchical and declarative mark-up language allows the creation of much more versatile & exciting screens. This is a big leap forward from the previous way of working with Windows Forms. This talk will employ accelerated learning methods to improve participants understanding and recall.

11.45 - 12.45

Automating Testing Using Windows Virtual PC - Guy Smith-Ferrier

Windows Virtual PC is a free virtualization download from Microsoft for Windows 7. It allows you to run and maintain multiple virtual machines running different Microsoft operating systems in different configurations. Virtual Machines allow you to test your software in different configurations without the need for buying and maintaining separate physical machines. Unlike previous versions of Virtual PC, Windows Virtual PC includes an API for programmatically controlling these virtual machines. This session describes this API and shows you how to use it to run automated tests on multiple platforms. Subjects covered include basic use of the API, logging on to virtual machines, various methods for copying tests to virtual machines, running processes on virtual machines and collecting test results.

12.45 - 13.30

Break for Lunch

13.30 - 14.30

Refactoring – Everything you wanted to know but were afraid to ask - Gary Short

Refactoring is a skill all modern developers need. We will take a deep dive into refactoring; starting with defining “technical debt” and how that problem is solved by refactoring, before going on to look at common refactoring tasks. We’ll finish by looking at how tooling can help us with these tasks and examining some more advanced “refactoring to patterns” topics.

14.30 - 14.45

Break for Tea/Coffee and refreshments

14.45 - 15.45

T4 and how it can be used with VS2008 for code generation - Rob Blackmore

T4 is the best kept secret in Visual Studio and allows you to use an "ASP" like syntax to generate any code file that you require - be it a class, XAML or anything else! In this session we will look at why you would want to use code generation and explore some simple examples to show the power of T4 and how it can help improve your productivity and code quality.

15.45 - 16.00

Closing by Tim Leung, VBUG Chairman