Archive for January, 2007
Step right up! Get your fresh PowerShell!
Jan 31st
PowerShell RTM is finally available for Vista RTM. Now let’s just hope it’s faster than all the beta and RCs.
MySQL Tools for Visual Studio 1.1.0 Alpha released!
Jan 26th
Today we have released the first build of MySQL Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio 1.1 — a downloadable plug-in for Visual Studio 2005 that allows Windows developers to quickly build MySQL data-driven applications with Visual Studio. With this plug-in, developers will be able to create, modify and manage MySQL database objects with an easy-to-use interface from within the Visual Studio IDE. This product is delivered as a package compatible with Visual Studio 2005 and delivers the following features:
This release builds on the original 1.0 plugin by adding support for using the DataSource wizard and the DataSet designer in Visual Studio 2005. The Data Source wizard can be found by choosing Data|Add Data Source from the Visual Studio menu. It provides a way to connect the generic data-handling capabilities of Visual Studio to our provider. Once a data source is added then custom datasets can be created using the DataSet Designer. Using this designer, you can drag and drop database tables onto the design surface and use the created TableAdapter classes to populate the tables.
MySQL will be presenting a webinar showing these new capabilities. You can find the details of this webinar and register for the event at http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/web-seminars/mysql-tools-vs.php.
MySQL Tools for Visual Studio binaries are currently available under a no-charge license. We plan to release the source code and are currently determining what license the source code will be placed under. The plug-in
can be downloaded from http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/visual-studio-plugin/1.0.html.
Thank you for your time and effort in checking out this product. Please don’t hesitate to use the following resources for posting your bug reports, questions, or concerns.
Bugs: http://bugs.mysql.com/ (use the Connector/Net category)
Forum: http://forums.mysql.com/list.php?38
List: http://lists.mysql.com/dotnet
Another reason by MSI is better than NSIS
Jan 25th
I hate MSI authoring as much as the next man and still don’t know why I can’t use non-GUID IDs that I select to control my components. I might have to use a GUID to identify the particular company and maybe even my particular product, but inside that product I shouldn’t have to wrangle with GUIDs. But I digress…
Recently I’ve been looking at NSIS and wondering if it would be a better option for delivering my products. It’s simpler than WiX and has a nice community following complete with a healthy library of extensions and plugins. The problem is that it’s not MSI based and so there are things that MSI handles for you that you have to do manually with NSIS.
One example is making sure that Add/Remove Programs doesn’t show prior versions of your app. With MSI a person simply needs to set a ProductCode and UpgradeCode (both GUIDs). With NSIS you’re left with scanning for registry keys or files from the prior install and then manually updating the Uninstall registry key. Doable but just feels dirty. And it’s easy to forget to do this. Here’s a screenshot of my Add/Remove programs after installing Thunderbird 2.0 beta 1 and then upgrading to beta 2.
Vista annoyance number 87
Jan 25th
Can someone please tell me why I have to suffer a UAC prompt elevation to set environment variables for myself? And please don’t try and justify it by telling me the UI for setting user environment variables is in the same place as system environment variables thus requiring an elevation.
Yet more evidence that Vista is simply half-baked.
Don't ask me how I know
Jan 23rd
Don’t remove your normal Vista user account from the Administrators group and give the Administrator account a known password without also enabling the normally disabled Administrator account.
Trust me. And don’t ask me how I know.
