Monday, December 21, 2009

MySQL Connector/Net 6.2.2 GA has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.2.2, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.This is our latest GA release and is suitable for use in all scenarios against servers ranging from version 4.1 to 5.4!

It is now available in source and binary here and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

The new features or changes in this release are:

  • Connection pool cleanup timer.  We now utilize a timer that cleans idle connections that are no longer connected every 3 minutes

  • We are now using stream and TCP-based timeouts to handle command timeouts.  This is more inline with what SqlClient does and should be more reliable than our old timer based approach

  • Completely refactored MySqlConnectionStringBuilder

  • We now support the TableDirect query type

  • Completely refactored our logging system.  Our trace data is now published using TraceSource and has a specific format so to allow third party listeners to be created.

  • Lots of bug fixes


Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Monday, December 14, 2009

Webinar on migrating SQL Server to MySQL

We have an exciting webinar coming up tomorrow (12/15) on migrating from SQL Server to MySQL.  LiveTime Software is a leader in ITIL service management and help desk products.  They have started offering a free migration service and this webinar will go over everything from toolsets used to character sets. 

You can read more about it and register for this webinar here.  So I know you have an hour you can spare and when it comes time to renew that SQL Server license you’ll be glad you did.

Friday, November 20, 2009

From inside Chrome OS

So I am typing this entry inside Chrome OS running inside Virtual Box.  I have plenty of time to think about what I want to say as I am able to type at approximately 1 character per second.  Pretty uninspiring right now as it is basically just an instance of Chrome running fullscreen.  Gmail and Google calendar tabs open automatically.


This is still a very early and unfinished work and targeting a completely different market than Windows or OS/X but I can see where they are going.


Ok, back to the real world.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

MySQL Connector/Net 6.1.3 has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.1.3, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released. This is our latest GA release and is suitable for use in all scenarios against servers ranging from version 4.1 to 5.4!

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.1.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

This release builds on the cool new features introduced with 6.1.2 and adds the following changes/bugfixes.

  • fixed session state provider table definition to allow more than 64K per-session data (bug#47339)
  • fixed compilation problem in NativeDriver inside ExecuteDirect  (bug #47354)
  • fixed default collation bug with session provider table (bug #47332)
  • in sessionState provider, timeout value was read from the wrong (root) web.config (bug#47815)
  • fixed crash that can occur when oldGuids are used and binary(16) column  used for GUID contains a null value (thanks Troy!) (bug#47928)
  • fixed indexes schema collection so that it still works with bad table names such as b``a`d (bug #48101)
  • fixed guid type so that multi-byte character sets will not effect how it works.  A column would be considered a guid if it has a *character* length of 36, not a *byte* length of 36 (bug #47985)
  • fixed unsigned types in views when used as entities (bug # 47872)
  • now exposing the MySqlDecimal type along with GetMySqlDecimal methods on data reader (bug #48100)   
  • applied user-suggested patch to enable type-safe cloning (bug #48460)


Thank you for using our product!

MySQL Connector/Net 6.2.1 beta has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.2.1, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver
for MySQL has been released. This is a beta release and is intended to
introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning. This
release should not be used in a production environment.

It is now available in source and binary form from
[http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.2.html] and mirror sites
(note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time
- if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later
or choose another download site.)

The new features or changes in this release are:

  • fixed SessionProvider to be compatible with 4.x MySQL, replaced TIMESTAMPDIFF with TIME_TO_SEC (bug#47219)
  • implemented support for client SSL certificates
  • fixed indexes schema collection so that it still works with bad table names such as b``a`d (bug #48101)
  • fixed guid type so that multi-byte character sets will not effect how it works.  A column would be considered a guid if it has a *character* length of 36, not a *byte* length of 36 (bug #47985)
  • fixed unsigned types in views when used as entities (bug # 47872)
  • now exposing the MySqlDecimal type along with GetMySqlDecimal methods on data reader (bug #48100)
  • applied user-suggested patch to enable type-safe cloning (bug #48460)
  • fixed encrypt keyword that was no longer supported in connection strings. It is obsolete so new code should use the 'ssl mode'.  Encrypt will be removed entirely starting with 6.4 (bug #48290)
  • implemented PossibleValues property on MySqlParameter for ENUM and Set types (48586)


What we know may be broken
Documentation is not updated yet.

Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.5 has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.5, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver
for MySQL has been released. This is a maintenance release and is approved for use
in all situations.

It is now available in source and binary form from
[http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites
(note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time
- if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later
or choose another download site.)

There are lots of bug fixes in this release so please review the change log.

Thank you!

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

MySql Connector/Net 6.2.0 Alpha has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.2.0, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released. This is an alpha release and is intended to introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning. This release should not be used in a production environment.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.2.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

The new features or changes in this release are

  • Connection pool cleanup timer. We now utilize a timer that cleans idle connections that are no longer connected every 3 minutes
  • We are now using stream and TCP-based timeouts to handle command timeouts. This is more inline with what SqlClient does and should be more reliable than our old timer based approach
  • Completely refactored MySqlConnectionStringBuilder
  • We now support the TableDirect query type
  • Completely refactored our logging system. As part of this, query logs now keep all information relevant to that query together to make it easier to find and read.

What we know may be broken
Documentation is not updated yet. Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Monday, October 19, 2009

SharedView is actually pretty cool

So the Windows live writer guys must be at it again.  Microsoft has released a new screen sharing utility called SharedView.  Actually I’m just kidding about the the live writer guys.  It’s easy to think they were involved because live writer continues to be a very nice little utility that is a joy to use.  SharedView appears to also be lean and mean.  The download was small and the install quick and easy.  Within just a couple of minutes I had a session going and a buddy of mine just had to click on a url to join my session.  We shared each other’s desktops with ease.  It comes with a chat box but you’ll need to use Skype or WLM for voice.

For those who need some simple screen sharing, get it here.

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

MySQL Connector/Net 6.1.2 GA has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.1.2, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released. This is our latest GA release and is suitable for use in all scenarios against servers ranging from version 4.1 to 5.4!

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.1.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

This release introduces a couple of exciting new features.

Website Configuration Dialog -- This is a new wizard that is activated by clicking a button on the toolbar at the top of the solution explorer. It is meant to work in conjunction with the ASP.Net administration pages.  It makes it easier to activate and set advanced options for the different web providers we include.

Session State Provider -- We are now including a session state provider that allows you to store your websites state in a MySql server.

Support for native output parameters -- With this release we now support native output parameters when connected to a server that supports them. Currently we know that includes 6.0.8 and later servers.  It also will include 5.4 servers.

Changed GUID type -- We have changed our backend representation of a guid type to be CHAR(36).  We are doing this because we feel users will want to use the server UUID() function to populate a guid table and UUID generates a 36 character string.  Developers of older applications can add 'old guids=true' to the connection string and the old binary(16) type will be used.

This release also includes a slew of bug fixes made to the 5.2 and 6.0 trees.  Please check the release notes and change log for a complete list of those changes.  Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

MySql Connector/Net 6.1.1 beta has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.1.1, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver
for MySQL has been released. This is a beta release and is intended to
introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning. This
release should not be used in a production environment.

It is now available in source and binary form from
[http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.1.html] and mirror sites
(note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time
- if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later
or choose another download site.)

This release introduces a couple of exciting new features.

  • Website Configuration Dialog -- This is a new wizard that is activated
    by clicking a button on the toolbar at the top of the solution explorer.
    It is meant to work in conjunction with the ASP.Net administration
    pages.  It makes it easier to activate and set advanced options for the
    different web providers we include.
  • Session State Provider -- We are now including a session state provider
    that allows you to store your websites state in a MySql server.
  • Support for native output parameters -- With this release we now support
    native output parameters when connected to a server that supports them.
    Currently we know that includes 6.0.8 and later servers.  It also will
    include 5.4 servers.
  • Changed GUID type -- We have changed our backend representation of a
    guid type to be CHAR(36).  We are doing this because we feel users will
    want to use the server UUID() function to populate a guid table and UUID
    generates a 36 character string.  Developers of older applications can
    add 'old guids=true' to the connection string and the old binary(16)
    type will be used.

 
What we know may be broken

  • Documentation is not updated yet.
  • Our entity framework support currently treats both binary(16) and
    char(36) columns as  guids.
  • Please let us know what else we broke and how we can make it better!

Wednesday, August 12, 2009

MySql Connector/Net source code has a new home!

I would like to proudly announce that we have migrated our Connector/Net source code repositories to LaunchPad (www.launchpad.net) and are using BZR for our source control.  We have taken our old public SVN repository (http://svn.mysql.com/svnpublic/connector-net/) offline. 


We will be using LaunchPad for source control and feature management.  This means we'll use blue prints and the series system.  We will continue to use our existing bugs database found at bugs.mysql.com and our existing forum found at forums.mysql.com.


You can find the new source repositories for Connector/Net at https://launchpad.net/connectornet.  If you have any questions about how this affects you, please don't hesitate to send me an email.

Friday, July 31, 2009

We are all cowards

So, two days ago I wrote about knowing who’s money we are spending.  I reminded us that every time a government, any government, talks about spending money on a project it is our money they are spending.  A government has no money of its own.  I finished that post by saying that we are all cowards.  Now let me explain.

Our tax system has always been progressive.  That’s really not an appropriate term to describe it because what it really means is that our government takes money from those who have it and gives it to those who don’t.  If you make less than $20,000 per year then you likely pay no income taxes at all.  (please note here that income taxes are completely different than taxes like social security).  If you make more than $200,000 per year then you get taxed very heavily.  Seems fair right? 

Before I go too much farther I want to make sure you understand me completely.  There are real and legitimate reasons to take tax money and give it to the poor and needy.  It is certainly not in our country’s best interest to have people homeless and without food and shelter.  But what about the lady we’ve all seen in the grocery line that pays for milk and orange juice with food stamps and then plops a $20 down for a pack of cigs?   What about that uncle you found out lost his job and is not looking for a new one because ‘he can make just as much on unemployment’?  We’ve all seen them and we all know them.

Now, how would that lady or that uncle behave differently if instead they had to ask their neighbors (who apparently have more money) for their weekly stipend?  Well, they wouldn’t ask.  Why?  Because we are all cowards.  We stand behind our government while it robs those who have more and gives it to us.  Those who get government handouts (and yes they are all handouts) have a moral responsibility to work their a** off to quit taking the handouts.  But as long as they can stand in the shadows and let their government do the dirty work, that’s not going to change.

Am I suggesting that we just turn away from our poor and needy?  Nope.  Our government could run a very effective tax system that is fair for all and funds handouts for those who need it.  But is the federal government really the one who should be involved here?  I’ll get to that next time.

Now quit reading this blog and go get a job!  :)

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Who’s money is it?

To date I’ve refrained from talking about politics on my blog but I see so much liberal nonsense on the news that I felt like I had to say something.  I have several topics in my head that I would like to speak on but I’ll start with this one.

I have 4 kids and I’ve tried to raise them with good old-fashioned family values.  Be true to your word, stand on your own two feet, and worship your God. Still I’ve heard my kids talk about the ‘government’s money’.  Recently we were talking about some project that Washington was thinking about funding (don’t remember which one) and one of my kids said that she thought the government should pay for it.  So as President Obama would say, I used that moment as a teaching moment.

I asked my daughter if she wanted to pay for it or if she wanted me to pay for it.  She said of course not, she wanted the government to pay for it.  I explained to her that the government has no money.  All of the money the government spends comes from the citizens through some form of taxes. 

Of course some items are necessary.  We need interstate roads, military defense, and international trade just to name a few.  On the local level I certainly want the police, fire department, or EMTs to show up when I call 911.  There are very legitimate uses of our money.  But I explained to my daughter that the next time you hear of the government wanting to spend money, just ask yourself if you would want to chip in and  help pay for that.  If not, then the government shouldn’t be doing it either.

And this is what the liberals in this country just can’t grasp.  I was watching a recent episode of The Daily Show that had Bill Kristol on as a guest.  Near the end, Jon was very smugly asserting that since the US can run a quality healthcare system (the VA) then every citizen deserves the same.  What he, of course, will not talk about is how that is paid for.  Of course our government _could_ provide world class healthcare for everyone.  Heck, it could do it completely free of charge.  Just walk in to the doctor’s office, flash your medical card, and get what you need.  But who pays for that?  As we just learned the government has no money.  So who pays for it?  Your neighbors pay for it.   Your neighbors pay for it through increased taxes.

And that, my friends, is why we are all cowards.  More on that tomorrow…

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Comments are now disabled

Due to the massive amount of manual comment spam I have been getting, I have no choice but to disable comments until I'm able to integrate a better spam fighting system.  Anyone who is generally interested in a posting and would like to ask me a question, feel free to send me an email.  

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

mysql connector/net 6.0.4 has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.4, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver
for MySQL has been released.  This is the first post-GA release of the new
6.0 connector and includes several bug fixes from the initial GA release. 

This release is approved for use in all scenarios and officially
supports MySQL servers 4.1 and higher.   It is now available in source and binary form from
[http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites
(note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time
- if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later
or choose another download site.)

IMPORTANT
We have had some reports of installer problems with this package. We are working hard to find the problem. For now it appears that making sure your system is fully updated sometimes helps.  We will release a fix as 6.0.5 once we have solved this issue.

Fixes from 6.0.3
- fixed regression with using stored procedures with datasets (bug #44460)
- fixed compilation under Visual Studio 2005 (bug #44822)
- fixed support for bool data type in entity framework support
- fixed regression where a user could no longer call GetBytes on a GUID column (bug #44507)
- made some fixes to the syntax coloring of sql inside Visual Studio
- fixed display name of triggers inside server explorer
- fixed trigger editing
- fixed tokenization of escaped backslashes (bug #44960)
- fixed conversion of binary(16) type to GUID for entity framework models (bug #44986)
- fixed global Add New menu options with the Visual Studio integration
- improved ad-hoc registration utility so that it handles VS 2005 and VS 2008 properly
- fixed sql that is generated for commands in data set (bug #44512)

New features and improvements
- added Sun Connect registration
- unsigned values are now handled.  Please read the release notes!
- migrated from CTC to VSCT for our menus and buttons.  Also the VisualStudio project will also
  now load and build under VS2005 or VS2008 loading the proper targets files as needed

Enjoy!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

new wiki for connector/net

We have started a new project wiki for MySQL Connector/Net.  It’s a little light in content right now but should grow rapidly.  It can be found here.  Please let us know what we can do better.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

mysql connector/net 6.0.3 GA has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.3, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is the first GA release of the new 6.0 connector and introduces several new features and enhancements.  This release is approved for use in all scenarios and officially supports MySQL servers 4.1 and higher.   We had three major goals with this release:  speed, entity framework support, and a better Visual Studio experience.  I'm happy to report that we have met all three.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

Fixes from 6.0.2

  • fixed broken connection prompting
  • fixed installer that was no longer referencing the right folders for Visual Studio assemblies [bug #44141]
  • made integer column types returned with table and column collections use the same data type when referencing MySql 4.1 servers and MySql 5.0+ servers (bug #44123)
  • lots of unreported bug fixes found in our newly rewritten DDEX provider


New features and improvements

  • Massive speedups.  We have increased the speed of the provider.  In many situations it now matches or exceeds the speed of the native C connector.
  • SQL tokenizing has been improved dramatically.  Not only is it substantially faster (approx 40%) it also now uses a completely rewritten tokenizer that supports all types of stored procedure comments.
  • Added UDF schema collection
  • Implement initial Entity Framework support
  • Improved Visual Studio integration


Visual Studio improvements

We have completely rewritten our Visual Studio integration bits and are delivering several exciting features with it.  Here's a look at some of those features:

1.  Now uses the same toolbars and commands as SQL Server so the integration is much more seamless.
2.  Uses the native code editor which means code splitting and syntax highlighting.
3.  Change script generation
4.  And many more smaller features.....

Enjoy!

mysql connector/net 5.2.6 has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 5.2.6, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This release is of GA quality and is suitable for  use in production environments.  We strongly urge you to  review the change log that is shipped with the product for a thorough review of the changes.

We have a ton of fixes in this release so please review the changelog and see if your favorite bug has been fixed.  This version officially supports all versions of MySQL from 4.1 and later.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/5.2.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

Changes since 5.2.5

  • cleaned up how stored procedure execution operated when the user does or does not have execute privs on the routine (bug #40139)
  • fixed problem with datetime formatting that causes an extra space to be included between the date and time when sent to the server (bug #41021)
  • fixed sproc parameter parsing so that a space between the type and size spec would not cause a problem (bug #41034)
  • removed code from profile provider that overrode Name and Description properties in error.  This had the effect of not allowing you to override those values in the web.config (ug #40871)
  • fixed "metadatacollections" collection to include foreign key columns
  • fixed GetAllProfiles (which is used by several methods).  It had a typo in the SQL and was not including several important columns (bug #41654)
  • fixed problem where the core method GetUser was not properly checking the application id when retrieving user id values.  This would mean that in some cases methods like ValidateUser would return success when they shouldn't.  (bug #42574)  This triggered several other cleanups in all the providers
  • fixed problem with execution of LOAD DATA LOCAL INFILE (which also affected MySqlBulkLoader). When the driver encountered some type of error opening the local file for transport it would still attempt to close the file which would yield a null reference exception (bug #43332)
  • fixed Sql null value exception when an attempt was made to reset the password and require question and answer was false.  (bug #41408)
  • fixed MySqlDataReader.GetGuid to be more robust in how it attempts to read guid values (bug #41452)
  • fixed bug where attempting to clear a pool twice would result in a null reference exception (bug #42801)
  • Fixed problem with index column schema collection
  • Fixed RemoveUsersFromRoles and DeleteRole where they were not calling transactionscope.Complete. This meant that on systems where the provider tables are transaction aware the changes could be rolled back in every case (bug #43553)
  • Fixed typo in the collection returned when you request the MetaDataCollections collection.  The NumberOfRestrictions column was missing the trailing s. (bug #43990)
  • fixed index and index column schema collections that would fail if you specified the any restrictions more specific than table name (bug #43991)
  • removed a couple of unnecessary lines from NativeDriver.Open() (bug #44028)
  • added connection string option 'use affected rows'.  (bug #44194)
  • changed MySqlPool so that a freshly pulled connection will issue it's ping and reset outside of the idlepool lock.  This lessens some of the contention on the idle pool.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

big shout out to projectreviews.com

Just wanted to give a big shout out to this great site for projector info.  I’m in the market for a lower-end 1080p projector and want to this site for some guidance.  After doing tons of reading I had a few questions and popped off a quick email from their contacts page.  I didn’t expect an response but got an email back within 1 hour.  I exchanged a couple of emails with a gentleman from the site and he politely answered some of my questions.

I’m not sure who runs the site but I really appreciated the quick response and helpful info.  Keep up the good work!

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

mysql connector/net 6.0.2 beta has been released

Hi,
MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.2, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is a beta release and is intended to introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning.  This release should not be used in a production environment.

This release was quickly pushed out due to a problem that caused 6.0.1 to not register with Visual Studio correctly.  We also made a small correction to a previous bug fix.  SQL generated from entity framework for stored procedures will now not directly reference the schema.  This allows the model to move to a different database without need of change.  We had previously made this change for tables but failed to do so for procedures.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

Please take this version for a test drive and let us know what works and what doesn't.

Wednesday, April 1, 2009

mysql connector/net 6.0.1 beta has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.1, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released. This is a beta release and is intended to introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning. This release should not be used in a production environment.

We had three major goals with this release. Speed, Entity Framework support, and a better Visual Studio experience. I'm happy to report that we have met all three. Please see the complete list of changes below.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

  • Massive speedups. We have increased the speed of the provider. In many situations it now matches or exceeds the speed of the native C connector.
  • SQL tokenizing has been improved dramatically. Not only is it substantially faster (approx 40%) it also now uses a completely rewritten tokenizer that supports all types of stored procedure comments.
  • Added UDF schema collection
  • Implement initial Entity Framework support (see below)
  • Improved Visual Studio integration (see below)

Entity Framework support
Yes, we are late to the party but we are here. I apologize for the delays related to this release and I hope that those of you looking to use MySQL with the entity framework will still want to give us a look. This releases uses a entity framework engine that was completely developed in-house and is, therefore, licensed in exactly the same way as our core provider. Please remember that this is an alpha release and we are certain that you will find databases that will not reverse-engineer correctly or you will build models or queries that will not generate correctly. Please file those as bug reports and include all the information you can. We'll quickly get to those as we are going to move as quickly as possible to GA.

Visual Studio improvements
We have completely rewritten our Visual Studio integration bits and are delivering several exciting features with it. Here's a look at some of those features:

1. Now uses the same toolbars and commands as SQL Server so the integration is much more seamless.
2. Uses the native code editor which means code splitting and syntax highlighting.
3. Change script generation
4. And many more smaller features.....

Please take this version for a test drive and let us know what works and what doesn't.

Friday, February 20, 2009

MySql connector/net 6.0 alpha has been released

MySQL Connector/Net 6.0.0, a new version of the all-managed .NET driver for MySQL has been released.  This is an alpha release and is intended to introduce you to the new features and enhancements we are planning.  This release should not be used in a production environment.

We had three major goals with this release.  Speed, Entity Framework support, and a better Visual Studio experience.  I'm happy to report that we have met all three.  Please see the complete list of changes below.

It is now available in source and binary form from [http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/net/6.0.html] and mirror sites (note that not all mirror sites may be up to date at this point of time - if you can't find this version on some mirror, please try again later or choose another download site.)

  • Massive speedups.  We have increased the speed of the provider.  In many situations it now matches or exceeds the speed of the native C connector.
  • SQL tokenizing has been improved dramatically.  Not only is it substantially faster (approx 40%) it also now uses a completely rewritten tokenizer that supports all types of stored procedure comments.
  • Added UDF schema collection
  • Implement initial Entity Framework support (see below)
  • Improved Visual Studio integration (see below)


Entity Framework support
Yes, we are late to the party but we are here.  I apologize for the delays related to this release and I hope that those of you looking to use MySQL with the entity framework will still want to give us a look.  This releases uses a entity framework engine that was completely developed in-house and is, therefore, licensed in exactly the same way as our core provider.  Please remember that this is an alpha release and we are certain that you will find databases that will not reverse-engineer correctly or you will build models or queries that will not generate correctly. Please file those as bug reports and include all the information you can.  We'll quickly get to those as we are going to move as quickly as possible to GA.

Visual Studio improvements
Even though these improvements did not make the cutoff for this alpha, you will see them in the next drop.  We have completely rewritten our Visual Studio integration bits and are delivering several exciting features with it.  Here's a look at some of those features:
1.  Now uses the same toolbars and commands as SQL Server so the integration is much more seamless.
2.  Uses the native code editor which means code splitting and syntax highlighting.
3.  Change script generation
4.  And many more smaller features.....

Please take this version for a test drive and let us know what works and what doesn't.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

The perfect Windows 7 notebook

Well, the perfect Windows 7 notebook [that I own].  I’m sitting at one of my sons wrestling matches typing this into Windows Live Writer running on Windows 7 on a Penryn Macbook Pro.  And boy is it sweet.

I’ve had either Vista or Windows Server 2008 dual booting on this Mac since the day I bought it and was never really satisfied with it. I blogged how nice it was shortly after I got it but there seemed to be some nagging issues with it.   It always seemed to get too hot.  The other main issue was that it would frequently not got to sleep properly.  It was not uncommon for m to fully charge the battery, use it for a few minutes, close the lid, and then come back the next day to a dead machine.  Very frustrating.

As soon as Windows 7 beta hit the streets I had to give it a try and I am sure glad I did.  The sleep issues seem to have been fixed.  Windows 7 picked up the built-in wireless without needing to install the Boot Camp drivers (though I did install them later to get the keyboard and iSight working).  It also doesn’t seem to get hot any longer.  I’ve used it extensively on my lap both on and off power.  Only slightly warm.   Very nice.

Oh, and the battery life.  Under Vista I really would not get any more than 2 hours.  It definitely seems better.  I would say nearly 3 hours but I don’t have specific data on that. 

What do you get when you combine the sleekness and features of a MacBook Pro with the dual boot goodness of Windows 7 and OS/X?  Get one and find out!  You won’t be disappointed.