Visual Studio Fonts and Colours

I got tired of the colours in VS2008 so asked on twitter if anyone has some themes. Got a good response of links to themes.

Here are the main links I was sent:

Scot Hanselman’s Blog
http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudioProgrammerThemesGallery.aspx
Iain Holder’s Blog
http://tech-nous.blogspot.com/2008/10/visual-studio-2008-colour-schemes.html
Is your IDE Hot or Not
http://idehotornot.ning.com/

Mohamed Meligy
http://geekswithblogs.net/Mohamed/archive/2007/08/20/Dark-Visual-Studio-With-Resharper---My-VS-Settings-Colors.aspx

If you use ReSharper  the normal settings people export don’t work correctly and you will have to do a lot of customisations yourself.

I based mine on Mohamed’s one and have done some changes, especially to XML and HTML views. I have found it much easier on my eyes and really enjoy it. So I thought I would share it with the interwebs.

Please remember these Fonts and Colours are for VS2008 + R#

Tools | Import and Export Settings | Import selected environment settings | Yes, save my current settings | Browse |VS2008R#Dark-FontsColours.vssettings | make sure it is importing Fonts and Colours only | Finish | Enjoy

Let me know if you like them.

Windows 7 beta

After spending half a day fighting with MSDN subscriber downloads on the day of release on Thursday, anyone can now download it from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/beta-ownload.aspx and give it a try. I of course had to test it out, see if the companies software I write installs and works on it ;). I fired up Windows 7 x86 in a Virtual Machine, I currently use VirtualBox which I think rocks ! about 35 minutes later it was done, install perfectly worked right off the bat. Runs a lot better than the Vista VMs I have and the only tweaking I had to do was use the Compatibility Troubleshooter to install the Guest Additions, but that was it.

Feeling confident with the new operating system I wipe my Dell XPS M1730 laptop and installed Window 7 x64 replacing my current Vista x64. It installed quickly ran and with no problems, only had to install the latest Nvidia drivers to get better resolutions, but then I had to do that on Vista too. You can pick Laptop Nvidia driver direct from Nvidia now and not the rarely update ones by laptop vendors. The rest of the hardware which was unknown after install was picked up by Windows update which was the Creative inbuilt laptop camera and the Ricoh Memory card reader. Been x64 bit I was a bit worried as Vista x64 half a year ago took me ages to get everything running and I really had to hunt around for the drivers, Windows 7 x64 just worked, nice.

It runs really well, it is slicker and snappier than Vista, it looks very much like Vista but the changes have made a huge difference. For a beta it is bloody good, well done Microsoft. Now to finish installing the useful software as TweetDeck won’t get any of my work done.

Technorati Tags: Windows 7

DDD7: How to develop .Net on Linux using Ubuntu distro

Wow, my first time presenting and a lot of panicking. I hope those who came enjoyed it, and now feel the world of Linux is a less scary place for us .Net developers.
Here is my presentation:

Every DDD session this year has been filmed; so if you missed it watch the DDD site for the video. Please also submit your feedback.

I will be doing a few posts on setting up Ubuntu and adding some addition content which I didn't have time to demonstrate.

Technorati Tags: C#,DDD7,Mono,Linux

"How to develop .Net on Linux using Ubuntu distro" now showing at DDD7

Thank you too everyone who voted for "How to develop .Net on Linux using Ubuntu distro" session at DDD7. Was not excepting this session to get chosen was hoping the WiX would be selected, if any at all. This is my first time speaking at DDD, or any large/medium event for that matter. So excited and very nervous at the same time, should be fun !

DDD7
www.developerday.co.uk

When: Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 9:00 to 17:00
Where: Microsoft, Thames Valley Park, Reading, Berkshire RG6 1WG, England

Watch out for registration as places go very quickly

Technorati Tags: DDD,DDD7,Mono

DDD7 session voting now open

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper! Day 7 which is been held on Saturday, 22nd November 2008 has now opened the voting for sessions to build the agenda for the day. I has submitted 3 sessions; How FIT are you ?, Introduction to Windows Installer XML (WiX) and How to develop .Net on Linux using Ubuntu distro. So please vote for me !

Technorati Tags: DDD

Alt.Net UK September Registration Open

The registration for the Alt.Net UK Conference is now open. For more information check out Ian Cooper's post Alt.Net UK September.

XSLT - javascript escaping

I could not find a way to do this without writing a template.
I started one then luckily through the power of the Internet found a better one.  Done by Jeni Tennison found in the xsl-list archives and I have reproduce here.

<xsl:template name="escape-javascript">
  <xsl:param name="string" />
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test='contains($string, "&apos;")'>
      <xsl:call-template name="escape-javascript">
        <xsl:with-param name="string"
          select='substring-before($string, "&apos;")' />
      </xsl:call-template>
      <xsl:text>\'</xsl:text>
      <xsl:call-template name="escape-javascript">
        <xsl:with-param name="string"
          select='substring-after($string, "&apos;")' />
      </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="contains($string, '&#xA;')">
      <xsl:call-template name="escape-javascript">
        <xsl:with-param name="string"
          select="substring-before($string, '&#xA;')" />
      </xsl:call-template>
      <xsl:text>\n</xsl:text>
      <xsl:call-template name="escape-javascript">
        <xsl:with-param name="string"
          select="substring-after($string, '&#xA;')" />
      </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:when test="contains($string, '\')">
      <xsl:value-of select="substring-before($string, '\')" />
      <xsl:text>\\</xsl:text>
      <xsl:call-template name="escape-javascript">
        <xsl:with-param name="string"
          select="substring-after($string, '\')" />
      </xsl:call-template>
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise><xsl:value-of select="$string" /></xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>