C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 3 – Expression Trees

We saw more about Lambda Expression in our Part 1 of this series .Wonder how those were compiled or how those expressions parsed?

To do so, we need to get into Expression Trees!

So what is an Expression Tree?

Expression trees are nothing but those which represent the query itself.

Let us take a simple example.

   1: Func<string, string> function = 

   2:              x => x.Contains(“c”);

· The compiler constructs a delegate which takes an input parameter of type string and returns a value of type string

But, how about this

   1: Expression<Func<string, string>> expression = 

   2:                             x => x.Contains(“c”);

· The compiler generates an Expression Tree which we can parse and do something with the data

(This post gives a small introduction to Expression Trees. Expression Trees itself is a big topic but this post will help us go through some of the basics with a simple example)

Say we have a class called Student which has only one property - Name

   1: public class Student

   2: {

   3:     private string name;

   4:  

   5:     public string Name

   6:     {

   7:         get { return name; }

   8:         set { name = value; }

   9:     }

  10: }

And now we have a small function which is going to take an expression as its parameter and return the value for which the expression is queried for.

   1: public static string 

   2:          GetName(Expression<Func<Customer, bool>> predicate)

So, if we pass an expression,

n=>n.Name==”Chakkaradeep”

We need to get back Chakkaradeep , as that’s what we queried. This isn’t a good example, but I would say its good to understand how Expressions are parsed J

Let me show you the function directly now,

   1: public static string GetName(Expression<Func<Student, bool>> predicate)

   2: {

   3:     BinaryExpression binaryExpr = (BinaryExpression)predicate.Body;

   4:  

   5:     MemberExpression leftExpr = (MemberExpression)binaryExpr.Left;

   6:  

   7:     string url = leftExpr.Member.Name;

   8:  

   9:     if (binaryExpr.NodeType == ExpressionType.Equal)

  10:     {

  11:         url += “==”;

  12:     }

  13:     else

  14:         throw new NotSupportedException(“only = is supported”);

  15:  

  16:     ConstantExpression rightValue = (ConstantExpression)binaryExpr.Right;

  17:  

  18:     url += rightValue.Value;

  19:  

  20:     return url;

  21: }

That’s a bit confusing! Whats happening ?

Expression is being parsed

Yes, take our expression again,

n=>n.Name==”Chakkaradeep”

Expressions always a Body property. In the above expression, we have a BinaryExpression

n.Name==”Chakkaradeep”

As you might have guessed by now, a BinaryExpression is something that has a binary operator

So lets take the Body and break it into two pieces

   1: BinaryExpression binaryExpr = 

   2:       (BinaryExpression)predicate.Body;

Now we have extracted our BinaryExpression body which has a Left property and Right property, as shown above in the diagram.

The Left property will hold n.Name

The Right Property will hold Chakkaradeep

And our Node Type or the Binary operator is == (Equality)

And that’s what we have done,

   1: string url = leftExpr.Member.Name;

   2:  

   3: if (binaryExpr.NodeType == ExpressionType.Equal)

   4: {

   5:     url += “==”;

   6: }

   7: else

   8:     throw new NotSupportedException(“only = is supported”);

   9:  

  10: ConstantExpression rightValue = (ConstantExpression)binaryExpr.Left;

  11:  

  12: url += rightValue.Value;

As now you have the values, you could do anything with them and parse them

But yes, it would be more complicated if we have multiple queries coming up, like,

n=>n.Name==”Chakkaradeep” && n.Name==”Chaks”

And our sample will not work for the above query as we havent dealt with it. I leave to the reader to explore more on how to recursively parse Expressions

What if we need to manually build Expressions?

You can

We just use the technique of how we parsed to build the expression manually.

First, we need to create a ParameterExpression of type Student and also tell that our paramter variable is x

   1: //construct the parameter which is x and it is of type Student

   2: ParameterExpression xParam = 

   3:   Expression.Parameter(typeof(Student), “x”);

And now we need to build our BinaryExpression whose Left Property is a MemberExpression which has the Property Name and the Right Property a value

   1: //construct our MemberExpression whose

   2: //left property is x.Name, and

   3: //right property’s value “Chakkaradeep”

   4: Student student = new Student();

   5: student.Name = “Chakkaradeep”;

   6: MemberExpression leftExpr = MemberExpression.Property(xParam, “Name”);

   7: Expression rightExpr = Expression.Constant(student.Name);

   8: //construct our BinaryExpression which is x.Name==”Chakkaradeep”

   9: BinaryExpression myExpr = MemberExpression.Equal(leftExpr, rightExpr);

All good now to build our Expression. Remember, we haven’t yet built our Expression, but we do have the bits and pieces that we need to build our expression 

And now we build our Expression,

   1: //now build our Expression using the parameter and BinaryExpression

   2: //x=>x.Name==”Chakkaradeep”

   3: Expression<Func<Student, bool>> lambdaExpr =

   4:     Expression.Lambda<Func<Student, bool>>

   5:         (

   6:             myExpr,

   7:             new ParameterExpression[] { xParam }

   8:         );

There you go! We build it telling that we have a ParameterExpression of type Student and the parameter is x which is associated with the BinaryExpression

And now you can directly pass this lambdaExpr to our function

GetName(lambdaExpr);

You can download the sample here

Useful Resources

1) Expression Trees

2) Expression Tree Visitor

3) System.Linq.Expressions Namespace

C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 2 – var Keyword, Extension Methods and Partial Methods

The var Keyword

We come across this new keyword called var when we use LINQ, what does this var keyword do?

The var keyword is used to declare and initialize anonymous types

That’s really confusing! – What are these anonymous types?

To understand the var keyword, we need to understand what really anonymous types are, and to understand anonymous types we need to know about var keyword, lol! Both go hand in hand.

Let’s start with an example,

   1: var Student = new { Id = 1234, Name = “Chakkaradeep” };

Now we have an anonymous type which has the properties Id and Name declared and initialized using the var keyword. To illustrate what is happening here,

So we can come to a conclusion that the var keyword deduces the data type of an object with the initialization of that object.

Now you can do something like this,

   1: var query =

   2:       from name in names

   3:       select new

   4:       {

   5:             firstPart = name[0],

   6:             lastPart = name.Substring(1, (name.Length - 1))

   7:       };

And then used it this way,

But do not consider that var variable is loosely coupled and can change its type! Take an example,

   1: var FullName = “Chakkaradeep Chandran”;

   2: FullName = 12;

When you compile the above code, it fails because the object FullName is initialized as a String and we are trying to assign an Integer value to it!

This brings up an important point – var variables must be initialized when they are being declared and that helps the var keyword to deduce its type

The introduction of anonymous types has also led to another change in the way objects and collections are initialized

Say, we have a Class Person

   1: public class Person

   2: {

   3:     public string Name;

   4:     public string Address;

   5:     public int Pincode;

   6: }

If you want to initialize an object of type Person and give default values to those properties, the normal way would be,

   1: Person person = new Person();

   2: person.Name = “Chakkaradeep”;

   3: person.Address = “Dunedin”;

   4: person.Pincode = 9016;

But now we could directly do this,

   1: Person person = new Person

   2: {

   3:     Name = “Chakkaradeep”,

   4:     Address = “Dunedin”,

   5:     Pincode = 9016

   6: };

That certainly looks easier and neat!

This doesn’t stop with only Classes; it’s even possible with Collections,

   1: List<string> persons = new List<string>

   2: {

   3:     “Wellington”,

   4:     “Dunedin”,

   5:     “Invercargill”

   6: };

Extension Methods

The best way to understand Extension Methods is from an example

Let’s take our previous post’s example of filtering names that contains a character. We did something like this,

   1: List<string> FilteredNames =
Utility.FilterNames(names, n => n.Contains(‘c’));

Wouldn’t it be really nice and useful to provide something like this?

   1: List<string> FilteredNames =

   2:       names.Filter(n => n.Contains(‘c’));

That’s what Extension Methods allows us to do!

What are we actually doing in our above code block?

- We have “added” a method called Filter to an existing type which is string[] (array of strings)

This has one advantage. It doesn’t require you modify anything in the type string[], we just extend it and add our method

So, how are these done?

Extension Methods are nothing but static methods in a static class that can be called by using instance method syntax

We need to do some changes to our Utilty class to make it ready for Extension Methods. We need to change the class to a static class and include a static method called Filter

   1: namespace LINQEnhancements

   2: {

   3:     public static class Utility

   4:     {

   5:         public static List<string>

   6:            Filter(this string[] names,

   7:                 Func<string, bool> customFilter)

   8:         {

   9:             List<string> NamesList = new List<string>();

  10:

  11:             foreach (string name in names)

  12:             {

  13:                 if (customFilter(name))

  14:                     NamesList.Add(name);

  15:             }

  16:

  17:             return NamesList;

  18:         }

  19:     }

  20: }

And now you can use the way we want it,

   1: List<string> FilteredNames;

   2: FilteredNames = names.Filter(n => n.Contains(‘c’));

The reason I have shown the Utility class along with namespace is that, if your extension methods are in a different namespace, you have to import that namespace to actually make use of those extension methods

   1: public static List<string>

   2:   Filter(this string[] names,

   3:       Func<string, bool> customFilter)

The above line is where our trick lies. We explicitly tell that Filter is a static method applied on a static variable of type string[] (array of strings)

Where are these used? Remember our Standard Query Operators in LINQ?

   1: IEnumerable<string> query = names

   2:                             .Where(n => n.Equals(matchName))

   3:                             .Select();

Yes, you got it right!

And all these Standard Query Operators are available to use by importing the namespace System.Linq

using System.Linq;

Partial Methods

A partial method has its signature defined in a partial type and its implementation defined in another part of the type. This sounds very similar to Partial Class. Yes, partial methods always reside inside partial classes so that they can be used in another part of the type.

Here is an example,

   1: public partial class MyPartialClass

   2: {

   3:     partial void MyPartialMethod();

   4:

   5:     public void NotPartial()

   6:     {

   7:         Console.WriteLine(“Ooops..Not Partial!”);

   8:     }

   9:

  10:     public void InvokePartialMethod()

  11:     {

  12:         MyPartialMethod();

  13:     }

  14: }

We have a partial class and a partial method called MyPartialMethod

Now, what happens if we do something like this?

   1: MyPartialClass partialClass = new MyPartialClass();

   2: partialClass.NotPartial();

   3: partialClass.InvokePartialMethod();

We do see that the method NotPartial gets invoked but nothing happens when we call the InvokePartialMethod

Now let us create another declaration for MyPartialClass and implement the partial method MyPartialMethod

   1: partial class MyPartialClass

   2: {

   3:     partial void MyPartialMethod()

   4:     {

   5:         Console.WriteLine(“Hey, its a Partial Method!”);

   6:     }

   7: }

And now do the same thing,

   1: MyPartialClass partialClass = new MyPartialClass();

   2: partialClass.NotPartial();

   3: partialClass.InvokePartialMethod();

We now see that our partial method too gets called as we have implemented it!

Well, there is lot of arguments going on in the community that why do we need Partial Methods when this can be achieved in many other ways. Partial methods are mostly used in design tools for use with auto-generated code. If you want to make use of those methods, you could write your own implementation and it’s going to be used, else the compiler just doesn’t execute them and moves on.

Partial Methods are heavily used by LINQ-to-SQL designer tools and that’s the reason I wanted to explain about them here.

There are some golden rules that we need to follow if we are writing partial methods,

· Partial method declarations must begin with the contextual keyword partial and the method must return void.

· Partial methods can have ref but not out parameters.

· Partial methods are implicitly private, and therefore they cannot be virtual.

· Partial methods cannot be extern, because the presence of the body determines whether they are defining or implementing.

· Partial methods can have static and unsafe modifiers.

· Partial methods can be generic. Constraints are put on the defining partial method declaration, and may optionally be repeated on the implementing one. Parameter and type parameter names do not have to be the same in the implementing declaration as in the defining one.

· You cannot make a delegate to a partial method.

Useful Resources

1) Standard Query Operators

2) LINQ-to-SQL

C# 3.0 Language Enhancements for LINQ – Part 1

LINQ is a new feature added to C# 3.0. For an introduction to LINQ, please visit here

So, how are we able to use LINQ seamlessly with C#? Thanks to some of the enhancements that were made to C# for LINQ. They are as follows,

1) Lambda Expressions

2) The var Keyword

3) Extension Methods

4) Partial Methods

5) Expression Trees

This is the start of 3 part series which would be,

· Part 1 – Lambda Expressions

· Part 2 – The var Keyword, Extension Methods and Partial Methods

· Part 3 – Expression Trees

As said above, this post will be explaining about Lambda Expressions

Lambda Expressions

Lambda Expression is an anonymous function that can contain an expression or statement or can also be used to create a delegate.

To understand Lambda Expressions, it is better to first look into,

1) Named Methods

2) Anonymous Methods

Named Methods

With delegates one can create Named Methods, that is, instantiate a named method to a delegate and invoke it

Nothing gets explained better without an example; so, let’s get into our sample application

Sample Application

We are going to create a sample application which is going to filter names that contains a character. It’s a very basic and simple example, but it’s really good to explain the things that we want to explore. We would be seeing on how we approach the same concept using Named Methods and Anonymous Methods and then come to Lambda Expressions.

We have a small class called Utility which looks like this,

It has got two static methods and a delegate called CustomFilter with an input parameter as string and bool as return type. So, the idea is to allow the developer or user to write their own custom filter function, but use this Utility to filter. This is done with the help of delegates.

Using Named Methods

So, if we take our Named Method approach, we would end up doing like this,

static void UsingNamedMethods()

{

List<string> FilteredNames =

Utility.FilterNames(names, MyFilter);

foreach (string name in FilteredNames)

Console.WriteLine(name);

}

static bool MyFilter(string name)

{

if (name.Contains(’c'))

return true;

return false;

}

We have a method called MyFilter which is where we define our custom filter logic and instantiate the delegate CustomFilter with this method using the Utility.FilterNames function

And here is our Utility.FilterNames function

public delegate bool CustomFilter(string name);

public static List<string>

FilterNames(string[] names,CustomFilter customFilter)

{

List<string> NamesList = new List<string>();

foreach(string name in names)

{

if (customFilter(name))

NamesList.Add(name);

}

return NamesList;

}

It’s fairly simple and straight forward. Now we really have something useful which makes use of Named Methods. This sample will help the Customer who is going to use our Utility to write his own Filter and use the generic FilterNames function to filter it.

Look into our filter method which is Myfilter – It’s fairly simple, just checking whether the name contains a character and returns true if so. Do we really need to write a method for this? Why can’t we specify a code block instead and make use of it? Anonymous Methods comes to our rescue!

Anonymous Methods

Anonymous methods can be used to pass a code block to a delegate, using the delegate parameter, and can be used in places where creating a method is really not necessary, like in our example.

Using the Anonymous method, our code changes to,

static void UsingAnonymousMethods()

{

List<string> FilteredNames;

FilteredNames =

Utility.FilterNames(names,

delegate(string name)

{

return (name.Contains(’c'));

} );

foreach (string name in FilteredNames)

Console.WriteLine(name);

}

So, now we have a code block which checks for a character in the name and it is passed as our CustomFilter delegate

Note that our FilterNames Utility function remains unchanged.

However, Anonymous methods do have one drawback in regard to readability. It’s more verbose and the code block sometimes becomes really hard to read!

So, do we really have anything which is easy to read and also simple to use? – Yes, and Lambda Expressions comes to our rescue!

Revisiting Lambda Expressions

As I said earlier - Lambda Expression is an anonymous function that can contain an expression or statement or can also be used to create a delegate

The structure of a lambda expression looks like this,

(param1,param2..paramN)=>expression

Basically we have some input parameters delimited with comma on the left and a corresponding expression on the right

The simplest lambda expression is,

x=>x

This is nothing but assigning x to x

Moving forward, our sample’s expression to find a character in the name would now become,

n=>n.Contains(‘c’)

How is the type of ‘n’ inferred? Remember our delegate? Here it is again,

public delegate bool CustomFilter(string name);

If you translate in pure English – Here is a delegate called CustomFilter which accepts one input parameter of type string and returns a value of type bool

So, when we actually make use of lambda expressions, this gets inferred and thus our ‘n’ in the above lambda expression gets inferred that it is of type string and has to return bool. But when inferring types is not possible, you could always do,

(string n)=>n.Contains(‘c’)

This would explicitly specify the type of ‘n’

Coming back to our sample application, now with the use of lambda expressions, we could write,

static void UsingLambdaExpressions()

{

List<string> FilteredNames;

FilteredNames = Utility.FilterNames(names, n => n.Contains(’c'));

foreach (string name in FilteredNames)

Console.WriteLine(name);

}

Note that our FilterNames Utility function still remains unchanged.

Statement Lambdas

Again, revisiting our lambda expression definition - Lambda Expression is an anonymous function that can contain an expression or statement or can also be used to create a delegate

We did see that lambda expression that has an expression. What about a statement?

Statement lambdas look like,

(param1,param2..paramN)=>{ statement; }

The statement body can contain many statements instead of a single expression. Something like,

FilteredNames =

Utility.FilterNames(

names,

n =>{

bool blnVal;

/*… something here …*/

blnVal = n.Contains(’c');

return blnVal;

} );

Lambdas with Func<T,TResult> delegates

Again, revisiting our lambda expression definition - Lambda Expression is an anonymous function that can contain an expression or statement or can also be used to create a delegate

We did see that lambda expression that has an expression, a statement. What about the last one which can be used to create a delegate?

With the Func<T,TResult> family of generic delegates, we can use lambda expressions to create a delegate and invoke it.

Before getting into an example, let us explore the Func<T,TResult> family. We currently have,

A Simple example would be,

Func<string, bool> SampleFunction = n =>n.Contains(’c');

SampleFunction(”Chirstchurch”);

The above code block looks fairly simple and actually we see that we can eliminate Named Methods and Anonymous Methods now and directly make use of lambda expressions!

Coming back to our example, we can now simplify our FilterNames Utility function to something like this,

public static List<string> FilterNamesUsingFuncDelegates

(string[] names,Func<string,bool> customFilter)

{

List<string> NamesList = new List<string>();

foreach (string name in names)

{

if (customFilter(name))

NamesList.Add(name);

}

return NamesList;

}

Yes, you are right; we no need to declare any delegate now and make use of the available function delegates as Predicates!

Predicates were introduced in .NET 2.0 and are defined as (from MSDN),

Represents the method that defines a set of criteria and determines whether the specified object meets those criteria

You can read more about Predicates here

We can come across the same in LINQ when you use Standard Query Operators. If you remember our LINQ example, we have actually seen this,

IEnumerable<string> query = names

.Where(n => n.Equals(matchName))

.Select();

And Where clause syntax is,

You can download the sample application here

Useful Resources

1) Named Methods

2) Anonymous Methods

3) Standard Query Operators

A simple Twitter client to demonstrate BackgroundWorker

We have always had problems when we want to execute some operation that might take long time in a separate thread and at the same time updating UI components.

With BackgroundWorker class, we can simplify this process and makes it very simple for us to do asynchronous operations.

We initialize the BackgroundWorker and register for their events and run it asynchronously. So, when those events like WorkCompleted, ProgressChanged occurs, you are taken to your callback which is in the thread that started the BackgroundWorker.

BackgroundWorker LoginWorker = new BackgroundWorker();

LoginWorker.DoWork += new DoWorkEventHandler(worker_DoWork);

LoginWorker.RunWorkerCompleted +=new

RunWorkerCompletedEventHandler(worker_RunWorkerCompleted);

LoginWorker.WorkerSupportsCancellation = true;

I have developed a small (very) basic Twitter client to demonstrate the BackgroundWorker class

You can download the sample here

Mocking Events [With RhinoMocks]

Suppose we have an Inerface called IFooDatabase . Think this Interface as our gateway which will provide us with basic database operations.

Now, how does Mocking come here? - My friend is still working on this database layer but he has given me already the Interface with which he is implementing the Database Class, so that I can make use of that and mock, as if that database layer exists and test my program against it.

What mocking framework I am using? - RhinoMocks

My friend told me that he is going to add events for each database operation, like InsertEvent, UpdateEvent, DeleteEvent so that they may be raised for each insertion, updation and deletion operations respectively.

For this post, to make it simple, let me take just the InsertEvent. Here is the class diagram,

And here is my Class which is going to make use of this Interface

I was pretty happy that my friend provided me an Interface to mock all the database activities, but I was really stuck on how do I test all those Events are raised!

Well, been using one of the best Mocking Frameworks around, RhinoMocks did provided a way to mock Events

So, here is my test case,

[Test]

public void TestInsertEventRaised()

{

MockRepository fooDatabaseMock = new
MockRepository();

IFooDatabase

   fooDatabase = fooDatabaseMock.DynamicMock<IFooDatabase>();

fooDatabase.FooDatabaseInsertEvent += null;

LastCall.IgnoreArguments();

IEventRaiser
fooEventRaiser = LastCall.GetEventRaiser();

fooDatabaseMock.ReplayAll();

Foo myFoo = new
Foo(fooDatabase);

fooEventRaiser.Raise(this, EventArgs.Empty);

Assert.IsTrue(myFoo.InsertEventRaised);

}

RhinoMocks provides an interface called IEventRaiser which you can use to raise events!

Here is what we are doing,

• I am assigning null to the EventHandler and telling RhinoMocks that please do ignore the arguments in my last call. This helps us because we may associate our event to any Event Handler with different event arguments
• We initialize IEventRaiser by getting the last event, which in our case is FooDatabaseInsertEvent
• We pass on the Database object which is mocked to my Foo class to use
• And finally we raise that last event
• And do a simple Boolean check to see actually we did raise the event

Wasn’t that easy

You may complain that I have used the generalized EventArgs and completed this post. What about custom EventArgs?

No worries, that also takes the same route

[Test]

public void TestUpdateEventRaised()

{

MockRepository fooDatabaseMock = new
MockRepository();

IFooDatabase

  fooDatabase = fooDatabaseMock.DynamicMock<IFooDatabase>();

fooDatabase.FooDatabaseUpdateEvent += null;

LastCall.IgnoreArguments();

IEventRaiser fooEventRaiser = LastCall.GetEventRaiser();

fooDatabaseMock.ReplayAll();

Foo myFoo = new
Foo(fooDatabase);

fooEventRaiser.Raise(this, new
FooDatabaseEventArgs(“datbase”,true));

Assert.IsTrue(myFoo.UpdateEventRaised);

}

The FooDatabaseEventArgs is our custom EventArgs.

I would recommend anyone reading this post to try out the sample posted below if you really want to understand what is happening

You can download the sample here

Microsoft DevJam Session @ Otago

Yesterday we had Microsoft DevJam 2008 at University Of Otago. It went pretty well and the turnaround was good. The session explored the possibilities with PopFly, Silverlight and XNA Gaming Model. We have got good feedback from Students and sure can do even more better next year with these feedbacks!

Thanks to all Students who participated and also for the feedback!

You can checkout the event snaps here

Don’t forget to vote (and win prizes) your favorite NZ Imagine Cup 2008 Team

An update to TimePicker control in AvalonsControlLibrary

I hope many use AvalonsControlLibrary in their WPF projects , if not, do have a look! It has got really very useful WPF Controls - Thanks to Marlon

Today I did a small update to the TimePicker control. I added another Property called CurrentlySelectedTime which can be used to get the current time in the TimePicker control in String of format h:m:s and also set the time by giving the time as a String in the format h:m:s

For example,

timePicker.CurrentlySelectedTime = “12:34:56″;

and,

MessageBox.Show(timePicker.CurrentlySelectedTime);

This addition totally came out of my personal need for my Project. So, I am not sure how far it would be useful for you ;). But, the logic is there in the source code now so that you could tame it to the format you want, may be add AM and PM and change to 12 hr format

Marlon will soon update the updated source code at CodePlex, but until then you can download it here

What’s new with IE 8 Beta 1

There are many posts now in the Internet explaining the new features in IE 8 Beta 1 and here is mine too

First and foremost, I found a small change in the Toolbar. Its bit bigger and spacious (and nicer???) than in IE 7

The Search Provider tab now shows the Search Provider Icon

Determine Link Manipulation Phishing Attacks

Now, everyone would have heard that IE 8 is built by keeping the Web Standards in mind and supports Web Standards by default. So whichever website you visit, if they are not Web Standards compliant, you may find difficulties to view it. But not to panic, there is always an Emulate IE 7 in the Toolbar for you to switch back to IE 7 mode

There is a nice Developer Tool which is very useful if you want to look the CSS Styles, HTML and Scripts in the particular page you are viewing.

This tool has a good feature which helps you to view the site in three different standards mode

So, here is an example. The first website (I visited) to create problems with IE 8 was the Microsoft Student Partner Forums Portal (accessible only to Microsoft Student Partners) where the Profile Picture and Name were totally misplaced. The arrows in the below picture shows the correct position.

And then I changed the Compatibility Mode to Internet Explorer 7 and it rendered it properly (No restart of IE required!)

There is a new feature called Activities added to IE 8. This helps you to interact with third party services like Digg, Amazon or FaceBook etc.

You can highlight a portion of text or word or sentence or the webpage and right click to see what options you have as shown in the above picture

There is a nice small icon popping up once you highlight something

And clicking the icon will give you the Activities possible

WebSlices is also a new feature in IE 8. This seems to be a RSS Preview Reader, like something you keep in your Vista SideBar. So, you have to subscribe to WebSlice. When a page has an option of WebSlice, you get the highlight in the RSS Icon in the Toolbar

The Blue Icon in the above picture tells that there is a WebSlice feed available for subscription. And once you subscribe, it comes in your Toolbar

You can learn more about WebSlices here

All said, let us see whether IE 8 Beta 1 passes ACID2 Test

Hmm…something is wrong here !

UPDATE: Read here to find out whats going wrong with Acid2 Test

Apart from IE 8, don’t forget to check the new MSN Toolbar Beta

WWTelescope

1) Want to tour the Universe?

2) Want to pick some Astronomer as your Guide?

3) Do you know your own way in the Universe and want to create a new Tour?

Then, don’t look further than the Microsoft Worldwide Telescope! This is truly amazing!

You can watch a video tour of WWTelescope at Long’s blog.

When will these Linux users change?

My last post was an interview with Paul Lo of Microsoft New Zealand regarding the DreamSpark initiative

And one Linux user in Geekzone came up even bashing that (so sad for these users, as that seems to be their primary job!)

I wouldn’t mind speaking back, but I am not a Linux user

One of my friend came up with an excellent reply,

hmm… i don’t understand why these linux users make such statements…”if they give something for free it is a good sign and is for the benefit of people and technology and if microsoft gives something for free it is business…..” i suggest them to stop making these crazy comments. they are advised to change their strategies else some day they will have to face the music…look at things positively and come out of the notion that ..only they are correct and others are fools…you can understand the magic that dream spark is going to do …better stop speaking ill about the products and strategies of others to show that you are better. this will not help you long and if you really wish to sustain have the true spirit…..do remember microsoft rocks….!

Enough said