Join me in studying for MCTS exam 70-536

I just got the MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): .NET FRAMEWORK 2.0 Application Development  Foundation in the mail yesterday. I finished lesson 1 in chapter 1 and posted my notes and VB examples on this page: Types in the .NET Framework – Part 1: Value Types.

As I complete each lesson, I’ll add a link to my notes on this page: Exam 70-536: Application Development Foundation – Study Topics. Note that my lesson notes will be on pages, not posts. I’ll only post to let you know when I start  a new chapter.

I hope some of you will join me and add comments to the lesson pages. Whether you are studying for the MCTS or MCPD, it will be easier and more fun if we take the journey to certification together!

Study Topics for Microsoft Exam 70-536: .NET Framework 2.0—Application Development Foundation

This list of topics was taken from a page on the Microsoft Learning web site, Preparation Guide for Exam 70-536
TS: Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0—Application Development Foundation, from the section: ”Skills Measured in Exam 70-536″. I’ve just reformatted the information to make it easier to read (IMHO).  This exam is required for both the MCPD and MCTS certifications.

This looks like a huge amount of material to cover in a test. I wonder if the test really covers all of this material, or just a sampling of it? Does anyone who has taken the test have some insight into this? (I’m not looking for shortcuts to studying for the exam, I’m just curious!)

MCSD is outdated. Become an MCPD instead!

I’ve been thinking about getting Microsoft Certification for years. I remember sitting at my desk at Intel, back in 1998, taking a break from C++ debugging in VS5 and browsing the Microsoft Certification web site. I read the requirements and decided that I would like to be an MCSD. Well, life goes on, and getting married, buying a house, traveling, going to grad school, becoming a dad, and generally having a really great time all took priority over certification. And I’m pretty quite happy about those choices!

Now, I’ve got a ton of experience  in C, C++, MFC, ATL and COM programming as well as some pretty respectable VB programming experience going all the way back to VB 4.0. I’m currently working on my first VB2005 project for one of my company’s clients, but I’d like to strengthen that experience with certification so that  future clients know I’m prepared to do .NET programming. That’s why I think this a good time for me to get MS certification. So, I bought a used copy of the MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit. I got a good deal on it too! Two days ago I started posting about starting the certification process, and started studying for my MCSD.

VB.NET: Lesson 1-1 The .NET Framework and the CLR

Today I read the first lesson from chapter 1, “Introduction to the .NET Framework”, in  Developing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Visual C#.NET . I read through the lesson and took the notes shown in the section below as I read. After I finished reading, I thought “ok, that’s all good stuff to know, but I want to DO something!” So, I found an article in the MSDN library on viewing the contents of an assembly: How to: View Assembly Contents. This was actually very easy and helped me attach the material in this lesson to something concrete.

You use the MISL disassembler to view the assembly. If you haven’t used it before, you’ll be happy to hear that it’s easy to run. Just go to “Visual Studio Tools” on your start menu and select “Visual Studio 2005 Command Prompt”. In the DOS window that opens, type “ILDASM” which will launch the MISL disassembler in it’s own window. The MSDN “How to” article explains the rest. I recommend that you do this exercise, but don’t get sidetracked by trying to decipher everything in the manifest. It’s enough just to get the general idea of what’s in there. 

8/9/07 Update: I won’t be posting about any more lessons in this series. Read: MCSD is Outdated. Become an MCPD Instead to see why.

8/16/07 Update: If you would like to study for the MCTS or MCPD, then start here: Join me in studying for MCTS exam 70-536.

Join me in preparing for Microsoft VB.NET certification

I’m an old programmer, but relatively new to .NET. I have some experience with VB2005 programming and would like to get certified, so I’m studying for Microsoft exam 70-306, “Developing and Implementing Windows Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Microsoft Visual Studio.NET”. I’m using the book Developing Windows-Based Applications with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET and Visual C#.NET  by Matthew A. Stoecker, published by Microsoft Press in 2003.

I really don’t like to study alone, so I’m inviting you  to join me. I’ll be posting my  questions, answer, and discoveries as I complete each lesson and lab in this text and I’m hoping you will also post your  observations, questions and answers in comments to the post for each lesson and lab.

8/9/07 Update: I won’t be studying for exam 70-306 after all. Read this post to see why: MCSD is Outdated. Become an MCPD Instead

8/16/07 Update: Join me in studying for the MCTS and MCPD. Start by reading here: Join me in studying for MCTS exam 70-536.

How to compile AMCap

The DirectShow SDK (now part of the Windows SDK) includes a sample application called AMCap (Active Movie Capture) that illustrates the use of DirectShow filters to capture video from a device like a webcam or camcorder. I had all kinds of trouble the first few times I tried to build this, so I documented the steps for a successful build. Here they are:

These are the steps I followed to successfully build and run AMCap. I used Visual Studio 2005 Professional edition, SP1 for Vista, running on Windows Vista Business version . Note: the paths I have listed are the default installation paths and may be different on your computer.

Directshow SDK Installation Steps « fungileo.com

Here’s a helpful post at fungileo.com that explains how to install the DirectShow SDK. 

This article explains the steps needed to successfully installing DirectShow SDK into Microsoft Windows on the desktop. It guides you all the way from obtaining and installing the required SDKs, to configuring the environment, and finally, building a DirectShow application to verify the installation of the SDK.

Joshua Bloch on API design

I just found a great video titled How to Design a Good API and Why it Matters on Google videos by Joshua Block. While many of the examples are taken from APIs in the Java libraries, the principles are applicable to interface design in any application.

Joshua has written a number of well known programming books and was formerly a Distinguished Engineer at Sun and is now a Principle Engineer at Google and hearlded as one of their most revered software gurus. I also found a set of slides for Joshua’s presentation, although they are from an earlier version: http://lcsd05.cs.tamu.edu/#keynote.

Which Version of the Windows SDK Should You Use?

The Old Windows XP Platform SDK
Have you tried to download the Windows XP Platform Software Development Kit (PSDK) lately? It’s not there, although you can still find a link to where it used to be in Brian Johnson’s weblog:

Thursday, September 02, 2004 5:00 PM by Brianjo

I saw on Mitch Walker’s blog that the Windows XP SP2 Platform SDK has been added to the SDK Update site. You can download it from this page: Microsoft Platform SDK

The reason the old Windows XP PSDK is gone, is that it has been replaced. First it was replaced by a combined PSDK for both Windows XP SP2 and Windows Server 2003 R2, and later by the new “Windows SDK” for Vista which still supports development for previous versions of Windows.

Free Antivirus Software

I’m using a nice Dell 390 Precison Workstation with an Intel Core Duo processor that a client loaned to me. I’ve set it up to boot into either 64 or 32 bit Wïndows XP Pro, or Vista Business. I didn’t want to buy antivirus software for all these installations, but I didn’t want to be without virus protection, so I looked around for free antivirus software that didn’t have the restriction that it could only be used for home or non-commercial use. I found PC Tools Antivirus. It works great on Windows XP. It works on Vista too, but it gets blocked at startup and I couldn’t figure out how to selectively stop Vista from blocking this one program. Each time I boot, I can tell Vista to let it run with a few mouse clicks, but I got tired of doing that every time I restarted Vista, so I went looking for another solution.