Visual

“Once this skill is within your everyday comfort zone, it will give your productivity a boost and increase your value to your team. I encourage you to add the techniques outlined in this book to your toolset and to use them to develop your own workbench of generative tools. In doing so, I’m confident you’ll improve your capabilities, and what’s more, have fun doing so.”

–From the Foreword by Gareth Jones, Developer Architect, Visual Studio®, Microsoft

Enlist Visual Studio’s Built-in Code Generation Tools to Write Better Software Faster

Automatic code generation can dramatically increase your productivity, improve code quality and maintainability, promote reuse, and help you extend best practices throughout your development organization. .NET and Visual Studio contain many powerful, code-generation tools--and this book shows you how to succeed with all of them. With Practical Code Generation in .NET, spend less time writing monotonous, repetitive code--leaving more time to address troublesome areas!

Microsoft MVP Peter Vogel covers code generation with Visual Studio 2010, 2008, and 2005, as well as all recent versions of .NET, including .NET 4.0. You’ll learn when enlisting code generation makes sense and how to design solutions that build on the skills and resources you already have.

Writing for experienced programmers, Vogel shows how to generate reliable code using procedural code, Visual Studio add-ins, XML, configuration files, and more--including Microsoft’s innovative CodeDOM technology for generating code in multiple languages. He brings everything together in three complete, chapter-length case studies.

Coverage includes

•  Understanding the structure of .NET code-generation solutions and best practices for architecting them

•  Creating Visual Studio add-ins that quickly integrate code generation into day-to-day activities

•  Using objects and methods to add or remove project components

•  Using text insertion to generate code using any tool--even standard string handling functions

•  Working with the specific features of C#, Visual Basic .NET, and ASP.NET

•  Generating more concise code with .NET’s new Text Template Transformation Toolkit (T4)

•  Building code-generation solutions with Visual Studio templates, attributes, and custom tools

•  Distributing code-generation solutions

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The White House and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide uses plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. To begin, the book details the process of downloading and unpacking Drupal, creating the MySQL database, and installing Drupal. It then moves on to explain the administrative interfaces, how to select a visual theme and create and customize content, and how to improve access to that content. Next the book walks readers through managing user accounts, customizing Drupal’s look and feel, and extending Drupal with modules.

Although Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide is written for beginners, it goes beyond the basic package to ease readers into  advanced topics. A glossary and cross-references throughout the book give readers complete possession of the concepts, vocabulary, and steps necessary to reach Drupal mastery. From start to finish, it’s a complete guide for getting up and running with Drupal 7.

We are visual animals. But before we can see the world in its true splendor, our brains, just like our computers, have to sort and organize raw data, and then transform that data to produce new images of the world. Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts talks about turning many types of small data sources into useful visual data. And you will learn Python as part of the bargain.

What you’ll learn

• Write ten lines of code and present visual information instead of data soup.
• Set up an open source environment ready for data visualization.
• Forget Excel: use Python.
• Learn numerical and textual processing.
• Draw graphs and plots based on textual and numerical data.
• Learn how to deal with images.

Who is this book for?

IT personnel, programmers, engineers, and hobbyists interested in acquiring and displaying data from the Web, sensors, economic trends, and even astronomical sources.

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

Mastering the development of .NET 4.0 applications in C# is less about knowing the Visual C# 2010 language and more about knowing how to use the functionality of the .NET Framework class library most effectively. Visual C# 2010 Recipes explores the breadth of the .NET Framework class library and provides specific solutions to common and interesting programming problems. Each recipe is presented in a succinct problem/solution format and is accompanied by a working code sample to help you understand the concept and quickly apply it.

When you are facing a Visual C# 2010 problem, this book likely contains a recipe that provides you with the solution–or at least points you in the right direction. Even if you are simply looking to broaden your knowledge of the .NET Framework class library, then Visual C# 2010 Recipes is the perfect resource to assist you.

This is a fully up-to-date reference for .NET 4.0 programmers. All code samples come as stand-alone Visual Studio 2010 solutions for your convenience.

What you'll learn

• Clear, concise answers to myriad problems that occur during day-to-day C# 2010 development
• How to write code according to Microsoft's best practice guidelines
• Answers to questions covering everything from workflow to XML processing

Who is this book for?

While there are few developers who do not stand to learn something from this book's concise, solution-oriented format, it is primarily aimed at emerging software professionals taking their first steps into the IT marketplace. These newly qualified and relatively inexperienced developers will gain the most from the book's comprehensive content and fast-access design, which is aimed at helping them cope with the problems and pitfalls that regularly occur when learning a new technology.

About the Apress Recipes Series

Apress Recipes series books are carefully selected compendiums of solutions and techniques to help you solve the difficulties that regularly beset developers when they are learning a new language or technology. The recipes are short, and each provides a step–by–step explanation and working code example that allows you to successfully solve your problems and progress with your project.

We are visual animals. But before we can see the world in its true splendor, our brains, just like our computers, have to sort and organize raw data, and then transform that data to produce new images of the world. Beginning Python Visualization: Crafting Visual Transformation Scripts talks about turning many types of small data sources into useful visual data. And you will learn Python as part of the bargain.

What you’ll learn

• Write ten lines of code and present visual information instead of data soup.
• Set up an open source environment ready for data visualization.
• Forget Excel: use Python.
• Learn numerical and textual processing.
• Draw graphs and plots based on textual and numerical data.
• Learn how to deal with images.

Who is this book for?

IT personnel, programmers, engineers, and hobbyists interested in acquiring and displaying data from the Web, sensors, economic trends, and even astronomical sources.

About the Apress Beginning Series

The Beginning series from Apress is the right choice to get the information you need to land that crucial entry–level job. These books will teach you a standard and important technology from the ground up because they are explicitly designed to take you from “novice to professional.” You’ll start your journey by seeing what you need to know—but without needless theory and filler. You’ll build your skill set by learning how to put together real–world projects step by step. So whether your goal is your next career challenge or a new learning opportunity, the Beginning series from Apress will take you there—it is your trusted guide through unfamiliar territory!

Mastering the development of .NET 4.0 applications in C# is less about knowing the Visual C# 2010 language and more about knowing how to use the functionality of the .NET Framework class library most effectively. Visual C# 2010 Recipes explores the breadth of the .NET Framework class library and provides specific solutions to common and interesting programming problems. Each recipe is presented in a succinct problem/solution format and is accompanied by a working code sample to help you understand the concept and quickly apply it.

When you are facing a Visual C# 2010 problem, this book likely contains a recipe that provides you with the solution–or at least points you in the right direction. Even if you are simply looking to broaden your knowledge of the .NET Framework class library, then Visual C# 2010 Recipes is the perfect resource to assist you.

This is a fully up-to-date reference for .NET 4.0 programmers. All code samples come as stand-alone Visual Studio 2010 solutions for your convenience.

What you'll learn

• Clear, concise answers to myriad problems that occur during day-to-day C# 2010 development
• How to write code according to Microsoft's best practice guidelines
• Answers to questions covering everything from workflow to XML processing

Who is this book for?

While there are few developers who do not stand to learn something from this book's concise, solution-oriented format, it is primarily aimed at emerging software professionals taking their first steps into the IT marketplace. These newly qualified and relatively inexperienced developers will gain the most from the book's comprehensive content and fast-access design, which is aimed at helping them cope with the problems and pitfalls that regularly occur when learning a new technology.

About the Apress Recipes Series

Apress Recipes series books are carefully selected compendiums of solutions and techniques to help you solve the difficulties that regularly beset developers when they are learning a new language or technology. The recipes are short, and each provides a step–by–step explanation and working code example that allows you to successfully solve your problems and progress with your project.

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are a smart choice and guide the learner in a friendly and respectful tone. Visually presented with copious screenshots, the focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and quickly take you to exactly what you want to learn.

The free and open-source package Drupal is one of the most user-friendly and popular web content management systems (CMSes) available. Sites built on it are highly visible and include The White House and Amnesty International. Its web-based interface allows those with little or no experience to create professional-looking sites quickly while its flexibility gives them access to such features as blogs, polls, and forums.

Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide uses plenty of screenshots and step-by-step instructions to walk a reader through the process of building a site using Drupal. To begin, the book details the process of downloading and unpacking Drupal, creating the MySQL database, and installing Drupal. It then moves on to explain the administrative interfaces, how to select a visual theme and create and customize content, and how to improve access to that content. Next the book walks readers through managing user accounts, customizing Drupal’s look and feel, and extending Drupal with modules.

Although Drupal 7: Visual QuickStart Guide is written for beginners, it goes beyond the basic package to ease readers into  advanced topics. A glossary and cross-references throughout the book give readers complete possession of the concepts, vocabulary, and steps necessary to reach Drupal mastery. From start to finish, it’s a complete guide for getting up and running with Drupal 7.

“Once this skill is within your everyday comfort zone, it will give your productivity a boost and increase your value to your team. I encourage you to add the techniques outlined in this book to your toolset and to use them to develop your own workbench of generative tools. In doing so, I’m confident you’ll improve your capabilities, and what’s more, have fun doing so.”

–From the Foreword by Gareth Jones, Developer Architect, Visual Studio®, Microsoft

Enlist Visual Studio’s Built-in Code Generation Tools to Write Better Software Faster

Automatic code generation can dramatically increase your productivity, improve code quality and maintainability, promote reuse, and help you extend best practices throughout your development organization. .NET and Visual Studio contain many powerful, code-generation tools--and this book shows you how to succeed with all of them. With Practical Code Generation in .NET, spend less time writing monotonous, repetitive code--leaving more time to address troublesome areas!

Microsoft MVP Peter Vogel covers code generation with Visual Studio 2010, 2008, and 2005, as well as all recent versions of .NET, including .NET 4.0. You’ll learn when enlisting code generation makes sense and how to design solutions that build on the skills and resources you already have.

Writing for experienced programmers, Vogel shows how to generate reliable code using procedural code, Visual Studio add-ins, XML, configuration files, and more--including Microsoft’s innovative CodeDOM technology for generating code in multiple languages. He brings everything together in three complete, chapter-length case studies.

Coverage includes

•  Understanding the structure of .NET code-generation solutions and best practices for architecting them

•  Creating Visual Studio add-ins that quickly integrate code generation into day-to-day activities

•  Using objects and methods to add or remove project components

•  Using text insertion to generate code using any tool--even standard string handling functions

•  Working with the specific features of C#, Visual Basic .NET, and ASP.NET

•  Generating more concise code with .NET’s new Text Template Transformation Toolkit (T4)

•  Building code-generation solutions with Visual Studio templates, attributes, and custom tools

•  Distributing code-generation solutions

Evolve your software system to support new and ever-changing requirements by updating your C# code base with patterns and principles

Overview of Refactoring with Microsoft Visual Studio 2010

• Make your code base maintainable with refactoring
• Support new features more easily by making your system adaptable
• Enhance your system with an improved object-oriented design and increased encapsulation and componentization
• Concepts are presented in a comfortable one-on-one, pair-programming style
• A practical approach that's packed with examples to enrich understanding

In Detail

Changes to design are an everyday task for many people involved in a software project. Refactoring recognizes this reality and systematizes the distinct process of modifying design and structure without affecting the external behavior of the system. As you consider the benefits of refactoring, you will need this complete guide to steer you through the process of refactoring your code for optimum results.

This book will show you how to make your code base more maintainable by detailing various refactorings. Visual Studio includes some basic refactorings that can be used independently or in conjunction to make complex refactorings easier and more approachable. This book will discuss large-scale code management, which typically calls for refactoring. To do this, we will use enterprise editions of Visual Studio, which incorporate features like Application Performance Explorer and Visual Studio Analyzer. These features make it simple to handle code and prove helpful for refactoring quickly.

This book introduces you to improving a software system's design through refactoring. It begins with simple refactoring and works its way through complex refactoring. You will learn how to change the design of your software system and how to prioritize refactorings--including how to use various Visual Studio features to focus and prioritize design changes. The book also covers how to ensure quality in the light of seemingly drastic changes to a software system. You will also be able to apply standard established principles and patterns as part of the refactoring effort with the help of this book. You will be able to support your evolving code base by refactoring architectural behavior. As an end result, you will have an adaptable system with improved code readability, maintainability, and navigability.

Refactor Visual Studio solutions to make them more maintainable

What you will learn from this book

• Improve code readability by applying effective concepts and techniques
• Spot discrepancies in code with code smells
• Catch and eliminate dead code and learn several such smart methods
• Make changes to your code without introducing adverse side-effects with code maintainability
• Learn smart ways to improve code navigability
• Improve your design by applying design principles and methodologies
• Enhance the maintainability of your code base by refactoring it to be more cohesive and less coupled
• Obtain an optimal level of flexibility by refactoring your code to a loosely-coupled design
• Minimize the side effects and support changes to your code by refactoring to a layered architecture
• Support your evolving code base by refactoring architectural behavior
• Back up the refactoring effort by ensuring quality with Unit Testing

Approach

This book focuses on real-world, easy-to-understand examples of code in a one-on-one style. Refactoring examples are performed and reasons why this refactoring should be applied are detailed. The book is structured from less advanced topics to more advanced topics; but is designed so that reading from beginning to end is not necessary.

Who this book is written for

This book is primarily for developers who want to refactor their code in Visual Studio. However, the book can be used by anyone using Visual Studio. Developers, designers, and architects who are eager to improve the performance of their craft will find this book useful because it details refactoring existing code to use recognized and established patterns and principles to improve code structure and architectural behavior.

The book assumes that the reader knows both Visual Studio and C#, but no previous knowledge of refactoring is required.

Visual QuickStart Guides, designed in an attractive tutorial and reference format, are the quickest, easiest, and most thorough way to learn applications, tasks, and technologies. The Visual QuickStart Guides are the smart choice--they guide the learner with a friendly and supportive approach. The visual presentation (with copious screenshots) and focused discussions by topic and tasks make learning a breeze and take you to exactly what you want to learn.

With a rich set of over 1,000 APIs, iPhone SDK 4 provides an amazing range of technologies to enhance and create applications for the iPhone. This book focuses on the parts of the SDK that are specifically geared toward the iPhone. Everything is covered to create a complete application.