Tomorrow (Friday 1st September 2006) sees a sad day for the UK .NET community as Melita Walton, the Communities Marketing Manager at Microsoft UK, turns in her last day at Microsoft in this country. Melita is returning to New Zealand to start a family. A quick Google of ["Melita Walton" Microsoft] shows pages of comments about Melita performing a fantastic job supporting user groups and the community and nursing DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper (DDD) from its first event last year through to the organizing of DDD4 later this year.

Thanks, Melita, you have done a fantastic job for us and we won’t forget you.

DeveloperDeveloperDeveloper 4 is to be held on Saturday 2nd December 2006 at Microsoft’s UK Campus in Reading and the Call For Speakers is now open. The website doesn’t say how long you have to submit your sessions but I wouldn’t hang around - DDD is a very popular event.

I have submitted the following sessions:-

• How To Give Great Presentations


• Automating Builds Using MSBuild


• 10 Things You Must Know Before Internationalizing Your Application

You can find full details of these sessions on the submission page.

Ian Cooper and I will be presenting a double bill of "Top 10" presentations at the London .NET User Group on Wednesday 20th September 2006.

Ian Cooper’s presentation is:-

The Rules - 10 best practices for OO

OO is more than just being familiar with the keyword class, it is a whole approach to how you write your code. In this presentation we use a gork talk approach to look at 10 guidelines to help you write better OO code including SRP, OCP, ISP, LSP...

My presentation is:-

10 Things You Must Know Before Internationalizing Your Application

The global market place is creating an ever increasing demand for internationalized Web and Windows applications. The basics of .NET internationalization are easily acquired in a short timeframe. However, the gotchas and best practices of internationalization demand specialised knowledge and experience. This session tells you the top 10 nuggets of .NET internationalization facts and tips for Web and Windows applications that you should know before you start your next internationalized application.

Membership of the London .NET User Group is free but you have to sign up first at the London .NET User Group site and places are limited. Doors open at 6:30pm, the first presentation is at 6:45pm and the second presentation ends at 9:00pm. Meetings are held at Microsoft’s London office and you can find directions here.

Hope to see you there.

I have added a second sample chapter for the .NET Internationalization book to the book’s website. Chapter 3, An Introduction To Internationalization covers the basics of internationalization using Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0. The chapter uses a Windows Forms 2.0 example to cover the basics but the information is intended as a grounding for both Windows Forms applications and ASP.NET applications using either Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 or Visual Studio 2003 and the .NET Framework 1.1. Subjects which are specific to Windows Forms are covered in Chapter 4, Windows Forms Specifics. Subjects which are specific to ASP.NET applications are covered in Chapter 5, ASP.NET Specifics.

I have just received my author’s copies of .NET Internationalization from the publisher. The distribution channels are now being filled and if you have pre-ordered the book you should be receiving it imminently.

Look out for updates to the book and the source code at the book’s web site at http://www.dotneti18n.com.

I am interested to hear your views and comments on this book so please feel free to send me email.