One of the nice things about Microsoft Windows Azure services is that they have a very well-defined and consistent REST API, meaning that they can be accessed from any language which can formulate an HTTP request; pretty much any language you can realistically expect to build an application in today. So as well as accessing the storage services from .NET/Silverlight CLR (or DLR) languages via the official SDK, you can access them from Rich Internet Applications written in HTML5 and Javascript, ... [Read more]

(Yes, again.) There's an awful lot of buzz around new-fangled "NoSQL" or "non-relational" databases at the moment. I'm hearing a lot of people asking why they'd choose one of these new-fangled storage models over the relational databases they know and (mostly) like. This post aims to shed some light on the choices available, and to maybe give some guidance if you're trying to make a decision. Let's define some terms I find it always helps to make sure you're talking a ... [Read more]

Why? I've been forced into engaging with XML in all its gory details recently, as part of my AzureKit project (more on which in another post). Being a big fan of all things LINQ, I started out trying to use the LINQ-to-XML framework. I had problems. This is not a fault of the framework; as a fundamental part of the .NET Framework it must provide a way to achieve everything, and that's not the same as providing a way to do things simply. The REST API for Windows Azure uses a hybrid of t ... [Read more]

Overview Reactive Extensions (Rx) is the hot new toy out of Microsoft's DevLabs, which is included in Silverlight 4 and .NET 4, and is available as a download for Silverlight 3 and .NET 3.5. It provides a new LINQish way of managing and handling events. More information and downloads available at the DevLabs project page. I'd read quite a bit about Rx but hadn't taken the time to have a play with it until today, when I found myself looking at the code for a Model-View-ViewModel messaging im ... [Read more]