As a XAML developer, you may sometimes wish you had the ability to quickly prototype your UI and debug your markup without having to load a project in Visual Studio. This can be a huge workflow boost for designers or even for developers just wanting to try out new ideas. With the release of XAML Studio, we are able to close this grab for creators and also enable much more. In this episode, Michael Hawker(@XAMLLlama) sits down with Jeremy to introduce us to XAML Studio. He walks us through the experience of editing and inspecting live XAML updates without the need for a build or compile step. We also get to see demos of the debugging experience, the control toolbox, and even how to work with 3rd party controls. [02:40] - What is XAML Studio?[03:16] - First look at XAML Studio[06:33] - What's the scope of XAML Studio ?[07:55] - Using 3rd party libraries[09:16] - Debugging XAML bindings[11:22] - The Alignment Grid.[12:52] - What are features might show up next?[14:17] - What is the garage?[15:48] - Is there support for the visual state manager?[16:43] - Exploring the toolbox in XAML Studio Useful Links Get XAML StudioMicrosoft Garage BlogWindows Community Toolkit

System.IO.Pipelines was born from the work the .NET Core team was doing to make it easier to do high performance IO in .NET. In this episode, Pavel Krymets (@pakrym) and David Fowler (@davidfowl) come on the show to give us an overview of how the Pipelines programming model works, as well as give show us a few demos on how to use the API. [00:26] - What's the rationale being System.IO.Pipelines?[02:10] - Performance comparison between Pipes and Streams[04:17] - Concerns with working with Stream[09:42] - Moving to Pipes[13:45] - Client Server demo[22:16] - How might Pipes work with C# 8 IAsyncEnumerable?[26:04] - Reducing allocations[28:46] - Getting started with PipelinesUseful Links System.IO.Pipelines on NuGetSystem.IO.Pipelines: High performance IO in .NETTCP Echo SampleAllocation-free awaitable async operations with ValueTask and ValueTask Techempower Web Framework Benchmarks.NET Design Review: System.IO.Pipelines

XAML Islands enables Windows developers to integrate UI components from the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) in their existing Win32 Applications. This includes Windows Forms and also WPF. In this episode, Alexandre Zollinger Chohfi and Miguel Ramos join us to talk about XAML Islands, and show us how it all plugs together. [01:13] - What does XAML Islands offer developers?[02:34] - How does XAML Islands engage with other desktop technologies?[06:18] - Setting up the XAML host in a WPF application?[15:26] - How does data binding between frameworks work?[19:13] - What is the best way to learn more ?Useful Links UWP controls in desktop applicationsUsing the UWP XAML hosting API in a desktop applicationXAML Island Deep Dive Part 1XAML Island Deep Dive Part 2Windows Community Toolkit Doc

In this episode, Phillip Carter (@_cartermp) joins us again to give us an update on the F# tooling updates in Visual Studio 2017. Because F# is cross-platform, many of the changes made are available in all F# tooling, not just that in Visual Studio. [01:18] - Getting F# support in Visual Studio 2017[03:23] - Diving into the editor features[11:00] - Scripting and brace completion[20:16] - Code navigation[21:35] - Show symbols in unopened namespaces[23:41] - Experimental CodeLens for F# type annotations[26:41] - Providing feedback on features Useful Links: Announcing F# 4.5F# homepageF# Software FoundationVisual F# on GitHubDownload Visual StudioFSharp.Formatting on GitHub

In this episode, Senior Program Manager Jeff Hollan (@jeffhollan) comes on to show us how we can get started with testing our Azure Functions apps. He walks through some examples of doing both unit testing as well as integration testing. We also learn about some of the tools and frameworks that help make testing easier. [00:45] - Highlights from Microsoft Ignite 2018[02:10] - Setting up mocks for Azure Functions[10:00] - Why and how to do Integration testing Useful Links Introducing Azure FunctionsTesting Azure FunctionsServerless, DevOps, and CI/CD: Part 1Azure Functions host on GitHubAzure Storage ExplorerAzurite - cross platform emulator for Azure Blob, Queue, and Table Storage

F# 4.5 has been developed entirely via open RFCs (requests for comments), with significant contributions from the community. This release brings together a collection of new features, fixes, and performance enhancements that will surely improve your F# applications. In this episode, Phillip Carter (@_cartermp) returns to talk to us about many of the new additions in F# 4.5. He also gives us some insight into the RFC process and some of the other decisions that went into creating this release. [00:43] - Going from F# 4.1 to 4.5[03:49] - Getting the F# 4.5 bits[06:20] - New features demo[25:20] - Making contributions to F#[29:30] - Compiler relaxations Useful Links: Announcing F# 4.5F# HomepageF# Software FoundationGetting started with F#Ionide: F# language extension for Visual Studio CodeGiraffe - A functional ASP.NET Core micro framework for F# developers.

The Reactive Extensions library extends the observer pattern, and enables composition of asynchronous and event-based programs. It lets you to treat streams of asynchronous events with the same sort of simple, composable operations that you use for collections of data items, like arrays. In this episode, we're joined by Michael Stonis (@MichaelStonis) who explains the what, why and when of Reactive Extensions. [01:03] - Why do we need the Reactive Extensions (Rx)?[01:48] - How is Rx different from the Task Parallel Library?[03:54] - Core concepts of Rx[11:30] - When should we bring Rx into your project?[14:30] - Rx demo with Xamarin and ASP.NET Core[22:30] - Learning resources Useful Links Reactive Extensions homeReactive Extensions for .NETMichael's demosIntro To RxRx Marbles

Humanitarian Toolbox (HTBox) is a charity supporting disaster relief organizations with open source software and services. They are a community of developers, designers, testers, and industry professionals who want to contribute our unique skills in disaster relief aid. In episode, Bill Wagner (Bill Wagner) joins Rich to discuss the charity, their impact and what they're working on next. We'll also find out how to get involved and contribute to the open source projects. [01:25] - What's the goal of Humanitarian Toolbox?[02:35] - Where has the software been used?[05:38] - What technology is powering the software?[08:38] - How does the project engage with NGOs ?[09:42] - What frameworks and APIs is AllReady using?[11:25] - What are the future plans for the projects?[12:21] - Can these projects be used by organizations other than NGOs?[13:00] - Where can the public learn more about the projects?[14:57] - Can developers and NGOs from outside the US participate?Useful Links Humanitarian Toolbox HomepageHumanitarian Toolbox Projects on GithubVolunteer Sign up

We all love building interesting projects, but at some point we'll need to publish them so we can show off to our friends and colleagues. In episode, Andrew Hall (@AndrewBrianHall) comes on to show us some of the tooling options available in Visual Studio 2017 for publishing our .NET Web applications to Azure. [01:23] - Exploring publish targets[03:15] - Publishing to Azure App Service[07:36] - Adding an Azure SQL database[10:28] - Adjusting the hosting plan[11:30] - Applying Entity Framework migrations[14:29] - Managing application using the Cloud Explorer[15:18] - Publishing to a Docker container registry[19:48] - Sneak peak at setting up Continuous Delivery Useful Links: Publish an ASP.NET Core app to Azure with Visual StudioAzure Container Registry documentationDeploy to Azure with VSTSCreate a free Azure Account.NET Azure Dev Center

The Library Manager is a lightweight tool that makes it easy to acquire client-side libraries. Developers can retrieve libraries like jQuery, bootstrap, Vue.js and others from various supported CDNs or even the file system. In this episode, Justin Clareburt (@justcla78) comes on to show us some demos of Library Manager, that is now generally available in Visual Studio 2017 v15.8. [00:46] - What's the purpose of Library Manager?[01:34] - Using Library Manager from Visual Studio[05:57] - What providers does Library Manager support?[07:56] - How does Library Manager support versioning?[08:35] - Working with the manifest file[11:42] - Build time enhancements for Visual Studio[13:18] - Working with Library Manager via the command-line[19:27] - How does Library Manager compare to other client-slide library managers?[21:20] - Documentations and acquisition information Useful Links: Library Manager Released in 15.8Library Manager: Client-side content manager for web appsUse LibMan with ASP.NET Core in Visual StudioUse the LibMan command-line interface (CLI) with ASP.NET CoreLibrary Manager on GitHub