It is common for developers new to Atlas to ask “So what’s the deal with this ‘xml-script’ stuff?”  Well, I had the same question myself, so I went out and found the answer.  Interestingly, the answer is remarkably similar to the reasoning for XAML with respect to WPF.   Here’s Nikhil Kothari’s take on it:

1. First and foremost declarative markup is more designable that code. This approach will facilitate tool development in the future.
2. Second, it is actually simpler for atlas-enabled server controls to emit or render their script-based functionality in the form of markup (similar to HTML markup) using constructs such as XmlTextWriter.
3. Third, declarative markup enables you to specify what the app needs to do, and not necessarily how. Frameworks can capitalize on the ability to interpret semantics and do interesting things - for example imagine running script functionality on the server to generate an initial view of the page, or a view of the page more suitable for search engines.
4. Lastly, it may be simpler to represent simple scenarios where JavaScript code would require script coding, several event handlers to keep all components in sync (in the example, see how the enabled state of the button is keyed off text entry, and is automatically synchronized without having to write a change handler), which is error prone and hard given the lack of mature tools.

For more on this, read his blog post from September of 2005.

This morning, I woke up to find my new Dell E1505 laptop freaking out (new processes would start, but their windows would never display - usually followed by complete system lockup.)  Hard restarts produced the same symptoms on startup.  A new laptop - less than 2 weeks old - already completely hosed.  I am not pleased.

On one restart I noticed some error messages indicating a null reference exception in unmanaged code (gee, that's helpful) so I took a look in the event viewer for more information:

Faulting application svchost.exe, version 5.1.2600.2180, faulting module msi.dll, version 3.1.4000.2435, fault address 0x00012780.

Interesting - seems like something is trying to install/uninstall?  I couldn't remember do either recently (well, the day before anyway) so I turned to Google.  The second hit in my search results was a blog entry by Scott Swigart about my very problem.  About 2 minutes later, problem solved.  Thanks Scott!

If you've been wondering what all the buzz around PowerShell is about, let Scott Hanselman show you.  In his recent talk at the Beantown .NET User Group, he does a quick run-through of PowerShell and it's capabilities.  Take a look at the Wrox video of his talk (about 30 minutes.)

Commonly, the "cursor:hand" style is used to mark an element as clickable, but this is not compatible with Mozilla browsers (read "Firefox".)  If you only need to support modern browsers, use "cursor:pointer".  If, however, you want to support all browsers, we need to turn to QuirksMode.  His solution:

p.pointerhand {
	cursor: pointer;
	cursor: hand;
}

As he points out, make sure you list the definitions in the order indicated (pointer, then hand.)

If you are a .NET/SQL Server developer in or near the Memphis area, be sure to make plans for the first Memphis .NET code camp on August 26th - sponsored by the Memphis .NET user group.

Here is the official code camp site (if you're interested in speakers, sessions, etc) and remember to send a registration email.

Hope to see you there!