Windows Developer Power Tools

Contributors

George Aroush has over 15 years of experience in the IT domain. He has held positions in engineering, architecture, and R&D, and has served as lead for various teams and projects. George has been active with open source solutions since 2000 and has been leading the Lucene.Net project since 2003. Today, as his day job, George works for IBM Rational on the award-winning product ClearQuest. He holds a master’s degree in computer science from Northeastern University and a bachelor’s degree from Tufts University.

Nigel Atkinson is one of the founders of Neoworks, the software development company that originally created log4net. Nigel has worked as a software engineer, project manager, and consultant in the software industry for the past 10 years and is currently Neoworks’s Business Development Director.

Alexander Avdonin is the author of TaskSwitchXP and several other utilities. You can find his home page at http://www.ntwind.com.

Thomas Bandt is coauthor of UrlRewritingNet.UrlRewrite and a specialist for ASP.NET e-commerce and content-management applications. He loves Microsoft .NET and programming with the Framework, as well as other computer stuff—almost as much as the German national soccer team. Thomas lives in Germany. You’ll find his blog (in German) at http://blog.thomasbandt.de.

Nino Benvenuti is a Microsoft MVP (Visual Developer - Device Application Development) who is focused on creating .NET-based mobility solutions. Throughout his career, he has created a variety of desktop, server, and device solutions using a range of technologies for a diverse set of clients. Nino is active in the Cincinnati .NET community as well as in the Pocket PC, Smartphone, and .NET CF newsgroups. You’ll find his blog and other items at http://www.nino.net.

Jeff Blankenburg is a freelance web developer based in Columbus, OH. Since 1998, Jeff has been passionately pursuing innovative new ways to create a user-centric experience using web technologies. His specialties include CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, and C#. You can contact him directly at [e-mail] or look for his latest efforts in a browser near you.

Peter Boey is a software engineer with years of experience working for international companies like Nike and Philips. In 1999, Peter founded Blacksun Software, which creates tools and utilities for the Microsoft Windows platform. These tools were primarily created for Blacksun’s own needs but quickly became very popular on the Internet.

Simone Busoli is enrolled in the Computer Science Engineering program at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy. He likes working on web applications and especially on all aspects of code reusability. This interest has led him to become involved in the development of open source projects, with a focus on ASP.NET web control libraries.

Brian Button is the VP of Engineering and Director of Agile Methodologies at Asynchrony Solutions, Inc. Previously, he was a consultant for patterns and practices on the Microsoft Enterprise Library project from its inception until its final delivery. Brian is currently responsible for Agile training, mentoring, and consulting practices, and for providing Agile project management advice. He can be reached through his blog at http://oneagilecoder.asolutions.com or via email at [e-mail].

Ben Carey has over nine years of experience working for various product-development and consulting companies. Ben specializes in technical leadership, architecture, patterns, test-driven development, and Agile methodologies.

Marc Clifton is the creator of MyXaml, an open source declarative XML instantiation engine. He is an industry consultant working primarily with companies interested in utilizing declarative programming concepts to add flexibility to n-tier architectures on web, CE, and desktop platforms. His other major open source project is the Advanced Unit Test framework. He operates his own web site, http://www.marcclifton.com, where you will find many of his articles.

Hristo Deshev is a Group Product Manager for telerik, a leading vendor of ASP.NET controls (http://www.telerik.com). He has been working on component development for the past several years, focusing on rich, highly interactive Ajax solutions. A major goal of his team is “taming web development”—applying Agile software practices to create robust solutions targeting all modern web browsers and supporting multiple ASP.NET and Visual Studio versions. You can reach Hristo at [e-mail].

Peter Dettman is a graduate engineer living in Melbourne, Australia. He has 10 years of experience as a professional software developer, using a variety of languages (primarily Java and C#, of late). Specific areas of interest include distributed programming, concurrency, compilers, and programming language theory. For the last year or so, he has been the main developer on the C# port of the Bouncy Castle Cryptography API, now nearing its Version 1.0 release.

Michael Dobler started his career as a Civil Engineer but became attracted to the IT sector in 1995. He has programmed in various VB versions and exotic 4GL languages, always focusing on pure business applications. Currently, he is working as Software Development Manager for a large-scale CRM/BI solutions company. In 2004, Michael won the Code Hero award from http://www.windowsforms.net with his XPCommonControls. You can find the controls and more information at his personal web site, http://www.steepvalley.net.

David Dossot is the lead Java architect at Agile Partner S.A., a company he cofounded in Luxembourg. He is a were-programmer who enjoys Java during the day and .NET when night falls. He is also an occasional author for the late Software Development Magazine (now Dr. Dobb’s Journal) and a judge for the Jolt Awards. Contact him at [e-mail] or through his web site, http://www.dossot.net.

Grant Drake (a.k.a. “kiwidude”) is a developer from New Zealand who has been writing software for over 20 years. For the last six, he has resided in London, consulting to the corporate and banking industries as a senior developer specializing in Microsoft technologies. A development automation and tool junkie himself, his recent contribution back to the .NET community is NCoverExplorer. If dragged away from his keyboard, he spends his spare time inline slalom skating, snowboarding, and wondering when to leave for a better climate. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Michael Dvoishes is the Technical and General Manager of Trivium Technologies. He began his career in programming during the late 1980s and received his M.S. degree in 1993. After working for several high technology startups, Michael started his own business, specializing in providing services to such companies. Currently, Michael spends his working time managing the day-to-day life of the company, keeping up to date with the latest technology advancements, and even doing some coding.

Dan Fernandez is Lead Product Manager for Visual Studio Express in the developer division at Microsoft. He has been with Microsoft since 2001 and has worked in multiple roles, including as the C# Product Manager and as a Developer Evangelist in the Mid-Atlantic district. Prior to joining Microsoft, Dan worked as a developer at several consulting firms, including IBM Global Services, specializing in web-based and mobile application development.

Jay Flowers is the creator of CI Factory.

Sara Ford is the Program Manager for the Power Toys for Visual Studio. Previously, she was a Software Design Engineer in Test for the Visual Studio Core team, where she drove the effort to make the Visual Studio 2005 product accessible to developers who are vision-impaired. Sara graduated from Mississippi State University with B.S. degrees in computer science and mathematics. Her blog can be found at http://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/.

Justin Greenwood has been a software developer for an Indianapolis-based consulting firm for the past six years. Like many others who love the field, he also enjoys working on side projects that pique his interest. In early 2004, he teamed up with coworker Mike Griffin to write the MyGeneration code generator. Since then, Justin, Mike, and a couple of close friends have supported the MyGeneration project and spawned several related projects, such as the dOOdads, EntitySpaces, and EasyObjects persistence frameworks.

Phil Haack often finds short bios to be boring and droll and has no plans (nor ability) to deviate from such a proud tradition. He does not partake in exciting hobbies such as pyrotechnic nude skydiving, but instead spends his free time working on open source projects such as Subtext and RSS Bandit, as well as playing soccer. As exciting as his hobbies are, much of his time is spent company-building as the CTO of VelocIT, a software consulting firm. For more punishment, feel free to read his blog at http://www.haacked.com.

Matt Hawley is a Senior Applications Developer with the Customer and Partner IT team at Microsoft. Matt started his community involvement by developing and distributing a suite of ASP.NET server controls through his web site, Excentrics World (http://www.eworldui.net). He has also distributed a widely popular deployment tool, Unleash It, as well as a NewsGator plug-in for posting to newsgroups via the NNTP protocol. Matt graduated from Illinois State University with a B.S. degree in computer science in 2002.

Sean Hederman is a contractor in South Africa. He has been developing professionally since the days of Visual Basic 3 and specializes in document management and workflow systems. Sean is a massive fan of the .NET technologies, as they mean he doesn’t have to drop into C++ anymore. It’s been alleged that he has a life, but it’s never been adequately proven.

Mats Helander is one of the main developers of the Puzzle.NET collection of open source frameworks and tools for .NET, which include NPersist, NAspect, NFactory, NPath, and ObjectMapper. He was also the main developer of the Pragmatier Data Tier Builder O/R Mapper for COM+ and .NET. He is currently a consultant with the Swedish consultancy company Synaptic and enjoys speaking at conferences. His favorite drink is Wiener Melange.

Elisabeth Hendrickson has worked on software projects since 1984 and has held positions as a tester, programmer, and manager. In 1997, she founded Quality Tree Software, Inc. to provide training and consulting in software quality and testing. In 2003, she became involved with the Agile community and these days works on Agile/XP projects, where programmers are test-infected and more likely to value her obsession with testing.

Matan Holtzer works as a Project Manager for Trivium Technologies, managing various development and implementation projects. After working with informational systems in the military, Matan went on to perform several roles in the field of software development, gaining experience in both Windows and web programming (including an MCAD .NET certification). Recently, Matan entered the field of configuration management, and he is gaining increasing knowledge of both traditional and Agile software development methodologies.

David Hook is a computer programmer with 20 years’ experience in a variety of domains and languages. He cofounded the Bouncy Castle project in April 2000 and has seen its user base expand from mainly Java programmers to C# programmers as well. In between using his spare time to work on Bouncy Castle, he also pursues his other interest, computer graphics. David lives in Melbourne, Australia with his wife Janine and a cat called Hamlet, who seems to think he’s a little IT consultant in a fur coat.

John T. Hopkins is a veteran of 13 years in the IT industry, with experience ranging from front-line tech support to IT management and everything in between. Currently an independent software consultant, John’s focus is on business productivity solutions built on the .NET platform. John is also a founding member and president of the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group.

Dan Hounshell is a senior developer for Tellus, LLC, an award-winning web agency in Cincinnati, OH. He has been developing web applications in Microsoft technologies since 1998. Current and former clients include FedEx, Sun Microsystems, and Gold Star Chili. Dan is passionately involved in the .NET community: he’s an avid member of and sometimes presenter at user groups, a technical reviewer for other authors, and an occasional author himself. He also maintains a mostly technical-focused blog at http://danhounshell.com.

Rob Howard is the CEO of Telligent Systems, Inc. Telligent builds interactive web-based solutions for a variety of industries and is the creator of the popular Community Server collaboration platform. Prior to founding Telligent, Rob was a member of the ASP.NET team at Microsoft. Email him at [e-mail].

Matthew Howlett is currently a software developer for a large mining company based in Brisbane, Australia. He grew up in Hobart, where he studied physics and mathematics at the University of Tasmania. He enjoys writing software, juggling, playing the piano, bush walking, and finance.

Rhys Jeremiah has been working in IT since graduating from Bristol University with a degree in mathematics. He started out writing database applications for a large insurance company and quickly moved into web development, working on the largest site of a major international motor manufacturer. He currently lives in Cardiff, Wales with Sarah, his wife, and their son, Lloyd. You can keep up with his news on his blog at http://www.hairy-spider.com.

Roger Johansson has a long history of developing on the Microsoft platform. He is the other half of the Puzzle.NET duo, focusing on the NAspect and NFactory parts. Roger is also a consultant and educator in his own company, Nordic Compona Solutions.

Hassan Khan is a Security Technologist at Microsoft with over five years of experience in information security and systems development. At Microsoft, he is responsible for conducting security assessments of critical business applications and developing security solutions. Hassan also holds a master’s degree in computer science from the Johns Hopkins University.

Brian Kohrs received his bachelor’s degree in computer information systems from Bellevue University in 2005. Brian is a strong supporter of Agile software methods and has over five years of experience in software development.

Nikhil Kothari is an architect on Microsoft’s Web Platform and Tools team and has contributed to the design and development of ASP.NET, IIS, and Visual Studio, with an emphasis on server controls and Atlas. He has also created a number of developer tools and is the coauthor of Developing Microsoft ASP.NET Server Controls and Components (Microsoft Press). Beyond a deep passion for developer frameworks and tools, Nikhil is also interested in digital photography. He can be reached via his blog at http://www.nikhilk.net.

Kevin Lam is a Senior Security Strategist at Microsoft with over seven years’ experience in information security. At Microsoft, he is responsible for conducting security assessments for critical business services. Kevin is also responsible for driving company-wide security strategy and policy changes at Microsoft and works closely with senior management.

Micah Martin, a mentor with Object Mentor, is a software craftsman who does consulting for Agile software teams, training on various topics for software professionals, and development work. He is cocreator and lead developer of FitNesse, an open source acceptance-testing framework. Micah is also coauthor of the book Agile Principles, Patterns, and Practices in C# (Prentice Hall).

Luke Maxon is a software developer living in the Chicago area. He is an active contributor to a number of open source projects and has extensive experience using Agile techniques on .NET and J2EE projects. His broad industry experience includes the fields of logistics, finance, insurance, and education.

Talhah Mir is a Senior Security Technologist at Microsoft who has been involved in various areas of information security, including security assessment work, security consulting, and threat modeling. Talhah has also been involved in conducting various information-security-related workshops and talks geared toward academic faculty as well as Fortune 500 companies. Talhah holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Toronto in Canada.

Adam Nathan is a Senior Software Development Engineer in Microsoft’s Developer Division. As a member of Microsoft’s Common Language Runtime team, he has been at the core of .NET technologies since the very beginning. Adam is the author of .NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide (Sams), WPF Unleashed, and several other works, and he regularly speaks about .NET and interoperability at various venues. Adam created the Pinvoke.net web site and blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/adam_nathan/.

Roy Osherove is a longtime blogger at ISerializable.com, where he writes about .NET, Agile development, and regular expressions. He’s also a CEO and Chief Consultant at TeamAgile.com. He’s done the software thing for a little over 10 years, and he’s a regular speaker at international conferences such as Microsoft’s TechEd, DevDays, and many user groups in Israel and in Europe. You can always reach Roy at [e-mail].

Jonathan Payne develops mobile and desktop software using C# and C++. He has written various add-ins for Visual Studio to help software developers work more efficiently and save time.

Igor Peshansky is a Research Software Engineer with the Programming Technologies Department of the IBM T.J. Watson Research Center. He is a long-term contributor to Cygwin, having provided patches, documentation, and support on the Cygwin mailing lists for over three years. He also maintains a number of Cygwin packages. You can contact him at [e-mail].

Zsolt Petrény earned a diploma in computer science in Hungary. He has been developing software professionally since 1999. He’s an MCSD .NET with more than five years of .NET experience, and he created DotNet IL Editor (DILE) to support his projects as a professional developer and increase his experience and knowledge of things .NET.

Joel Pobar is a Program Manager on the CLR team. He works on late-bound dynamic CLR features such as Reflection, Lightweight Code Generation, Codedom, Generics, and Delegates while also hacking away on the Shared Source CLI (Rotor).

Oleg Starodumov is a software consultant based in Turku, Finland. He specializes in emergency debugging, improving reliability of customers’ applications, and development of debugging tools. Oleg can be reached at http://www.debuginfo.com.

Patrick Steele is an independent consultant in southeastern Michigan. He has a broad range of .NET experience, including the areas of ASP.NET, WinForms, COM+, and COM interop. He‘s the secretary of the Michigan Great Lakes Area .NET Users Group, or GANG (http://www.migang.org), and has been recognized by Microsoft for the past five years as a .NET MVP. Contact Patrick through his blog at http://weblogs.asp.net/psteele/ or via email at [e-mail].

Michael Two is a senior developer with ThoughtWorks, Inc. and one of the developers of NUnit. Michael has been working with Agile and test-driven development practices since 1999. He is also interested in smart client technologies and patterns used in building user interfaces. Michael spends his free time with his wife Chris and daughter Alex.

Hamilton Verissimo, the founder of the Castle Project and chief architect at Castle Stronghold, has been involved with software development since 1997. He’s addicted to open source and enterprise-level application development, is an enthusiast of extreme programming, and uses his spare time to play with compiler construction and AI development.

Peter Waldschmidt is cofounder and CTO of TetraData Corporation, the leading data analysis and data warehouse management company for K–12 education. He created the NCover project as a solution for code coverage analysis on the .NET Framework while managing a .NET development team.

Shaun Walker is CEO of Perpetual Motion Interactive Systems, Inc., a solutions company specializing in Microsoft enterprise technologies. Shaun is the creator and maintainer of DotNetNuke, a web application framework for ASP.NET, which has spawned the largest and most successful open source community project on the Microsoft platform. Based on his significant community contributions, he was recognized as a Microsoft MVP in 2004 and an ASPInsider in 2005.

Matt Ward is a software developer who enjoys writing C++ and C# code but, these days, spends most of his time writing documents. In his spare time, he contributes to SharpDevelop, an open source .NET IDE.

Michael Ward is a Technical Architect with ThoughtWorks, Inc., a global IT consultancy delivering highly complex systems for its clients. Michael is an expert in utilizing Agile practices to deliver business value for his clients and is an active contributor to several open source projects, including PicoContainer, NanoContainer, and Waffle. He obtained an M.S. degree in distributed systems from DePaul University. Currently, Michael resides in Chicago, IL, with his wife Shannon and their three adopted pets.

Roland Weigelt has been writing software since 1983 and has been developing for PCs since 1988. He is currently employed as a software developer at Comma Soft AG in Bonn, Germany, where he is working on development tools, framework API design, frontend technologies, and application GUIs. Roland writes a weblog at http://weblogs.asp.net/rweigelt/ and is the leader and webmaster of the local INETA .NET User Group “Bonn-to-Code.Net.”

Kenn White is a Principal and Senior Systems Engineer with Vandalay Consulting, LLC. He has formerly served as Group Manager for Systems Engineering and Enterprise Integration at the British Aerospace Group and has been an active member on CMM SDLC Level 2 and 3 implementation teams. Most recently, Kenn developed the first web standards–based (DOM/Ajax) EKG analysis and cardiac safety assessment system in the world. He can be reached at [e-mail].

Scott Willeke is a senior software developer at Data Dynamics. He has over 10 years of software development experience and has been working with C# and the .NET Framework since it was in beta. He is currently leading a team to bring next-generation business intelligence, data analysis, and reporting components to .NET Framework developers. Scott maintains a blog at http://blogs.pingpoet.com/overflow/.

Joe Wirtley has been a professional software architect, designer, and developer since 1987, when he graduated with a degree in chemical engineering from Caltech. He is currently CTO at Tellus (http://www.tellusweb.com), a web development firm devoted to bringing sophisticated e-commerce capabilities to mid-sized commerce clients. When not programming, he enjoys spending time with his wife and extended family.