MSDN Magazine February 2006

Windows Communication Foundation unifies the existing suite of .NET distributed technologies into a single programming model to improve the developer experience. This article introduces WCF so you'll be prepared to take advantage of all the new capabilities.

UDP, the lesser-known sibling of TCP, is used for DNS resolution, SNMP network status, Kerberos security, digital media streaming, VoIP, and lots more. Learn how to put UDP to work for you.

In artificial intelligence, an agent is a logical entity that has some level of autonomy within its environment or host. A mobile agent has the added capability that it can move between hosts. In this article Matt Neely brings mobile agents from the halls of academia to a dev shop near you.

This article describes the WSE policy framework, which allows you to describe constraints and requirements a Web service must enforce. Discussions include security scenarios in WSE 3.0 and extending the framework with custom constraints and requirements.

Smart client apps use local resources, provide a rich client experience, and support intelligent install mechanisms. Web services offer powerful interoperability and integration features. Find out how to combine them to develop integrated apps that incorporate data from disconnected sources.

Build a Visual Basic add-in that lets you copy C# code and paste it into Visual Studio as Visual Basic using the code converter of your choice. Scott Swigart shows you how.

We'd like to have a word about product code names this month.

Microsoft® Office is one of the most well-known and most-used consumer products. For many people, their only experience with a computer is when using Office, be it checking e-mail, creating presentations, or writing a document.

When you begin to work with the Microsoft® . NET Framework 2. 0 and ASP. NET, you discover that the new Web Parts infrastructure adds some very powerful functionality to the underlying platform. In the September 2005 issue of MSDN®Magazine, Fritz Onion and I have an article on programming Web Parts titled "ASP.

Visual Studio is a wonderful development environment, whose IntelliSense®, integrated debugging, online help, and code snippets help boost your performance as a developer. But just because you're writing code fast doesn't mean you're writing fast code.

In ASP. NET and Windows Forms projects, some file types are treated differently than others. For example, ASPX and ASCX files are dynamically parsed and compiled to an assembly on the fly. The contents of an XML Schema Definition (XSD) file are used to create a new, strongly typed DataSet-based object at design time.

Now that ASP.NET 2.0 is a shipping product, it seems appropriate to revisit an issue that tops the new features wish lists of many developers: a SQL Server™ site map provider.

If you're wondering where Stan Lippman is, we're happy to report that he has graciously granted us the use of his column this month to talk about some of the recent work the Visual C++ team has been doing to improve developer productivity.

Paul DiLascia { End Bracket }: Building Voice User Interfaces

The GUI is the interface of choice for scenarios when the user has a large keyboard, mouse, and display. But most cell phones have just a keypad and a small display. Drivers want to get directions without taking their eyes off the road or their hands off the wheel.