A V1.0.12 update release of WSCF.blue is now available for download from CodePlex. Like the previous update, this one contains a few bug fixes and one new feature. This update is made available to you courtesy of user contributed patches. A big thank you to users BartKoelman, cjberg, jamaica and MrGlover for their contributions.

Features

• Added a new AutoSetSpecifiedPropertiesDecorator to automatically set the _Specified property to true when setter on matching property is called. Obviously this will only work when the Properties option is used.

Bug Fixes

• Reduced the number of times menu visibility is updated in the SelectionEvents.OnChange event to help prevent OutOfMemoryException inside EnvDTE.
• Fixed NullReferenceException in OnTypeNameChanged method of MessageContractConverter.
• Improved validation of namespace identifiers. The original implementation only allowed ASCII letters among other deficiencies, even though C# allows most Unicode letters in identifiers.
• Data contract generation - choice element name incorrect in generated class (http://wscfblue.codeplex.com/workitem/10624).
• Incorrect XmlTypeAttribute for same-named types in different namespaces (http://wscfblue.codeplex.com/workitem/12733).
• Patch for NullReferenceException on inline XSD (http://wscfblue.codeplex.com/workitem/13714).

It looks like the recent rumours were indeed true. The first official previews of Windows 8 are starting to surface from the D9 and Computex conferences. It appears that just like the conferences the focus is all on tablet devices.

Today, at the D9 Conference, we demonstrated the next generation of Windows, internally code-named “Windows 8,” for the first time. Windows 8 is a reimagining of Windows, from the chip to the interface. A Windows 8-based PC is really a new kind of device, one that scales from touch-only small screens through to large screens, with or without a keyboard and mouse.

If you are a Windows user looking to buy a tablet, do you buy a Windows 7 tablet now and upgrade to Windows 8 later? Running Windows 8 on the same hardware shouldn’t be a problem, but your upgrade wont be happening until sometime next year. The Android Honeycomb 3.1 update has started to roll out, and more important than just being a good update, you can actually buy a tablet and start using it right now. It’s a shame that Microsoft are still so far away from making a serious venture (back) into the tablet market.

Windows 8 sneak peak

COMPUTEX: Microsoft introduces Windows 8