Creative Collaboration Getting It Together with Adobe Creative Cloud

Grey Matter Issue 61 | Winter 2013

Building on 30 years of software know how Creative Collaboration Getting it together with Adobe Creative Cloud

Windows Phone 8 Opening up new opportunities for your apps Health check your network Tools for monitoring every aspect of your infrastructure See page 10 WIN! for details

Welcome Contents 4 Software News Embarcadero, Flexera Editorial There are two distinct sides to the computer industry. On one Intel, Mindjet and more. Editor:...... Matt Nicholson side sit the hardware manufacturers. For them, each unit Technical Editors:... Sean Wilson, Paul Edwards 6 News in brief produced costs money to make and money to ship, and the industry News Editor:...... Paul Stephens and competition winners. Publisher:...... Andrew King operates in much the same way as that of the car or the TV. For the 9 Inside Data Contributors:...... Tim Anderson, past decade, particularly since Apple adopted the Intel architecture, Simon Bisson, Mary Branscombe, Multi-tenancy suport from there has been little to distinguish one manufacturer’s product from Kay Ewbank, Jon Honeyball, Graham Keitch, Microsoft and Oracle. Rob Macdonald, Paul Stephens another, which means a greater reliance on brand awareness. Design and layout:...... Jason Stanley However competition is fierce and it is difficult for one brand to 10 Competition Illustration:...... Sholto Walker Win a Nokia Lumia 820! dominate the market for long. Apple only succeeded in doing so by Web Design:...... Jason Stanley firmly establishing itself early on as a supplier of luxury goods at 12 Creative collaboration Advertising & Circulation premium prices. Inside Adobe Creative Cloud for teams. Marketing:...... Anna Roach, Emma Cottle, On the other side are two industries that have benefited from Ash Khagram hitherto unprecedented economies of scale, namely those involved in Tel: 01364 654100 software and the silicon chip. Developing something like an Intel i7 Email: [email protected] Core processor or a modern operating system is extremely costly. HardCopy is edited for Grey Matter three Against that the cost of creating a copy, or even millions of copies, is times a year by Matt Publishing of Bristol. It insignificant - and the more copies you create, the thinner that initial is printed by Pepper Communications Ltd. of Plymouth and requested by 9,000 readers. investment gets spread. This is why Windows dominates the desktop, as once a certain Copyright © 2013 Grey Matter Ltd. All rights threshold is reached, competition becomes all but impossible. For reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior Microsoft the threshold was reached in 1990 with the launch of 16 Build tools consent of the copyright holder. Windows 3.0. On that date, any chance of an alternative succeeding Build options for users of All trademarks acknowledged. on the desktop died. Microsoft Visual Studio. HardCopy is a trademark and Grey Matter a registered trademark owned by Grey Matter It’s important to realise that Windows did not get into this 19 Under the bonnet Limited. While all reasonable attempts are position because it was the best on offer. There were plenty who felt, Software maintenance is a made to ensure accuracy, Grey Matter and with considerable justification, that the Apple Mac offered something skill in its own right. Matt Publishing disclaim any liability whatsoever for any use of information better, or that Linux was both cheaper and more stable. But that 23 The phone business herein. Prices exclude VAT unless specified. wasn’t the point. The point was that both the software industry and New opportunities with the customer benefited hugely from having a single platform Windows Phone 8. Cover Image: Jason Stanley dominate the market. For application developers it meant being able 26 Network health check Advertisers Index to reach most of their customers with a single release: for customers it Tools for monitoring your meant being able to share files with most of their friends and IT infrastructure. 2 Intel Software colleagues without worrying format incompatibilities. 30 Straight talking 7 Symantec Of course everything changed when mobile devices became Tim Anderson is not 8 SAP viable. Apple transformed the market with first the iPhone and then convinced by WinRT. 11 Windows 8 the iPad. Microsoft struggled with Windows Mobile for a while, only to 14 Adobe 32 And Another Thing return later with Windows Phone which now seems to be tied fairly Jon Honeyball ponders 18 Visual Studio firmly to Nokia hardware. the future for Windows. 21 Grey Matter And then of course there’s Android, an open source operating 22 Telerik 34 Short Cuts system owned by Google. According to a recent IDC survey, Android Views from the edge. 25 Office was running on over 70 per cent of the smartphones sold in the final 29 Embarcadero three months of 2012. Apple iOS accounted for 21 per cent, down 31 Mindjet from 23 per cent the previous year, while Windows Phone and 33 Paessler Windows Mobile accounted for just 2.6 per cent, although this was an Register Now! 35 Infragistics improvement on the 1.5 per cent achieved the year before. So is HardCopy magazine is published three times 36 Flexera Android going to become the Windows of the mobile market? a year. Make sure you don’t miss out by Grey Matter Limited registering or updating your details at Prigg Meadow, www.softwareknowhow.info/hc/register Ashburton, Devon, TQ13 7DF, UK [email protected] Read HardCopy online To view buyer’s guides, news, blogs and forums go to HardCopy online at Matt Nicholson grey matter www.softwareknowhow.info software know how Editor, HardCopy

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 3 News Software News Mindjet becomes MindManager as company swallows Spigit Mindjet • www.greymatter.com/mindjet/

It’s been a busy year at Californian MindManager 14 improves mind-map mind-mapping vendor Mindjet. Last creation, editing and presentation, also adding autumn (HardCopy issue 58) we reported that it a series of spreadsheet-like features aimed at had changed the name of its flagship quantitative analysis and forecasting. Task MindManager product to Mindjet 11, and made creation is simplified with in-map editing, and it subscription-only for new customers. Now it’s maps can be now populated by drag and Mindjet’s new ProjectDirector is effectively changed it back, with a new MindManager 14 dropping items from Outlook. Map indexing is the collaborative version of MindManager, with for Windows release offering built-in formulae improved with the ability to search by hyperlink virtual whiteboards, a series of Team (and and improved editing, and available as a and attachment, while decision making is ‘Social’) Task Management features and one-off purchase or an annual licence, with the enhanced with Risk-Reward matrices and integration with major cloud storage services. latter including Web and mobile access tools. Guided Brainstorming. Map topics now support Spigit, also based in California, produces Meanwhile Mindjet has also launched a new formulae with multiple functions and SpigitEngage, a platform for crowd-sourced ProjectDirector project management suite, and operators, along with colour-coded highlights idea creation and development. The company merged the company with crowd-sourced based on numerical values. Panning and will be absorbed into Mindjet, which will innovation management vendor Spigit. zooming is now supported in presentations. continue under CEO Scott Raskin.

Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013 lead autumn charge Microsoft • www.greymatter.com/microsoft

A year after revamping its entire Windows 8.1 is a free upgrade for Windows rebuilds of failed RAID devices. Hyper-V 2012 R2 Windows operating system and 8 users and addresses legacy users’ concerns provides shared access to virtual hard disks, development tools range, Microsoft is while developing the Modern (formerly Metro) faster VM migration, storage QoS (min/max delivering new releases of the major products. touch-oriented UI. It can now default to the load) controls for virtual disks, and direct First to arrive, on 18 October, are Windows 8.1 desktop at startup, and the Start button remote desktop connection to any running VM. and Windows Server 2012 R2, followed by Visual (though not Start menu) has returned. Modern Visual Studio 2013’s IDE enhancements Studio 2013 on 13 November. The company UI tiles are now moveable and resizable, while include dual-mode scroll bars for navigating initially said it wouldn’t pre-release Windows 8.1 storage defaults to Microsoft’s SkyDrive cloud large source files, and a ‘Connected IDE’ feature RTM to developers, but after consideration all service. Under the hood are a raft of new which deploys user preferences across multiple three products were pre-released on MSDN. features including improved app packaging, devices. Language updates include improved support for USB and Bluetooth devices, C++ 11 standards, “just my code” C++ new and updated screen controls and debugging and support for Microsoft’s support for geofences and Wi-Fi Direct application-scale JavaScript language connections. Also new are Fingerprint TypeScript, while Web developers can now authentication, DirectX 11.2 support combine ASP.NET WebForms, MVC and Web API and automatic app updates. projects in a single project type. Team Windows Server 2012 R2 Foundation Server enhancements include agile upgrades server and virtualisation portfolio management, team rooms (Hyper-V) functionality. BYOD is (messaging) and improvements to Web-based addressed with Work Folders, a synced test case management. storage service (currently to Windows 8.1 clients only), and Workplace Join, • Microsoft has also reinforced its Cloud which allows users to register personal credentials with extra storage for its SkyDrive devices with Active Directory. Storage Pro customers (25GB, up from 7GB), a doubling tiering automatically migrates of Exchange Online mailbox size to 50GB, and highest-use data to the fastest devices, improved upload limits in SharePoint Online. It’s Work item charting: one of the new team development while performance is also improved by also offering Office 365 free to non-profit features in Visual Studio 2013. a new Write Back cache and parallel organisations in 41 countries worldwide.

4 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy News

Embarcadero adds Android with RAD Studio XE5 Embarcadero • www.greymatter.com/hc/embarcadero

In April tools vendor Embarcadero FireMonkey GUI framework supporting Android and Android platforms get new Share Sheet launched RAD Studio XE4, promising 2.3.3 onwards. Android developers also get a support, a Time Picker control, list filtering and that Android would soon be added to iOS, Mac multi device visual designer and native styled swipe-to-delete capability. The new cross- and Windows on the list of platforms targeted UI controls, plus support for services including platform REST client components are aimed at by its native-code generating Delphi/C++ motion sensing, geolocation and notifications. developers tackling “enterprise BYOD application development suite. Now it’s kept There’s also local database support for SQLite challenges” and come with a debugger for that promise with RAD Studio XE5 which adds a and IBLite, and multi-tier connectivity to Oracle, testing calls and parameters. full set of Android design and data connectivity SQL Server and other enterprise databases. At the other end of the spectrum, HTML5 features as well as cross-suite improvements Remote debugging is supported, along with Builder gets updated PhoneGap, jQuery and including REST client support. local and App Store deployment. other libraries. Standalone XE5 versions of As with iOS, Android app development is Compatibility with iOS is also upgraded in Delphi and C++Builder are available if you don’t Delphi-only, via a new ARM compiler and XE5, with iOS7 SDK and UI style support. iOS need the whole RAD Studio bundle.

Intel adds Windows-hosted Xeon Phi support Intel • www.greymatter.com/intel

Intel has released SP1 updates of and Cilk Plus C++ extensions. XE versions of Fortran 2008 features, including co-arrays, plus Parallel Studio 2013 XE and Cluster Intel’s Inspector (threading error checker) additional C++ 11 compatibility. Linux users can Studio 2013 XE, its premium compiler and tools Vtune Amplifier (performance optimizer) and now use the GNU Project Debugger with Intel suites for parallel and High Performance Cluster Advisor (threading design assistant) complete extensions. Cluster Studio XE also gets an (HPC) application development. Highlights the Parallel studio tools, while Cluster Studio improved Trace Analyzer UI with expanded include support for Windows hosting of Xeon XE adds Trace Analysis and an MPI library. instrumentation, and MPI enhancements Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013 lead autumn charge Phi coprocessors, improved C++ and Fortran Updated hardware support in SP1 including improved NUMA applications support Microsoft • www.greymatter.com/microsoft standards, OpenMP 4.0 support and an “easier includes Haswell-EP processors and AVX2/ and new Hydra Process Manager for Windows. to learn” Advisor XE thread prototyping tool. AVX-512 vector extensions. Key elements of The Studio 2013 XE SP1 suites run on Linux The suites include C++ and Fortran the OpenMP 4.0 multiprocessing API are and Windows, with Windows XP still supported compilers with Performance Primitives, Math supported, including offloading and SIMD but now officially deprecated. Single-language kernel and Threaded Building Blocks libraries extensions, and there’s support for “many” versions of Parallel Studio are available.

Flexera goes pure 64 with InstallAnywhere 2013 Flexera • www.greymatter.com/hc/flexera

Software installation tools vendor pure 64-bit builds which target Flexera has released InstallAnywhere Windows Server Core 2013, an updated and rebadged version of its installations that have flagship multi-platform installation package disabled their 32-bit builder. New features include pure 64-bit builds, subsystems. improved virtual appliance support and an The release also includes updated list of target platforms and OS features. key new features aimed at InstallAnywhere Enterprise edition has users of the Premier Edition’s been renamed Premier, while Standard edition optional Cloud Pack. Multi-tier becomes Professional. Both editions get an Virtual Appliances let you improved user interface with inline help, plus bundle multiple virtual updated platform support including Windows machines into a single 8.1 and Server 2012 R2, support for Java 7 under Appliance, while virtual Mac OS X 10.8, and compatibility with Linux appliances can now be built distributions including SUSE 11.3, Ubuntu 12.04 directly from existing virtual and Red Hat Enterprise 6, as well as Solaris 11, machines. Emerging HP-UX 11i, AIX 7.1 and IBM i5/OS and Z/OS. technologies are also Premier Edition also has new support for supported, with the ability to InstallAnywhere 2013 offers updated platform support and build-time Windows Digital Signatures, and for build 64-bit virtual appliances. new virtual appliance-building features.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 5 News News in brief

ComponentOne kicks WinForms apps into Touch If you’re a WinForms developer suffering from Touch Anxiety then UI Competition Winner controls specialist ComponentOne may have the answer. The company’s The winner of issue 60’s competition prize, a Kindle Fire HD courtesy newly-released Studio Enterprise 2013 2.5 bundle includes TouchToolkit of Grey Matter, is Tim Brading of Toller Beattie LLP. for WinForms, which lets you convert an entire project to touch capability Congratulations, Tim! just by dragging it onto the design surface. “We’ve engineered the first toolkit of its kind, one Conference (NDC) for .NET and agile development at London’s Excel from where developers can 4 to 6 December, partnering with Microsoft, Flexera and Intel Software. touch enable their entire For details of the event visit http://ndc-london.com. application complete Grey Matter also attended and sponsored the recent .NET Rocks UK with gesture support and Tour with events in Bristol, London and Manchester. many other features, regardless if you use Adobe buys Behance, makes new features Cloud-only ComponentOne controls, Adobe is making all new features in its design applications available via its another vendors controls, subscription-based Creative Cloud service only, effectively halting or out-of-the-box development of its boxed Creative Suite product line (although CS6 will controls,” said product manager Justin Mack. Also new in this release is still be sold and receive bug fixes). The CC applications have been support for the forthcoming Visual Studio 2013 and Windows 8.1. New updated, with new sharpening and enlarging tools in PhotoShop, Touch features in July’s 2.0 release included new RadialMenu, Book and PDF Type text manipulator in Illustrator, Lumetri Deep Color Engine in generator controls. Premiere Pro and CSS Designer panel in DreamWeaver. Adobe has also bought Behance , a New York-based “Linkedin for Artists” social/ Buy now to save on Paessler products showcasing network, which is now integrated with Creative Cloud. If you’re thinking of investing in Paessler AG’s PRTG Network Monitor Meanwhile a new single-app subscription plan allows customers to products, now’s the time to do it. The company has announced that from license just one CC application, rather than the full suite. For full details 1 January 2014 prices will rise by 10 to 25 per cent across the range, but see our feature on page 12. until then licences are available at current prices. Conditions for education licences will also change on 1 January. IncrediBuild makes work for idle CPUs Grey Matter is now a reseller for IncrediBuild, a utility that harnesses idle Grey Matter hosting Intel Software and VS2013 events CPU cycles from machines on your local network or the cloud to achieve Grey Matter is joining with Intel to run a one-day developer conference in dramatically faster C/C++ builds, as well as improving performance on London on 21 November. Provisional topics include Intel’s Perceptual unit testing, QA scripts, code analysis, code generation, image processing Computing SDK, a feature update on Vtune Amplifier and a look at the and compression. The package comes in two versions, one for Visual OpenCL SDK for Intel architecture. There will be two keynote addresses Studio (including the Xbox 360 XDK and Intel C++ compiler), the other for and one real-world case study, and the event will round off with an development tools including klocwork, goanna and PC-lint. IncrediBuild update on Intel’s 4th Generation Core Architecture and an overview of the runs out of the box with no source or project file changes required. Xeon Phi and its programming model. (note, all content subject to change). The event is free of charge and includes not only lunch but also Netop gives students the full app experience an evening drinks reception. You can register your interest online at In issue 60 we reported on Netop’s Vision and Vision Pro 8.0, classroom www.greymatter.com/mcm/Intel-event. management packages which allowed teachers to display demo material Further ahead, on 26 February 2014 Grey Matter is hosting from their PC to any Web-enabled student device, including iPads and ‘Developing for the Future with Visual Studio 2013’ at the Microsoft offices Android tablets. Now the company has gone the extra mile in version 8.1, in Reading. The one-day event and lunch are free – more details on adding purpose-built tablet apps available from the App Store and www.greymatter.com/mcm/vs2013-event. Google Play, and aimed at iPads with Retina display and Android pads with 1024 by 600 and 1280 by 800 screens. Web-based access has also Come and see us! been improved, with password-based login. If you’re going to the Daresbury Machine Evaluation Workshop in Liverpool on 27 to 28 November, pop over and meet Grey Matter staff on openBench tests confirm V-Locity performance claims the Intel stand. MEW24 (it’s in its 24th year) is the UK’s premier High Last time we reported on V-Locity Server, a caching/optimisation package Performance Computing workshop, and registration is free for delegates which vendor Condusiv Technologies claimed could improve server disk from academic throughput by 50 per cent. Now V-Locity’s performance has been checked institutions. by the independent openBench labs, and turns out to be even faster. “On Grey Matter a server running SQL Server 2012, V-Locity Server enabled up to 55 per will also be at the cent higher TPS rates, improved transaction response time by 33 per cent, UK’s first New and enabled SQL to process 62 per cent more transactions at peak rates,” Developers said Dr. Jack Fegreus, founder of openBench.

6 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy

Database Inside Data Graham Keitch explains how multi-tenancy support works for Microsoft and Oracle databases.

The management of a single database Windows Azure SQL Database. This uses SQL architecture as a ‘super’ container database can be demanding at times, but it’s Federations to partition tables horizontally, (CDB) into which you insert multiple pluggable nothing compared to a system that involves allowing a large database to be segmented. The databases (PDB). This was one of the key multiple databases, as is the norm today. Throw process is known as sharding and can be used features introduced in July this year with their virtualisation and other resource sharing to redistribute the workload and create a latest Database 12c Release 1. The architecture requirements such as clustering into the mix, multi-tenant environment. Partitions are is available across all editions, although and the management issues become even more members of a Federation that are physically Standard Edition One and Standard Edition are complex. implemented as databases and logically restricted to a single pluggable tenant only. Full referenced at the blown multi-tenancy support is provided by application layer. Oracle Multitenant, an additional cost option Microsoft SQL for the Enterprise Edition which hosts up to 252 Server technology, from PDBs. A Resource Manager handles competition which SQL Database is for resources across each of these. derived, also allows you As all editions of Oracle Database 12c are to create federated built on the same code-base, developers can A new pluggable database architecture means that memory and database servers and scale their applications without having to processes are required at the container level only. hence a multi-tenant rework code. Similarly, Oracle guarantees that The complexity is compounded because environment using Distributed Partitioned earlier releases such as 11g are fully compatible each database relies on a number of other Views. The Resource Governor introduced with with the new architecture. They can be processes being run at the same time. In the SQL Server 2008 Enterprise isolates resources for upgraded to ‘appear’ as a 12c non-CDB, or as a case of Oracle, these include memory handling database instances serving multiple clients, and PDB that will run within a CDB. components such as the System Global Area is a valuable tool for this type of architecture. It is worth adopting the new architecture (SGA) and other background processes even if you are only able to deploy a single collectively known as an ’instance’. Virtualisation The Oracle solution tenant. The new architecture makes it easier to is only a partial solution in the quest for As cloud technologies and their benefits upgrade and clone databases as well as simplification and consolidation because each become more widely accepted, an increasing separate out the admin duties that relate to the database requires its own set of background number of IT departments are looking to adopt container and to the PDB itself. The Multitenant processes, and these accumulate to degrade similar approaches in-house. Hybrid and private option complements other Oracle Database performance. clouds are now well established, and it is likely Enterprise options such as Real Application It would therefore help if a single database demand will grow for multi-tenant on-premise Clusters and Active Data Guard. instance could support numerous individual database solutions too. The recent release of Oracle Enterprise Manager 12c R3 was also databases. Instead of having to manage the Oracle Database 12c makes this a reality. released in July 2013. This is the management finance, HR, sales and warehouse systems as It has always been possible to build a tool for Oracle environments and it too is now separate entities, it would be a lot easier if these monolithic company-wide database, heavily focused on supporting a unified could be ‘tenants’ of a single instance. consolidating many schemas into one, but this platform for both in-house and Consolidation simplifies management and approach requires tenancy controls to be built cloud-based deployments. makes the data easier to aggregate and mine into the application layer. This increases too. A single database serving an extended development and maintenance complexity, as community of users and applications must be well as carrying other risks. With Oracle 12c, able to address the security, access and tenancy control lies in the database tier which i performance requirements of each of its makes it a lot easier to apply patches and carry Find out more tenants. It’s analogous to a landlord renting out out upgrades and backups. Developers and rooms in a house to a number of tenants, each testers benefit as the new architecture makes it Graham Keitch is the database pre-sales specialist at of whom has a key to their room. easier to provision and clone databases. Grey Matter and has worked in IT for over 20 years. For If the concept of a single database Multi-tenancy support is also useful for further information and advice about database supporting multiple tenants sounds familiar it’s Independent Software Vendors who want to licensing, call him or one of his colleagues on 01364 probably because that’s the nature of most deliver their software as a service (SaaS). 654100, or email him at [email protected]. cloud implementations, including Microsoft Oracle describes its multi-tenant

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 9 Competition # WIN a Nokia Lumia 820 with Grey Matter!

Described by Nokia as the “most versatile” in the We will also accept entries submitted online at range, this Lumia 820 could be yours. The phone is 4G www.softwareknowhow.info/hc/competition ready and comes with Windows Phone 8 complete with Num re omnis simillu ptatemp orroriones aperum Microsoft Office and Outlook, ready to synchronise with your quia veliberiam des atendam volupta spitius eum Exchange, SkyDrive and SharePoint accounts. It also features a eum fuga. Ita culpa et moloreptatur apit laut qui Carl Zeiss lens and a 4.3-inch ClearBlack display. demodio. Nam voluptus.Harum escilla veliqui anihit

To enter our competition, answer the question below, fill out the rest of the form and send it to:

Grey Matter Nokia Lumia 820 Competition Grey Matter Ltd Prigg Meadow Ashburton Devon TQ13 7DF

issue 61 Nokia Lumia entry form 820 What year was the first edition of Windows released?

A: 1980

B: 1985 # C: 1990

Answer:

Your details What version of Windows is your company currently using? Name______q Windows XP q Windows Vista Company______q Windows 7 Address______q Windows 8

______Postcode______When are you planning on upgrading your operating system? Telephone______

Email______How many laptops and computers are there in your company? ______q I would like to receive HardCopy magazine. q Please send me information on products or services that I might find Have you considered virtualising your desktop? useful (note that we keep your information private and will not sell or rent your data for marketing purposes) ______

TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ENTRY 1. No purchase necessary for entry to this competition. 7. Winner is decided by random draw from correct entries received by the closing date. 2. The prize is one Nokia Lumia 820. Colour not specified and may be any of those shown. Winner will have 8. Winner will be announced on Monday 6 January 2014 and notified by email or to arrange their own SIM card/phone contract. There is no cash alternative. telephone.

3. Once you have received the prize, please register it under a warranty as Grey Matter can no longer be held 9. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into regarding the # responsible for the prize and will not be able to provide assistance with regards to faults or maintenance. decision. 4. Completed entries must be received by Friday 27 December 2013. 10. Employees of organisations connected with this competition are not eligible for entry. 5. Entries submitted online at www.softwareknowhow.info/hc/competition or completed on a 11. Microsoft and Grey Matter reserve the right to use the winner’s name in promotional photocopy of this page will be accepted. materials. 6. Only one entry will be accepted per person. The competition promoter is Grey Matter Ltd, Prigg Meadow, Ashburton, Devon TQ13 7DF.

10 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy

Design Creative collaboration

Adobe’s Creative Cloud for teams brings new features to help designers and developers work together, as Mary Branscombe explains.

Adobe’s Creative Cloud service is more tools. As these get updated, you automatically versions of Kuler, Behance or Creative Portfolio, MARY than just a way to subscribe to get updated too. You also get 100GB of storage these do connect to your account when you BRANSCOMBE Photoshop or InDesign, rather than buy them per user, Web space for up to five Business buy them. The synchronisation doesn’t happen outright. It also brings you a range of online Catalyst sites (plus Typekit for better Web fonts), automatically as this would overwrite your Mary is a freelance IT writer who’s worked tools for extracting further information from and access to Behance, a design social network current settings. Instead you choose Sync on both sides of the your design files, such as being able to generate for showcasing your files from Creative Cloud, Settings Now in the desktop Creative Cloud fence, from writing a colour palette, plus online storage and or from right inside Photoshop or Illustrator. In sync app to opt in to syncing settings. manuals to developing a technology area for portfolio space. More important are the new addition there are a range of tools and services Having the files that a team is working on a major online service. tools for working as part of a team. Creative that use the connection to Adobe’s cloud all in the same place is much more convenient She’s also the editor Cloud for teams, as it is called, gives you a space services to make your Adobe software even than passing files around from designer to of IT Expert magazine. to collaborate online using workflows that more useful. designer. For one thing you always have the maryb@ involve a lot more than just sharing files. Creative Cloud doesn’t just sync your most recent version of files and share assets. If hardcopymag.com Creative Cloud for teams includes all of the design files to the different computers you work you’re working with video it can be a significant Adobe Creative Suite desktop applications: on; it also syncs your assets, settings, styles, time-saver; the size of the files does mean you Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, colours and fonts, so you don’t have to have to consider the time it takes to upload and After Effects and Premiere Pro plus Muse, remember to export fonts or recreate settings download, but for quick changes that you can Acrobat XI Pro, Lightroom 4, Adobe Audition, when you work on a new device. This includes make in the cloud, such as renaming, you do Bridge, Encore, Fireworks, Flash Builder mobile devices that host Adobe apps, and while save time. Premium, Flash Professional, InCopy, Media a Creative Cloud subscription doesn’t actually Encoder, Prelude, SpeedGrade and the Edge include Photoshop Touch, Ideas or the iPhone Online extras Files stored within Creative Cloud come with additional information. For example, you can check out different versions that you’ve been working on, and you can add and read comments, which is particularly handy if you’re collaborating with someone who isn’t in the same office. The file info doesn’t just tell you its size and resolution, and who it’s shared with. It also includes the five main shades of the colour palette used in the image. You can download these as an Adobe Swatch Exchange (ASE) file, or open the palette in Kuler where you can save it to as a reference for use in other designs. This works with photos as well as Photoshop and Illustrator files, so if you see a shop window or a flower bed with a great mix of colours, you can take a snap, upload it to Creative Cloud and Find the tools you need by the type of work you do, see what’s new or extract the colour palette. Or you can browse everything that’s included in Creative Cloud for teams. experiment with different colour combinations

12 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy Design

in Kuler, switching to shades of a single colour or project. If you let a freelance or to a mix of complementary colours. contract designer use one of Layers are also visible in Creative Cloud, your Photoshop licences, you and you can turn individual layers on and off don’t want them to keep it without having to open the file into an when they move on to their application. Again, this is great for collaborating next project for some other and presenting ideas. You can see how a file is company. The same applies if put together before you open it, or you can an employee moves to another include multiple options for a logo or a layout in division within your company a single file and let the client turn the layers on that has its own software and off to see which version they like. You can budget. also read through the pages of a PDF on the site, Creative Cloud for teams whether or not you have a PDF viewer installed. comes with an Admin Console Keeping files in Creative Cloud gives you not only synchronisation and sharing but If you’re collaborating on a video then you on the Creative Cloud Web site also allows you to extract the colour palette without actually opening the file. can work on the script from within your browser where you can assign licences using Adobe Story CC Plus, where there are to users, and to take them away when they’re Photoshop can’t handle, for example, then it facilities for managing who can make changes. no longer part of your team. You can email new will stay as a Smart Object when they open the From there you can turn it into a shooting script, workers links where they can download and file, but they won’t be able to open or edit the complete with a schedule and tags for props, install the Adobe programs, or you can use the layer. A text layer will look the same in an older lighting and sound effects. And then you can Adobe Creative Cloud Packager to make an MSI version of Photoshop, but there is a danger of bring the script into Premiere Pro to see how or PKG file that you can deploy to their PC or the layout changing if they edit the text. your video clips fit into the production, Mac with your usual software management However this is not a problem with matching metadata from the clips to characters, tools. If you’re not comfortable with all the Creative Cloud for teams as all the designers locations, props or dialog. cloud sharing aspects of Creative Cloud then working on the project are on the same version There are lots of tools available that allow you can even block cloud sharing when of the software. You don’t have to juggle you to do these steps separately, but integrating designers connect to the business network Windows and Mac licences either as each user these tools into Creative Cloud and building where you want them to save their files. downloads the correct version for their them into the Adobe applications means you Admins can also see who is using the operating system. use Creative Cloud as part of your workflow, programs for which they have licences. That’s no rather than as just another shared drive. substitute for good management when it Updates and changes One extra benefit with Creative Cloud for comes to making sure your team is working Getting the latest versions of Adobe products is teams is that everyone in the team gets two well, but it could come in handy when you’re a big part of Creative Cloud, but it isn’t the only support sessions a year. That’s not just the usual winding down a project and you need to see way you get new features. For Adobe, Creative forum and email support, but a one-to-one who is ready to move on. Cloud has brought a whole new development session with a product expert that you can use Part of getting everyone on the same page cycle. There are still major releases of the big for problem-solving or training. is getting everyone on the same version of the tools every so often, but smaller updates can software. However there may be instances come much more frequently. Managing the team where you need to collaborate with a designer For the last few years, new version of If you work in a design team that changes fairly who’s using an older version. In this case they’re Photoshop have included a number of what often, or you work with contract designers on probably going to see the same thing on screen, Adobe calls ‘JDIs’ or ‘Just Do It’ features – an idea projects, then managing Adobe software but they’re not going to be able to edit your that started in AfterEffects and spread to many licences hasn’t always been easy. The licences effects or use the same workflow as you. If you of the Adobe products. These are small, often are expensive so you want to control who gets have a Smart Object layer that uses a newer simple fixes or improvements that the to use them and what happens at the end of a version of Camera Raw that their version of Photoshop team can update or create quickly, such as adding a setting to turn off the ability to rotate the canvas with a multitouch gesture on the trackpad, or being able to rename layers right in the layers panel in Illustrator CS6. Before Creative Cloud, you had to wait for the next major version of the software to get such improvements. And if you didn’t have the budget to upgrade, or there weren’t any major features that you needed, you wouldn’t get those extra conveniences. With a Creative Cloud subscription, you not only get the major versions when they come along; you also get smaller improvements more often, without having to wait for the next major version. Use Kuler to save palettes from multiple Creative Cloud files New releases of Photoshop, Illustrator, and experiment with different colour combinations. Premiere Pro and the other desktop packages

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 13

Design

appeared in June this year. Illustrator CC had a text side of an illustration. you enlarge images and keep sharp edges and mix of small but useful features, such as placing Despite coming out just six months after detail, instead of the usual artefacts and multiple files into a layout at the same time, or Photoshop 13.1, Photoshop CC included major blurring. searching for the font you want by name, style new tools like Smart Sharpen, which fixes Being able to edit and resize shapes after or family. It also gained two powerful new tools photos that don’t look quite in focus far more you’ve made them, even if they include effects in that you can turn a photo into a paint brush, effectively than before. The most useful feature such as rounded corners, is going to be a big and then reshape the strokes later. You can also might be Camera Shake Reduction which time saver. Smart Objects are also getting treat individual characters in text as objects that analyses the movement of the camera and smarter; you can try out blur and liquefy effects you can move, scale and rotate while still subtracts that from a blurred photo: ideal for to see if pulling, pushing, puckering, bloating or keeping them as live text that you can edit or images where slow shutter speed or long focus just blurring your image gives you the effect switch to a different font. This feature in mean you didn’t get a good shot. This is one of you want. If they don’t, you no longer need to particular makes text in Illustrator far more those tools that doesn’t work every time, but step back through your undo history, or have powerful and means you don’t need to drop when it does it saves photos you would the forethought to save a version before you into InDesign or Photoshop just to work on the otherwise discard. Intelligent up-sampling lets started, as these effects are now non- destructive so you can simply remove them. Photoshop 13.1 comes with version 8 of Developing with Creative Cloud for teams Adobe Camera Raw which puts the Advanced Adobe’s Creative Cloud isn’t just for designers. With a strong focus on Web apps, it’s possibly the Healing Brush right in the RAW interface and best source for HTML5 tooling around. And it’s not just for HTML: there’s still support for Flash gives you RAW tools like Clarity, Noise developers, with Flash Professional providing a framework for working with ActionScript, and reduction and colour temperature as filters you Flash Builder for developers working with the now open-sourced Flex framework. can use on any layer, whether or not it started Web developers will be familiar with Dreamweaver’s support for HTML and JavaScript as a RAW file. development, and its integration with popular Web development frameworks. With Premiere Pro CC has a new timeline that Dreamweaver CC part of the Creative Cloud package, faster access to new features might be lets you copy and paste effects from one clip to more important to Web developers than any other Creative Cloud users. Users are demanding another, an audio mixer that lets you adjust more and more from Web apps, and both standards and practices are changing rapidly. Other each clip in your timeline separately, and a link key elements include grid tools that simplify the construction of responsive designs that tool for keeping track of all your clips across support desktop, tablet and phone in a single page. multiple drives. There is a new Deep Colour Creative Cloud also includes a new suite of Web development tools, namely the Edge engine for applying pre-set colour grades, and tools. Edge Animate takes the Flash timeline approach to help you design HTML5 animations. improved GPU support for giving you real-time There’s also a new Web application development tool, Edge Code, built on the Brackets open performance and far faster export times. And source Web editing tool. This is built in HTML and JavaScript, and you can use it to quickly then just as we were going to press Adobe preview changes to your HTML and CSS, opening all your current documents in Chrome. A announced a host of new features, like built-in CSS quick editor makes it easy to see how a new stylesheet will affect a page design. right-clicking the clip in the Source monitor to jump to that location in the Project panel, which immediately became available to Creative Cloud subscribers. From a business point of view, Adobe Creative Cloud for teams combines the flexibility and agility of cloud subscriptions with the central management of familiar desktop applications. Designers get their new features, and you don’t lose control of software budgeting and licensing. i Find out more

Edge Reflow makes it easier to layout pages on a live WebKit-based surface. You can build Creative Cloud for teams comes in two versions. There’s the a fluid grid, and resize layouts to see how different screen sizes will affect your designs. Once complete plan that gives you full versions of all the Adobe desktop you’ve built your apps, Creative Cloud lets you use Adobe’s PhoneGap service to compile applications plus extra services, such as the admin tools you need to HTML/CSS/JavaScript code developed in Dreamweaver and the Edge tools into apps for most manage and deploy Creative Cloud, and up to 100GB of storage mobile platforms. You also get the Digital Publishing suite for creating iOS apps. space per user. Alternatively, if you only need one of the Adobe Of course the cloud storage and workflow features of Creative Cloud help designers and applications for your team, the single-app plan gives you the developers working together as a team. Designers can work with design tools, developers can application you need, plus the services and admin tools, with 20GB edit code, and it all comes together in an app or an electronic magazine, ready for users. That’s of storage per user. There are also plans for the individual user, the real benefit: a workable designer/developer workflow – something we’ve been waiting a which also come with 20GB of storage. For further details see long time for. www.greymatter.com/Adobe/Creative-Cloud-for-teams/842063.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 15 Development Build Tools Builds are an important part of the development process. Tim Anderson checks out the options open to users of Microsoft Visual Studio.

One of the pillars of modern software Visual Studio 2010, MSBuild has also been used within Visual Studio. Command line builds are TIM development is to build frequently and for C/C++ projects. also important if you want to call MSBuild itself ANDERSON automate everything, to the extent that some A project file (extension ‘proj’) in Visual from a script, or to use integration tools that A freelance journalist teams constrain code check-in so that code that Studio is an MSBuild script and is in XML format, work outside Visual Studio. since 1992, Tim will not build cannot be checked in. as our screenshot shows. You can also build a One reason Microsoft separated MSBuild Anderson covers Automation is critical for a couple of reasons. Visual Studio project from the command line from the Visual Studio IDE was to enable remote a wide range of technical topics and The first is to save time and avoid errors, but it using ‘msbuild’, and there are a ton of switches builds on machines where Visual Studio is not is well versed in goes beyond that. If the build is fully for logging, modifying build properties, installed. If you are working in a team, a modern programming automated, then the scripts that perform the building in parallel on a multicore machine (use separate build server is a big advantage. You tools, techniques and technologies. build can be treated as part of the code and so the /m switch) and much more. Building from can build locally to test your own code, but the His recent work subject to version control, testing, refactoring the command line opens up more remote build will be the one that verifies that has appeared in and the like. Automated builds are also an customisation options than building from the solution as a whole builds successfully, and publications including Guardian Technology, essential step towards continuous integration, The Register, where code is checked in frequently and Computer Weekly, successful build verified. If developers make Hardcopy, vnunet. Xoreax IncrediBuild com, IT Expert and conflicting changes then the problem is found ITJOBLOG, as well as immediately and can usually be easily fixed. his own popular blog By contrast, if developers work separately at www.itwriting.com. on their parts of the project for an extended period of time before checking in their code, then there is a higher chance that conflicting changes elsewhere will break the build. Because the changes that caused the conflict may have been made days or weeks before, they are inevitably harder to find and fix. Blogger Jeff Atwood calls the build server “Your project’s heart monitor” while Martin Fowler at ThoughtWorks notes: “Projects with Continuous Integration tend to have dramatically less bugs, both in production and in process. However I should stress that the degree of this benefit is directly tied to how This is a build accelerator that includes a Visual Studio add-in. It works by building your good your test suite is.” You do not have to applications in parallel on multiple machines, exploiting the fact that many CPU cycles lie idle embrace the philosophy of Continuous on typical networks. Reducing build time enables developers to work faster, which means that Integration in order to take advantage of a IncrediBuild can soon pay for itself provided that the savings are real – and the speed build server, but you cannot do so without it. improvements can be remarkable. Getting started with the accelerator is a matter of installing the IncrediBuild coordinator on Building in Visual Studio a machine that is always on, and then installing IncrediBuild agents on any other available Developers working on small projects may just machines. Where Visual Studio is installed, the agent installs an add-in menu that lets you build hit Build in Visual Studio and not worry about from the Visual Studio IDE. Agents can still be installed and assist in builds on machines without what is happening under the covers. However Visual Studio. When you build a project, a build monitor shows the activity on the agents in use since Visual Studio 2005, your .NET projects are and reports status. built using a tool called MSBuild, and since

16 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy Development

gives the whole team easy access to the latest build. Remote build is integrated into Microsoft’s ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) platform Team Foundation Server (TFS). Although it is called by Visual Studio, MSBuild has always shipped as part of the .NET Framework. In the new Visual Studio 2013, this changes and MSBuild comes as part of Visual Studio, though it will also be available as a standalone package called Edit a project file in Visual Studio to see and modify the MSBuild script that has been generated. Microsoft Build Tools which you can install on build servers or if you within Visual Studio. You get started with a New Third-party build tools want to work without Visual Studio. Part of Build Definition on the Build menu. The Build A common issue with large projects is that Microsoft’s rationale for the change is that it will Definition Trigger determines when the build build time increases to the point where avoid issues where the toolset, such as the runs: you can specify a schedule, build on every productivity is affected, particularly if you actual version of the compilers used, could vary check-in, or require gated check-in that embrace the principle of frequent builds to depending on whether you call MSBuild from succeeds only if the build succeeds. maintain software quality. Build tools like the command line or from within Visual Studio. The actual build steps are controlled by a Xoreax IncrediBuild (see panel) address this by build process template. This is a Windows accelerating builds, taking advantage of Customising a build Workflow XAML file which specifies the projects distributed processing. The Visual Studio 2012 IDE lets you customise to build, together with additional workflow Another popular tool is TeamCity from the build process to some extent. To do this you items such as the running of automated tests or JetBrains. This is a build server which you can right-click a project, choose Properties, and go performing analysis. You can also specify how use for continuous integration with a variety of to the Build tab. The Build Events tab lets you long to keep builds. Several templates are development platforms, including Java and add pre-build and post-build commands. These supplied to fit specific requirements, such as Ruby, and not just from Visual Studio. However, are DOS commands, and you can call out to Azure Continuous Deployment which will not Team City does have native support for MSBuild batch files. only build your solution but, subject to tests and does integrate with the Visual Studio IDE. MSBuild has many options that are not passing, deploy it to Windows Azure. This kind Team City also supports distributed builds and exposed here. You can edit the build script in of approach enables instant deployment of the can be integrated with Amazon EC2 (Elastic Visual Studio by right-clicking the project and latest updates, although of course you must Compute Cloud), suspending and resuming choosing Unload project. Then right-click again have confidence in your testing procedures. You Amazon virtual build servers on demand. and choose Edit to open the XML build script in can also deploy to a staging server before public CruiseControl .NET is an open source the IDE. When you are done, close the file and release. continuous integration server that is based on reload the project. Microsoft’s Team Foundation Service is a CruiseControl for Java. Whenever code is MSBuild understands properties like cloud-based installation of TFS which is free for committed the CruiseControl server launches a DebugType and OutputPath. Such properties up to five users and includes a Build service build to verify whether the modified code are gathered into Property Groups which are which is currently in preview. This Hosted Build builds successfully, and notifies the applied subject to conditions, enabling different Controller has certain restrictions. Build developer accordingly. properties to be used for Debug and Release processes must complete in under one hour builds, for example. and not require administrative rights on the build server, for example. If your build requires i Team Foundation Build additional software then you will have to use an Find out more TFS includes Team Foundation Build which uses on-premise build controller, though you can still a dedicated build server or servers controlled by link this to the cloud TFS. Jeff Atwood’s blog is at www.codinghorror.com and Martin Fowler Visual Studio, allowing you to create build Final pricing for hosted TFS has yet to be can be found at www.martinfowler.com. To discuss any of the tools processes that integrate with your testing and announced but Microsoft has stated that MSDN covered here in more detail, phone us on 01364 654100 or email code versioning requirements. subscribers will get access, and that there will [email protected]. Alternatively, check our Web site at The TFS build process is controlled by a be some form of per-build pricing for www.greymatter.com. Build Definition which is created and edited commercial users.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 17

Development Under the bonnet Taking a professional approach to software maintenance is good for staff and good for business, as Rob Macdonald explains.

It sometimes seems as if the developer production because my oil needs changing or I Users appreciate the dedicated attention of the community is in denial about the want to upgrade my exhaust system – maintenance team and the status of ROB impact and importance of software somehow, I know what would happen. Equally, maintenance is enhanced as a result. MACDONALD maintenance. However the truth is that, over the I’ve never tried asking my local car service depot As one maintenance programmer said to Rob has spent last 20 years, more programmer time has been to rustle up a more efficient engine or design a me, “Users drop by for a chat – that never used more than 30 years working in all aspects spent on maintaining legacy applications than quieter transmission. These comparisons may to happen when I was in the dev team. They of business software on developing new ones. And these days, sound absurd, but that’s exactly what happens can see how much better we’ve got at development and maintaining legacy applications is not just to programmer teams who are frequently maintenance since spinning off a dedicated maintenance and has delivered numerous about dusty files full of COBOL and FORTRAN expected to wear both the production and the team. Doing it full time has allowed us to build books, articles and code but also vast quantities of Java, C++, Visual service hat at the same time. up real expertise.” training courses Basic and even .NET. As a result, maintenance work tends to get Programmers still get together and argue in that time. He now runs OldCode Any trawl of the available literature, structured around development plans. as to whether Agile is a better development which provides a programming tools or training courses will Maintenance requests are regarded as methodology than Waterfall. In my view, they fully-formed passive reveal that much less emphasis is given to ‘interruptions’ to these plans and the inevitable are trying to answer the wrong question, as software maintenance service for legacy maintenance programming than to failure to square the circle results in tensions at development is not the main event. Given that applications written development. However I would argue that multiple levels: between programmers and more programmer time is spent on in .NET or VB6. maintenance programming is far more managers, between user groups, and inside the maintenance than development (the latest www.oldcode.co.uk challenging, interesting and rewarding than heads of programmers who tend to resolve the surveys suggest a ratio of 3:1), it makes far more green-field development. But first, let’s find out issue by regarding maintenance as an sense to focus on maintenance productivity why software maintenance and software occupational hazard. than on development productivity. development should be treated as separate The best way to manage the differing A mature and effective maintenance disciplines, each with distinct approaches to operational demands of software development function cannot be established overnight – it training, tooling and management. and software maintenance is to create distinct takes time to establish a process and a culture teams for each function. Research amongst that suit an organisation’s needs. However, Separate disciplines large firms has shown that organisations who getting started is neither difficult nor expensive. The root of the difference between the two take this approach have lower overall software comes down to the operational demands each costs and higher overall quality. The primary Essential ingredients discipline faces. Put simply, developers are reason given is cultural: the maintenance Aside from conviction, there are two essential delivering a product while maintainers are function is allowed to develop its own processes ingredients that every maintenance team providing a service. and operate according to its own set of needs. The first is a framework for creating a I’ve never tried driving to my nearest car professional standards. This culture is service maintenance process that provides scope for factory and asking the site manager to interrupt oriented and strongly focused around the user. continuous improvement. Several such

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 19 Development

frameworks are available: I have found S3M (Software Maintenance Maturity Model), as Brushing off the dust developed at the University of Quebec, very Time was when nearly all commercial programs were written in COBOL. Now over 50 years old useful in that it is easily adapted to both large and generally regarded as clunky, no-one knows quite how much COBOL code is still in and small organisations and is helpfully production. Some estimate 200 billion lines, and there’s no doubt that COBOL still underpins a documented in a book written by its creators, vast number of the transactions that keep the world turning, and will continue doing so for many April and Abran. Their framework lays out a years to come. Much of that code is rock solid, having being hardened through decades of action progressive model for creating a software in production. maintenance process and documents Instead of re-writing trillions of dollars’ worth of code, many organisations are actively appropriate metrics to capture each stage of moving it to more relevant and supported environments, linking it into their on-line platforms maturity. and exposing it to modern development environments. There has long been a healthy market in The second essential resource is an both tools and staff for migrating and maintaining this vital legacy code base. effective issue tracking system for workload Several mature platforms exist for migrating COBOL code into the .NET and Azure management and measurement. Finding environments which go well beyond compiling COBOL to MSIL and supporting Visual Studio mature systems specifically geared to integration. For example, GT (formerly Fujitsu) Software’s NETCobol for .NET can be augmented maintenance is close to impossible, but with tools that allow COBOL indexed file data to be moved into SQL Server without requiring any fortunately more general purpose issue changes to existing COBOL file access code, allowing the same data to be manipulated by tracking software can often be customised for modern SQL-based tools and programs. maintenance needs. Washington State’s Department of Licencing has used GT’s platform to migrate 1.5 million In addition to the basic functions of lines of COBOL to .NET. According to Technology Manager John Hadden, “The beautiful part of the tracking and prioritising issues, recording time solution was the ability to take our current COBOL code... and port that without changing the and supporting cross-team communication, an business logic to Windows using NetCOBOL for .NET. By moving to this new platform... we can issue tracking system must be configurable to interface with other platforms much, much easier.” capture maintenance specific metrics. It is essential that the system can distinguish ‘fixes’ to existing code, and should be recorded higher. It is precisely because ‘getting better’ at between maintenance requests, which can be as such. Maintenance is often regarded as an maintenance can have so much more impact scheduled, and problem requests, which expensive additional cost of a supposedly than ‘getting better’ at development that require immediate attention. Each request ‘working’ application. Once the business maintenance provides an opportunity for should also be categorised according to the understands that the majority of what passes as talented and ambitious programmers and type of work involved. maintenance work is actually adding new value managers to make a real difference. ISO standards suggest categorising them to an existing asset, then both maintenance It’s ironic that maintenance work is often and development can be viewed more dumped on junior staff because maintenance Correction Enhancement favourably. Categorising tasks correctly is the is generally far more demanding and Proactive Preventive Perfective first step in this mind set change. rewarding than development. It takes real Reactive Corrective Adaptive April and Abran advocate going further experience to make rapid sense of unfamiliar and recording user support and one-off data code and real judgment to assess whether a ISO classification of software maintenance categories. extracts as separate activities typically fix, re-write or re-factor is in the ultimate best according to the grid shown above. Corrective performed by maintenance teams but not interest of the business. It takes real maintenance covers bug fixing while adaptive always recognised for the value they add. Once professionalism to write code in a style you maintenance keeps a system up to date as its all this is taken into account, the true cost of don’t like, knowing that consistency will environment changes, such as an operating ‘fixing’ a working application turns out to be benefit a future maintainer; and real humility system upgrade or new external interfaces. much lower than first thought. to recognise that someone else’s style is just as Both of these categories are considered Combining these categories with valid as yours. reactive. Proactive tasks include preventive appropriate time recording provides the basic In return, the feedback and reward cycles tasks, such as anticipating failure resulting from metrics that can be used for measuring in software maintenance are measured in latent bugs (Y2K is a famous example), and productivity and improving the accuracy of hours or days, as compared to weeks for Agile perfective tasks which are non-functional estimates. Metrics can be further refined using and months for Waterfall development. improvements to performance or resilience. static code analysis tools such as the Maintainers are closer to their users and closer These are good categories, but as soon as maintainability index and complexity measures to their business. They also never work on you start using them you will run into trouble. generated by Microsoft’s Visual Studio. projects that get scrapped before going into Between 55 and 80 per cent of maintenance Ultimately, maintenance teams seek to define production. requests are for new functionality rather than their ‘assignment scope’, which is the number of The enduring trend in software i lines of code one maintenance programmer maintenance is the ever increasing amount of Find out more can keep operational. Assignment scope varies production code that requires maintaining. significantly between organisations. For C# Understanding that software maintenance is a Recommended reading is Software Maintenance Management by code, it typically falls into anything from 20,000 distinct discipline from development which Alain April and Alain Abran. You can find more on Rob’s personal take to 300,000 lines of code. thrives in its own culture is the key to turning on the subject at www.oldcode.co.uk/Software_Maintenance_ Not only is more time spent on software an unloved chore into a cherished business Resources.aspx. maintenance than on development, but the function. It is also the simplest route to scope for productivity improvement is usually lower software costs and happier users.

20 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy

Visit: www.greymatter.com/hc/Telerik or call: 01364 654100 grey matter software know how Business The phone business Simon Bisson checks out the new business opportunities open to developers working with Windows Phone 8.

It’s a year since Microsoft unveiled the option to set different prices for different for their phone without you having to have Windows Phone 8, moving its phone regions (although some only allow you to multiple listings in the Store. SIMON platform from Windows CE to the NT kernel. It’s publish free apps). That’s a significant portion of BISSON a change that’s given the platform a the globe, although it does mean you’ll need to Making money Simon is a freelance IT writer considerable boost, with new features and a internationalise your apps. The platform itself Microsoft now gives you some additional and technology rapidly growing user base, along with new supports 50 languages, including right-to-left business models beyond free download, consultant who has development models that let you share code formatted and non-Roman. While supported by advertising or purchased from worked on large scale Web architectures, with Windows 8 and Windows Server. It’s now internationalising code can take time, you can the store. There’s options for try-before-you-buy mobile Web projects the number three platform in many start with one or two languages and then slowly and for in-app purchases which means you can and XML solutions geographies, so is it time to start building apps roll out support for additional markets based on take a free app, add extra features or for clients in both the private and the for Windows Phone? market-penetration of your target devices. downloadable content, and allow users to buy public sector. Getting started with Windows Phone While Window Phone 8 is the current them from inside your app. Alternatively you development doesn’t actually require much release, there are still plenty of Windows Phone can offer a limited time trial with the option to simonb@ investment. The full Visual Studio IDE gives you 7 devices out there. If you want to support both unlock the app for additional features. Typical hardcopymag.com an end-to-end development experience, but platforms, and the different screen layout downloadable content includes extra levels in there’s also a free option in the shape Visual options available with Windows 8, then you can games, templates for photography apps, and Studio Express and the Windows Phone SDK. generate multiple XAP files from Visual Studio new icon sets or additional detail in mapping This includes design tools for screen layouts, as and attach them to the same Store catalogue apps. Add such features regularly and an app well as code editing tools. If you’re developing listing. This ensures users get the right version that might have been a one off sale can games there’s even support for common gaming frameworks, including Unity.

Inside Dev Center The Windows Phone Dev Center is the heart of the developer experience, and it’s here you’ll find online help, tools for submitting apps to the store, and diagnostic information from your published apps. If you’re using Visual Studio then you can access the Dev Center directly from the IDE, and there’s direct access to SDKs, forums where you can talk to peers, and sample apps to get you started. There’s deep integration with Microsoft’s pubCenter advertising platform, as well as the ability to share information with a Windows 8 Store account. Microsoft also makes it easier for you to get paid, with online tax forms and tools that let you run a PayPal account from your Dev Center dashboard. The dashboard gives you reports on how your apps are doing in the Store, letting you see your reviews and analyse downloads and usage. Selling or distributing apps through the Windows Phone Store requires an annual fee, but Microsoft recently reduced it to $19. Once in Use the Windows Phone App Studio to quickly build content driven apps, before downloading the store your apps can be published globally, the code for additional work within Visual Studio. with access from 191 countries and regions and

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 23 Business

Alternatively you can use Azure Mobile Services tools give you a cloud Windows Phone and Windows 8.1 advertising to support free back end for push notifications, and to In the next version of Windows Phone, the Store might include some of the promotional applications, either using manage access to services. features that comes with the Windows Store that comes with Windows 8.1, most of which Microsoft’s Ad Control or third Users need to find apps when they’ve are powered by Bing. Instead of one large and four small promotions in the Spotlight at party advertising services. If been published, and Microsoft has been the front of the Store, one large Spotlight promotion rotates through five apps. These you’re targeting multiple working to make them easier to discover. New might be big-name releases or small independent developers; according to Director of geographies you may need to Collections in the Store curate popular apps Program Management Ted Dworkin, the Store team is looking for “apps that do a great job publish different versions of around themes, and it’s easier to find apps that on the platform.” your app with different have free trials. Users can also opt to get The other half of the opening screen is ‘Picks for you’, a custom Bing search that advertising tools, as not all recommendations, using Bing’s tools to find highlights top apps in categories you’ve already used, and apps that are popular with networks support all apps based on the Collections of both people who like the same apps as you. The Top Paid, Top Free, Popular Now and even the geographies. Microsoft states themselves and their contacts. That makes it New Releases section are based on big data and machine learning driven by Bing. that currently half of all easier for your apps to be discovered, and for The plan is to offer more promotional spots while making sure that the apps listed are Windows Phone app revenue users to purchase them. Many of the same the high quality ones that deserve to make the lists. An interesting new app could start in comes from advertising, and if tools are available on the Web, and users can the Spotlight area; if it attracts interest it might move into the Popular Now section and you use the Microsoft Ad purchase from the Store Web site and have then, if it continues to get downloads, graduate to the Top Free or Top Paid list. The Control you can see reports on their app delivered straight to their phone. You Windows Phone store already has hand-picked lists for key areas, so if the Bing-powered revenue from both Windows can also use official badges on your Web site to recommendations work well, expect to see them here as well. Phone and Windows 8 drive potential users straight to the Store – and Another thing that changes in Windows 8.1 is that a user can install an app on up to platforms. to buying your app. 81 devices, rather than just five. Microsoft will monitor this for abuse, so a user might run With the tools Microsoft has in place, it’s the same app on their desktop PC and tablet at the same time, but if it’s running on 50 Quick start now easier to share code between Windows machines at once they’ve probably shared my account with their friends. If the same Windows Phone offers an easy Phone apps and Windows, to start building change comes to Windows Phone 8.1, you might want to consider shifting your business on-ramp to app development apps, and to work with cloud services. It’s also model to service subscriptions or in-app purchases. in the shape of the Windows cheaper and easier to put them in the Store Phone App Studio. While it’s and sell them to most of the world with become a continuing source of revenue. designed to produce apps that are powered by comprehensive support for trials, betas and Furthermore Windows Phone 8’s in-app RSS feeds or by data hosted in the Studio, it also in-app purchases. It’s also easier for users to purchasing tools work with all the platform’s lets you export well documented MVVM find them, and pay for them in whatever payment options. (Model-View-ViewModel) code ready for use in method they want. As Windows Phone firms Microsoft has recently added new Visual Studio or the free Visual Studio Express. up to becoming the third ecosystem for payment options for its store and for in-app Once in Visual Studio, your apps can use the mobile, and now Microsoft has bought Nokia’s purchases. These include Microsoft Gift Cards, new Portable Class Libraries to share code with device business, it looks like time to start which can be earned through its Bing Rewards Windows 8 and Windows Server, while the coding for these devices. service, and PayPal. At the heart of the Windows Phone payment service is the Wallet app, and this now automatically offers operator billing as a default option, where the user’s operator supports it. Operators in the UK include Everything Everywhere (EE) and there’s no extra work needed as it is integrated into the store directly. There’s a lot of evidence for the effectiveness of operator billing for app and in-app purchases with surveys showing that it doubles paid downloads with 75 per cent of Windows Phone users opting for it over the i alternatives. Find out more

There is a comprehensive presentation from the Build 2012 conference on Making Money with Your Application on Windows Phone at http://channel9.msdn.com/Events/Build/2012/2-022. The crowd-sourced translation platform www.getlocalization.com can help in translating the strings in your app so you can reach an international market. Windows Phone App Studio can be found at http://apps.windowsstore.com. Don’t hesitate to call Grey Matter on 01364 654100 or email [email protected] to discuss your development tool needs. The Windows Phone Apps Store can be found on the Web, as well as on your phone.

24 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy

Systems Network health check In these days of virtual machines and mobile devices, monitoring your network becomes even more important. Kay Ewbank checks out your options.

One good thing about the current sub-maps showing parts of the network may actually going to use it. All the solutions KAY generation of network servers is their make life easier. mentioned here offer this option. EWBANK relative robustness. Servers no longer crash on The software you use may influence your

Kay is a database a regular basis, virtual machines are robust and choice of package; Windows systems are Microsoft System Center consultant specialising generally trouble free. But this can lull you into supported on all the software, but coverage for Microsoft Systems Center started off as in EIS, financial a false sense of security: it may appear as non-Windows devices such as Linux or UNIX something of a mishmash of separate products, analysis and GIS systems. While much though everything’s fine, but can you show machines, or mobile devices such as iPhones or but with the release of System Center 2012 the of her work is based that’s really the case? Blackberries is something to watch. The checks suite provides excellent coverage no matter in London, being The trick is to find monitoring and you can run is another element to check; you how large your network is, with a promise of a consultant gives her the freedom to management software that steers the fine line should find support for Windows Management management from the client to the cloud. The sail, travel and help between giving you enough detail to tell what’s Instrumentation (WMI), which is used to pricing can be scary for smaller companies, and out as a part-time going on, and total information overload. You monitor Windows systems, but it’s worth the System Center Essentials product that used sheep farmer. need to be able to view the network health, checking if you can also write your own queries to be aimed at this market is no longer being kaye@ check specific devices more closely, and run using other methods such as WQL (WMI Query developed. Instead, Microsoft recommends hardcopymag.com tests on all the elements in your system. This Language). Intune for companies too small to justify System includes not just servers and desktop PCs, but One final important element is the ability Center. network hardware such as routers and switches, to download a trial version of the software so System Center includes the elements of and non-desktop user devices such as you can see for yourself whether it meets all the old Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) notebooks and smartphones. Some network your needs and is simple enough so you’re and Systems Management Server (SMS), as well protection and testing software goes further than the hardware with options to monitor the health of key server applications, such as your database and email servers. If problems are building - CPUs overloaded, networks clogged with traffic – then the console should highlight the problem and, if thresholds are reached, have the option to alert you by email, SMS or instant message. It’s important to have a good console that gives at-a-glance displays. It’s even better if you can view the details via the Web or on your smartphone, and not just on a console that is only visible from within the network. Getting started is one of the biggest hurdles to using a network monitoring package, so it’s important that the software automatically identifies the devices on your network and ideally builds a map showing how they fit together. Depending on your infrastructure, the option of building separate Managing mobile access with Microsoft’s System Center 2012.

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interfaces allow SSL-secured local and remote access and can be used simultaneously. You can also view your network as a map so you can see where problems have happened. If a problem or event occurs then you can choose to be notified by email, SMS, pager or instant messenger. You can choose to play alarms, or to run a script to trigger some external technology. You can make use of escalation and threshold alerts, as well as multiple conditions that are only triggered when more than one problem has been found. You can also set up dependencies so you don’t get hundreds of emails telling you about all the other problems that trigger when a particular event occurs. Other options include stopping alarms once you’ve acknowledged the problem, and alert scheduling so you don’t get disturbed at night for low priority alarms, for example.

Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold Monitoring system health with Paessler PRTG Network Monitor. WhatsUp Gold is designed to make it easy to as Configuration Manager, Capacity Planner, comes at a price – both in terms of the bottom manage your network, and starts by working Virtual Machine Manager, and Data Protection line cost and the work needed to get to grips out what’s actually on the network. Once you’ve Manager. It can be used to manage Windows with everything. identified the devices you can monitor them, PCs, internal servers running Windows, Solaris or receive alerts and updates when things happen, Linux, and for cloud services hosted in Paessler PRTG Network Monitor and view reports on their overall health. You Microsoft’s Windows Azure. The new 2012 PRTG Network Monitor does what it says on the can monitor both wired and wireless devices, version adds the ability to manage mobile tin: it monitors the health of your network using operating systems and applications. Network devices based on Android, iOS, Symbian and a set of network sensors. The management traffic and bandwidth usage can be monitored, Windows Phone 7. interface lets you see information on bandwidth and devices can be grouped and managed In terms of network protection and testing, use, uptime and performance. Some together in logical units. System Center starts by automatically information is returned using SNMP and WMI WhatsUp Gold will automatically create discovering the computers and network devices tests that ping devices to see whether they certain groups, such as Cisco or Aruba devices on your network, and will generate maps respond. Other checks are more specific to and those with SNMP credentials. You can then showing the layout of your network, both wired particular devices or network elements such as monitor and give permission by group, and and wireless. System Center will identify all HTTP, DNS or remote desktops. You can also produce reports on the network health of SNMP devices. As you might expect from monitor server applications such as SQL Server particular groups. You can use formatted WMI Microsoft, there’s a strong emphasis on and Exchange, and virtual environments based counters to check performance, and SQL query Windows, though you can monitor Linux and on Windows Hyper-V, Citrix Xen and VMware. performance monitors to monitor what’s UNIX systems too. PRTG comes with over 100 sensors, and can also happening on your SQL servers, including If you’re running virtual machines, System use WMI, NetFlow, Center can be used to monitor and manage sFlow, JFlow, and virtual machines running on Windows Server packet sniffing. You can GlobalScape EFT Server Hyper-V, VMware vSphere, and Citrix XenServer. also develop your own EFT Server isn’t a complete network protection and monitoring solution. However it does cover System Center Virtual Machine Manager (VMM) custom sensors using the protection of file transfers very effectively. This is a secure FTP server that lets you manage file 2012 manages more than just individual servers, WQL or SQL queries. transfers securely to your customers and business partners, or between offices in your with tools for managing ‘fabric’ resources as well, You get a choice organisation. The security features mean companies can prove compliance to standards such as which include shared resources like storage and of management PCI, FIPS and HIPAA. networks. interface including a The basic server supports secure access and flexible authentication, while add-ons provide If a problem occurs on a device being standard desktop app; auditing and reporting and extra transfer facilities for more specialised cases. There’s an AS2 monitored, you can choose to be notified by a full featured AJAX module that lets your business users exchange data or EDI messages using the Applicability email, SMS or instant message, or to run a script based Website; Statement 2 (AS2) protocol. You can also set up automated file transfer systems using the or executable file. You can control notifications HTML-only minimal Advanced Workflow Engine (AWE) Module which lets you combine actions from a set of 200 by group membership, object types, and alert Web browser interface possible choices to create an event-driven file transfer process. criteria such as severity, priority, resolution state for older browsers and A multi-platform DMZ Gateway can be used for greater security, while the High Security and category. You can also configure alert aging. mobile devices; and Module (HSM) module complies with FIPS 140-2 and PCI DSS 1.2. There’s a Web client that can be The products that make up System Center apps for iOS and used by business partners who don’t have EFT Server or suitable other software, and a PGP are mature and well tested, and you’re unlikely Android smartphones module encrypts data using OpenPGP encryption. to run out of features. However, that richness and tablets. All user

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 27 Systems

Oracle servers. There’s also PowerShell scripting support for tracking Active Directory, Exchange, Windows Intune SQL Server and other Windows services. System Center is a great option for larger organisations, but overkill and overpriced for smaller The wireless monitoring features in companies. For these, Microsoft recommends Windows Intune, a cloud-based system that can be WhatsUp Gold Premium let you see if any used to manage Windows machines along with mobile devices running iOS, Windows RT or devices are using excessive bandwidth, where Windows Phone 8. You pay for Intune as a subscription service with a fee per month per machine. signals are not strong enough, and the Intune is managed from a Web-based console and has tools, reports, and the ability to saturation level of access points. You can also upgrade licences to the latest version of Windows. The machines being managed each run a mini view any unauthorised activity, and any rogue Intune Center app that shows the health of the PC in terms of updates and antivirus protection. wireless access points. On the central console you can carry out tasks remotely such as restarting or carrying out a You get a choice of ways to monitor your malware scan. Tasks are split into a number of areas including system overview, computers, network and manage what’s happening. This updates, endpoint protection, alerts, software, licences, policy and administration. can be on a schedule, in response to an event You can manage both Microsoft and third party updates and deploy service packs. You can such as a device becoming unavailable, or also monitor your PCs in terms of updates and potential threats, and provide remote assistance according to some performance criteria you’ve to end users. defined, such as CPU usage. If problems occur, You can set global security policies for firewall and malware protection settings, and these administrators can be notified by SMS, email, or policies can include machines that are outside your corporate network. There’s good support for pop-up messages. security management and licence compliance with the ability to monitor hardware and software In addition to the basic editions, WhatsUp to ensure you are compliant and using what you’ve paid for. Gold has plug-ins for options such as extended You can have multiple administrators and the work of management can be split so you network mapping, VOIP monitoring, and receive notifications only for your particular set of machines. Machines can be organised into support for segmented networks. Flow Monitor groups, and you can set policies by group specifying how frequently the machines in the group is another plug-in that can be used to show check for updates, and what happens if malware is discovered on a machine. where network bandwidth is being used in Intune is a good product if you want to avoid the need for a server specifically dedicated to terms of users, applications and protocols. systems management, while the pay-per-machine model makes it cost effective as you only pay for what you actually use. GFI Network Server Monitor GFI’s Network Server Monitor claims to provide servers and workstations, and you can create management of VMware ESX and Windows “automated server and network monitoring your own custom monitoring functions in Hyper-V environments. made easy” and offers features such as a VBScript, ADSI and WMI. The administrator The software automatically discovers Quickstart wizard to guide you through setting mimic checks does mean that some of the virtual switches and network devices and lets up a series of checks to monitor all the checks carried out by Network Server Monitor you monitor and view reports. You can view important services on your network, including go further than other products, logging on to a network traffic patterns and usage using Exchange Server and SQL Server. The software server to see whether a session is running, and NetFlow, JFlow and sFlow traffic protocols. You can be used to keep track of servers, desktop even carrying out tasks in POP3, SMTP Server can make use of SNMP traps and receive PCs, devices such as routers, and application and email servers. You can monitor Windows real-time notifications about potential issues, as servers. Network Server Monitor carries out and Linux servers with checks including CPU well as monitoring all SNMP variables. automatic scans for potential problems or usage, what processes are running, folder size, The software lets you track the movement failures, and if a problem is detected, will alert file size, users and groups membership, disk of VMs and their configuration changes from you by email, pager or SMS. partition check and disk space. one physical server to another so you can see One nice touch is a set of checks that You can manage Network Server Monitor how changes affect system performance and mimic administrator operations to verify that either locally on the network from its console, availability. The console lets you view capacity the services offered by various applications are or remotely using the Web monitor which has trends, forecasts and alerts. If you need to actually running. If a problem is detected, you options for normal Web browsers and mobile chargeback infrastructure costs you can can set Network Server Monitor to phones or handheld devices such as a allocate them to groups. automatically carry out corrective actions such BlackBerry or a Palm. If problems occur and you receive an alarm as restarting a service or services, rebooting a notification, you can launch automated server, launching an executable program, or Foglight Network Management workflows to put things right as quickly as running a script. The Foglight Network Management System possible. The alarms show recommended The software comes with built in (NMS) consists of a number of modules for actions alongside detailed information so you monitoring rules for network features including servers and applications including Oracle, DB2, can work out what’s causing the problem and disk space, services and processes on both Active Directory and Storage Management. put it right. It’s also possible to view and i Traditionally Foglight has concentrated on analyse running processes so you can work out Find out more application monitoring and management, and which processes are having an impact on its modular design and pricing means you can virtual machine performance or which VMs are Full details for all these products are available on the Grey Matter Web buy just the modules you need. Alongside the not using resources effectively. Scenario site at www.greymatter.com. You can also call Grey Matter on 01364 applications management modules there’s modelling is included so you can model both 654100 or email [email protected] if you would like to discuss Foglight for Virtualization which comes in free, virtual and physical workload placement on the your needs further. standard and enterprise editions, and provides available hosts to test what the effects performance monitoring and capacity would be of moving workloads.

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Back End Straight talking Tim Anderson wonders if Microsoft has done enough with Windows 8.1, and checks out Embarcadero’s approach to the Android platform.

The problem these long-suffering users deployment and security that Windows Store have (aside from a certain conservatism) is that apps offer. However there is massive inertia in old-style desktop apps are essential if you want the Windows ecosystem which makes it hard for to get anything done. I am typing this in Word, Microsoft to reshape the platform. a desktop app, and there is no realistic Seen in this context, it is obvious that Despite solid internal improvements, alternative in the WinRT environment. The same Windows 8.1 cannot by itself fix all these the Windows 8 story has so far been goes for hundreds of thousands of other problems. That said, there are some positives. decidedly rocky. Microsoft managed to alienate Windows apps out there, and once you’re in the The comforting Start button, together with much of its core market with the dramatically desktop environment, you tend to stay there. some changes that make it easier to configure different Start menu and the touch-friendly That could change if enough compelling Windows 8 in a way that makes sense for ‘Metro’ (Windows Runtime or WinRT) user WinRT apps appear that they generate buzz desktop users, will make it more acceptable to interface, while adoption for the new-style apps and persuade users to take a look. But what is those who so far have preferred Windows 7. You and Windows Store has been disappointing. the proposition for developers? Hal Berenson can set the Start screen to show desktop apps However, while public attention is focused explains the issue in his August blog post first, for example. That will mean more users on trivia such as the return of the Start button, ‘Fixation on Margins’: “So today there are about who are able to run WinRT apps, even if they the real issue is whether Microsoft can succeed 100 million PCs actually running Windows 8, mostly choose not to. in transforming Windows devices into and perhaps 98 million of them also run Win32 There are also improvements to the WinRT something fit for the post-PC world. This means Desktop apps. So the real market, the one you platform in 8.1. The best way to put this is that, appliance-like ease of use and reliability; high can’t reach in other ways, for Metro apps is only if you sat down to write an app for Windows 8.0 mobility with long battery life; a cloud-centric 2 million systems.” with the original SDK, the immaturity of the approach that minimises the pain of switching His point is that the only exclusive market platform soon hit you. Things that should be to a new device; and the removal of all those for WinRT apps, a market you cannot reach simple, like creating a settings flyout, turned annoyances that plague Windows like slow without them, is the ARM version Windows RT, out to be fiddly, and the controls on offer were boot, failed updates, restart requests and as found in the Surface RT on which Microsoft barely adequate. Now there is a Flyout control irritating third-party apps declaring that “Your took a huge write-down because it made too and a DatePicker control and the platform is not PC is not secure.” many. In addition, Win32 apps also run on as frustrating for the developer. The new platform is well designed as a way Windows 7 and, if carefully written, Windows XP, Microsoft’s stated goal is to have one API of fixing these typical PC problems, but only if which greatly expands their market. across all devices. Windows Phone 8 is built on users adopt it, rather than trying to configure That is not the whole story. Developers the same core as Windows 8 and, if the Windows 8 to be like Windows 7 and ignoring who target WinRT get a ready-made company has any sense, it will find a way to Windows Store apps. tablet-friendly platform, as well as the easy bring the two platforms together so that developers can easily target them both, in the same way that iOS has unified the iPhone and iPad. If Windows Phone continues to grow its market share following the Nokia acquisition, there is still hope for Microsoft’s device platform. If that sounds weak it is because, with iOS and Android roaring ahead, success is far from assured. That said, it is also worth noting that what we call the Microsoft platform is changing. ‘Devices and Services’ is the new mantra, and on the services side things look better. Office 365 is growing fast, giving developers a new cloud platform based on SharePoint and Azure Active Directory. Windows Azure is also maturing fast. The ease with which you can create a Web application in Visual Studio 2012 Delphi for Android: a familiar environment for a new target. and deploy it to Azure is almost embarrassing,

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and an easy way to impress clients. Maybe Getting the perfect setup for Rad Studio quick app on my Android phone. ‘Services and a few devices’ will characterise the XE5 is somewhat arduous. You need a Mac for Delphi for Android looks attractive for new Microsoft. iOS support but the IDE is Windows-only, which developers who either like the Delphi language, Straight talking makes a VM running on a Mac attractive. or have a ton of existing non-visual code to Embarcadero goes Android However this setup is not ideal for Android as port. I confess to reservations though. Targeting Moving on, Embarcadero (the company behind debugging on a USB-connected device will be the NDK sounds good for performance, Delphi and RAD Studio) recently surveyed 1,300 easier on Windows, so the best setup now is although Google says it should not be Windows developers and found an 85 per cent probably a Windows machine with remote necessary and frankly Dalvik performance is consensus that requests are coming in for access to a Mac for iOS debugging. already good enough for most apps (and you mobile apps, with 83 per cent of those including Another notable feature of XE5 for Android can write performance-critical code in the NDK Android support. This was followed by 67 per is that it uses the Native Development Kit (NDK) and call it from Dalvik if you need to). However cent iOS, 33 per cent Windows Phone, 17 per rather than the Java SDK targeting Dalvik (the it is inconvenient for taking advantage of cent Windows RT and 14 per cent Blackberry. Android Java runtime). This fits with the Delphi existing Android code examples or libraries. Windows RT is the ARM version of Windows approach to development, which involves Next, there is the issue as to whether 8, as seen in Surface RT, but I cannot help compilation to a native executable, but FireMonkey is the right approach to a wondering if there is some confusion with complicates both the developer setup and also cross-platform GUI, or whether Xamarin’s idea WinRT, the tablet-friendly runtime that is in all Android development itself. If you need to of writing a device-specific GUI for each versions of Windows 8. Either way, it is obvious interoperate with Java code, you need to use JNI platform gives better results (Xamarin offer C# that Android and iOS dominate, although given (Java Native Interface). compilers form iOS and Android). Third, it does its small market share 33 per cent is a decent Mobile development in Delphi XE5 means seem expensive to stay on the Delphi bus, showing for Windows Phone as well. using the FireMonkey framework, which mainly although as ever the cost of tools soon pales in So the big news for Delphi developers is emulates GUI controls with custom drawing. comparison to issues such as productivity. that Embarcadero has released the XE5 range, This makes it easy to create a GUI that runs on There are even other choices for Delphi which targets Android. This follows just six multiple platforms, but harder to get the right language on Android, such as the Delphi-like months after XE4 which added iOS support, but look and feel for each platform. Oxgene from RemObjects which targets .NET, is a full version upgrade which is annoying and In a quick test, once Delphi was installed WinRT, Android and Mac/iOS. The answer is to expensive for those who bought the earlier and all the ADB (Android Debug Bridge) ducks try out the free XE5 evaluation and see version without a maintenance agreement. were in line, I had no difficulty running up a what you think.

Grey Matter • 01364 654100 • HardCopy 31 Back End …and another thing Jon Honeyball has still to be convinced when it comes to Windows 8.1 and Windows RT.

appears to have any RT devices at all, and has tools. Worse still, the Office team had failed to announced the second version of its Surface deliver on a Metro version of Office for RT, and product. Dell has just cancelled its device, hence demanded that they should be allowed which leaves Microsoft in a group of just one. to ‘simply’ recompile, making it easy for them to Rumour suggests that Nokia might launch an port over at least some code. When this wasn’t RT-based product soon, but given that Nokia is available to third parties who were just as Where do we go with Windows 8.1? fast becoming a division of Microsoft, it’s hard deserving, is it any surprise that developers This is a topic which is troubling a lot of to see how this is any different to being a ‘real’ shunned the platform? people at the moment, including a lot of Microsoft product in all but name. It’s really no better today with Windows developers. The truth is that 8.1 is a The RT situation is really quite upsetting. It 8.1. Despite 8.1 being much more complete in considerable improvement over Windows 8.0. I should have paved the way for very long its Metro based implementation of setup and know we like to make the joke that it takes battery life devices, with serious and significant configuration, the desktop is still there and it’s Microsoft three versions to get something built in security capabilities designed to keep still only available to the Office team. Well, given finished: The first is a stab in the dark, the your computing experience safe, just like an that RT is now a sole Microsoft platform, the second rights most of the major wrongs, and iPad. But the reality is that this touch tablet Office team can at least claim it’s all their game the third version adds the final polish. Windows focused OS ended up needing the old Windows and their rules and their ball. 8.1 follows this trend with somewhat disturbing desktop alongside the new Metro UI. How well this will fare in the marketplace is regularity. The reason for this? Well, nowhere near far from clear, but if past history is anything to The upside of this is that Windows 8.1 on enough work had been done on the go by, most buyers will simply walk on by. The Intel has matured into a product that can be management and system configuration side of newer Intel platforms are starting to give ARM a happily deployed to almost any user, whether Windows 8 to allow you to ignore the historical run for its money. For corporate developers, it’s they be on a desktop machine, a laptop or a if powerful configuration and management a real game-over situation. I know that some touch pad. The ability to boot into the Win32 desktop solves much of the primary concerns for traditional desktop users. The improvements TechNet in the touch side is welcome for the more Well, TechNet has gone. I wish I understood the mindset behind this move, but despite its avant-garde operators. public handwringing I still don’t understand Microsoft’s decision. They say it was costing And let’s not forget that the hardware is money, that it was a problem for licensing piracy, and probably made you come out in spots evolving at a rapid rate too. Intel’s Ivy Bridge and set fire to your hair. All of which seem to me like good reasons to fix something rather than technology wasn’t bad, but Haswell is just walk away. considerably better: better performance, better Microsoft does a fantastically bad job at managing the relationship with its developers, power management, better battery life. All of and it cannot complain when we dare to gripe. I accept that TechNet has changed in size, shape these address many of the stark limitations of and scope over its lifetime. And that maybe it was time to come with something better for the the hardware from just one year ago. And the latter half of this decade. But retiring something with so much brand name awareness and roadmap indicates that Intel will continue down good will in the community seems to me a particularly crass thing to do. this path with ever improving products over the I had to decide recently whether to renew my Visual Studio with MSDN subscription. I next year or two. confess that the cost of nearly £3,000 made me pause and consider what value I have been So if you want to deploy Windows 8.1, and actually getting from it, and for the first time in very many years, I decided it was time to walk. to do so on anything other than a standard Developer support is something incredibly valuable to Microsoft. I can pay a pittance to desktop machine, it makes a great deal of sense Apple to get support for its developer tools and OS platforms. I accept, of course, that the to go for the very latest hardware to ensure you breadth and scope of the Apple platform doesn’t begin to scratch the surface of what Microsoft get the best experience. offers, especially in the corporate business server arena, but that’s not the point. Doubtless But what of Windows RT? Well, it seems Microsoft would reply that there are many very low cost developer offerings, with the Express that this is still struggling on, although the products being free. All of that is true. But I still cannot shake off the thought that Microsoft has market seems to have decided it’s not worth lost the plot if it really thinks that it can get developers to cough up nearly three grand a year. pursuing. At the time of writing, only Microsoft

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will claim that the Exchange Server based management tools are enough for the sort of Leap Motion light-weight arms-length style of oversight, but I cannot let the release of Leap Motion pass without for the more seasoned and demanding system comment. This tiny device plugs into a spare USB port and administrator, nothing less than full Active gives your computer a three dimensional space in which you Directory support is sufficient. And that can move your hands, point with your finger, and all sorts of immediately rules out Windows RT, because it interesting gesture control. With the right software, it is doesn’t support AD. incredibly immersive and fascinating to use, although you Despite my misgivings and some (still have to learn a few techniques like tucking your thumb into highly justified) contempt for Microsoft’s the hand unless you want it seen as another finger. attempts to bring Windows 8.0 to market, it is Many have already written off this device, and I think it’s clear that 8.1 on the latest Intel hardware is very unfair. For sure, the initial kit of software didn’t give starting to offer something of value to the much scope for joy. And trying to use a three dimensional corporate IT world. Security, manageability, and multi-finger cloud-space to control something so resolutely a coding platform that is well known are all 2D and flat as a Windows desktop seems to be an exercise in compelling advantages. That’s especially true if futility to me. Windows really has no concept of depth at all, you decide to write a Win32-based touch and its z-order is really limited to ‘front’, ‘back’ and a fairly application that looks and feels just like Metro. unspecified ‘in-between’. Or go for the WinRT runtime and programming But in the right context, the Leap Motion controller is utterly compelling and captivating. That’s the whole point – we environment if you feel that it is mature enough need to develop new classes of applications where data can be both visualised and manipulated in entirely new ways. This to support your application needs. is not an overnight process, but there appears to be a quite vibrant community working with this platform today. And For the broader home and home consumer much of what they are bringing out is genuinely thought provoking and interesting. Even Hewlett-Packard has been market? The verdict is still out and I think it will tempted to bring out a laptop which has the Leap Motion controller embedded into it, alongside a conventional keyboard take more than 8.1 to bring them on board in and trackpad. significant numbers. In that space, iOS and It costs very little to get hold of this, and to explore the SDK. If you have an interest in leading edge UI designs and Android still rule, and are attracting the interface possibilities, then it’s definitely worth a look. developer dollars.

Grey Matter • 01364 654 100 • HardCopy 33 Back End Short cuts Paul Stephens takes a sideways look at the world of IT.

Bye Bye Ballmer Steve said: “Developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, developers, Regular readers of Short Cuts will understand just how devastated developers, developers, developers, developers!” we were to hear of the impending retirement of Steve ‘Mad Dog’ Ballmer, Steve meant: “Accountants, accountants, accountants, lawyers, lawyers, marketing, accountants, legendarily unhinged boss of struggling mobile phone vendor Microsoft. lawyers, lawyers, accountants, lawyers, developers!” Steve has been our official Favourite CEO since the abrupt defenestration of Sun supremo Jonathan ‘Dolphins’ Schwartz, and his departure will leave Steve said: “The most common format of music on the iPod is ‘stolen’.” the industry lacking a certain Steve meant: “The most common format of music on Zune is ‘DRM-free mp3 from iTunes’.” élan that other, normal CEOs like Tim Cook and Marissa Meyer will Steve said: “I’ve got my kids brainwashed — you don’t use Google and you don’t use an iPod.” be unable to provide. Steve meant: “My kids seem to spend a heck of a lot of time at their friends’ houses.” Steve was a soap salesman (OK, product manager for (That’s enough real meanings – Ed) Procter and Gamble) before joining old Harvard buddy Bill Gates at Microsoft, and happily Tesco sells tablets shock played up to his larger than life The recent headline “Tesco to sell own-brand tablets” had us puzzled, as we thought the supermarket image, howling “Developers, giant had been running in-house pharmacies for years and even have a box of their painkillers in the developers, developers” at an Short Cuts office for those, er, difficult mornings during the pub quiz season. However it turned out audience of, er, developers and that the tablets in question run Android 4.2.2, come with 16GB of on-board storage and cost £119 drawing lurid comparisons each, which made more sense as a new venture, if not necessarily as a business strategy. between Linux and certain The product’s name ‘Hudl’ is faintly reminiscent of ‘Lidl’, which to us says that Tesco’s in-house Steve Ballmer: brought a certain collectivist political ideologies. psychology department needs to look at what’s really driving the subconscious anxieties of Tesco’s élan to the industry. Rather more quietly, he upped senior management. That aside, the device itself has a surprisingly good spec - the design brief revenue from $25 billion to $70 seems to have been ‘put in the stuff Google stingily left out of the Nexus’, hence there’s a microSD billion and maintained a gross profit margin of 75 per cent, yet still slot and HDMI output as well as the obligatory quad core processor and HD(-ish) screen. managed to be described as “the worst CEO of a large publicly traded Even better, it hasn’t been slugged in the same way Amazon’s Kindle “it’s much less like a American company” by a Forbes Magazine columnist, an apparent general-purpose Android tablet than you thought it was going to be” Fire has. Sure, there’s a ‘Tesco’ contradiction which will probably sum up his career at Microsoft. button providing quick access to Blinkbox and other great Tesco stuff, but we’re reliably informed In the end Steve’s ‘crime’, measured by a flat share price, was said to be that you can ignore it and be browsing through the Sainsbury’s Home Delivery site within minutes of his reluctance to engage with new platforms and technologies that might unpacking the device. impact on the cash cows of Windows and Office. He’s got over that now, if Best of all, if you use your the launch of Windows 8, seemingly calculated to alienate the entire Clubcard loyalty vouchers Windows user base, is anything to go by. However it seems it was too little you can get your hands on too late, and he decided to go voluntarily before his Microsoft MVP (Most one of these for just £60, and Volatile Person) epaulettes were ripped from his shoulders outside the that really is a bargain by Redmond Campus Canteen. Our only comfort is that he may be with us for anyone’s standards. The bad a few months yet, depending on the response to Bill’s job ad on the Seattle news is that you would need Craigslist website. Time for a few last monkeyboy dances, surely? to spend £6,000 at Tesco to get that many Clubcard Saying it like it isn’t vouchers, which would mean Steve Ballmer is, of course, famous for his utterances, but it’s a little-known getting through unhealthy fact that he suffers from a rare condition that makes it impossible for him quantities of Tesco Finest to accurately translate what he means into verbal form. Here’s Short Cuts’ Steak au Poivre and 18-pack guide to the real thoughts of Chairman Steve: Fosters lager. But skip the Passion Fruit Pavlovas and Steve said: “it [Linux] had, you know, the characteristics of communism.” you should just about have Steve meant: ““Linux – it’s like capitalism. Everyone’s free to design their enough in the kitty for a 32GB own UI and the result makes Windows look like we have a coherent microSD card from Amazon. Tesco’s Lidl – sorry, Hudl – tablet: better strategy. I love it!” Every little helps! start saving those Clubcard vouchers!

34 Winter 2013 • Issue 61 • HardCopy