Big Start to the New Year at MSDN Magazine

 

Folks, things are hopping over here at MSDN Magazine. We are kicking off the new year with a pair of issues: Our regularly scheduled January issue and our special issue of the magazine focused on Visual Studio 2015 and Microsoft Azure.

Definitely check out the special issue, which provides fantastic, hands-on insight about new tools and technologies revealed at the Microsoft Connect(); event in November. The issue includes features addressing cross-platform development, with looks at both Unity and Apache Cordova, as well as articles plumbing new functionality in C# 6.0. Mark Michaelis’ “How C# 6.0 Simplifies, Clarifies and Condenses Your Code” is not to be missed, and Alex Turner’s “Use Roslyn to Write a Live Code Analyzer for your API” is also a must read.

There is a lot more going on in the special issue, including dives into ASP.NET 5, Microsoft Azure SDK 2.5, and Visual C++ 2015. Also be sure to read MSDN Magazine Director Keith Boyd’s Last Word column, which offers a glimpse into the hard times and big changes that brought Microsoft to this point.

As if that weren’t enough, the January issue includes a package of three articles focused on updates from the Microsoft Connect(); conference. These include Lucian Wischik’s “14 Top Improvements in Visual Basic 14,” Manoj Bableshwar’s “Web-Based Test Case Management with TFS,” and Omid Afnan’s “Hadoop Made Easier for Microsoft Developers.” Beyond that, you’ll find coverage of Big Data, the TypeScript programming language, and some great stuff on Microsoft Azure development. Kevin Ashley’s “Occasionally Connected Data in Cross-Platform Mobile Apps” ties nicely into the cross-platform theme, as it dives into using Xamarin and Azure Mobile Services to enable cross-platform mobile apps.

Our columnists are in full throat in the January issue as well. Julie Lerman dives into the upcoming Entity Framework 7, and Dino Esposito looks at when responsive Web design might not be enough for mobilized Web sites. Also look to Bruno Terkaly and Greg Oliver’s Azure Insider article exploring “bring your own device” (BYOD) and the complex scenarios that rise up when mobile applications connect to enterprise resources. And there’s more where that came from.

2014 has been a remarkable year in software development at Microsoft, and has set the stage for what promises to be an amazing 2015. As the hectic holiday season winds down, take a moment to read our January issue and special issue of MSDN Magazine.

Comments

• Anonymous
  January 02, 2015
  Hi Michael, Can you speak to what happened to the comments sections for articles?  It appears MSDN Magazine removed user comments and now  it is no longer possible to have active engagement between article authors and their audience. Thank you and Happy New Year, Michael

• Anonymous
  January 09, 2015
  MichaelD!, We're busy making changes to the Web publishing system over here, which is why the Comments functionality has been lost. I agree that the ability to provide comments is important, and we're working to surface article forums that will allow readers and authors to engage in back and forth. I hope to have more detail on that soon. Michael Desmond

• Anonymous
  February 09, 2015
  Still no comments on articles ?

• Anonymous
  April 10, 2016
  Still no comments on MSDN magazine articles ?Whatever happened to "I agree that the ability to provide comments is important, and we're working to surface article forums that will allow readers and authors to engage in back and forth. I hope to have more detail on that soon."