After a long enough wait, the first edition of the book is available as a free ebook from the publishing rights holder Apress.

You can find details about the book, links to the download including source code and a list of errata on our book page:

http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/insidesharpdevelop.aspx

Finally I got around to make the slides we presented at the VO DevCon Europe available to all of you. First we have an introduction to #Develop:

SDintro.pdf (128,75 KB)

And an overview of the architecture, plus sample code for various types of AddIns:

SDdesignArchitect.pdf (128,05 KB)

Demo.zip (142,73 KB)

Digging around my harddisk, I found again the banners and buttons I did for #Develop quite some time ago. And as there recently was quite a number of requests for things like that, I decided to just post them for you to show that you are a proud user of #Develop:

And of course, there is a button for #ZipLib, too:

I know that somewhere, on a backup far, far away in time there also are some tiny buttons for embedding in about boxes. I will get them posted here as soon as I find them again.

For now, if you want to let the world know that you are a proud user of #Develop, grab those buttons and use them!

Quite some lively discussion of this question is going on at Theserverside.net. Contributions cover the entire range from pro to contra, and astonishingly, very few posts are flame bait. Worth reading, whatever your attitude towards the topic may be.

And another topic related to Open Source is the change of licensing recently undergone by SpamAssassin. This was a long and painful process - more than 100 developers and contributors needed to be contacted and convinced to assign copyright to the project before the licensing change was made. We here at #develop ask for a Joint Copyright Assignment from all contributors since inception of the project. This episode now shows that our doing so provides other benefits besides those outlined in our wiki. Note to all out there who consider an Open Source project: think of copyright and attribution issues even before you start your project. Later modifications *are painful*.

One thing needs to be said - the name was in no way inspired by the anime movie of the same name. Oh no. There are two (more profound?) reasons for having choosen this particular name for the #developteam blog:

One: 'Laputa' is the name of the Soviet missile base that is the primary target in Kubrick's 'Dr. Strangelove'. Quoting the IMDB:

" Major Kong's plane's primary target is an ICBM complex at Laputa. In Jonathan Swift's 1726 novel Gulliver's Travels, Laputa is a place inhabited by caricatures of scientific researchers."

Make of that what you will, we think it is somewhat fitting.

Two: as mentioned above, Jonathan Swift's 'Gulliver's Travels, book III' describes a voyage - among other places to Laputa. To quote a short passage describing the inhabitants of this floating island:

"I observed here and there many in the Habit of Servants, with a blown Bladder fastned like a Flail to the End of a short Stick, which they carried in their Hands. In each Bladder was a small Quantity of dried Pease, or little Pebbles, (as I was afterwards informed.) With these Bladders they now and then flapped the Mouths and Ears of those who stood near them, of which Practice I could not then conceive the Meaning. It seems the Minds of these People are so taken up with intense Speculations, that they neither can speak, nor attend to the Discourses of others, without being rouzed by some external Taction upon the Organs of Speech and Hearing; for which Reason those Persons who are able to afford it always keep a Flapper (the Original is Climenole) in their Family, as one of their Domesticks; nor ever walk abroad or make Visits without him. And the Business of this Officer is, when two or more Persons are in Company, gently to strike with his Bladder the Mouth of him who is to speak, and the right Ear of him or them to whom the Speaker addresses himself. This Flapper is likewise employed diligently to attend his Master in his Walks, and upon Occasion to give him a soft Flap on his Eyes; because he is always so wrapped up in Cogitation, that he is in manifest Danger of falling down every Precipice, and bouncing his Head against every Post; and in the Streets, of jostling others, or being jostled himself into the Kennel."

This we again think quite fitting.

And lastly: this name has nothing at all to do with the Spanish term for 'woman of negotiable affection'. Period.

Finally, let me state the purpose of this blog: we just want to share our thoughts, the development process and meanderings of #develop with you. Categories are team members, not subject matter - this will make things more interesting :-)