Good News and Bad News--the July CTP

Updated: July 26

I'm working with the July CTP this week I've discovered the following:

The Good News:

• VS seems to start faster
• The System.data (used for SqlClient etc.) and the System.XML DLLs are now in the list of references for a base Windows Forms application (like C# has had for some time).
• The “Haunted Keyboard“ bug has been exorcised. It's no longer a problem to pin the tabbed dialogs.
• The install seemed to take a lot less time.
• I figured out how to setup a VPC running the Yukon June CTP and connect to it from the host system--but it's a PIA.
• The inital keyboard setup seems to be correct. I choose “VB developer“ and F8 actually steps through the code.
• The “visible servers“ dropdown is now far faster--and it shows all of the instances.
• The GetSchemaTable seems to return correct values when I use a WHERE clause, but...
• MARS is now off by default.
• Creating a project with spaces in the name no longer fails on first execution.

The Bad News:

• The DataAdapter configuration wizard still won't create an updatable DataAdapter if I put a WHERE clause in the SELECT query. “SELECT Au_ID, Author FROM Authors“ works... but “SELECT Au_ID, Author FROM Authors WHERE AU_id > 5“ does not. SEV 1.
• The Report Viewer and Report (item) are totally broken. These return a “null reference exception“ when used. SEV 1:
• I still can't setup any aliases--with TCP or named pipes. : SEV 2
• The Start Page seems to be tied to Internet connectivity. Without an internet link something hangs VS for quite some time when first started.
• They're still using the same three smiling people in the splash screens during setup. It's as if these are the only people at Microsoft that will allow their picture to be taken. I've seen these same people in splash screens in other MS products.
• SQL Server June CTP cannot be installed on the same system. I hear that it might be awhile before this is true. Perhaps September.
• The help system still seems to have a lot of broken and very thin topics and not just the new ones. Press F1 on SqlClient.SqlCommand.CommandTimeout--you're taken to the OracleCommand.CommandTimeout. It' actually a better topic than the SqlCommand.CommandTimeout--it actually shows a default value.
• The Create Data Source dialog complains that it can't accept CLR UDTs.

105 days to go... if you count the weekends.