As others have suggested I use Eclipse with the ADT plugin. I installed everything on a new machine this week and noticed that google now have an all in one package - Eclipse, ADT, latest android SDK - just extract from the archive and you're good to go. Beats having to set it all up manually :) http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html[^]

It could be a good idea if you were in a position to actually go elsewhere rather than using it as an empty threat just to get more money. I have been offered large increases in salary to stay with a companies that I have handed in my resignation to, though I have never stayed - usually I will look to move on when/if I start to lose interest in a job not as a result of the monthly pay-cheque. Don't get me wrong, I like money just as much as the next man but if I don't enjoy the job I'm doing then I don't see the point of sticking around - regardless of the salary at the end of the month. Most of my 'big' percentage pay rises during my career so far have been gained from moving from one company to another, mainly due to setting my salary expectations over and above what I was on previously (and the new company accepting this). Though I have had a few by asking management for a pay review if I don't believe the annual increase is fair. It is quite common here for companies to offer a basic cost of living increase (2/3% annually, supposedly to match inflation...) if anything at all in the last few years. So at the moment for most job sectors - in the UK at least - any rise is a bonus. One company early in my career repeatedly told me I was worth way more than they were currently paying (at least they were honest), though the experience I was gaining there was way beyond what was available to me elsewhere so I stayed there for a few years (5) even though I knew I could be making ~£10K+ extra by jumping ship. My advice to you would be to take a look around similar jobs to yours in your area and look at what the average salary is for your level of experience - not just how many years you have being doing the job, but at how you would rate your abilities. If there is a significant difference in what you are currently on to what you reckon you should be getting paid and you are happy in your current position then it may well be worth speaking with management in this regard. If you feel that you are ready for the next step in your career you may also want to speak to them regarding promotion if there are any available, this would usually be accompanied with a salary increase. However, if during your research you find yourself tempted by other positions in different companies then maybe it is time to consider moving on to pastures new.

At my new place I've just set up the combination of VisualSVN server ANKHSvn (Visual Studio integration) TortoiseSVN as our source control system (4 developers), so far so good.

How are you displaying the reports? I'd imagine you will be showing them in the report viewer component - It's been a while since I looked at it but I'm sure that there is a print option built into the Microsoft report viewer toolbar. HTH Darren

I am in a similar work situation - a couple more staff here but still less than 10, though my company has been fairly generous with the payrise scheme(2 significant rises in the last 12 months). Though I did start on the lower ebb of my salary range, the boss has recognised my achievements and effort and put that into monetary value. Given your situation, after working for that length of time with such a small number of staff I would imagine you would have built up a decent relationship with your boss, so it wouldn't hurt to have a word with him about this. If you don't know already find out what the salary scale is for your position, there will usually be a difference of at least £5k between the lower and upper limits. If you know exactly where you are in the scale and have an argument prepared for why you think you deserve more there is no reason you shouldn't achieve this. The companies I have worked for have budgeted based on the maximum salary scale values, so there should be cash in the purse to allow a payrise. All companies want to maximise their profit, so if they can justify paying you a lower wage most will. At the end of the day, if you don't ask - you don't get.

Just my 2 cents, I would set a small test - I've found testing the most basic knowledge can instantly rule out some candidates. Prepare a short 15-30 min test for some of the most common technologies that appear on the c.v's you recieve i.e. SQL skills, XML, coding then give the candidate a test comprising of items listed on their c.v. This gives you chance to find out if the candidate has been over ambitious in stating what they are experienced in. I've found that my idea of experienced often differs from the candidates. It is crucial to remember the candidates listed experience, don't expect a fresh graduate to be at the same level as someone with a few years commercial experience. If dealing with someone straight out of college/university I would always be looking more for them to demonstrate good problem solving skills and a sound foundation and eagerness to learn rather than being able to answer every question 100% accurately. In short, 1:- cover the c.v and make sure everything in it is the truth 2:- short technical test (but I dont look for complete correctness, psuedocode or even a description of what the candidate would do can sometimes suffice) 3:- Other experience, discuss this. Even non IT related can matter. I worked within a customer service call centre and local shops while at uni - gave me lots of experience of dealing with customers which can be very important. 4:- Discuss other interests. Might not seem that important but it is essential to get someone that will fit right into the team as well as do the job. 5:- trust your instinct. Sometimes one candidate will stand out above all the rest, this is usually a sign. Finally - if you don't have much experience interviewing candidates practice with one or two of your collegues, family, friends. You want to be able to keep the interview moving along at a nice steady pace. This not only helps the candidate relax (admit it we all get a bit nervous at interviews) but allows you more time to assess and record the interviews progress. As a sidenote - after I got my first job coding I spoke to one of the guys that interviewed me one evening and he told me that I was chosen over the other candidates, not because I had better qualifications,experience, answers than the others. One of the questions I was asked I didn't have a clue and managed to get him to tell me the answer without him realising he had. For him this demonstrated the ability to find the answer to a problem, which is something we face every day.

Thanks for the reply, I looked into doing this, however there will be several different styles of reports - with more to be added by the user and writing a class to generate each in rtf would not really be an option. I have been looking to create some template documents that can then be filled from the data layer. The xml/xsl route seems to cover what I need by creating the stylesheet and then merging that with the dataset. However, I am not very experienced with this and there seem to be many different approaches to doing this. Regards Darren

Hi folks, I'm looking for a little advice. I am coming towards the final stages of my project (programmed in C#) and need to generate a word document from the data I have collected. This data is held in a dataset at present. The old version of the software used bookmarks as placeholders and macros to tidy everything up. We have been looking into the xml technologies - but I am having some difficulty understanding and implementing this. What I wish to do is have a template that I can merge with the data. Over the last few days I have looked at xml-fo/xslt and wordML but do not know what approach is best. The document itself is several pages long, some paragraphs are taken from the datasource and I need to insert some table data and images in other sections. Does anyone have experience of the above, if so can you please give me some pointers and references to get me started. All help is greatly appreciated Regards Darren Sim

Thats what I thought, but always better to be sure :) I think recreating the GUI is not an option at this stage - it's almost complete as is, and the project deadline is looming ever closer (as always). This is something I will look into further in the future, as my application is using a layered architecture it should just be a case of replacing the GUI if required. Thanks for your help guys :)

Hi folks, I am nearing the end of the first cycle of developement for my application. We began this with the .net framework 2.0, However we are now interested in using WPF and for that it appears we need to upgrade to 3.0. My question is does anyone know if migrating an application from .net 2 to 3 is a big task and would we need to undergo any major changes. Obviously at this stage we don't want to risk breaking the application too much and don't have the time to undergo any major reworking. Thanks for your time Darren Sim

...In addition I have found this very site to be a most valuable source in developing and understanding the components etc that I need. Use the search articles function above - should help get your creative juices flowing :laugh:

I would recommend as a starting point that you take a look at the Krypton package (the toolkit part is free). I've been using it over the last month or so and it seems very good. http://www.componentfactory.com/index.html[^]

As far as I am aware, the MS office colour is taken from the current selected colour scheme in windows To use this you need Application.EnableVisualStyles(); in your MAIN method. http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.windows.forms.application.enablevisualstyles.aspx[^]

If you are using a datareader you may have to close this as well i.e datareader.Close(); HTH Darren