I've written some code to integrate into Bing Maps and when I started I could see where you were coming from. I can understand the notion of moving backwards with JavaScript when coming from a tool rich environment like ASP.NET. There is much to be learned about objects and functions that differs from our strongly typed world of C#. But I see the current iteration of JavaScript as one of the most exciting advances in web tech currently. Microsoft sees this too. HTML5 is baked into Windows 8 and most mobile operating systems. IE 9 and 10 represent a significant effort to advance support for JavaScript. (Which, honestly is just taking cues from Google Chrome) And now Visual Studio 2012 treats JavaScript as a first class citizen. Here are some links to resources that may help you see JavaScript's potential. They helped me for sure. A book called JavaScript Patterns is a great starting point for someone with a strong programming background and a little JavaScript knowledge. A video from Scott Hanselman on JavaScript support in VS 2012 Some tips for .NET developers working with JavaScript John Resig (the author of jQuery) has some interesting thoughts on Classes in JavaScript. The concept of Classes helped me make better sense of JavaScript coming from the world of C#. There are many Javascript libraries that can provide a Class implementation. I hope this helps. And I urge you to keep an open mind about JavaScript.

yeah, I think your problem may have been vista and not VS2010. VS2010 is fantastic on Windows 7 (64-bit). And you should be using the RTM version and not a Beta. Beta = buggy as hell + patience.

Procedures, Procedures, Procedures. You are engineering software, you know. They don't build bridges using your current process. Sounds like you have more of a personnel problem than a technical problem. Your team's individuals think much more highly of themselves than the team. If your team doesn't have an all for one, and one for all attitude, you need to have a serious sit down with your members, both as a group and individually. And if they have a problems playing ball, it's time to go. Try not to get frustrated (at least in front of people), and DO NOT point fingers. Nothing good happens with that. You need to figure out how to hold people accountable but without alienating them. It's a difficult task, but much easier than running around with buckets, putting fires out all the time. good luck.

I've owned a development shop with a decent sized staff for 8 years now. I'm only 30 but I've seen a lot of projects gone wrong (and quite a few that have gone right as well). The absolute worst stories seem to come from web projects with a seperate marketing company involved. The marketing company claims they have a technology focus, which usually translates into no understanding of the web whatsoever. (Don't get me started on the BS that seems to be tolerated in the marketing world.) Anyways, the project was with very well known pizza delivery company, which the marketing "company" tricked into working with them. I say tricked because, had the pizza company known how unorganized and inexperienced, the two jokers that owned the marketing "company" were, they would have decided against working with them. We in turn, were hired by the marketing "company" to produce a system for email broadcasts from corporate, that management could add local content to before sending out. Sounds fun until we started working with the marketing jokers. Instead of being honest like most of our strategic partners, they lied to the pizza company, explaining that we were their employees. I didn't like the lie, but we had a project to complete. So as time went by we learned how one white lie can turn into a huge mess. This was mostly due to the fact that the marketing "company" decided that they wanted to keep both sides of their tricky web of lies in the dark. For example, every time we needed technical clarification on say, data definitions, the marketing "company" wanted to get involved. So what should have been a 10 minute phone call turns into a 3 hour waste of time. We would have meetings about meetings, and sometimes we could see how much the pizza company patronized the marketing "company" during the conferences which was always good for a laugh. (As a general rule to those out there starting their own companies, big corporations smell BS the best. Honesty is the best policy.) They could see right through the two yo-yos running the project. At this point most people with integrity would wash their hands clean and confess. But these idiots told more lies and made things only worse. Needless to say, the whole thing fell apart. We did have some successful run-throughs, but due to our lack of any type of control, we could not react and adapt the way we needed to as things changed. The marketing "company" had a hot mess on their hands and because of their management "techniques" we were unable to help them

yes, - "It's just data." - "My wife and I run a business out of our house" - "Our current hosting company won't return our phone calls."

Did you work at Flagship Studios?

VB is the Rodney Dangerfield of languages...gets no respect. Nothing wrong with VB.NET...VB6 on the other hand.... the other Marc with a C

No worries Yusuf. There are pros and cons to both CVS and Subervsion. In the end, it's personal preference. Here's a link to a quick comparison that may shed some light on your decision. http://www.pushok.com/soft_svn_vscvs.php[^]

I know this is thread should be limited to Subversion, but can I throw in my $0.02 and recommend CVS? Our shop has been using it for 7 years and it works great! Again it's open source and free like subversion. http://www.march-hare.com/cvsnt/[^]

We've used CVS forever. It's what we know, and it works great. So why fight it? There is a big debate over subversion and CVS. Both have benefits that outweigh the other product. Here's a link comparing them. http://www.pushok.com/soft_svn_vscvs.php[^] In the end, it's personal preference. But VSS is usually thrown out because of it's file locking features.

>I bet you don't really care for for anything that makes you feel good do you What are we, Apple users now? :) I personally don't expect my computer to make me feel good. If I did. I'd buy a Mac. But on the other hand, being able to play the newest computer games does make me feel good so I guess I would be torn... Vista is great for my home PC, but the new computer I am getting for work will run XP. And I don't think you can run VS2003 on Vista at all. (Which I unfortunatly have to) Unless someone has some information I don't.

I have to say any person in IT calling this irresponsible is a hypocrite. Circumvention of protocols and bureaucracy is as inherent to IT as the keyboard and mouse. IT Elitists don't like it when someone writes about how to circumvent their rules and procedures, but will figure out how to get around any DRM that stands in their way. Or how about installing a non-standard OS on a company PC. It's ok when it applies to you. And just because the layman is given tips that Captain Crunch would be proud of, doesn't mean they will take the time to use them either. I believe the majority of users (especially business users) wouldn't take the time to look at their email if they didn't have to. So I don't think they would take the time to poke, prod, and play with software the way we do.

yeah, I hope to try my hand at game programming after my career in the business app world. Or maybe brewing beer....hmm.

I had my share of experience with XP with J2EE. The zealots that introduced XP to our organization, created an incredibly slow and beurocratic environment. They jumped ship eventually and the rest of us got canned due to lack of return on investment. Needless to say XP is not on my list of great innovations in software development. Marc A.

BTW the generator came up with create authentic mashups.....love the irony.

In light of Google's new release of their RSS API. I noticed the word Mashup in there. I hated this term even used in music (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grey_Album[^]) I really dislike these ridiculous terms used to spark Wall Street's interest. So I couldn't help myself and post this link. http://emptybottle.org/bullshit/[^] You'll need to replace the * with an i of course. ;)

I would look into using more patterns. Patterns allow a developer to look at a problem and apply a tried and tested method of solving the problem. I believe super programmers can apply and implement patterns without a second thought and develop an application quickly and with a lot less risk of bugs. There is a ton of information out there about patterns implemented in Java, C++, C# and VB.Net as well as many other object oriented languages. I think even if some claim it impossible to do, we should still strive to achieve this idealistic notion. My $0.02.