This week I picked up the Farseer Physics Engine, which Neil showed me a while back.  In my efforts to create an interesting data visualization experience (e.g. Connectable Lines, Radial Network Graph), I've wanted a UI that could "distribute itself" on the screen.  I wanted something that looked natural that could space itself out.  I needed the ability to introduce forces (attraction and repulsion) between UI elements.

By picking up Farseer I was able to accomplish what I wanted and created what looks like a "molecule" of UI elements:

http://www.kindohm.com/sl/molecules/molecules.htm

This may sound a little surprising - but there really isn't any interesting code to post on this! The Farseer engine takes care of everything. The UI and body/geometry logic is not much different than what Farseer already provides in its example applications and in the documentation.  Place a couple of items, join them with a linear spring.  Done.  I won't say that the UI is trivial, but like I said, there are already other examples out there. 

As for my first impressions of Farseer, I don't have any experience with other physics engines so I can't be too critical.  I found it easy enough to use and tweak to my likings, and I look forward to using it more.  I haven't come across any bugs yet with collisions or anything else.

I'm pleased to announce the release of SharePoint Search Bench 2.0!

http://www.codeplex.com/SPSearchBench

Version 2.0 contains a major API change that eliminates a dependency on Microsoft.Office DLL's for web service calls.  For a web service call, you shouldn't need to depend on the underlying provider of the data you are accessing remotely.  The API now executes web service calls successfully if the Microsoft DLL's are not found on the local machine.  Version 2.0 causes a breaking change if you are using the SP Search Bench API because a Microsoft enum is now "wrapped" by a custom SP Search Bench enum.

A new, minor release (v2.1) is planned for the near future, which will contain a JavaScript implementation of the SP Search Bench C# API and will execute exclusively against the SharePoint Search web service.  I've already begun development on this feature and have overcome all of the technology barriers I was expecting to face so far.  Now it is just a matter of tidying up the JavaScript API interface and testing....  and overcoming any unforeseen barriers!

Further down the road, I'd like to completely overhaul the SP Search Bench WPF user interface.  Right now, the UI doesn't use screen real-estate very wisely.  My initial attempts at a new layout haven't worked out so well due to difficulties with getting the results grid to scroll and re-size properly.  That'll be another challenge for a new day.

I'm back from Dev Connections in Las Vegas.  The conference was a good time and some interesting tidbits were learned - such as the fact that .NET WinForms is now officially a legacy technology.  At least that is how I interpreted it...  WinForms will not be advanced past .NET 2.0.  WPF is the new big kid on the block.

And speaking of WPF, the DevCon WPF presentations were...  lacking.  I think the WPF presentations were geared toward audiences who had no WPF experience whatsoever - or had never even seen the technology.  The "ooohs" and "aaahs" from the audiences at some of WPF's basic 3D capabilities were surprising.

Coming away from the conference, I got inspired to get creative with WPF and SharePoint data visualization.  We'll see what I come up with in the next year.

At the suggestion of Neil, I also began some work on a JavaScript implementation of SharePoint Search Bench.  I proved out the core functionality and now it is just a matter of making it useful.  This tool would be used to execute SharePoint searches easily in an Ajax setting. 

I woke up today at 4:45 AM Pacific time to catch my flight, and got home at about 1:00 PM Central.  I'll be getting up around 5:00 AM tomorrow to catch a flight to Florida for a week-long vacation.  Then after we get back we'll be driving 3 hrs north to visit family for Thanksgiving.  I just won't be home much in November!