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Home > Blog > Categories
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2/9/2009
After four months of fine-tuning and polishing, I'm pleased to announce that we have finally released the commercial version of Inference for .NET. I'd like to thank those of you who have stayed with us over the last year and provided many suggestions for to how to make Inference a better and more-useful product. That said, I want to make it clear that this is just the beginning. As a product, Inference for .NET will continue to evolve and improve as time goes forward. And again, I need your help to make this happen! If you have product suggestions or feedback, please don't hesitate to contact me at development@bluereference.com.
A one-year subscription to Inference for .NET can now be purchased from our Purchase page. Additionally, all academic users can apply for a free Academic License.
So without further ado, here's a list of what's new and what's fixed in the first commercial release of Inference for .NET:
What's New:
- IronRuby support
- Object Browser
- New Shortcut Keys
- Inputs in Excel now identify datatype on creation
- New Table DataFrame input style for Excel
- Input/Output sheets created for Parts Container Excel documents
- Expression output can be placed in headers and footers in Word and Excel
- Document Execution in Inference Studio
- HTML File support (used for HTML tables)
- SharePoint document execution
- New "How-To" samples
- Streamlined QuickStart documents
- 64-bit support
- Improved DataFrame API
- Improved document execution error handling
- Improved document execution process
- Many other usability improvements
What's Fixed:
- Significant memory leak when opening code block and expression editors
- Word drop-down menu instability fixed
- Improved installation detects running instances of Office applications, and Word as Outlook email editor (Office 2003)
- Inference Online Proxy Error resolved
- Over 100 defect fixes
2/4/2009
In his latest column for the SDTimes, Larry O'Brien (knowing.net) test drives the latest release candidate of Inference for .NET:
http://www.sdtimes.com/link/33233
Larry writes:
Inference for .NET is a tool for literate programming using .NET dynamic languages and Microsoft Office. In modern terms, literate programming is a mashup of programming and word processing (or spreadsheet processing). The presentation and formatting tools of Word or Excel can be used to explain code snippets, or the code can be unwoven from the document and executed.
Literate programming naturally appeals to writers, and with the rise of blogs and wikis, it seems like something whose time has come. On the other hand, nothing is as humbling as memorializing your shortcuts, inefficiencies and general shiftlessness on a function-by-function basis (at least such is my experience. It might be different for the talented).
We've had a lot of feedback from users regarding using Inference for .NET as a tool for literate programming – it's definitely one of the more popular uses. Literate programming clearly works best in Inference in Word, although we've had numerous requests to implement similar functionality in PowerPoint. Trust me, we're working on it. J 10/23/2008
We finished running the last set of regression tests on Inference today, and I’m pleased to report that we’ve now shipped Release Candidate 6 of Inference for .NET. The focus of this final release candidate was to improve usability and to streamline the Getting Started process for users. Wait, did I use the phrase “final release candidate”? Yes, it’s true…RC6 represents the last release candidate of Inference for .NET. Towards that end, we’ve increased the trial time. RC6 will last for 120 days from installation (up from 60 days). For those of you exceptionally gifted in math (not me!), you will note that this means we will have the final release of Inference for .NET in early February 2009.
The response so far for Inference for .NET has been fantastic; please keep the feedback coming!
Regarding what’s new in Inference for .NET RC6, I’ll be covering some of the new features in upcoming blog postings, but here’s the overview.
New Features:
- Insert and Edit menu item for Code Blocks and Expressions
- Keyboard Shortcuts for common code editing, parts container, and export functions
- Streamlined Getting Started workflow (no more Getting Started Wizard)
- Updated and expanded Getting Started documentation
- Direct editing of Expression code in Outputs section of Inference in Excel
- Streamlined download of Sample Documents in Inference Online
- Configuration of Scripting Platforms is no longer required
Important Bug Fixes:
- Improved whitespace formatting for results document output
- Missing code editor textbox for Expression Editor fixed
- 36 other minor bug fixes
You can download the new RC6 release here. 9/29/2008To start this off, I'd like to make an admission -- I've spent the last two years developing the Inference for .NET platform largely in a vacuum. Sure, there were a couple of email exchanges and an occasional visit from the pizza delivery man, but Inference for .NET was built largely without early feedback. As a developer, it's easy to get caught up in the use of new technology or the development of power-user features. That may make the product "cool" (well...at least I think it’s cool), but this doesn’t guarantee success.
I’m going to use this blog to share with you the development progress of Inference for .NET. I’ll be posting demonstrations of new features and changes. I’ll also be posting summaries of new samples (that you’ll be able to download) and more importantly illustrations of how you can use Inference for .NET to solve real-world problems today.
In short, I'm going to focus on what matters -- ensuring that Inference for .NET is an intuitive and useful product that provides value. And to do that, I'm going to need your help. So with that in mind, feel free to send me to suggestions ( development@bluereference.com) or leave me comments in the postings -- I want to hear your feedback! |
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