A small tip to .NET bloggers...

I have a small tip for .NET bloggers out there:

Will you please include full namespaces in your example code?

For people not yet well versed in the .NET API that you describe or use in your code, nothing is more frustrating than copying a couple of lines of code from a blog and then finding out that it doesn't compile because they have not referenced the right assembly and/or included the needed using statement for the namespace.

What would you prefer to find as an example in a post that describes how you can let Windows open a website in the default browser by simply starting a new process with the URL as the commandline?

1. System.Diagnostics.Process.Start("http://blog.peshir.nl/");

2. using System.Diagnostics
   ...
   Process.Start("http://blog.peshir.nl/");

3. Process.Start("http://blog.peshir.nl/");

   You find the Process class in the System.Diagnostics namespace.

4. Process.Start("http://blog.peshir.nl/");

To me any option is fine, except the last one.

Google Maps should (no: must) come to WP7

With my personal interest in maps and mapping I read the blog post about Google Maps on WP7 (using the Bing Maps Silverlight control) by LocalJoost with great interest.

He mentioned a lot of pageviews to this post shortly after posting it, and I just saw him tweet about his post being picked up on by wpcentral.com.

I think it's great that wpcentral.com did pick up on this. However, I do not agree at all with the first part of the possibly meant to be funny footnote by Daniel Rubino:

Yeah, I know. Who would want to use Google Maps when Bing kicks so much butt? [...]

I suspect that Daniel is both Microsoft biased (not really a problem for me) and not based in the Netherlands, because even though I hear a lot of positive things about Bing Search and Bing Maps, I keep comparing it to Google Search and Google Maps and have not switched yet.

To be frank and rather blunt about it: Bing can't stand in the shadow of Google. Or at least it cannot in the Netherlands, which happens to be where I live and use these services almost exclusively.

Before anyone starts comparing actual mobile client features I want to point out that this is mainly related to (probably) legal and data issues and not to the technology. I just have the feeling Google in general "finds more" for me, gives me more useful results. Also, I like the visual style of Google Maps more than that of Bing Maps at the moment, but that could just take some getting used too.

So for now I'll take Google over Bing any way I can get it. And that includes a Google Maps client for WP7, preferably written by Google itself and including all the official Google Maps features.

Google, are you listening...?