SuperSite Blog : Developer

Visual Studio 2010 Beta 2, Plus Launch and Packaging Info

pthurrott — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 18:47:35 GMT

Microsoft made a number of announcements today around Visual Studio 2010 and its developer tools and programs. Here's the word directly from Microsoft:

Today, Microsoft announced one of the most significant updates to its developer offerings and roadmap vision in years. Today’s announcements include:

Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 Beta 2 availability – Available to MSDN subscribers today! General availability will follow on October 21st. To download the beta, visit http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx.

Launch date for Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4 – The official launch will take place on March 22nd, 2010.

Visual Studio 2010 packaging and licensing details – Microsoft is announcing a new, streamlined packaging lineup and licensing options for Visual Studio 2010 and MSDN. This includes an "Ultimate Offer" to help customers upgrade to the latest developer tools. For more information on the new packaging and licensing of Visual Studio 2010, visit http://Microsoft.com/VisualStudio.

MSDN redesign – Microsoft is unveiling a drastically improved MSDN, which includes new benefits for all MSDN subscribers. Visit MSDN to see the new improvements!

For more information, check out the Fact Sheet (downloadable in DOCX format). Microsoft's S. "Soma" Somasegar also has some more info on his blog.

Visual Studio Documentary

pthurrott — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 04:55:32 GMT

Microsoft's Channel 9 has released a fascinating two-part video documentary of the history of Visual Studio, appropriately titled Visual Studio Documentary. It's an hour long (split into two 30-minute parts) and covers Microsoft's development efforts dating back to MS-DOS, OS/2, and the original version of Visual Basic:

Not only did we sift through hundreds of videos and assets but we sat down for an intimate conversation with those that were there since the very beginning: Scott Guthrie, Dan Fernandez, Jason Zander, Tim Huckaby, S. Somasegar, Dave Mendlen, Dee Dee Walsh, Mardi Brekke, Jeff Hadfield, Alan Cooper, Anders Hejlsberg, and Tony Goodhew.

Part One dives into MS-DOS, OS/2, Windows, Microsoft Visual Basic, Visual Basic 2.0, Visual Basic 3.0, Microsoft Visual C++, Visual Interdev, FoxPro, Visual Studio 97, ASP.NET and the early days of Microsoft's Dev community.

It's available for web viewing, of course, but also in various downloadable formats that are iPod, Zune, and Windows Media Player friendly.

Use the tools Microsoft didn't use to create Zune HD apps

pthurrott — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 19:09:50 GMT

Yes, you read that right. Microsoft (and its partners) did not use XNA Game Studio to create the free games and other apps that are now available for the Zune HD. (They used proprietary in-house tools instead.) But if you are interested in developing for the Zune HD, Microsoft does have a solution for you now. It's unclear how you could ever get those apps on the device, however.

XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions

Are you as excited as we are at today’s arrival of the Zune HD? If you've already picked yours up from your local retailer or are eagerly awaiting your delivery from Zune Originals, we are pleased to announce the immediate availability of XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions to support Zune HD. This add-on for XNA Game Studio 3.1 adds the following functionality to the product:

The ability to target and develop for the Zune HD media player.

The addition of new Touch APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.

The addition of new Accelerometer APIs to the XNA Framework for use on the Zune HD.

You'll also find new documentation and examples integrated into Visual Studio help that will show you how to leverage the new APIs, as well as a tutorial on how to update the Platformer Game Starter Kit to use the new Touch API's.

Barring the new input models available, your game should port over relatively easily.

Beyond the changes outlined here, all of the other XNA Game Studio functionality with the Zune HD remains the same as it did with earlier versions of the device.

You'll find the download for the XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions by following this link. If you have questions or need help getting started using XNA Game Studio 3.1 Zune Extensions, please use this thread.

Enjoy your Zune HD!

Thanks to Mitchel T. for the link.

Upload your apps now. Windows Marketplace for Mobile

pthurrott — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 14:05:59 GMT

Microsoft's Windows Mobile (or, we should say, "WinMob") team goes viral and decidedly non-PC in this video-based attempt to woo developers to their platform. It's funny, and a bit long, but they get at least some credit for simply ignoring the line that usually separates product marketing from good taste. It's worth watching if you have a sense of humor.

"Accelerometer-driven [bleep]... "

"... with a compass!"

:) Nice.

Thanks to Rami A. for the link.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 Compatibility View List

pthurrott — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:28:55 GMT

Or, to use a more controversial headline which I'm sure you'll see elsewhere:

Internet Explorer 8 natively incompatible with over 3,000 web sites

Microsoft has provided a list of web sites (in super-convenient Excel format) that haven't taken as little as 10 minutes of time to make sure they work properly with IE 8, shipping today:

This download consists of a list of sites that are most likely to be displayed better in Compatibility View in Windows Internet Explorer 8.

Windows Internet Explorer 8 is Microsoft’s latest web browser. Unlike previous versions, Internet Explorer 8 renders content in the most standards-compliant way possible. This means that web pages will be displayed in Internet Explorer 8’s standards mode by default. Through product feedback channels, our users have indicated that, during the beta period, some websites may not have been compatible with Internet Explorer 8 in its default, standards-based mode. As a result, these domains have been added to a list of sites that, for the short-term, are most likely to be displayed better in Compatibility View. All Internet Explorer 8 users are given the choice to use this list, and the subset that chooses to do so will see each listed domain automatically displayed in Compatibility View, without additional user interaction or notice. The sites on this list have high traffic volume (in their regions), and having a compatible website ensures a significant number of Internet Explorer 8 users will have a great experience. This list will be periodically updated and automatically downloaded to Internet Explorer 8 users who have opted-in to use Compatibility View updates from Microsoft. For more information on Compatibility View list updates, please see - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960321.

This is a public prod, of sorts, for those sites to get off their duffs and get to work.

Or it would be. You know, if microsoft.com, msn.com and live.com (among other Microsoft properties) weren't on the list too.

*Sigh*

Microsoft Small Basic

pthurrott — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 13:43:26 GMT

Apparently, Visual Basic has gotten a bit too complex for the kiddie crowd, so a Microsoft employee is working up a simpler, old school version of the language called Small Basic:

Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.

Small Basic derives its inspiration from the original BASIC programming language, and is based on the Microsoft .Net platform. It is really small with just 15 keywords and uses minimal concepts to keep the barrier to entry as low as possible.

The Small Basic development environment is simple, yet provides powerful modern environment features like Intellisense™ and instant context sensitive help.

Small Basic allows third-party libraries to be plugged in with ease, making it possible for the community to extend the experience in fun and interesting ways.

Be sure to check out the Small Basic blog and Small Basic Introduction (PDF) as well.

Thanks to Matt S. for the tip.

Bad user interface, part 37

pthurrott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:31:28 GMT

I walked up to my laptop and saw this bit of OneCare-like stupidity:

Here's the thing. If you’re going to perform background tasks, do it in the background. Obviously. And God help you if you pop-up a dialog later to inform me that whatever you were doing completed successfully.

Put simply, let me know if something is really wrong, but get out of my face otherwise.

Apple is evil, part 227

pthurrott — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 15:24:25 GMT

This one kind of speaks for itself:

Opera Mini for iPhone sits on sidelines due to App Store rules

A professionally-developed alternative to Apple's Safari web browser for iPhone already exists in Opera Software's labs; Apple's guidelines for App Store submissions, however, are allegedly keeping it from seeing the light of day.

Opera chief Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner recently [said that] Opera Mini, one of the company's mobile web browsers for smartphones, has already been ported to the iPhone but can't be released as Apple's rules for the App Store preclude software that replicate the core functionality of the iPhone or iPod touch.

Ridiculous.

Do you think we give away a little bit of our soul every time we use an Apple product?

Microsoft starts another Windows 7 blog

pthurrott — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 17:33:42 GMT

... and if you thought the first one, Engineering Windows 7, wasn’t long-winded and boring enough for you, wait ‘till you get a load of this one. It’s called The Windows 7 Blog for Developers. Sounds exciting!

Welcome to the first post of a new Windows 7 blog. This blog will mainly focus on the development aspects of Windows 7 by providing valuable content for developers. We shell call this blog “The Windows 7 Blog for Developers”. By valuable content we mean that this blog will be a “one stop shop” on the road to get yourself familiar with what Windows 7 has to offer for developers and how you can “Light-Up” using Windows 7 features in your application.

With your help, this blog should evolve to become some sort of Windows 7 developer content index. If you are looking to write some code using one of Windows 7 new features, you should find some reference to that topic in this blog. If you don’t find it, please feel free to comment and we’ll try to pick the subject as quick as possible. In case you have content you want to share, ping us so we can write a post and reference your content.

You can also expect this blog to have lots of code samples, and cool demo showcasing some Window 7’s new features. You can also expect this blog to have Web Cast with different people from different parts of the Windows organization. With that in mind, some Windows folks have their own blogs which we will try to keep track and listing all the important Windows 7 content posted on these blogs.

Finally, this blog is part of an effort to highlight Windows 7 development story, a story that for some reason got lost with Windows Vista. As part of the Windows 7 Evangelism team and as developers, we hope, together with you and the rest of the community will be able to create an open and direct dialog about developing for Windows 7.

OK, so this will be interesting to a certain crowd. But if you’re looking for more in-depth looks at, say, how Windows 7 actually looks and works, stay tuned. I’ll be starting up a Windows 7 Feature Focus series as soon as I have the first pre-beta build in my hands next week. If Microsoft can’t stop boring people about Windows 7, maybe I can drum up something a little more interesting.

Microsoft to debut next Office at PDC

pthurrott — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 18:26:28 GMT

This isn’t exactly news, but what the heck:

Windows 7 and Windows Cloud may be the main attractions at Microsoft's upcoming Professional Developers Conference, but the next version of Office will also be on show.

'Office 14', as the product is code-named, will be discussed at next week's event, with attendees likely to get a glimpse of some of its features, according to sources. Unlike Windows 7, however, attendees should not expect to leave Los Angeles with a copy of their own.

Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer has talked recently about the idea that the next version of Office will be able to run in various modes, including over the internet.

Microsoft employees also got a glimpse of Office 14's versatility during the company's recent annual employee meeting.

A job opening for the 'Office Web Companions team' offers some more information on what was shown.

"Featured at the 2008 company meeting, the Web Companions organization is at the centre of Office's software-plus-services transformation, coordinating this key vision area for Office '14'," Microsoft said in a job listing for a lead software-development engineer.

"Working together with partners across Office and beyond, we are tasked with delivering best-in-class Office web applications that expand the reach of the traditional client apps in a wide variety of innovative ways, delivering server, service and browser client features," states the listing.

It's not clear how detailed the Office 14 discussion will be at the Professional Developers Conference (PDC).

PDC is going to be quite the ride this year. I can’t wait.

4 Softies and a Pizza Guy - P-D-C 2008

pthurrott — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 13:19:39 GMT

LOL. It’s unclear whether this is meant to be a parody or an outright mockery, but it’s pretty funny:

Think boy band. And software development. Naturally. :)

Thanks Leonard D.

Microsoft updates its application server technologies

pthurrott — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 17:44:12 GMT

From Microsoft via email:

Today, the Connected Systems Division announced a set of new enhancements coming in .NET Framework and Windows Server, including key enhancements to Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) in the .NET Framework 4.0 release and an enhanced set of application server capabilities in Windows Server codenamed “Dublin.”

Windows Communication Foundation 4.0: Microsoft is adding new capabilities to WCF to further simplify the creation of RESTful services, including REST Singleton & Collection Services, ATOM Feed and Publishing Protocol Services, and support for an HTTP Plain XML Service. Additional messaging and correlation enhancements enable customers to work with the most recent transports and protocols. By further extending WCF to enable seamless integration between WF and WCF and enabling a unified XAML model, developers can build an entire application in declarative XAML code from presentation to data to services to workflow.

Windows Workflow Foundation 4.0: Applications built using WF will realize significant improvements in performance (on the order of ten-fold performance enhancements) and scalability. There are also new workflow models and pre-built activities (PowerShell, messaging, etc.). An updated visual designer will be easier to use by developers to use and be easier to rehost by ISVs.

“Dublin”: This consists of a set of enhancements to Windows Server application server capabilities that – when combined with WCF/WF 4.0 –represent a major step forward for our application server. “Dublin” will offer greater scalability and easier manageability, and will extend Internet Information Services (IIS) to provide a standard host for applications that use workflow or communications.

Taken together, these enhancements will extend the power of Microsoft’s application server and simplify the development, deployment, configuration, management, and scalability of composite applications. Microsoft will be providing a first CTP of these technologies at PDC, and we encourage customers and partners to take the opportunity to evaluate and provide feedback on these new capabilities. We will also be releasing some of the REST enhancements separately via Codeplex to allow for early trial and adoption via our WCF REST Starter Kit.

For more information on this announcement, please visit Steven Martin’s blog.

Apple drops the iPhone NDA

pthurrott — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 16:57:27 GMT

Let the leaks begin. :)

Apple:

We have decided to drop the non-disclosure agreement (NDA) for released iPhone software.

We put the NDA in place because the iPhone OS includes many Apple inventions and innovations that we would like to protect, so that others don’t steal our work. It has happened before. While we have filed for hundreds of patents on iPhone technology, the NDA added yet another level of protection. We put it in place as one more way to help protect the iPhone from being ripped off by others.

However, the NDA has created too much of a burden on developers, authors and others interested in helping further the iPhone’s success, so we are dropping it for released software. Developers will receive a new agreement without an NDA covering released software within a week or so. Please note that unreleased software and features will remain under NDA until they are released.

Thanks to everyone who provided us constructive feedback on this matter.

Thanks Sebastian.

The Cell Phone Wars

pthurrott — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:47:32 GMT

Slate has an interesting comparison of Apple’s very closed model with the iPhone and Google’s very open model with Android:

In the two months since the App Store's launch, Apple has rejected several programs for seemingly arbitrary reasons that it won't disclose. Developers havegrumbled about this capriciousness, but until now they've had no real alternative—iPhone and iPod Touch owners have already downloaded 100 million apps through the App Store, making Apple the Wal-Mart of mobile software.

And then along came Sergey Brin and Larry Page. On Tuesday, the Google founders unveiled the G1, the first phone based on Google's new mobile operating system, Android. The phone, which will go on sale in late October, is manufactured by the Taiwanese company HTC and is being offered exclusively through T-Mobile, but Google's software will soon make its way to other phones and other carriers across the globe. Google says that Android embodies principles of "radical openness." Unlike Apple, the company will let developers create any mobile apps they please. Google has also persuaded carriers to allow users to run any apps they like—including voice-over-IP software like Skype, which carriers have traditionally resisted because it lets you make calls without running up cellular minutes.

Watching Google and Apple carve out space in the mobile business, one can hardly avoid thinking that history is repeating itself. In the 1970s and '80s, Apple created the first great personal computers. But because Apple closed its platform, it was IBM, Dell, HP, and especially Microsoft that reaped the benefits of Apple's innovations. The Mac's operating system ran only on Mac computers; Windows ran on lots of lots of different companies' hardware. This made non-Apple computers both cheaper than Apple's machines—competition between hardware manufacturers pushed down prices—and more useful, as third-party developers flocked to write must-have programs for Windows. Apple seems to be following a similar restrictive strategy with the iPhone.

Google's Android OS is "open" in two distinct ways. First, Google has released the software under an open-source license, allowing hardware manufacturers to customize Android for different phones. Second, Android is open to third-party apps; Google and the carriers will make sure that apps do not violate the law or harm people's phones, but other than that, they promise to impose few restrictions.

There's [nothing] defensible about Apple's rejections of iPhone apps. It got rid of I Am Rich, a $1,000 program that did nothing, and Pull My Finger, a fart-joke app, for "limited utility"—which would be understandable if so many iPhone Apps weren't pretty limited. (How did Apple decide that a program that turns your phone into a flashlight is more useful than a program that turns your phone into a whoopee cushion?) Apple also rejected a comic book app called Murderdrome because its contents were too violent—even though it offers extremely violent movies in the iTunes Store. And it blocked an e-mail client because it competed with the iPhone's built-in e-mail app, a transparently anti-competitive move.

Apple seems to be pursuing a strategy of just-open-enough—permissive enough to keep programmers writing code and to keep customers buying software but still locked-down enough to let Apple control the platform's larger direction.

It’s hard for me to defend Apple on this one, mostly because they’re not being transparent about what is and is not allowed. And the anticompetitive nature of not allowing a third party email application should be obvious to anyone, even the iCabal. That’s just not right, no matter what your concerns are. I certainly don’t want to be locked into Apple’s disastrous MobileMe/Mail.app/iTunes system. Who would?

The Android platform, of course, is interesting specifically because there are no restrictions. It’s even doubly interesting to me personally because I happen to use a lot of Google services, but let’s be honest here: Android will be a better platform for all non-Apple services, specifically because Google won’t move to block a Hotmail-compatible native email application like Apple will, or whatever.

Of course, this is all slice-in-time stuff. I’m not switching to T-Mobile just to get a G1. But I do see an Android phone in m future, unless Apple-or Microsoft—wakes up and does this right thing.

Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1

pthurrott — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:40:05 GMT

Microsoft is updating its Expression Blend product to support Silverlight 2. Here’s the info:

Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 will directly and seamlessly patch the previously installed version of Expression Blend 2 to utilize the newest designer/developer technology and enhance overall user experience. This will be a free of charge service pack for Blend 2 that will provide full authoring support of Silverlight 2. Customers who have been using either the Expression Blend 2 Trial or Expression Blend 2.5 Preview will receive an additional 60 days to test Expression Blend 2 once the Service Pack has been installed.

This Service Pack will provide, at no extra cost, full support of Silverlight 2, similar to the authoring environment that Expression Blend 2.5 Preview users have been experiencing. In addition, the Service Pack will not disrupt developer or designer workflow, and will continue to support current Windows Presentation Foundation and Silverlight authoring.

By leveraging the full power of the desktop and Web, Expression Blend 2 Service Pack 1 will allow developers and designers to work together to deliver big-impact, high-performance Web user experiences that drive brand recognition and repeat use.

To find out more about Expression Studio 2 and Expression Blend 2, please visit the Expression Studio website at:www.microsoft.com/expression.