October 2004 - Posts
Now that the announcement has been made, I can blog about some interesting technology coming from Microsoft. Jochen Seemann gave us a preview of this in Redmond during a Team System devlab, but we were given staunch “Shhhhhh”s until OOPSLA.
The technology relates to a metadata framework featuring the “DSL (Domain-Specific Languages) Toolkit”. The easiest way to describe it is to quote Microsoft - “a new framework and tool for building custom visual designers based on the modeling technology in Visual Studio 2005.“
This is related to the recent Software Factories movement. From what I've seen, you can map the concepts of your own domain/company/industry/environment to a foundation of abstractions, then create a domain-specific language and use the DSL Toolkit with Visual Studio to help generate applications based on the specifics of your domain. (“Domain“ and “abstractions“ are members of that magical set of words which induce instantaneous and deep slumber in audiences. Be strong and fight the sleepies. Some interesting stuff is coming out of this.)
Pictures may be the best way to convey concepts: http://weblogs.asp.net/GarethJ/archive/2004/10/27/248745.aspx
Microsoft will make more available (namely the Object Model Editor) soon. Keep checking http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/workshop/ for details.
Harry Pierson, Stuart Kent, Rob Caron and Steve Cook have plenty of content on this.
Note: This technology has the codename “Corona“. Unfortunately, the codename “Corona“ was also used in 2002 for a version of Windows Media, so your Google searches may turn up red herrings.
Some related articles:
This should enable some very interesting possibilities. I'm very interested to see how these possibilities map to the realities of software development. Stay tuned!
-Chris
I'm a bit late to the dance with my after-Camp post, but I'd just like to say I had a wonderful time at Code Camp. Everyone was truly motivated to learn and it was great to compare experiences working with .NET.
Saturday was a long, but fun day, content from 9 AM to 9PM followed by a gathering for drinks over at the Westin. I delivered a session in the morning on Agile Development in .NET. On Sunday, I gave three sessions, ASP.NET 2.0, Team System and a “chalk talk“ on effective development practices in .NET. Of course, I completely ran out of time in the Whidbey sessions - there is simply too much to convey in those miniscule 90-minute slots, but I hope I conveyed the core ideas and infected others with excitement around what's coming.
I was impressed by the level of participation and interest from the audiences. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at all, since it was a weekend, people were clearly not there to escape the office but were there in the sincere interests of learning and community.
It was great spending time with the other speakers, some of whom I only knew from their blogs. Here are some of the summaries from the others: Jason Bock, Sam Gentile, Robert Hurlbut, Carl Franklin, Chris Pels and DonXML Demsak.
Hats off to Thom Robbins for doing a fantastic job coordinating the event and for making everybody very nervous by walking around with a video camera... Thom is working on adding content to MSDNCodeCamp.com, where you'll be able to find slides and code from the camp as well as information on the next Camp (tentatively scheduled for February.)
CORRECTION: If you attended my Team System session, I'd like to correct one misstatement. Somehow in the fog of late night editing before Camp, I put the right idea on the wrong slide. I said that SourceSafe in Whidbey shares no bits with the previous version, but I meant to say that Hatteras (the source control management system in Team System) shares no bits with SourceSafe, being a completely new product. SourceSafe is certainly enhanced in Whidbey, but is not rewritten. I knew something was fishy when I was saying it, but I pushed on, thinking “it must be right, it's on the slide!” Sorry for the confusion.
I hope everyone enjoyed Code Camp and that we'll see even more of you for Code Camp III!
-Chris
I had a fantastic time last week at Cabana Night and speaking about Agile Development with Sam Gentile's newly-founded Downtown Boston .NET User Group (aka Beantown .NET). Sam has posted some kind words about the talk and additional details on the subject.
Here are some pictures from Cabana Night at the Microsoft offices in Waltham:
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I spent the evening in the Enterprise Architecture room with Chris Pels and John Watson having some fantastic discussions with attendees. Topics ranged widely, including object-relational mapping, Application Blocks, logging, third-party tools, Virtual PC & Server, VS Team System and more.
The feedback we received was very positive, and if all goes well we could have Cabana Night II next spring. If you attended and have further feedback, be sure to let Thom Robbins know.
Code Camp II is approaching quickly! This weekend is certain to be fantastic. More registration slots have been opened, so please register if you haven't already.
In case you haven't heard, there will also be a book swap at Code Camp. Here's the description:
“Do you have any technical books that you no longer need? If they're in good shape (no dog ears, doodles/scribbles/highlights, and any companion CDs present) bring them along to Code Camp II and exchange them for a title more useful to you.
Hand in your book and receive a ticket good for the "purchase" of someone else's book. But be warned - once you hand your book over, it's fair game and available to anyone! We'll explain the details when you arrive.“
I'm working on finalizing my presentations:
- “What's New in Visual Studio 2005? Part I - Core and ASP.NET“
- “What's New in Visual Studio 2005? Part II - Team System“
- “Agile Development with .NET“
And one chalk talk (a no-PowerPoint group discussion - much like the Birds of a Feather concept):
- “Effective Development Practices in .NET”.
I'm looking forward to seeing many of you there!
-Chris
A new FREE webcast series on ASP.NET (current and 2.0) has just launched at:
http://www.aspnetwebcasts.com/
Some fantastic technologists will be presenting, Rob Howard, Fritz Onion, Rocky Lhotka, Paul Sheriff, Thom Robbins, Carl Franklin and many others.
Fritz details his webcasts:
“Introduction to ASP.NET, is a four-part series [...] designed for developers new to ASP.NET. It begins on Oct. 18 and will be broadcast almost daily for two weeks. The second, Essential ASP.NET- A Webcast Series for the Web Developer, is a 15-part series based on my book Essential ASP.NET. This series begins on Nov. 9, and continues once a week for 15 weeks.“
Content varies from level 100 to 400 sessions. Caching, security, webforms, mobile, globalization and more. They're also giving away some software and books to people who attend at least 3 webcasts. These sessions look very much worthwhile (free stuff or not!)
-Chris
P.S. Use IE when signing up for these - using Firefox, I couldn't get past the webcast selection screens.