PDC Anticipation

For those who read my blog and aren’t developers, the PDC is the Microsoft’s Professional Developer Conference, currently going on now, in which Microsoft will announce a whole new set of futuristic technology. I will be writing more about that in future posts.

For those readers who are developers, I included my subscriptions.opml file, which includes much of the feeds that I use to track PDC progress as well as others of interest to me. It’s significantly smaller than the list of 1000 blogs that I had subscribed to in the past, as I have removed numerous stagnant and duplicate blogs (as well as those from non-Microsoft platforms, such as Java and Macintosh) to introduce more focus.

Microsoft has been making numerous promises about the accelerating pace of innovation in the company, and how the next decade will see more advances than the cumulative total of the past. Now that Microsoft has put to rest legacy issues of Windows 9X and COM, I strongly believe that the company will be able to deliver on its promises.

Each PDC introduces pioneering new technology. PDC 2001 introduced the .NET Framework; PDC 2003 introduced both Longhorn and the WinFX API set, albeit a little too early. Chances are we shall see another round of significant industry-changing announcements, given the two year hiatus since the last PDC.

Among the highlights…

• Windows Vista. A updated pre-beta build with more visual effects and more complete functionality is coming along with previews of the new Project M interface, IE and Windows Media Player.
• Office 12 User Interface. Office 12 will ship about 3 years after the previous version, making it probably the longest development cycle Office ever had; one former coworker mentioned that Microsoft doubled the number of developers in this release. After a serious of ho-hum “incremental” releases in Office 2000, XP, and 2003, word is quickly spreading about revolutionary improvements in the upcoming version as Steven Sinofsky and Chris Pratley hints. Check out preview images of the radical new ribbon interface.
• Orcas. The tools division plan to introduce stunning new improvements in data-language integration and dynamic programming features. Other features include Atlas for ASP.NET, a new framework for supporting rich web applications using AJAX.
• Microsoft Expressions suite (Sparkle, Acrylic et al). A new set of tools that will encourage the use of designers working alongside developers in product teams. Microsoft has steadily been adding designers as new functional roles into its own product teams, and the results are already evident in products like Outlook 2003 and MSN.
• Other information mentioned were Windows Workflow Services, Sharepoint and something mysterious called “Jolt.”

Comments

[Abomb]

I love it when Microsoft reuses code names. "Jolt" was the code name for DOS Word 6.0 which was a great product that got lost in the fact that there was already Winword 2.X out for Windows but it did as a DOS app support TrueType fonts and ran super fast on my 286 laptop. It even had a ton of printer drivers for new printers at the time like the HP Deskjet.

[Paul Tan]

Well, Microsoft also re-used Quartz (it used to be the name for DirectShow, so I guess it is somewhat fitting to be the web design tool)