Jeremy Mazner has asked me to put together a 400-level session at this year's PDC. I came up with the title "Five(ish) things every Win32 developer should know (but likely doesn't)". Of course, now I have to think of five things! Here are some ideas I've been kicking around.

  • The memory scene: Physical address space != physical memory != virtual memory != virtual address space
  • Consequences of the way CPUs work: How my O(n) algorithm can run circles around your O(log n) algorithm; why much of what you learned in school simply doesn't matter
  • Parent vs. owner windows
  • Asynchronous input queues, the hazards of attaching thread input, and how it happens without your knowledge
  • Dialog units, DPI and the overloaded term "large fonts"

Would you go to a talk that covered these topics? If not, what topics would you rather hear me talk about?

Follow-up: The talk will be a little over an hour. (And fixed the title. Thanks, Dave.)