Brad Abrams : PDC

PDC 2009 – I can’t wait!

BradA — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:01:08 GMT

Things are really starting to heat up around here as we get ready for the PDC. Just this week I have talked to folks on Silverlight, Visual Studio, Azure, ASP.NET, .NET RIA Services, MEF that all have very cool new stuff to talk about at the PDC.

We just recently announced the Scott Guthrie will be giving one of the keynotes, so you can be sure that will be fun.. You can bet Scott will be talking about the latest from ASP.NET, Silverlight, the .NET Framework and Visual Studio!

I will also be there to talk about building business application in Silverlight… no rotating images or dancing videos in this talk, it will be all about saving you and your end user’s time by taking advantage of the latest in Silverlight, .NET RIA Services and Visual Studio!

Hope to see you there, but there will also be lots of good content on line if you can’t make it..

Find out more information here: http://microsoftpdc.com/

When I have talked to developers in the past about coming to PDC, one of the things has been convincing their boss that it is worth the time and money.. I’d love to hear any success stories you have had. How have you sold the PDC to your boss? what works?

Best Practices for Wrapping Native Code

BradA — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 23:44:39 GMT

At our talk on Framework Design Guidelines at the PDC, Krzysztof and I were asked about resources for wrapping a native code library in a nice managed code framework.

This is an extremely common pattern. Organizations frequently have large "heritage" investments in C\C++\COM code and now they need to expose that functionality is way that is productive and familiar to .NET developers. Wrapping the native functionality in a well-designed managed library maximizes the productivity of the breadth of .NET developers.

I promised to blog a few resources on how to best accomplish this.

Jesse Kaplan recent PDC talk is relevant: Managed and Native Code Interoperability: Best Practices

CLR Inside Out: Marshaling between Managed and Unmanaged Code
Yi Zhang and Xiaoying Guo - January 2008
Marshaling is an important part of .NET interop. It allows you to call into unmanaged code from managed code. This column will help you get started.

CLR Inside Out: Introduction to COM Interop
Thottam R. Sriram - January 2007
The CLR allows seamless interactions between Microsoft .NET applications and COM. But how, exactly? The CLR team knows.

In addition, Jesse will have a great article in MSDN magazine in Feb 2009.. you should check it out.

Framework Design Guidelines Video from PDC2008 Talk Posted

BradA — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 01:31:25 GMT

The great folks that work tirelessly behind the scenes here at the PDC have already gotten the Framework Design Guidelines Video posted.

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC58/

Enjoy!

Repeat of the MEF talk at PDC2008

BradA — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:14:56 GMT

After the amazing great reception MEF got during ScottGu's keynote yesterday we had tons of people ask about a MEF session. So we are VERY happy to be able to repeat Glenn's MEF session... Please come if you can.

TL33-R Managed Extensibility Framework: Overview [REPEAT]

Wed 10/29 | 4:45 PM-6:00 PM | 409A
Presenter: Glenn Block
Glenn Block

Please Note: This session is a repeat of TL33, which originally took place on October 27th at 1:45PM. The Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) is a new extensibility model in the .NET framework that provides a simple declarative model for application developers and extenders to build openly extensible applications. Come to this session and you'll learn about our Composition model and the APIs that work with it. You'll learn about composable parts, exports, imports and the composition container that brings them all together. You'll see how using the model you can develop open-ended applications that can easily be extended both internally and by third-parties.

Framework Design Guidelines slides from PDC2008 Talk

BradA — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 10:16:27 GMT

Yesterday, Krys and I did a talk on Framework Design Guidelines and how they changed from when we started in 1998 to now in 2008.

They should have the video of the talk up soon, I will post a link when it comes up... in the meantime, check out the slides on SlideShare... Or just grab the slides directly.

Enjoy!

BTW -- if you made it to PDC2008 , please take a minute to fill out the eval for sessions that you attended, we'd love to have your feedback!

Session Evaluation
You can access evaluations easily by locating the () icon next to each specific session in the PDC Timeline.

thanks!

Framework Design Guidelines Talk @ PDC2008

BradA — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 02:04:41 GMT

I am very excited to be giving a Framework Design Guidelines talk at the PDC this year. Krzysztof and I think of this as our "victory lap" for publishing the Framework Design Guidelines 2nd Edition.

As we were talking about what to cover in this talk, Krys and I realized that it has been just about 10 years since we started that very first version of the Framework Design Guidelines. This is well before we started working on the book, in fact it was before .NET Framework 1.0 shipped or was even announced (which, btw, was at PDC2000).

We got to thinking about how things have changed, both in the guidelines and in the industry. Equally interesting is how much has stayed the same. I am particularly interested in what stayed the same over that time.. As we wrote even those first guidelines we knew it was very important that they last. In fact, we needed them to be timeless. About the same time a friend was in the process of designing and building her own home and she gave be a book that still shapes the way I think about software design today: Christopher Alexander, The Timeless Way of Building.

If you are able to come to the PDC this year, please come by our session, it will be a lot of fun.

Framework Design Guidelines
Mon 10/27 | 5:15 PM-6:30 PM | 403AB

Otherwise, you can check streaming video of the session from the PDC website.

thanks!

Framework Design Guidelines 2nd Edition: Order Yours Now!

BradA — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:29:46 GMT

Amazon just put Framework Design Guidelines 2nd Edition up for pre-order. If you are coming to the PDC in LA (and there are still slots open), you can be the first to buy a copy... Amazon and your local brick-and-mortar store will have them over the coming weeks.

What's New in the 2nd edition?

Updated with new features from .NET Framework 3.0 and 3.5
Tons of new annotations from industry experts
Extension methods
Linq, Linq, Linq!!
New Async Pattern
Serialization guidelines
Dependency Properties guidelines
Significant updates to the Exceptions section
Small things such as operator parameters, DateTimeOffset, Nullable
Nearly every page has some sort of update from small grammar fixes to wording clarifications

I have the first edition, should I buy this one?

While I would of course love everyone to buy the 2nd edition (maybe give it to friends and family for Christmas), if you already have the first edition you made not need this one. We try very hard to make sure the guidelines we cannonize into the Framework Design Guidelines are timeless... As such no guidelines fundamentally changed. So if you are happy with the edition you have and you are not yet using or having questions about the new sections, then you can pass on edition 2.

Of course the first edition is likely to become a collectors item, so hold on to it even if you get the 2nd edition as well ;-)

Order now!

100+ PDC Sessions Posted

BradA — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 05:33:12 GMT

I just saw that we released another round of PDC sessions... This is the first PDC for years where I have not been personally deeply involved in the planning, so it is fun for me to watch in unfold..

https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/sessions.aspx

If you have not already, please register as the early bird discount runs out on August 15th.

I thought I'd highlight a few of the sessions I have some context on. I'd love to have your feedback on these as well any other thoughts you have about PDC this year.

Deploying Web Applications with IIS7.0 and the Web Deployment Tool

There is some very cool work going on in Dev10 to make it much easier to deploy ASP.NET applications to testing and production and to internal web farms and large hosters.

Windows 7: Touch Computing

Think Surface for the masses ;-)

Deep Dive: Building an Optimized, Graphics-Intensive App in Silverlight

I love these deep dive talks, especially with Silverlight 2 shipping, I think many customers will be wanting set them selves up to get the most out of SL. Do you think we should try to cover the common ground with WPF graphics in the same talk?

Silverlight: Building Business Applications

I have talked to a number of customers that are deeply interested in Enterprise RIA applications. This talk will show some patterns as well as some future product directions. Do you have a killer scenario we should use as an example for this?

ASP.NET: Future Roadmap

We need a more catchy title for this, but our goal is to tell you folks what we are think we have heard from you on the direction ASP.NET should take in the future and get your feedback on that.

ASP.NET MVC: A New Framework for Building Web Applications

You gotta have a MVC talk -- this one in particular will seek to introduce MVC... Do you think we need a deeper dive as well?

Deep Dive: Understanding the Microsoft Silverlight Subset of Windows Presentation Foundation

The biggest strength .NET has is an consistent end-to-end continuum... This talk will show you how to leverage the compatibility between Silverlight and WPF to share code and designer assets to maximize the value of both platforms. Has anyone tired this out yet? what works for you and what would you like more guidance on?

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8: Developer Overview

IE8 is doing a ton to make ajax developers more productive.

Microsoft Silverlight 2: Control Model

Are you more interested in hearing about all the controls (including a few new ones) and how to get the most out of them or on how to build your own controls?

A Lap around "Oslo"

The Chris Anderson and Don Box show is back! This is a must see for the pure entertainment value!

Parallel Programming for Managed Developers with the Next Version of Microsoft Visual Studio

We are starting to see a groundswell of interest in parallel computing on .NET... this talk will go into some cool things we are doing in Visual Studio and .NET to make it easier.

Agile Development with Microsoft Visual Studio

While I am not deeply involved in this, it is great that VS is embracing TDD, refactoring and other agile methods!

The Future of C#

Who could miss Anders Hejlsberg? Last PDC Anders introduced us to LINQ -- this year what will it be?

Future Directions for Microsoft Visual Basic

And to be fair, Paul Vick will show you where VB is going...

Welcome to PDC08!

BradA — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:21:48 GMT

I can't believe it, it is PDC time again! We are back in LA Oct 27th-30th, I hope you can make it!

You can register here: http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Registration/

You can check out a very small sampling of session here: http://www.microsoftpdc.com/Agenda/Sessions.aspx

Our general theme for PDC sessions is all about super deep session that get you an under the covers look at how the developer platform really works and future looking sessions so you see and influence the future technology wave...

A few interesting things we will be talking about:

The Live Developer platform, including the MESH.
"Cloud Computing" from computation, to storage and much more!
"Visual Studio 10" and .NET Framework 4.0
ASP.NET Futures including v.next of MVC, Ajax and Dynamic data
Silverlight Futures, including Silverlight for business applications
And much, much more.

What would you like to see at the PDC?

PDC08: I can't wait!

BradA — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 02:18:16 GMT

We just announced that PDC 2008 will be in LA Oct 27-30...

I just love the PDC... it is a HUGE conference and is very developer focused. My team is actively working on some great stuff that will come out right around the PDC... So folks on my team are already competing for a chance to go to the PDC and tell you all about it... I hope you can be there to hear it first hand!

Mark your calendars and save the date. More information coming soon.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/pdc2008

PDC 2007: Save the date…

BradA — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 07:39:00 GMT

Folks, something tells me 2007 is going to be a great year for developers… Just as we start the planning process for Mix '07, I saw that we announced the dates and location for PDC 2007… As most of you know, we only hold the PDC when there is big developer news. So it is a conference you don't want to miss for forward thinking announcements, and of course bits!

It will be Oct 2-5 in LA! See you there!

Book Recommendations from the PDC CLR Panel

BradA — Tue, 11 Oct 2005 17:33:00 GMT

At the PDC during the CLR Futures panel an attendee asked the panel what books they recommended on the CLR… I promised to blog the list that the panel suggested.. so here it is (a little late). Notice this is NOT meant to be an exhaustive list… this is just the few books that popped into the minds of the panelist. Most of them were authored by or in very close collaboration with the CLR product development team.

BTW –Amazon has a decent list of the top .NET Books, they seem to have some categorization issues, but it is a good starting point none the less.

Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming - Jeff has always worked closely with the product team..

CLR via C#, Second Edition – which is an updated version of Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming for .NET Framework and C# 2.0

Professional .NET Framework 2.0 - Written by a PM on my team, Joe Duffey...

The Common Language Infrastructure Annotated Standard - Jim Miller, an Architected on the CLR team was editor on this publication of the standard

.NET and COM: The Complete Interoperability Guide - Adam Nathan was the test lead for COM interop on the CLR team for a long time

.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 1 - You know this guy ;-)

.NET Framework Standard Library Annotated Reference, Volume 2 - You know this guy ;-)

Framework Design Guidelines : Conventions, Idioms, and Patterns for Reusable .NET Libraries - You know this guy ;-)

Shared Source CLI Essentials - This book is about ROTOR and the product team worked on it directly

Customizing the Microsoft .NET Framework Common Language Runtime - Steven was a PM on the CLR team for a long time owning, you guest it, hosting!

.NET Framework Security - The members of the team that designed CAS on the CLR team owned it...

Improving .NET Application Performance and Scalability (Patterns & Practices) - Rico and others contributed heavily to this...

Did we miss your favorate CLR book? Any comments on these books? I'd love to hear it...

WinForms PDC follow-up

BradA — Tue, 20 Sep 2005 08:27:00 GMT

Jessica did a great post listing the frequently asked questions she received while at the PDC this year… I only hope more teams do the same thing. This is an excellent resource!

http://blogs.msdn.com/jfoscoding/archive/2005/09/19/471492.aspx

PDC: Download slides for the breakout sessions

BradA — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 02:19:00 GMT

Folks at the PDC can download slides from breakouts by going to… you guessed it CommNet… Here is the particular URL:

http://microsoftpdc.com/content/downloads.aspx

It typically takes 24 hours or so from the time the session is given until they are posted.

update: fixed URL...

Getting ready for the PDC Panel: Looking Ahead to the Future of the CLR

BradA — Fri, 16 Sep 2005 00:12:00 GMT

By far the thing I like most about the PDC is hearing from customers… that means the Q&A part of any presentation is what I find most interesting. So it is no wonder that panels are my favorite format at the PDC… because they are nothing but Q&A…

This year I will be hosting the “Future of the CLR Panel”… I am really looking forward to hearing your questions and comments about the CLR generally and our future direction specifically.

I’d love to gather a few questions ahead of time, so comment here or drop me a line with questions or topics you think we should cover.. I will do my best to get them in.