Impressions from within a Software Company

PDC Day 2 - Wednesday: WinFX, Expression and Sharepoint

InLikeFlint — Thu, 15 Sep 2005 04:13:00 GMT

This morning, it was hard to get up in time to get to the Conference Center by 8:30, since it required leaving at 7:30 from the hotel as usual due to the Los Angeles traffic. I am not the type to get up early in the morning and prefer to work late instead. Oh well, not much longer!

Today's general session was opened by Senior Vice Presidents Eric Rudder (Servers and Tools) and Steven Sinofsky (Office). Eric introduced David Treadwell and Dennis Pilarinos, who showed how Windows Workflow Foundation or WinFX for short, allows development and management of applications could be managed in a very visual workflow format, such that the initial design of how a system will work, can be set out in a process diagram, and the underlying processes and code can be built up from within those processes. Something that clearly will save time and ensure all avenues and scenarios are covered in the development design.

Next came demonstrations from Brian Goldfarb, Joe Marini, and Mark Boulter of each of the new web design tools, under the head of Microsoft Expression. Clearly the suite of 3 applications will make graphic editing and web design and development very much easier, since they are built around interaction and integration with Visual Studio so that both the Visual Designer and the developer can work together on the UI and the code beneath it without either of them having to do part of the other person's job. The Graphic Designer package allowed editing of photos and graphics in a very simple and professional way. We were treated to the lasso tool perfected by MS Research to locate the edge of a person in the midst of another photo, and cleanly cut them out of the picture to paste into the foreground of another. I have never seen it done so easily before. There is a demo available for all of the packages too.

Eric then went on to introduce Visual Studio for Applications with the help of Shoshanna Budzianowski who gave us a walk through of how AutoCad (from AutoDesk) with VSTA embedded in it, allowed it to be extended to include events and forms tied into specific actions on diagrams created in the tool. The example was when a particular part of a fictional projector was changed from plastic to carbon fiber. Instantly the suppliers of carbon fiber parts were displayed, allowing a price comparison and then the exact specifications to be added to the diagram and ordered if necessary. This formed a nice segue for David Mitchell (from UGS) to talk about how from the CAD perspective, XML and XAML in particular allows for data across different applications performing the same task, to be shared between companies and across the enterprise.

Finally, various improvements in document management and collaboration were demonstrated by Steven Sinofsky in the latest version of Sharepoint Services, from which I know my group will benefit.

After that, individual tracks and sessions began, and since I am interested in MSN, Web Services and Databases, I looked for those tracks and attended the following. At the time of writing, all of the presentations made from the previous day across all tracks and sessions are available on the Download Site, but I have listed and linked below, the specific sessions I attended:

DAT200: Future Directions for Data-Driven Applications: Storage, Applications, APIs, hosted by David Campbell, General Manager of SQL Server.

Covering how data is now being born digitally rather than being created in analog form and then digitized/scanned, David explained that there is a larger amount of meta data that can be inferred from the media, files and any object needing to be stored and retrieved, since this metadata is being created upstream ie. when the object is created rather than being added manually later. The raw objects can be located anywhere, but the meta data associated with them can be pulled together and analyzed, sorted, queried etc. A key point here was that there are things you can do if you pull this data together into a reporting structure to actually query and join the data rather than relying on Search for everything i.e. Query vs. Search, since the latter will rarely allow you to join and filter the data by other data or views from different sources.

Meta data can be inferred to. For example, if a whole series of photos are taken within a short period of a couple of hours, then it is logical to infer that they were taken at a particular event. The UI of an upload tool could reasonably ask the user for the event name and add this to the meta data of all of the photos, saving a lot of time.

David went on to talk about LINQ (ADO.NET) the Language Integrated Query, and showed how, with the addition of a DLL into the code for C# or VB.NET, the methods and verbs necessary to attach to, query, update and deal with the returned data are much more easily created in an untuitive way. This actually began to remind me of the Visual Foxpro language set, since data access, querying and manipulation are native to that language. We appear to be moving the more popular .NET languages in the same direction. I am still a fan of Visual Foxpro, so anything that makes C# and VB.NET easier to use when dealing with remote and local data, is a great thing. The whole LINQ feature is going to increase productivity of developers everywhere.

Shishir Mehrota (WinFS PM) made a presentation in this session too, showing us a StoreSpy application which is a developer tool to pull together and see what's in your store e.g. mail, meetings, pictures, house listings etc.

The data and views can be created against different sets of data, but then pulled into higher level queries within StoreSpy. Even these queries can then be stored as views and then made available for filtering and data analysis, for reporting against your data ni new and very useful ways.

PRSL02: Cast Study: How Hotmail used Atlas and ASP.NET Web Applications and Services, hosted by Walter Hsueh, Development Lead of Hotmail Front-Door (the UI).

COM301: MSN Messenger: Extending MSN Messenger with Multi-person Instant Messaging Applications, hosted by Scott Swanson, Group Product Planner, and Carmen Zlataff, Lead PM.

OFF409: Windows Sharepoint Services: Advancements in Document, Content, and Data Storage, hosted by Dustin Friesenhahn, Program Manager for Sharepoint.

DAT313: SQL Server BI: Adding Reporting and Analysis to Smart Client Application, hosted by Jamie MacLennan and Brian Welcker

I will update this post with more information on my findings in each presentation later...

WPF? Windows Vista, Office 12 and SQL Server 2005

InLikeFlint — Wed, 14 Sep 2005 09:07:00 GMT

PDC 05

As I waited at Los Angeles airport, for a mini-bus to take us to the hotel, I was already looking forward to all the announcements and cool presentations I knew would be made at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference. My enthusiasm though, was dwarfed by the apparent and very tangible excitement of my fellow passengers who were anticipating the same thing, but also the gigabytes of free (normally expensive) released and beta software, and to glimpse into the inner workings of Microsoft that I tend to take for granted. My fellow passengers were of course, customers. Developers, consultants and software architects representing Microsoft customers from all over the world, had flown in to be present at the 2005 PDC. Roughly 7000 of them in fact, were descending on Los Angeles and as they did so, Microsoft Developers, Vice Presidents and Program Managers, along with many other sponsoring companies, were busy preparing to receive them.

The Microsoft staff had come to tell the developers about radical improvements in Windows, Office, SQL Server and .NET technologies. They were preparing documentation and slideshows on tips and tricks, best practices, and other launches that make this event one of the most informative in the Microsoft calendar. Even after attending my first day today, it was clear that this was one such event, and our customers would not be disappointed.

On a personal note, I appeal to the organizers, for the next PDC to be hosted somewhere else with a better infrastructure for public transport and fewer cars on the road, since it took 3 hours to get from the airport to the hotel on arrival on Monday afternoon, and each trip to the Conference center from my hotel in Hollywood, takes around 40 minutes. I have spent far too long travelling on this trip, and I think we would all benefit from somewhere less gridlocked!

Day 3 - Tuesday 13th of September

This is actually my first day of attendance, and in common with most attendees, my first real session was the key note speeches by Bill Gates and Jim Allchin. In his keynote speech, Bill set the scene for the PDC and commented on how popular the PDC was, even when other shows like Comdex have gone by the wayside, unable to draw sufficient audiences, since the internet now provides so much information and media that you rarely need to spend the time or money traveling to events like these. In addition to showing us an amusing recruitment video featuring Napolean Dynamite as a fellow geek, Bill set out the idea that Microsoft has reached a point of building a solid foundation that can be taken for granted in building applications for the internet, server and client, that amazing applications can be built on.

Bill described how far computer hardware has come since Microsoft started, and how communication is growing faster and faster, and how a service oriented architecture is where Microsoft is currently focusing. Next, introducing Chris Caposella, Bill covered briefly the advances made in Windows Vista and the underlying platforms, along with Office 12, both of which are targeted to fully release around this time next year. All attendees could however take the copy of the Beta Version of Windows Vista home with them to test on their own PCs (Part of a package called "The Goods", which all attendees are given).

Chris provided some entertaining and enlightening views on Windows Vista and Office 12. It is clear that the graphics power of the PC is really being utilized with this operating system, as informative touches are abound, as well as a very tight integration with contextual search is available everywhere. Clearly, wherever it could be made to look 3 dimensional, the Vista developers had done it. The lower taskbar, now shows miniature views of the running applications they represent, even a running video is shown in a realtime thumbnail view as you hover the mouse over each application icon in the taskbar. The same happens with Alt-Tab, so that it's easier to see the applications that are running.

The ability to start an application or find a file simply by entering some of the name into the start menu search box, makes it easier to use, and faster to get going. Many different views on your files, regardless of physical location (local or shared on a central server, or shared peer to peer between you and your friends), all make this a very easy to use system, and throughout the demo you begin to feel the need to upgrade the moment it becomes available. It's far more than a facelift. It's a combination of features and work to provide foundations in Presentation, Data management, Communication, and secure Services.

Not only were there advances in the client application environment, but also in the web environment. Using new technologies like Atlas, Windows Presentation Foundation light (WPF/E), AJAX (Asynchronous Java Script in XML), web applications can run smoothly and act like any client application, with all the richness of a 3-D animated UI.

Chris went onto Internet Explorer 7.0, and how it adds tabs (of course) but also a new thumbnail view of those tabs, making it easier to view and store those as a single favorite, to restore the same web environment any time you need. IE 7 also adds more security to protect against Phishing by warning the user and communicating with a central service to report and learn about new Phishing sites all the time.

RSS as a data source, features strongly in all presentations and demonstrations during the day, and of course subscribing to RSS feeds both in the browser and on the desktop are easier, now that there is also an addition Sidebar feature of Windows Vista for all those things you want running all the time, which provide useful information you want to get to quickly. There is even a feature for laptops which allows the Sidebar applications to show up as a Sideshow in a small LCD window on the closed laptop, for things like weather, reminders etc., just like a PDA, so that you don't have to open the laptop to see the information - even if it's switched off in most cases. Developers are encouraged to create new applications for the sidebar, called "gadgets", to further add value to the concept.

Chris then moves onto Office 12, indicating that the mantra for the team is to "get better results, faster", and in doing so, they have improved the menu system of all the Office suite of applications, moing away from drop down menus, which were getting difficult to navigate with 1500 commands available. Many of the wish list items from customers frequently asked for features which were already present in the applications, but were difficult to find. Office 12 will address that by making things easier to find, group and use, by providing more iconic categorized menus available in an area between the menu bar and the content.

I won't go into all of the Office 12 features here, since you can read the full transcript of Bill and Chris' speech and presentations, as well as view the Webcast yourselves. The (almost) live webcast option appears to be low quality right now, especially audio, but within a few days I am sure the edited version will be there in the on-Demand section.

Next Jim Alchin gave his keynote speech, and went into much further detail on Windows. Starting with another example of how far we have come, he demonstrated Windows Version 1 on an IBM PC-XT, giving us a brief view of the windows leading to the Reversi game. Then switching gears, showed us a short video of the graphics and real-life details of the next version of Far Cry from the CryTek company. An amazing leap forward in the 20 years it took to get here.

Jim's full keynote transcript is available online, along with the transcript from Darryn Dieken, Charles Fitzgerald, Don Box, Anders Hejlsberg, Chris Anderson ,and Scott Guthrie, who spent time showing just how easy it was to use the new Windows Foundations to develop first class applications in very little time. They actually wrote the client and server code during the presentation, and it worked flawlessly.

To close this section, a full application called Max, was demonstrated by Hillel Cooperman, to show how quickly a full application could be built on these new foundations, and how smooth and good looking the whole user interface is. This application is also available for download on: http://www.microsoft.com/max

Finally, one of Microsoft's customers had the opportunity to show their latest creation, based on Windows Vista foundations. Joe Flannery, the vice president of marketing for North Face, and their web site development consultants were represented by Mark Belanger, CTO and co-founder of Fluid. Together they demonstrated multiple overlapping video presentations and views on products and commercials which will wow their customers in months to come - especially as it was all a Web Application!

As it was getting close to lunch time, poor Dee Dee Walsh then had a tough time holding the audience interest in a development which is important, if almost incidental. The Digital Locker, allows Microsoft to keep track of all the software purchases you make, for download, so that you can't lose them if your PC Hard drive dies, or you lose the license documentation. Regardless of the vendor you purchased the software from, the central account you hold against your Passport account, will save this information for you and can enable you to download the software again, directly from the site if needed.

I also attended several sessions after that, including a really interesting one on SQL Service Messaging, for communication between different services. This is something available in SQL Server 2005, and something I think our team will be able to use, since it closely matches a feature we had to build ourselves. We will see.

One interesting promotion today was a batch of 1000 JasJar Pocket PC Phones, from i-mate. These were to retail at $1054.95, but the lucky 1000 attendees who managed to get down to the purchasing counters, and enter their orders, were able to buy them for just $149! There were also 250 blue-tooth headsets for just $9.99. A considerable discount on both items, and just one of the many promotions being made both within the sessions, and in the Expo, where companies like Intel, AMD, HP, Dell and many others were showing off the power of the PC and Microsoft together with their expertise.

Looking forward to Wednesday, when will get similar general session introductions from Eric Rudder, Senior VP for Servers and Tools, and Steve Sinofsky, Senior VP of Office.

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My first PDC

InLikeFlint — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 21:12:00 GMT

I am a Program Manager in MSN and next week I will be going to the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles for the first time. My role here touches on many products that we produce, such as Hotmail, MSN Messenger, MSN Mobile, MSN Spaces, and MSN TV, by providing web services for the centralized Address Book for all Passport users of those applications. So I will be looking for sessions that talk about Web Services in general, SQL Databases, Social Networking etc.

To that end, I am certainly going to take the advice of Dare, and visit these sessions as a priority:

COM301 MSN Messenger: Extending MSN Messenger with Multi-Person Instant Messaging Applications

Day/Time: Wednesday, September 14 1:45 PM- 3:00 PM Room: 406 AB

Speaker(s): Scott Swanson

Session Type(s): Breakout

Session Level(s): 300

Track(s): Communications

This session covers the architecture and design of multi-person IM applications within MSN Messenger using the Messenger Activity API. We show how to use the peer-to-peer capabilities of the Activity API to build multi-user IM applications that can send files, instant messages, data, and integrate with other services. Build your IM applications to work with MSN Messenger, the world's largest instant messaging service with more than 165 million customers worldwide.

DAT322 MSN Search: Building Web and Desktop Search into Your Applications

Day/Time: Thursday, September 15 5:15 PM- 6:30 PM Room: 409 AB

Speaker(s): Seth Demsey, Chris McConnell

Session Type(s): Breakout

Session Level(s): 300

Track(s): Data & Systems

This session shows you how to harness the power of Web and Desktop Search within your applications. We provide an overview of the MSN Search APIs for both searching the Web and your desktop. We then demonstrate how to use these APIs to create applications that harness the power of searching your local data and Web data.

DATL03 Tips, Tricks & Hacks to MSN Search and Desktop Search Platforms

Day/Time: Friday, September 16 12:00 PM- 12:45 PM Room: 403 AB

Speaker(s): Andy Edmonds

Session Type(s): Lunch Session

Track(s): Data & Systems

This session will show you how to get the most of MSN Search and Windows Desktop Search. From advanced syntax to API usage and RSS, you will be equipped to get exactly what you want from these search tools. Learn about the ranking sliders which allow you to emphasize freshness or popularity in the results. We will also be distributing a hack which customizes MSN Search to the needs of a PDC attendee. For Windows Desktop Search you'll learn how to make yourself more productive with advanced query syntax, Deskbar shortcuts, additional locations and customized previews.

DATL05 Case Study: Extending Virtual Earth for Windows Mobile Devices

Day/Time: Thursday, September 15 1:00 PM- 1:45 PM Room: 404 AB

Speaker(s): Steve Lombardi

Session Type(s): Lunch Session

Track(s): Data & Systems

MSN Virtual Earth (www.virtualearth.com) is an evolution of local search technology that gives consumers a deeply immersive search experience where they can easily find, discover, plan, and share what is important to them. Microsoft is now harnessing its extensive search and mapping assets to create an entirely new local search experience for consumers and businesses. In this session, learn how you can programmatically tap into the power of Virtual Earth to location enable your device applications. Learn how the powerful managed code features of Windows Mobile 5.0 enable you to integrate your devices contacts and calendar with Virtual Earth's powerful search and mapping engines.

PNL09 APIs in the Sky: Developing Public Web Services

Day/Time: Friday, September 16 10:30 AM- 12:00 PM Room: 152/153 (Hall F)

Speaker(s): Don Box, Seth Demsey, Omri Gazitt, Alan Geller, David Nielsen, Doug Purdy

Session Type(s): Panel

Track(s): Communications

Want to know how Amazon, Paypal and MSN design, build, and maintain their Web services? Interested in learning best practices and key insights from the architects of Windows Communication Foundation ("Indigo")? If so, this is the panel for you. Join Don Box and other industry luminaries as they discuss the practical trade-offs involved when building Web services today and what you can expect to see in the near and long-term future.

I hope to see you there.

I will be taking photos and making notes of my first impressions from the sessions and the stands, so if you are interested in seeing what goes on, even if you can't attend, I will do my best to provide the highlights for you to digest.

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