Jason Sacks's Windows SDK blog

Today we hit the first of a series of ZBBs for our next release, the Windows SDK for Windows Server 2008. At the same time, we're essentially closing up work on our components in Visual Studio 2008. Working on these two releases has made for one of the most interesting years of my professional life. On one hand, I've learned a tremendous amount of new things, both technical and interpersonal. On the other, I've had to learn how to deal with some professional frustrations that are uncomfortable. But isn't that like most any job? Some good, some bad, and a whole bunch in between.

One of the enjoyable new challenges of my job has been in learning new tools and taking on many small projects. Lately I've become a PM in charge of many short-term projects. For example, I was asked just last week to take on two little projects. We're going to remove the .NET Compact Framework 2.0 from our builds and add the .NET Compact Framework 3.5. This means we'll finally be shipping the latest version of the CF, which should add to the usefulness of the SDK. That project looks from all indications to being very simple, and I'm looking forward to doing something that will immediately increase the usefulness of the SDK.

I was also asked to work on removing some incorrect references from our documentation. We ship something like a quarter-million HTML pages in the Windows SDK, spread among some 400 collections, and thus simply running scans against the content can be a massive time hit. Fortunately the main doc tester, Mike, is really good at creating automation to run these scans. Then the trick is to track down docset owners and drive to getting this content out of the SDK. All the collaboration is fun, but it's also complex and tricky. It's always hard to get people to meet your needs when they have a whole bunch of other content in the pipeline.

Of course, with all the fun comes some frustration. I made a check-in error that resulted on our team getting slammed a bit in Visual Studio triage. Sometimes you just have to admit your mistakes, apologize, and try to resolve the problem yourself. This was definitely one of those times. Still, we all make mistakes, and there's no point to sitting around brooding about them.

I've also been wrestling with a problem around good API design, a problem that has bedeviled me for several months now. I keep feeling like I've made positive changes, but keep banging up against the harsh face of reality. Oh well, such is life at this crazy, weird and wonderful company.

Even the negative experiences are positive around here sometimes.