The Old New Thing

That (microsoftpdc.com) has to one of the worst sites in terms of usability I have ever seen. I know, I know, there's nothing you can do about it, Raymond, I'm just venting, and warning anyone else who uses it (maybe it is better with a browser other than FF).

Seems like your updated description is already there. Now I'm wondering what the old one was.

After three years here at Microsoft, there's still one thing I haven't gotten used to:  everyone referring to the Windows API as Win32.  I worked at many ISVs before coming to MSFT.  At all of those places, we said "WinAPI" (rhymes with "sappy").  Win32 (or Win16, Win32s, etc.) was reserved for those times where you had to make a distinction between the different flavors of the Windows API.  Now that 64-bit computing is becoming mainstream in the PC world, I'm continually surprised how entrenched the Win32 moniker has become.  Where's Win64?

Someone mod "Whatever" up! :) Bleargh!

Particularly annoying is that your browser's "find in page" can't scroll to the bit that says "chen" when you search for it, due to the completely non-standard (and ugly) panel/scrollbar thing. You actually have to do manually scroll and search by eye to find the talk you're looking for.

(For those still looking, it's about 2/3 of the way down)

The closest thing to a direct link is this Channel 9 page:

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC43/

I got it from clicking on "View Session Details"  via https://sessions.microsoftpdc.com/public/sessions.aspx# . (Though, it doesn't offer many details)

The sessions page is completely unusable if JavaScript isn't enabled. I think those responsible need to learn something about progressive enhancement - or, at the very least, graceful degradation.

You can link to it here

http://channel9.msdn.com/pdc2008/PC43/

Sometimes I think the only reason some people have Javascript disabled is so they can complain about all the sites that don't work with Javascript disabled.

Sometimes I think the only reason some people have <x> disabled is so they can complain about all the sites that don't work with <x> disabled.

Replace <x> with:

Cookies

Javascript

Pop-ups

Flash

Silverlight

Java

ActiveX

Can you honestly say you have them all enabled on your web browser?  If so, you are a braver man than I.

I think web browsing (and hopefully computing in general) will really start to slide in the direction of end-user interests rather than corporate interests.  The only sane way to browse the web today is Firefox + Adblock Plus + NoScript.

It's really telling when you I have to View Source to easily find Raymond's session and read the description.

Does anyone know if there's going to be a DVD available of this talk?  I won't be able to go to the PDC, but I'd like to see it.

Nothing like a good bit of foreground activation to get me in the mood... :P

WPF is the way of the future, and since it doesn't use Windows controls at all, who cares about changes to comctl32.

Brian> After the last PDC, MS hosted videos of all the talks for a few months. They might do the same this year.  

The description is corrected, but the title and tags are still "Windows 7"... :O

"WPF is the way of the future"

Look at the title of this blog. In fact, look at Raymond's actual words: "I don't talk about the future; I talk about the past"

Isn't JavaScript the 'J' in Ajax, though? The usability improvements from Ajax transformed the Web. AdBlock Plus, definitely, but I can't imagine seriously browsing without JavaScript these days.

The main problem with javascript these days is that there are a bunch of malicious scripts out there. There is one running around that uses SQL injection to embed itself into a website, which then causes the user visiting that site to get a bunch of stuff installed on their PC. What's worse is a bunch of legit sites are infected as well. A lot of security issues are resolved by having javascript off by default (including XSS ones).

And extensions like NoScript make the web faster by not having the browser stall if you accidentally click on a link that forces a plugin to load. Plus all those annoying "rich media ads" go away too.

I don't know who made this PDC site but why can't they use overflow: auto instead of this freakin idiotic javascript scrollbar. Besides they could make direct linking happen with the wonderful url #anchor stuff that can be read out by javascript which could then scroll the overflow: auto (!!!) list and select the correct item...

PingBack from http://www.istartedsomething.com/20080925/new-windows-7-sessions-at-pdc08/

> I think web browsing (and hopefully computing in general) will really start to slide in the direction of end-user interests rather than corporate interests.

You're more of an optimist than I am, then.

PingBack from http://www.joyofsetup.com/2008/09/26/windows-7-msi-session-at-pdc/

FYI: Find seems to work fine in IE8, except it breaks the scroll.

GRiNSER, at least in Firefox 3, named anchors scroll overflowed areas automatically.

Oh, Raymond, can you push ILC_COLOR32 to be the default for imagelist flags? I've seen too many icons broken because of programmers uncaring about it (in Windows too), and this is certainly not the big compatibility issue (much more things were broken on Classic->XP->Vista comctl32 path).

From Frank Schwad:

"Can you honestly say you have them all enabled on your web browser?"

How can I enable ActiveX in GNU/Linux?

The Web is so "open" that you need a Windows+IE PC to use it!

From Merus:

"The usability improvements from Ajax transformed the Web."

Making pretty any site unusable. Making direct linking, bookmarking, multi-windows browsing, printing almost impossible, and making the browser unresponsive with 512K ADSL connections (I don't even know what it is with a 56K).

Hello Raymond!! you are my hero, are you working on Windows 7?