You've reached the internet home of Chris Sells, who has a long history as a contributing member of the Windows developer community. He enjoys long walks on the beach and various computer technologies.
Sunday, Nov 16, 2003, 9:29 AM in .NET
WinFS = Windows Foo System
Here. Mike Deem, PM on the WinFS team, lays out the core story of WinFS. It's an object store, not a file system. WinFS uses XML to describe the types of items that can be stored and then exposes .NET types for creating and finding items in the store. Also, and this is where the confusion comes from (and the codename of the technology doesn't help), when a file is created in a certain part of the system (\\localhost\DefaultStore), an item is created in the underlying store automatically. This item is used to allow the same finding code to work for things that are file-backed, like images, and for things that aren't file-backed, like contacts. Unfortunately, the story that Mike tells isn't complete yet, because custom item types can't be added using the PDC Longhorn bits, but a few of today's facts shouldn't ruin a good story of tomorrow. : )
Saturday, Nov 15, 2003, 3:37 PM
First Computing Experience
Here. Brad Wilson and Chris Anderson list their first computing experiences. My first was in the library where I grew up (my mom was a single librarian for a while and needed to bring me to work). I was about 5 years old and the "computer" was a giant VT paper terminal. Every command I typed when onto 132-column pin-feed paper and was also sent across town to the U of MN's computers. I played maze and hunt the wumpus for hours. My first programming experience was Applesoft Basic on an Apple II+ (my mom asked if I wanted an Apple //e, but I thought that 80 columns and lower case was just a fad : ). During high school, I spent 4 years as a full-time Basic programmer (only attending school during the day). And, like all Basic programmers seem to, I was writing database applications (to track my D&D characters, of course!).
Saturday, Nov 15, 2003, 2:24 PM
Simple Stand-Alone Client for GDN Workspaces
Here. If you're a GDN workspaces fan, but pine for a stand-alone client outside of VS.NET and the browser, have I got a deal for you! Andy Oakley, the GDN Workspaces PM, has posted a stand-alone WinForms client for GDN workspaces. Enjoy.
Saturday, Nov 15, 2003, 1:49 PM in The Spout
My First Meeting with BillGs Technical Advisor
Here. The one where I meet BillG's Technical Advisor and am charmed into volunteering for more work.
Saturday, Nov 15, 2003, 12:00 AM in The Spout
My First Meeting with BillG's Technical Advisor
Saturday, November 15, 2003
In my continuing quest to take advantage of unique experiences at Microsoft for those that aren't able to, I spent an hour in a meeting with Bill Gates's Technical Advisor, Alexander Gounares, earlier this week. Among other things, Alex is responsible for getting answers when Bill asks questions like "Hey, what are we doing about adding air conditioning to Windows?"
I've had meetings with senior execs at MS before and I always end up saying stuff that upsets them. This time, the guy was so nice, I just wanted to nod my head and do whatever he asked of me. In fact, the thing I volunteered to work on (a "vision" whitepaper exploring a new application of technology that's still under development) wasn't so much that he asked me to do it, but rather because he asked for a volunteer and made eye contact with me in such a heart-warming way that I couldn't say no. (Of course, my boss kicking me under the table didn't hurt, either... : )
BTW, in case you wondered, while the Sr. VP I upset knew me from my blog, Alex didn't know me from Adam. : )
For folks keeping track, in my six month career at MS, I gotten to do *lots* of cool stuff:
- Launch the Longhorn Developer Center
- Hang out back stage at the PDC, including preparing to act as Chris Anderson's demo understudy and helping ship one of MSDN's new features (annotations)
- Write a Think Week paper for BillG and receive his comments back on it
- Meet Anders Hejlsberg, Eric Gunnerson and Robert Hess
- Have meetings with several execs, including one Group VP, one Sr. VP and BillG's TA
- Crash a WinFX API review
- Introduce MS to the joy of a DevCon
- Help get my PUM blogging
- Invent an extension to RSS that is getting fairly wide implementation, e.g. SharpReader, RssBandit and .Text.
- Appear on The .NET Show
- Get a few mentions in the press as an official MS employee (including one that my Mom saw that made her very proud : )
- Keep up contact with the community as much as I'm able via email, mailing lists, newsgroups, articles, conference talks and appearances
I list these not to brag, but to reflect on how many cool things there are to do at MS. I assume it's all down hill from here. : )
Friday, Nov 14, 2003, 8:40 PM in .NET
Paul Thurrott Previews PDC Longhorn Thoroughly
Here. Paul Thurrot digs deeply into the PDC build of Longhorn, including impressions, screen shots and videos. Of course, since this is a developer release, the user experience isn't nearly what we plan it to be, but even developers need to know how to use the OS for which they're developing. : )
Thursday, Nov 13, 2003, 4:00 PM in .NET
Brad Abrams of MS Solicits Feedback on WinFS
Here. Brad Abrams, a Lead PM on the WinFX team at Microsoft, *begs* for your feedback on the WinFX API: "Don't complain later if you don't help me fix it now ;-) Please comment or drop me an email or IM."
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003, 6:46 PM in .NET
Windows XP Service Pack 2: A Developer's View
Here. While it's not Longhorn specific, certainly the changes made to security for users and application developers in WinXP SP2 are going to impact those same decisions made in Longhorn. Prepare yourself now!
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003, 6:42 PM in .NET
The XML Application Mark-up Language Reference
Here. Curious what all of the noise about XAML is about? This page in the Longhorn SDK is a complete reference to XAML as of the PDC03. There are all *kinds* of interesting things to check out in XAML. My personal favorite is the Bind element, which is the tip of the data binding iceberg in Avalon. Enjoy.
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003, 6:39 PM in .NET
The Root of All Avalon Apps
Here. If you're building an Avalon application, the one thing you won't be able to live without is an instance of the MSAvalon.Windows.Application object. It's the core of all Avalon apps and where you should start when digging into Longhorn development.
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2003, 6:26 PM in .NET
Complete Namespace Listings for WinFX
Here. Check out the complete list (as of the PDC03) of the namespace listings on WinFX in the Longhorn SDK. Not only are old favorites listed, like System.Collections, but there are lots of new friends, like MSAvalon.* Some of these namesspaces will change name and most of them will change in functionality before they ship, but there's just a treasure-trove of information in them (I'm all excited about digging into System.Speech.Synthesis myself...) Enjoy.
Tuesday, Nov 11, 2003, 9:31 PM in .NET
The Motivation for WinFS
Here. Mike Deem posts his opinion on why WinFS is so important. +1.
Monday, Nov 10, 2003, 5:30 PM in .NET
VS.NET Whidbey Shortcut Expansion
Here. Jeff Key shows a sample custom shortcut for expansion, but he doesn't show what you get. Digging through C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Whidbey\VC#\ExStencil\expansions.xml shows all *kinds* of interesting pre-defined shortcuts to expand. For example, type the following: class Foo { property[TAB] } And VS.NET Whidbey expands the text to the following: class Foo { private int myVar; public int MyProperty { get { return myVar; } set { myVar = value; } } } And not only that, but the "int", "myVar" and "MyProperty" are really fields in a little ad hoc dialog that VS.NET holds with the programmer to fill in these values one at a time separated by the Tab key. Explaining it is way harder than actually using it. It rocks. But wait, there's more. Adding custom shortcuts is merely a matter of adding a new XML file of the appropriate form (see the existing ones for examples) and restarting VS.NET, i.e. no need to edit out-of-the-box VS.NET files, just add your own. Enjoy.
Monday, Nov 10, 2003, 3:32 PM in .NET
Visual Editor for MSBuild
Here. For those of you that don't like writing raw XML if you can help it and that Don and Tim haven't yet converted, there's a Visual Editor for MSBuild. Of course, it's not VS.NET, but what is? : )
Friday, Nov 7, 2003, 5:29 PM
I want my Matrix back!
Here. Seriously, how did one of the best movies in a generation disintegrate into Matrix: Revolutions? I was into the Matrix universe and was willing to let Matrix: Reloaded suck in a typical middle-movie kind of way, but what the hell happened in the 3rd one?!? Anyway, I'm still reeling. Scott says it better than I can.