PDC 2008 and more...

Thought I'd start a thread to talk about the PDC and its presented technologies.

Check out the PDC site for videos on the keynote presentations.
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/e...c/default.mspx

Day 1
Windows Azure
http://www.microsoft.com/azure/webdev.mspx




Oh and I got back about an hour ago from the Microsoft MVP dinner :D


For those who know anything about C#, well...

I met Anders Hejlsberg and he sat next to me at dinner!!! :afrog:
Anders is the guy who co-invented C# (C-freaking sharp!!!) We talked all night. :D

I met Brads friend Mark Strawmyer another cool MVP. Brad was already committed to another dinner event. Maybe Wednesday at the Underground party we may be able to meet up. :)

There were pictures taken too. Will post up later. Oh and Lisa is the best! Tons of Thanks go out Lisa and Charlie for organizing the event.

I also saw Beth Massi and Paul Vick there but wasnt able to get over to met them as conversations I was in. :( Perhaps Wednesday :)


Oh the discussions we had. Great people, food and conversations! :)


I cant belive I almost didnt go because I wasnt feeling good and had to fight the downtown LA traffic after work. I would be kicking myself if I missed it now that I went. :D

Definately going to the Underground Party Wednesday.


One final word about Windows 7...

Directly from Microsoft... There is no plans to remove anything from the OS when it comes to the VB6 runtime. Sadly, how its in Vista is how it will be in Windows 7 (Windows 7 is no longer just a code name but the official product name now).


Until tomorrow...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

One final word about Windows 7...

Directly from Microsoft... There is no plans to remove anything from the OS when it comes to the VB6 runtime. Sadly, how its in Vista is how it will be in Windows 7 (Windows 7 is no longer just a code name but the official product name now).

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Not sad at all from my employer's perspective.

Nice not to have to worry about NDAs on the topic anymore too! Now if only they'd get the "support statement" updated.

I really hope I get to go to this event one year. Very nice.

Did you guys watch the video presentation?

Remember that "no longer supported" is different then "it isnt present and cant be installed".

But how many employers will be upgrading to Windows 7 when it first comes out? Not many. So in a year or two and that wil be 2012 or so, so by then do you really think there will be that much of a hold still on VB6? I doubt it as they will want better and more advanced programs that take advantage of the new features in the new OS'

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

I met Anders Hejlsberg and he sat next to me at dinner!!! :afrog:
Anders is the guy who co-invented C# (C-freaking sharp!!!) We talked all night. :D

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Oh big deal. I have had dinner with the guy who was the head of the development team for VB.Net. Actually, I'm not sure how their heirarchy works, so I don't know what his actual title was (he left MS a couple years ago). I've had dinner with him several times. He's even stayed at my house a couple times. How's that for dropping names. He's a great guy.



Oh yeah, he's also married to my sister.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Did you guys watch the video presentation?

Remember that "no longer supported" is different then "it isnt present and cant be installed".

But how many employers will be upgrading to Windows 7 when it first comes out? Not many. So in a year or two and that wil be 2012 or so, so by then do you really think there will be that much of a hold still on VB6? I doubt it as they will want better and more advanced programs that take advantage of the new features in the new OS'

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There are programs that just need to print out invoices or keep track of your sales. I don't think that for that kind of software you need the new features present in Windows 7. That's why it still makes a lot of sense to keep distributing the VB6 runtime together with the OS.

I think the decision was also meant to prevent the need for VB6 migration from impeding adoption of Windows 7 in general. The cost of including the VB6 runtime as a continuing preinstalled, protected component of Windows and testing the core set of DLLs and OCXs is relatively small since that has already been done for Windows 2008 Server.

I suspect that the Support Statement will change very little besides adding Windows 7 to the list of OSs.

None of this really extends the degree of support for VB6 (limited to "it just works"), only the duration. Depending on when Windows 7 is actually released this means through 2019 or 2020 going by Microsoft's Life Cycle policies as they exist today.

So you can continue on your same path of depending upon the vb6 runtimes being present but remember that when they say they are no longer supported, all that means is that they will not be releasing any bug fixes or service packs for it.

@SH, just was a big deal for me is all Im pointing out as someone who co-devveloped C# , I think, is a totally different ball of wax as compared to a development team manager.

Oh and Paul Vick, Lisa Feigenbaum and Beth Massi were also there if you want to compete with names lol.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dilettante

I think the decision was also meant to prevent the need for VB6 migration from impeding adoption of Windows 7 in general. The cost of including the VB6 runtime as a continuing preinstalled, protected component of Windows and testing the core set of DLLs and OCXs is relatively small since that has already been done for Windows 2008 Server.

I suspect that the Support Statement will change very little besides adding Windows 7 to the list of OSs.

None of this really extends the degree of support for VB6 (limited to "it just works"), only the duration. Depending on when Windows 7 is actually released this means through 2019 or 2020 going by Microsoft's Life Cycle policies as they exist today.

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Windows 7 is expected to release (RTM version) end of 2009 or early 2010.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

So you can continue on your same path of depending upon the vb6 runtimes being present but remember that when they say they are no longer supported, all that means is that they will not be releasing any bug fixes or service packs for it.

@SH, just was a big deal for me is all Im pointing out as someone who co-devveloped C# , I think, is a totally different ball of wax as compared to a development team manager.

Oh and Paul Vick, Lisa Feigenbaum and Beth Massi were also there if you want to compete with names lol.

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I like the gender ratio, but other than that the names mean nothing to me. I think I might keep it that way.

The great thing is that no matter how many famous names you meet, they won't remember yours. I can say that I've met all of the names mentioned and more but I don't think it's really relevant - it's about the content of the conferences that matter. And PDC sounded like a good event for you... I look forward to some of the outcomes of what they've talked about.

Last night was the Underground party at PDC and the presentations were great.

Dynamic programming and the rewritting of the compiler using managed code! We will soon be able to take other code from other languages and simply drop it inline with our .NET code and have it compile and run! :)

For ex. Copy/Paste some python code directly into your C# code and it actually runs!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Dynamic programming and the rewritting of the compiler using managed code! We will soon be able to take other code from other languages and simply drop it inline with our .NET code and have it compile and run! :)

For ex. Copy/Paste some python code directly into your C# code and it actually runs!

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Now that would be slicker than a snot on a doorknob...

It sounds like this has been a decent PDC.

There's another link to the PDC videos here..

(I am not at the PDC unfortunately, so I have nothing else to add)

There are several links for PDC videos all over (your link goes to the new reply page Merrion)

They were really pushing twitter. Never used that site before.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RobDog888

Dynamic programming and the rewritting of the compiler using managed code! We will soon be able to take other code from other languages and simply drop it inline with our .NET code and have it compile and run! :)

For ex. Copy/Paste some python code directly into your C# code and it actually runs!

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That sounds cool. Any details online about how it works? Like can I drop C++ into my C# application and have it compile and run? If I can, does it compile C++ into MSIL or native (or does it depend if it's managed or unmanaged)?

Very intriguing.

Did you watch any of the videos? I was told just the basics that if you copy/paste other language code in line with your C# code that it would compile it into your app and run without error. I didnt get detailed specifics but Im sure there is more out there from others that were lucky enough to actually go to the full week of PDC presentations and labs.