Managed World

Holy Moly! Could Microsoft release fewer cool products for a while please? :). There has been so many exciting technologies coming out lately that it seems like there is hardly enough time to investigate them all. The latest edition to this group of great technologies? Microsoft Robotics Studio.

There are a few things that excite me about this specific technology (from what limited investigation I have done on it during my lunch break today):

1) It is enabled for both Visual Studio _and_ the Express products (you can even use it from IronPython).

2) Robotic simulation. If you don't have the hardware to play around with it, Microsoft Robotics Studio includes robot simulation using DirectX that you can use to programatically build a robot and show how your "software" would work with the robot. I'm slightly jealous because this was one of the ideas I had behind my next game (take this Studio and make a "battle game" around it, and that was Tanks).

So, I obviously need to play around with this some more. Perhaps I'll still build Tanks now that a good amount of the "leg work" has been done for me through Microsoft Robotics Studio. I'm wondering since Robotics Studio has its own runtime and such, if I can embed that runtime within a game so that I can build a game around it. Heck, that sounds like a fun project as a matter of fact. Perhaps I've found my next endeavor after Spaceballs is finished.

Enjoy! 

As you readers out there may or may not know, I'm a fan of all things games. Heck, you could probably sell me a hunk of plastic if you were able to somehow convince me that it was in fact a game (double-whammy if you were able to convince that it was somehow a football game). This piece of news might help explain why such a little piece of sweet Vista toast can make my evening (although, I must admit, it may have been more "balloon" than it was "toast").

I was in the process of installing Visual Studio 2005 into my VM of Vista Beta 2 this evening when a little nugget popped up to say hello. As Visual Studio was installing, I turned on my XBox 360 to do, well, what we XBox 360 owners do of course (disclaimer: if you do not presently own, or have never owned an XBox 360, it is strongly encouraged that you "waddle right out" and purchase one, post haste [ED: I added the phrase "waddle right out" since the legalese that my "lawyer" (aka "Hugsy, the Bed Time Penguin Pal") came up with was rather drab and boring]).

When the 360's beautiful, glorious, green light came to life and lighted up my life, Vista gave me a little surprise as well. It appears that Vista and the 360 are in fact long lost friends and, to my surprise, Vista shouted with joy when they were finally re-united again. Stargate (aka my Vista box (hey, I've never claimed *not* to be a geek you know)) informed me that not only did he know my 360, but that he would be more than happy to share all his possessions with the 360. The price? Only a few clicks. Heck, that's a price I'm more than willing to pay. After a couple clicks here and there, my Vista machine was ready to share media with my 360 and be inaugurated into our big, happy family. Slap me silly and call me "Mr. Fan-Of-Interconnected-Devices-Who-Are-Easy-To-Setup-And-Share-And-Party-With."

I haven't dug into the depth of this sharing experience yet, but you can bet your bottom dollar that I will start playing around with it this weekend. I'm sorry for such an "over the top" post, but I get so excited when I encounter technology that makes my life better and makes the geek in me cry with joy (and for those who know me, you know I'm large enough to *literally* have an entire geek within me to begin with (dare I say that I, indeed, may actually have a living and breathing geek within my bell-eh (it would certainly explain all the muffled shouting I hear from time to time))).

If only all things in my life could be so easy...

Note: I know that a good amount of this type of functionality is available with Media Center Edition, but alas, I do not have that and this is my first "media sharing" experience with the XBox

I'm going to warn all of you out there now: I'm about to break down the walls and get honest about some of my feelings. If all you want to hear about are unicorns, pretty pink bunnies, and how cuddly-wuddly the whole world is, I encourage you to leave now. No group hugs here. No kumbaiya here. No other camp songs either, for that matter. With that said, let's now move on to the real "schtuff", shall we?

I would like to talk a little bit about the decision to rename WinFX to .NET Framework 3.0. Do I agree with the re-branding of WinFX to .NET Framework? Absolutely. I believe it does communicate the fact that the various WinFX technologies are a _part_ of the Framework now and it will lead to less confusion in the long run. It is now clear that the various WinFX technologies are part of the core platform and, in my mind, that is "A Good Thing."

So, if I am behind the re-branding, what is my problem? Well, my problem is three simple syllables: "three point oh". I can see more confusion being caused by using the 3.0 label for this "version" of the framework in the long run. What does .NET Framework 3.0 have to do with C# 3.0 or the 3.0 runtime? Nothing. What version of the runtime is packaged with .NET Framework 3.0? 2.0. Are there any breaking changes between .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0? Nope. Why? Because the .NET Framework 3.0 uses the 2.0 runtime. Huh? You mean there's no breaking changes even with the major rev of the Framework? No, because they are the same runtime under the hood.

For me, it is slightly reminiscent of the naming mess Sun is in with Java. After all, you have J2EE (Java2) 5.0 (which actually uses version 1.5 of the Java language). It's disappointing as Microsoft had done relatively with with 1.0, 1.1, and 2.0. So, what are the other options?

One option is .NET Framework 2.1. To me, this option is only slightly better than 3.0. True, people won't think of breaking changes taking place. However, this still suffers from the fact that the Framework version is different than the runtime version (and hence, leading to some of the same confusion). Cross this off the list.

Another option is .NET Framework 2.0, Service Pack 1. With this option, the framework version is the same as the runtime version, so that confusion is alleviated. With a "Service Pack", it is not clear that there are a bunch of new features with it though. At least, not by definition it's not. However, isn't this what Microsoft basically did Windows XP, Service Pack 2?  I still think there would problems convincing marketing to go with this title as I think it would be more difficult to "sell" this to customers. I'm not in marketing though, so I could be way off on this one :). This is probably the one that I like out of the other options (including ones that other people have posted about).

So what will I personally do about this? I guess I'll just sit back and accept it (with a frown). Overall, I believe it is perhaps the lesser of all evils once the decision was made to integrate it into the .NET Framework "product". At times like this, there is one word that comes to mind: Unfortunate!

Disclaimer: as usual, this is just one man's opinion and yours might differ.

That's right, it's about that time again: time to share what books you are reading right now. Here is the list currently on my night stand / in my computer bag:

- Operating Systems: Design and Implementation, Tanenbaum / Woodhull

- Microsoft Windows Internals, Fourth Edition, Russinovich / Solomon

- Programming Pearls, Second Edition, Bentley

As you can see, I'm focusing on some more low-level type stuff. Why? Because it's intriguing and fun, that's why :P.

So, what's on your reading list right now?

I was asked recently what excited me most about the various Vista technologies. While I took a valiant stab at limiting my answer down to a handful of them, the proper answer with the way I feel would have been "what _doesn't_ excite me about the various Vista technologies." Yes, I could get into the various aspects that excite me about Workflow Foundation, Presentation Foundation, and/or Communication Foundation. I will save that for a later blog post though. Save to say, I'm extremely stoked right now about doing some development with all the different Foundation technologies. I think I'm going to do some deep-diving into Workflow Foundation for a while though :).

So, after a hiatus for almost a year (has it really been that long?), I will be spending time again getting into the various Vista technologies that are coming our way. So stay tuned in the future for more Vista updates :).