Dr. Bjarne Stroustrup, creator of C++, recently gave a speech discussing the
future of his seminal programming language and what the next version will look
like. You can view the hour-long session
here
.
Called C++0x, the new version aims to push the ball forward in a wide range
of areas. Support for multithreading and parallel execution, for instance, are
both being added to tap the power of multi-core processors and parallel-aware
OSes. Also getting updated is support for generic programming, which enables
the use of abstracted concepts in developing code.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/22/20070 comments
The busy folks at Forrester Research have released another report, this time
breaking down the growing segment of dynamic languages. The third quarter Forrester
Wave report looked at five dynamic languages: ECMAScript (JavaScript), Perl,
PHP, Python and Ruby.
Forrester describes dynamic languages as being flexible, easy to learn and
well-suited for Web 2.0 development by enabling integration and application
assembly. The report also notes that these languages can reduce cycle times
by allowing developers to focus on crafting business logic by leveraging mature
frameworks and libraries.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/22/20071 comments
A recent IDC report predicts that the business process management software
(BPMS) market will grow at a torrid pace, to $5.5 billion by 2011, up from $890
million in 2006. The report finds that BPMS deployments are happening at the
departmental and project level, rather than across enterprises -- a change from
earlier business infrastructure waves such as ERP and CRM.
IDC singles out heavyweights like IBM, Oracle, BEA and Tibco as coming to the
market with strong BPMS offerings, while Microsoft enters the market via its
Business Process Alliance (BPA), which features partners such as Ascentn, Bluespring,
K2 and Metastorm. In the offing: A battle of smaller BPMS power plays against
large infrastructure companies. The report finds that small and nimble BPMS
vendors are, for now, in a good position to innovate and win market share.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/15/20070 comments
If you've been reading the
Redmond Developer News
newsletter, you know
that computer science education and training is a real concern, both for myself
and for newsletter readers. Microsoft has been at the forefront when it comes
to motivating, encouraging and recognizing talented young programmers. And for
good reason -- the company's lifeblood is the skills of its workforce.
The Imagine Cup
is a good example of Redmond's commitment to youth in programming. Now in its
fifth year, the event challenges students from around the globe to create innovative
and compelling software using Microsoft platforms.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/15/20070 comments
Any developer can tell you that it's a jungle out there, especially if you're
a busy coder trying to stay on top of multiple Microsoft platforms and technologies.
Whether it's constant refreshes to the .NET Framework or new approaches to managing
programmatic data access, there just never seems to be time to master and consolidate
skills.
You need look no further than the nearly feature-complete beta 2 of Visual
Studio 2008, the second beta of .NET Framework 3.5 and the latest CTP of SQL
Server 2008 to know what I'm talking about. Between November and February, you
can expect a veritable blizzard of new products and technologies to blow in
from Redmond.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/08/20070 comments
The
second
beta of Visual Studio 2008
hit the streets last week, and according to our
upcoming news feature on the release, this is the version everybody has been
waiting for.
In an exclusive
online preview of a story to appear in the Aug. 15 issue of Redmond Developer
News, Senior Editor Kathleen Richards reports that VS 2008 beta 2 is "99.9
percent feature-complete" -- this coming from Visual Studio Group Product
Manager Prashant Sridharan.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/08/20070 comments
Last week, I was in New York City for the
29th
annual national editorial awards event
for the American Society of Business
Publication Editors (ASBPE). As usual, when I visit the Big Apple, the entire
eastern seaboard was in the grip of a lunatic heat wave, with temps pushing
95 degrees as I pounded the 10 blocks to the Roosevelt Hotel.
I seriously need to visit this town in October.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/08/20070 comments
If you're like me, you've been alternately hopeful, disappointed and downright
dismayed by the uneven progress around Microsoft's Live efforts over the past
year or so. A lot of it, I think, comes from the cart being thrust a couple
hundred miles in front of the horse.
After all, who can forget the relentless over-branding of Live, which produced
an utterly opaque clutter of online sites and services? Like the senseless .NET
mania that infected nearly every Microsoft product launch in 2001 and 2002,
the panicked rush to slap a Live sticker on every new Web offering served one
effective purpose: to confuse customers.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/01/20070 comments
Another important guy who got some welcome face time at the Microsoft Financial
Analyst Meeting was Chief Research and Strategy Officer Craig Mundie. Mundie,
who is responsible for a lot of the deep thinking and research that goes on
in Redmond, spent a few minutes eulogizing Moore's Law. With clock-speed gains
off the table as a way to empower software, the effort has turned to parallelism,
concurrency and multi-core CPUs.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 08/01/20070 comments
When search giant Google rolled out its Gears package in May, it quietly signaled
a major shift of momentum in the arena of integrated Web applications and development.
Google Gears is a set of development tools that enable free Google apps (currently
limited to Google Reader) to
be used offline. By enabling local storage and processing, Google Gears
effectively slams shut a critical competitive gap between Microsoft and Google.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 07/25/20071 comments
Sounds like the
second
beta of Visual Studio 2008 is nearly upon us
. According to a blog posting
by the General Manager of Microsoft's Developer Division, Scott Guthrie, VS08
beta 2 should roll out this week. Even more important, Guthrie told blog readers
that the latest beta will be "pretty much feature-complete."
That's a far cry from the state of VS08 beta 1, which arrived in April to much
fanfare but lacked a host of key features that developers were hoping to test
drive.
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Posted by Michael Desmond on 07/25/20070 comments