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Microsoft Preps New Modeling Language
"D" declarative programming language is the newest component of Redmond’s "Oslo" project and Dynamic IT strategy
As part of its broad "Oslo" initiative, Microsoft is developing a new declarative programming language, code-named "D," that's expected to serve as a textual modeling language that will let business managers and non-technical stakeholders manipulate digital assets.
The users working with these components would do so within the forthcoming Oslo repository to model and craft complex, service-enabled applications, according to industry observers. Details of Microsoft's plans for D are vague, but Don Demsak, a Microsoft MVP and XML expert, believes both the D language and Oslo will be featured at the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) in October.
"The D language is the reason why the PDC was cancelled last year," Demsak says. "All I know is that [Microsoft has] been very, very quiet about the D language. I'm hoping to see more at the MVP summit, but I really don't hold out much hope for the language, if they've gone toward making it data-driven."
Microsoft began talking in October 2007 about the Oslo project, which aims to extend the company's Dynamic IT strategy. Oslo will offer tools and resources to help enterprises better plan, model, develop and deploy applications and services. Aspects of the program are driving new versions of Visual Studio, BizTalk Server and the .NET Framework. Microsoft has stated that Oslo will include a central repository of digital assets and enterprise code.
"We're building a general-purpose modeling language, tools and repository to bridge all the models within an application, moving models to the center of application development," Microsoft states in a backgrounder for the Oslo initiative. "Models will no longer just describe the application, they will be the application."
About the Author
Michael Desmond is an editor and writer for 1105 Media's Enterprise Computing Group.