Cave Markings

Michael alerted me to the new version of Windows Live Writer this evening.  I just downloaded and installed Windows Live Writer Beta 2, and I'm happy to report that the installation file was not named setup.exe. 

The installation routine was unusual, however.  The setup wizard dialogs appeared in the bottom, right of my desktop.  I initially thought they were large windows running off the screen, but the were actually dialog sized windows, like you would expect to find centered on the screen.

I moved the first two windows in an attempt to see the whole thing, only to discover that I could already see the whole thing.  I'm pretty fed up with Microsoft usability guidance lately.  They appear to make up a new look and feel for every product setup and UI.  This attempt at innovation was probably intended to be less intrusive, but it was disconcerting in my experience.

In addition, why must MS attempt to reset my home page and search engine in Internet Explorer?  I like my home page and search engine, and they have nothing to do with the tool I'm trying to install.  At the very least, these options should be unchecked by default.

Anyway, if you're reading this, it works for me.

++Alan

I'm dusting off the blog, and making a fresh start.  I have plenty to say about technology, but first I need to thank Eric Sink for the excellent t-shirts.

If you want one of these cool t-shirts, you can pick one up at Tech Ed, or just ask.

Cheers,

++Alan

After last week's announcement of the end of the line for Visual FoxPro, I found it entertaining to read that J# suffered a similar fate, two months ago!  J# is Microsoft's implementation of Java syntax on the Common Language Runtime.  It was never promoted as a primary .NET language.  It was intentionally a clone of Java so that Java developers could move painlessly onto the .NET runtime.

Cheers,

++Alan

I suppose once Wally blogs about a topic, it has broad developer interest. I read the news on Visual FoxPro specific blogs earlier in the day, and I emailed the story to my coworkers.  Today, Microsoft announced the end of active development on Visual FoxPro.

Personally, this is not a surprise in any way.  Ever since the announcement that VFP would never move to 64bit, I've known this day was coming. Furthermore, I spent a day with the Microsoft PM for VFP in January, and he gave no indication that the future would be any different. With that said, I want to share my thoughts on what this announcement means for Visual FoxPro applications and developers.

On a DotNetRocks episode, Don Box was asked if COM is dead.  His response applies to Visual FoxPro as well.  Don replied, "COM isn't dead, COM is done."  That is the best summary I can think of regarding this announcement.  Visual FoxPro isn't dead, Visual FoxPro is done.  We can certainly unpack that in a number of ways, but I will mention two details to back up that statement.  Microsoft is releasing service pack 2 for Visual FoxPro 9 to make VFP fully Vista compliant.  Microsoft has developed a set of .NET managed extensions to VFP named Sedna, and released these extensions as shared source. 

So, we have a stable, Vista certified platform with a bunch of Microsoft developed hooks into the .NET framework.  They have provided VFP developers everything they need to maintain their existing apps on the most recent version of Windows, and they have provided the tools to extend those apps using .NET.  Now, I don't think anyone is suggesting green-field development with Vi