PDC 2008 Experience: Day 2: A Lap Around Oslo

Models

What is a Model?

• Drawings
• Models used to communicate with others
• Examples: Dataflow, Use Cases
• Model - Assisted
• Models used to understand or manipulate code
• Examples: Static Structure, Sequence
• Model - Driven
• Models executed by runtimes directly
• Examples: HTML, CSS, XAML, PBL

Model Driven Platform

• Started with COM(+) midl.exe [Transaction]
• Next up was .NET 1.0 [YourAttributeHere] and app.config
• Next up was Web Services [wsdl:definitions and xsd:schema
• .NET 3.0 wf:StateMachine

Model driven Applications

• Office SharePoint Server 2007
• Textual domain specific language (CAML)
• Visual Designer (SharePoint Designer)
• Application definition stored in database
• Microsoft Dynamics
• Textual domain specific language (X++)
• Visual Designer (MorphX)

Why is this happening?

• Transparency
• Better understanding of your application
• Flexibility
• Faster Changes to your application
• Productivity

What is Oslo?

http://www.microsoft.com/soa/products/oslo.aspx

The platform for model-driven applications

• "M"  (as in MVC)
• The language for authoring models and DSLs
• It is a textual language, not lines or symbols to learn.
• "Quadrant"
• The tool for interacting with models and DSLs
• The visual aspect of the models
• "Repository"
• The database for storing and sharing model

Key Oslo concepts

• Model
• Visual DSLs
• Textual DSLs
• Runtimes

Quadrant

• helps people define and interact with models in a rich and visual manner
• Quadrant is completely built using models.
• Quadrant is like "model driven" Access.