Eric Rudder Keynote

Eric Rudder's keynote is focused on coding for current technology and Whidbey. "What we hear from you" was an early theme:

• I need more code samples (in my language)
• How do I support different languages?
• etc.

The road to Longhorn: Getting ready for Longhorn, the recommendations include (no real surprise here) moving to managed code from Win32 programming, and building applications that take advantage of Web Services.

New languages:

• Beta
• Delphi
• F# (CAML)
• Pizza (no, that's not a gag)
• S# (Smalltalk)

It's been discussed before, but Visual Studio "Whidbey" will support code refactoring and expansions, edit and continue, and more for added productivity.

Another theme of Whidbey is reducing the number of lines of code necessary to accomplish common tasks. Printing, validating user credentials, etc. become simpler and faster to accomplish. Having played with the Whidbey ASP.NET bits, I can say first-hand that the goal of reducing code has been very successful, at times requiring no code at all for common tasks such as databinding to a SQL datasource.

Ari Bixhorn is providing the first Whidbey demo. He's starting with a forms-based app that looks a lot like a VB6 app. Dragging and dropping tool windows within the IDE is a little more intuitive, with indicators of where a window will dock. Databinding can be done code-free by simply dragging and dropping a data source onto a windows form.

Next is a demo of the new in-IDE help system (called "MyHelp"). In addition to the typical index, search, etc. on the documentation, there are also integrated community features that allow developers to get up-to-date information on topics they want to search on.

Ari also demoed using Ink-enabled controls to databind binary ink data from a tablet, again without writing any code. He also demoed a new set of APIs that dramatically simplify enabling printing and other common app tasks.

My favorite new feature so far: controls dragged near other controls can automatically snap to align with the existing control. No more menu monkeying to get controls lined up (yay!). Control names (and other properties) can now be edited directly on the control, by entering a special edit mode.

The Whidbey IDE will include snippets for common tasks (such as sending email) that can be inserted with a simple right-click. Also improving productivity are tooltips for exceptions during debugging.

Having coded up his demo app, Ari showed how to use OneClick to download, install, and run the app on his TabletPC. Good demo, though not much reaction from the audience (it is still fairly early, though).

What's new for the Web:

• FP Server Extensions not required
• Intellisense everywhere
• 64-bit support
• Improved Administration features, including an MMC snap-in for ASP.NET.

9:10am - Scott Guthrie's up with the ASP.NET demo.

First demo is of master pages, a feature that allows you to enforce a common look and feel across an entire Web site, with templates that allow individual pages to replace specific portions of a given master template with content that is specific to the page.

Next up is Web Parts. Web Part Zone controls provide a modular framework for laying out content in ASP.NET pages. Web Parts provide a consistent title bar and controls for content sections, and also allows content to be personalized to logged in users, and allow content to be dynamically re-arranged, with the specific layout saved for each individual user.

ASP.NET Whidbey also provides built-in membership providers for tracking user credentials, and built on top of that are a set of login controls that completely abstract the code necessary to login/logout, register, recover passwords, and show the current login status.

Next, Scott demoed creating a user control that uses binding the new GridView control (advanced datagrid) to a back-end Web Service. Sorting, paging, and other advanced grid features are now enabled with no code necessary. All told, the only line of code Scott needed to write was to extract the name of the logged-in user and pass it to the Web Service. The new control is then simply dropped into the Web Part Zone in the IDE, and it automatically shows up when run, with the same UI as the other Web Parts. Web Part Zones can also be set to allow run-time editing of Web Part layout, using only a single line of code. The new layout is stored in the ASP.NET Personalization store, so even if the user logs into a different machine, their personal layout will be preserved.

Announcement: An update to the TabletPC that, among other things, will add improvements to data entry.

Kevin Lisota provided a Windows Mobile demo from his "utility belt" on his Batman costume. Announced a PocketPC with VGA resolution. Also announced were a new Dell Axim, and the Voq smartphone, which includes a built-in flip-out thumb keyboard. Last up was a new ipaq with both WiFi and Bluetooth in a very small form factor.

9:30am - Demo of mobile development, showed off easy databinding and camera access (3 lines of code) for mobile devices. You can also use built-in GPS to programmatically access the location from which a given photo was taken. IMO, the integration that they're showing here is a killer app for an industry like the insurance industry, allowing claims adjusters to take photos, obtain location information, weather info, etc. and submit all this data wirelessly. So instead of carrying paper forms, or even a laptop, a claims adjuster could simply make their initial reports. In fact, I can see using this from a consumer perspective to document fender-benders...sure as heck beats handwritten notes. All of this from scratch in less than 10 minutes. Great demo!

The "whitehorse" demo focused on deployment and policy management, and using visual metaphors for defining DMZs, service and app policies for security, etc., storing this information as metadata, and validating that an application design meets the defined policies. The demo was interesting, but given history of similar initiatives (Application Center Server being an example), I'm not convinced quite yet.

The session closed with a discussion of security priorities, not (as we've heard frequently) on Microsoft's part, but what developers need to be focused on in their own work. If you're at PDC, and you haven't read Michael Howard's book (which came in your goodie bag), READ IT!

Overall, a really useful keynote in that it neatly encapsulated all of the good stuff that we'll be getting from Whidbey. As much as I'm excited by Longhorn, that excitement is tempered by the time we'll have to wait for it. Whidbey will be here much sooner, and there's much to be excited about in the box.