Robert Hess

I love all of the discussion going on here, I think a key thing to keep in mind is that I doubt there could ever be a single programming language that solved everybodies problems. As Herb mentions a few times in this video "The Right Tool for the Right Job".

As somebody who has programmed in far more languages then I can even remember, I enjoy getting into the groove of each one and appreciating the features and capabilities they bring to the table.

FORTH may have never been a terribly practical programming language, but it was a lot of fun, at times almost seeming like playing a game of Tetris :->... Modula-2 was a well structured language with a great balance of polite power. C, when I was first coding in it, was sort of like a challenge to see how tightly you could wind your code, and in a sadistic sort of way trying to make it do something in a next-to-unreadable way (you've got to remember, I was just a fun-loving kid back in those days! :->)

I've been using C# for many years now, and find it both comfortable and familiar, but seeing some of the new capabilities working their way into C++ makes me realize that it's probably time to take a look at it again.

-Robert

So I work in the office right across from Clint... and happened to walk out my door when he was first working on this project. It was a bloodbath (or should that be nerf bath?)

Kervin, it's working fine for me, what's the problem you are having?

Thanks... I'll look into that.

If anybody has used Glimmer to add JQuery features to their sites, I'd love to hear about it and see them. Go ahead and post your links here.

aL, I suppose "clean" might be in the eye of the beholder? I realize that the URL listed in the address bar can be a little hard to read in this video, but essentially it looks like this:

http://localhost/SLAppTestPage.aspx#/Views/HomePage.xaml

The Silverlight application itself exists on the ASPX page shown in the URL, so that essentially has to be listed in that fashion, however just as you'd use "#" to then link to a "position" within a big gigantic page, we are using this to link to a the "position" within the Silverlight application that you are wanting to access.

Jamie... well, you can always check out: http://2009.visitmix.com/ to see some of Tim's work, he designed most, if not all, of the MIX09 creative material.

But... you do raise a good point. It would have been appropriate to let Tim dive into some of his actual work and show how he produces it.

-Robert

Mr. Guru... or can I call you Web?

Glad you enjoyed The .NET Show! Erica and I had a great time working on this show for over seven years. Even Star Trek: The Next Generation decided to wrap up after seven years, and I felt that I couldn't suggest that The .NET Show was better then that! :->

I am currently playing around with using "The Knowledge Chamber" as a replacement for The .NET Show. The format will allow me to do shows far more regularly, and far cheaper (which is important these days!). I will be adjusting the tone and format over time based on what I percieve as the feedback from you, the audience. So please let me know what you think of the show, it's length, my guests, etc.

Thanks!
-Robert

The folks in marketing hate it when they don't get to be the first ones to divulge when the next release will be or what features it will contain. And since they haven't said anything about this yet, I guess I can't either... What I can say, is that we think you'll be happy with what the Blend team has been working on recently. There will be more information available around the MIX09 timeframe, so stay tuned!

The issue you mention with Design View is one the team is aware of and have been actively working on.

Glad you're enjoying the show! I know that I'm having fun hosting it.

There were perhaps a few extra comments about Lisp that we cut from the filming, but we didn't go into details about Lisp as a language, although that would have been fun, especially since Lisp is one of the few languages I've never really had any dealings with. I understand that there are a couple of CLR implementations available.

-Robert

Our plan is to film perhaps four of these episodes a year, with each episode trying to highlight different approaches to taking a new look at the features, functionality, and interfaces of an application. Some will be like this one where it is more about showing how even fairly straightforward "business" applications can still benefit from spending some time thinking about it's visual interface, but I expect we will also spend some time looking at other ways to structure an application, or provide valueable features and functionality.

We'd love to hear from you folks what you thought about this particular episode, as well as what areas of solution/application design you'd like us to look at "pimping up" next.

-Robert

You are right, we do have our work cut out for us in order to try to provide world-class tools for the designer. But I think that it is important. And I don't say that from the standpoint of a "Microsoft Employee" who is simply wanting the company to increase its product portfolio.

As I discussed with Mohsen in this episode, the value of intelligent, appropriate, and compelling user experience design cannot be overstated. And yet it is far too often overlooked. We do a LOT of development here at Microsoft as you might expect. And while we also have a lot of designers, it has only been recently that they have been able to really come into their own. Myself, I saw this most with the development cycle of Windows Vista, and how much time and energy was put into the visual design and cohesive user expience fundamentals.

But to truely incorporate these designs often still comes down to the designer handing the developer a bitmap, and the developer using whatever tools he might have to slice and dice this to pieces, or simply "attempt" to visually render the design concepts using normal form controls and window constructs.

For truely great applications, it is critical that designer/developer collaboration is a first-class citizen in the application life-cycle. If we start with the assumption that "developers" are going to be using Visual Studio for their development environment, then we (Microsoft) need to really grok the issues and requirements of tying this together with the designer tools. As great (and pervasive) as the third party tools are, we can't simply leave it up to them. This is problem we need to own, if even just internally. Ideally, we'll be able to illustrate the value of a combined development environment to such a level that many of these third-party designer tools will discover ways that they can seamlessly integrate themselves into this methodology. But to address this fully, this means that it is important that Microsoft produces world-class designer tools which are first-class citizens in application development environment.

-Robert Hess