Winextra » Development

This is the iteration that IE9 will need.

Steven — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 01:41:43 +0000

Part of the whole Web 2.0 software world is this idea that you need to iterate quickly but for most Web 1.0 companies this is a hard thing to understand let alone implement. Even Firefox has a set release schedule even though it’s not quite as long between releases as some of Microsoft’s product.

The problem is that the web doesn’t go by standard release cycles. Change and innovation can happen tomorrow leaving everyone behind.

The one company that gets this is Google with their Chrome browser. As Jeff Atwood points out in a post the other day:

Speed of iteration — the Google Chrome project has it.
1.0 December 11, 2008
2.0 May 24, 2009
3.0 October 12, 2009
4.0 January 25, 2010
5.0 May 25, 2010
6.0 September 2, 2010
Chrome was a completely respectable browser in V1 and V2. The entire project has moved forward so fast that it now is, at least in my humble opinion, the best browser on the planet. Google went from nothing, no web browser at all, to best-of-breed in under two years.

The web has changed. Innovation has changed. If Microsoft wants to even have a chance at regaining its browser glory it needs to throw out the idea of release cycles and iterate often and regularly.

Two years between releases doesn’t work anymore.

This is the iteration that IE9 will need. is a post from: winextra
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Interested in writing games for Windows Phone 7?

Steven — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 19:39:46 +0000

One of the really cool things about the upcoming Windows Phone 7 is the built-in support for mobile and casual gaming. As with all things though there is probably a lot that you will need to know when it comes t o writing games for this new mobile platform from Microsoft.

For those of you interested manan over at the I’m Just Being Manan blog has put together an excellent post on what you can expect when it comes to writing and distributing Windows Phone 7 games.

One of the biggest announcement is the Xbox LIVE integration with Windows Phone 7. With Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is stream lining game development on the phone, desktop and Xbox. The idea is to make available a common library that makes it easy for developers code games for either of the platforms.
Before I talk about developing the games, I’ll talk about submitting a game to the Marketplace. Microsoft has a program called Xbox Game Publisher where companies are registered as game providers, obviously this registration comes at a cost.

As manan points out at the end of his post the information and graphics are from a recent Microsoft slide deck on this and could be subject to changes by the time Windows Phone 7 comes to market.

images courtesy of manan

Interested in writing games for Windows Phone 7? is a post from: winextra
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It’s Time For A Second Browser Microsoft. Stop Treating Us Like Corporate Users.

Paul — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:27:43 +0000

In my last WinExtra post I put forward some ideas for Microsoft in order to regain ground in the browser wars. I am adamant, that in order to regain ground, Microsoft not only has to revamp Internet Explorer on the desktop, but also needs to turn out a killer mobile browser and enable a synchronous experience across all platforms.

Steven sees many of Microsofts IE woes resulting from them being in a perpetual state of catch up and is among the legions who would like to see IE shuffled off the mortal coil of computing.

One of IEs (and Microsofts) biggest hindrances in terms of innovation is their need to ensure that changes to IE won’t break the legacy software and web applications of slow to upgrade corporations. They just can’t cut off the people holding the strings to one of their main purses.

The other problem that haunts Microsoft is a mindset of develop once use everywhere. By that I mean, they develop software and try to port it or use it on all platforms. Take “Menlo” as an example.

Menlo is a rumored project to replace Windows CE (Windows Embedded Compact) with Windows NT inside of mobile devices. Yes, this would allow them to promote a write once, run everywhere environment but I fear that Microsoft still doesn’t quite understand that just like a tank is not a suitable vehicle for driving around town, software developed for the desktop should not always be ported to the mobile environment.

To continue the analogy, software that is developed with the corporate environment in mind should not necessarily be ported, or modified for the home user.

Sometimes you should just release a separate product, designed with the home user in mind specifically and that brings us back to Internet Explorer.

The corporate world has different needs for IE and the support of legacy technologies, but home users neither need nor want that support.

It’s time for Microsoft to cut the umbilical cord that is choking the throat of the home user market and release us from the bonds of IE. It’s time to win back market share and the key to it is to release a completely new browser just for home users.

What I’m talking about here is Microsoft releasing their own competitor to Googles Chrome. A fast, light weight browser, with a rapid development cycle that is hogging the news cycle for all the right reasons.

Leave, or rename IE (IE Corporate) to the corporate users. It will make the development cycle easier not to have to keep it up to date with all the features home users require and reduce the surface area for attacks.

Give home users what we want, a fast, up to date, feature rich browser that doesn’t have a geological update cycle.

It might appear better to have one code base for each user base, but you are loosing market share because of it.

It’s Time For A Second Browser Microsoft. Stop Treating Us Like Corporate Users. is a post from: winextra
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A dev project suggestion for Windows developers

Steven — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 01:48:28 +0000

Every once in a while I come up with an idea for an app that while pretty much something that only I am the one who needs the util I like to throw the idea out there just incase some adventurous soul find the idea interesting enough to pursue. Such is the case with this idea that has been percolating in the back of my mind for a while.

What I would really like to see is a system tray app that would monitor the Clipboard for copied URLs and then allow you to shorten that URL from the list of many different options to have it automatically shortened and then either posted at the current caret position and/or have the shortened URL copied to the clipboard.

One important thing to include would be the ability to – in the case of bit.ly – add your login info for any of the supplied URL shortening services. This way that shortened URL would be entered in to the URL shortening service with your credentials thereby keeping the stats trackable. Additionally – but as a future addition to the utility would be the ability to generate any possible stats reports locally.

Now I realize that there are add-ons for things like this for Firefox but A) not everyone runs Firefox and B) this would also make adding shortened URLs a option for programs that typically wouldn’t be thought of as being a territory for this kind of feature – i.e.: Notes for Google Reader shared items etc.

Anyway it’s an idea but if someone does decide to give it a try please give me a holler and let me help out by testing it for you.

We now return you to our regularly scheduled blogging.

A dev project suggestion for Windows developers is a post from: winextra
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Now this is irritating

Steven — Sun, 22 Apr 2007 17:36:01 +0000

In the last couple of days Microsoft released Community Technology Preview’s of the next interation of the Express development packages (Codename Orca) for those of us that like to live or try out the bleeding edge of stuff. Now being a glutton for punishement I figured what hell and downloaded the VB.NET package for a go around.

Well downloading is as about as far I can get because every attempt to actually install the package results in it quitting at the point of trying to install .NET 3.5. I can’t get any further and and explanation as to why it is puking on install at this point doesn’t exist anywhere. I should note that I am still running Vista RC2 so I don’t know if that is the problem or not.

Any MS type geniuses out there that just might read WinExtra and know why this is happening or any work-around please feel free to pass the explanation along. In the meantime this just pisses me off and means I won’t have anything to play with today

Now this is irritating is a post from: winextra
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Developing in the Windows Presentation Foundation world

Steven — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 04:26:33 +0000

I am a .NET developer at heart but I was really nervous with the introduction of .NET 3.0 and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF or as it was known as Avalon) as this changed the whole landscape for creating UI rich applications.

But being the glutton for learning that I am I installed all the required bits and set about scavenging the blogs for any existing resources that might be out there for the WPF newbie. After getting my resource links all set up and some reading done I decided on a learning app to develop my WPF skills with; and as such Pulse came into being – well at least on my system anyway for now.

Pulse is going to be an MP3 file name cleaner, tag editor and maybe a few other things which I am still thinking about. Through these beginning steps I have really fallen for the ability of what WPF can do to create a really rich (cool) user interface and how easy it really is once you get your head wrapped around how it is done.This is still a project in the works but wanted to show just how cool WPF can be to work with.

Developing in the Windows Presentation Foundation world is a post from: winextra
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1.0	December 11, 2008
2.0	May 24, 2009
3.0	October 12, 2009
4.0	January 25, 2010
5.0	May 25, 2010
6.0	September 2, 2010