DevBlog

Hey folks. Here's a copy of a post I left on both my old blog (http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata) and my new, personal one (http://blogs.msdn.com/yag).
For more details, check out the new one - I'll be posting there from now
on.yag----------As many of you know, after a major release, people at Microsoft tend to look around
to see what they’d like to work on next. After working on two releases of Visual
Studio and a similar number of releases of Visual FoxPro, I’ve accepted a
position in Microsoft.com as an architect focusing on our community products. I
accepted this position because it marries the community issues that I’m so
passionate about, with the ability to quickly and immediately touch our
customers around the world. In essence, I will be responsible for a
multi-release plan developing a platform that includes the following:a.
blogs.msdn.com, b. forums.microsoft.com, c. on-line chats, d. CodeZone search,
e. GotDotNet f. and others…We want to turn this into a platform that every
division in Microsoft can use to quickly build their own unique community
presence and push that presence out to their partners in the community.Given
that this involves architecture, cross-division impact and customer presence, I
just couldn’t say no. It’s been an amazing four years here in DevDiv – getting
to work on multiple releases of VB, Data Tools and VFP. In Visual Studio 2005 we
made data easier to work with, something we’ll be improving in Orcas. We’ve also
got LINQ coming down the pike – deeply integrating querying and data
capabilities into VB and C# - something that I think will quickly become a
capability that is considered a “must have” for any general purpose programming
languages. Now I look forward to helping build tools that make it easier for
everyone to work more closely with our customers.In Visual FoxPro, we’ve
revamped the report writer, improved its extensibility and deepened its
integration with SQL
Server and .NET. Speaking of Visual FoxPro, the folks at MSCOM have been
good enough to let me continue to drive that forward as we work on Sedna. So,
I’ll still be the person responsible for VFP, working with Calvin, Milind and
the rest of the team. As you can see, I’ll still have one foot in DevDiv.
However, I don’t feel right posting to the VS Data blog, so I’ve
created a new one here. Come by for more details on the new position, Visual
FoxPro, life, the universe and everything. Note that VFP is staying in the Data
Team, so Milind (and any others who want to) will continue blogging here. I just
think it’s time I get a personal blog – like Ken and Calvin.One last note to the
VS Data team: you all rock – I know you’re working on some amazing things for
the future. I look forward to working with it all in my new role.
------------------One other note for here - it's actually funny. With the new
role, I'll not only still be running VFP, but also the underlying community
platform that y'all are using to create the addins that make up SednaX. Hmm, I
feel another blog entry coming on...