Wesner Moise reports on a talk that Jeff Richter did on the .NET versioning story in the Longhorn time frame. Some interesting quotes:

• “a library could not easily be updated since the CLR looked for an exact version match. There was a complex way to solve this problem through policy files; however, even engineers at Microsoft found this approach too difficult.”
• “Microsoft has a new approach for Longhorn and Orcas (.NET v3.0), which divides assemblies into two categories, Platforms and Libraries.”
• “Most assemblies will or should be libraries. Microsoft discourages the use of platform assemblies.”
• “There are actually three types of platform assemblies: System-wide, process-wide, and app domain-wide.”
• “Longhorn will no longer support multiple CLRs. Every managed application will be forced to use the latest version of the CLR on the system.”
• “Whidbey is expected to include an Assembly attribute, AssemblyFlagsAttribute, which allows to developer to specify Library, AppDomainPlatform, ProcessPlatform, SystemPlatform, or Legacy to identify the versioning scheme the CLR uses to load a reference assembly.”

I know that the existing versioning story doesn’t cut it for a lot of folks. Will this new model solve the problems? Is there a complexity danger?

Also, Ian has some thoughts on the new model.

Dave Massy is moving to Internet Explorer Program Management and wants to know what you want from IE in the next version. Don't be shy.

This is a test of the emergency broadcast system. <beeeeeeeeep>

I'm still laughing about this one...

sttto Milkshake by Kelis

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

I know you want it;
the thing that makes me,
what the geeks go crazy for.
They lose their minds..
the way I whine.
I think it’s time:

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

I can see you’re on it.
You want me to teach thee,
techniques that freaks these boys.
It can’t be bought;
it’s just my marketing wrought.
(Track-back if you’re smart)

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

Oh once you get involved,
everyone will look this way, so,
you must maintain your charm;
same time maintain your click-through,
just get the perfect link.
Feed what you have within;
RSS is cheaper than ink.
The geeks pick up your scent.

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

la la, la, la, lah
Post it up.
la la, la, la, lah
The geeks are waiting.

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

My web log brings all the nerds to the yard,
and I’m like: “mine’s better than yours”.
Damn right, it’s better than yours!
I can link you, but I have to charge!

John Elliot
Sent: Monday, June 14, 2004 3:15 PM
Windows Technology Off Topic mailing list

Rich Turned, an Indigo PM, has some useful things to say about Indigo in his recent Channel9 videos:

• What is the biggest misperception of Indigo?
• What is your advice to developers who are thinking about Indigo and interoperability?
• What would be the first thing about Indigo that you’d show a Visual Basic programmer?

Plus, Rich has a blog to which I subscribe (but I wish he were more prolific).

I’m really loving Jon’s approach to exploring and questioning the goals and implications of Longhorn:

1. Questions about Longhorn, part 1: WinFS
2. Questions about Longhorn, part 2: WinFS and semantics
3. Questions about Longhorn, part 3: Avalon’s enterprise mission

I don’t have any pithy summaries of his basic points; his posts deserve a read and a think.

This post is an oldie, but a goody, in which Kenny Lim talks not only about custom Avalon controls catching property changes so that they can re-render themselves, but also about the custom measurement sequence, which is a core piece of a control that does custom layout like, say, a pile of cards (hypothetically, of course : ).