Yesterday, I attended a variety of sessions, from the Personalizaion changes for ASP.Net, to what became a Longhorn design and usage challenges talk from Hillel Cooperman, to mobile and Indigo/Avalon based peer-to-peer apps... a full day in a full week. There was also the attendee party, which was a well needed break.

At this point, I think I've managed to realign my thoughts to where they should be... I'm no longer at the "hey cool" point in my train of thought... I'm much farther down the road of trying to amalgamate all the new technologies into a coherent architecture... there is a big emphasis on peer-to-peer and other forms of social computing this week, and a good 75% of the sessions I've attended had some sort of blog demo... so there just might be something to this whole blog thing.

Just maybe.

OK, my battery's beeping at me... I forgot to recharge back at the hotel last night (crap), so I must leave you for now... more later, to be sure.

- G

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I was just sitting in on the one .NetCF development session I allowed myself, and at one point someone mentioned that the .NetCF that will come along with Whidbey will not depend on Yukon. When I heard that, I thought, "cool". However, I overheard from quite a few people, "But I thought Yukon was part of Whidbey."

Perhaps now you understand why I don't typically find myself in a mobile development mood... but onto the real information.

The Whidbey bits that we got here at the PDC didn't include anything new on the .NetCF front; SP2 for the current .NetCF will include a number of improvements, including significant performance improvements, with more to come once Whidbey hits.

BTW, for anyone still confused:

I hope my brain isn't that fried yet... if it is, there's no hope for tomorrow.

- G

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I'm sure if you're reading this, you've read one of the many blog entries about the keynote, so I'm not going to bother... rest assured, it was pretty sweet.

This particular Avalon session was definitely an overview, with the purpose of getting you ready for the more in-depth sessions this week. Since my money is made with web services and applications, this is going to be 1 of 2 of the Avalon sessions I attend... so the 50% or so of this session spent rehashing the keynots content was pretty much wasted time for me.

I'm going to go more in depth on everything as I get through the week, and right now I'm trying to get over a *giant* headache that has overcome me, so... I give you my notes... hit the Longhorn Developer Center if you actually want useful content and details. :P

Mon, 1:30 - Avalon

- "One level Down" - Pablo Fernicola

- As seen in keynote, vector based-> easy, fast scaling

- Mystery exception popped up after the sample media app (code in SDK) was closed - unexplained, closed immediately... probably expected

- Emphasis on a polished, flowing presentation/experience - wider gap b/w finished apps & hobby apps

- Adaptive layout

- "free" thru XAML

- Changes layout for size of window/screen

- Not amazing, but logical next step

- All for XAML, XAML for all - UI, documents, media, etc

- Greatest apps in the world useless if the UI sucks - iTunes?

- Best of both worlds

- Web: flowable layout, progressive d/l, declarative model (winform apps like web pages: HTML->XAML), seamless deployment

- Winforms: unrestricted functionality, integration w/ desktop, offline support

- XAML

- 1:1 correspondence with .Net framework object model

- Can contain code, refs to code, included as a reference

- Can be compiled to BAML or IL

- New dev process dynamics

- Design making a big impact lately, enables non-tech designers to directly design an app - not just send photoshopped screenshots

- See also: Abobe demo in Keynote

- Pointers to other sessions on the *bottom* of slides, unless in 1st row, can't see

- Controls

- Composed, not coded

- "Panel is the essence of layout"

- Media

- Desktop Compositor: High-DPI support even for non-Avalon apps

- Future proofed: resolution independence

- Databinding

- Two-way transforms on data

- brought "out of the gird, and into the entire system"

- Document Platform

- Fixed, flow, adaptive flow

- Adaptive flow based on readability research

- Desktop Experience

- Blurring the distinction b/w apps & desktop

- Emphasizing Explorer Storeage User Experience

- Peripheral info on desktop - sidebar

- Direct support of AERO models & guidelines - shame we can't have it

- Pablo again - code demos - typical neat-o Avalon stuff

- G

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So my flight from Charlotte to Chicago was OK... from there, things have gone more or less downhill... thank God nothing has actually started yet.

In case you hadn't heard, there are major brush fires near LA, and they're threatening many populated areas. Even worse, they threatened the central Air Traffic Control center for Southern California, and it had to be evacuated. In case I've lost you... no ATC, no flights, in or out. LA, San Diego, and all the small airports around them were closed. Las Vegas was open, but the interstate between Las Vegas and LA was closed due to the fire.

I was bummed.

Bummed, bored, tired, and aching... they thankfully started to let flights through once they got to their backup facility and got it running... and I got to LA 6 hours late, at around midnight. Consequently, I overslept this morning, with only my jet lag to save me, waking me up at my normal time to get up for work... on the east coast. Plenty to time to make it here.

Anyway, I'd best be going to the main hall for BillG's keynote... I'll be posting my session notes as the days go on.

- G

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