I was exceptionally fortunate to get an opportunity to attend Microsoft's 2008 Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles, starting tomorrow! It's going to be a busy week, undoubtedly, but it's exciting to see what's up and coming. Some of the things that I'm really geared up for are:
- Under the Hood: Advances in the .NET Type System - We'll get a chance to see the next version of the CLR and the looser coupling it will provide. In particular I'm hoping they announce support for covariant and contravariant types, something I suspect has been on the whiteboard for a while now.
- The Future of C# - presented by none other than Anders Hejlsberg, the creator of C#. Unfortunately I haven't found out whether any of my wishlist items made it into the mix, but we'll see.
- Coding4Fun: Windows Presentation Foundation Animation, YouTube, iTunes, Twitter, and Nintendo's Wiimote - Yes, that's all one title, one session. I hope we're presented with Wiimote classes for use in our Windows 7 and Silverlight apps! :)
- Windows 7: Unlocking the GPU with Direct3D - I'm intrigued because D3D has historically been something that is relegated to the games/CAD developer. Are we going to start seeing D3D on the desktop?
- Windows 7: Developing Multi-touch Applications - It's so impractical and yet I'm double-booked for it with a concurrency symposium.
- WPF: Extensible BitmapEffects, Pixel Shaders, and WPF Graphics Futures - Integrating shaders into WPF? How can you not be intrigued?
I'll be blogging about the goings-on during the week and taking copious notes about what I get to see. At some point I need to get free goodies and play with the MS Surface too.
See you at PDC!