Yet Another Promise to Start Blogging !!

Yet again, it’s been a long time since I wrote to my blog. This posting is my restart.

 

I know, you just have to look at the last posting of over two years ago to realize I’ve said that before!

 

But here’s what happened. Shortly after writing that last posting, I moved from Visual Studio to join the group that was working on the earliest ideas that have now become known by the codeword “Oslo”. Obviously we couldn’t talk about this work, but now, at last, we are about to make the project public in a *big* way at next week’s PDC. You just have to look at blogs such as Don Box’s or Doug Purdy’s to realize “Oslo” is Microsoft’s modeling platform consisting of a new language for describing models and DSLs, a database in which to store models of various kinds, and a new tool to view and edit them.

 

I’ve mostly been working on the design of the model store (a SQL Server database) and using the new language to create schemas for the new store, but I’ve been able to bring a long background in model driven development, software factories and DSL tools to help with the design and testing of the language and tool.

 

For me this is very exciting since the “Oslo” investment represents a serious commitment from Microsoft to change the game and make modeling mainstream. That’s almost been the story of my life!

 

Once the excitement over the various announcements that will be made at the PDC subsides, I’ll try to give more background from my perspective, and begin the task of helping folks understand exactly what we are doing in this space.