One could ponder and speculate about Windows 7 all day and night, or they could read about it straight from the horse’s mouth. Not to imply parts of the Windows group is made up of domestic animals, but one Windows 7 developer is telling it like it is. The blog is called Shipping Seven and is described as “random thoughts from somebody working on the next Windows OS”.

In the spirit of so many insightful anonymous bloggers like Mini-Microsoft, MSFTextrememakeover and Fake Steve Jobs (before he was ousted), this was bound to happen and I’m glad it did already – in fact since November 2007 when the blog was started, because it shows a human side to Microsoft and what it’s like to be developing Windows without the sparkles and rainbows you might find on more ‘filtered’ company blogs.

This is nothing short of an interesting read. Here’s a few excerpts.

How simple things help: For Vista, we didn’t have a central spec repository – all PM, dev and test documents were scattered around on a huge number of servers around campus.

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For Windows 7, we have a central spec repository on one new Sharepoint server. A spec repository where you can edit files offline. You can even sync the whole thing for offline reading, which means you can spend an evening perusing the entire Windows 7 feature set*.

(Note to self: Set up Bitlocker on laptop.)

The upside of all this is that my job is now much, much easier, and I can do it much faster. (Figuring out, for example, if the networking changes in Windows 7 will screw up my feature is now only a couple of clicks away. Awesome.)

*I’m not going to blog about unannounced features yet…but rest assured, Windows 7 will be filled with awesomeness. And there’s no bullshit new feature like Windows Flip 3D in there at all.

And it also helps to be funny.

“Please note that we have added a consequence for failure.”: I started playing Portal last night – And all the reviews were right: the disembodied voice is ridiculously funny.

Which got me to thinking: Windows is our own version of GLaDOS, the disembodied, disinterested, impersonal computer that provides a running commentary on everything you do.

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We still screw up ui text, though – my two pet peeves:
‘May’ in messages: Most error messages still have the word ‘may’ in there somewhere, which is a pretty bad CYA move on the part of the team. It makes it sound as though Windows is only marginally aware of the consequences of your action. If you turn off the Windows Firewall, Windows may be exposed to shitloads of attacks from the internet. This may be a bad thing. You may want to turn it back on.

‘or’ in error messages: I hate, hate this one: Usually, it is along the lines of: XYZ has crashed. This may be because of problems with your firewall, or problems with the application, or an incorrect alignment of celestial bodies.

There’s plenty more where that came from. Let’s just hope Sinofsky is illiterate.

Update: To all those lawyers snooping my blog, yes you know who you are, I’m watching you!

Not too long ago Microsoft described Windows Presentation Foundation as the “UI platform for the next 20 years”. Surprisingly work is beginning on an even newer Windows UI framework. My Windows Vista clock must be running slow.

Bearing in mind the arsenal of Windows UI frameworks that exists today – Windows Presentation Foundation, Silverlight, Windows Forms, Win32, Media Center Markup Language and more from third parties; Microsoft has decided to build yet another one “to enable new UI experiences in future versions of Windows”. Here is the job advertisement,

Are you excited about the challenge of building V1 features? Are you passionate about UI development environments? Want to impact the look and feel of future versions of Windows?

The Windows UI Platform team is creating a new Framework that will enable new UI experiences in future versions of Windows.

We are looking for an experienced Software Development Engineer in Test who is highly motivated and has a passion for software test engineering. You will be working with developers, program managers, and members of the test team to ship high quality UI Framework components and APIs. You will be responsible for contributing to the product definition phase, reviewing product specs and designs, creating test plans, designing, implementing, and maintaining high quality test automation. You must be motivated and driven to push changes, improve quality and inspire other high potential SDETs with your technical leadership. Areas include creating test automation framework components and testing APIs as well as lower-level framework features. We are just starting up this V1 project and this is your opportunity to come in and make a great impact.

I hear this new framework is going to replace XAML with BEDAZZLE. On a more serious note, the shovel has only hit the ground so keep learning your XAML. It almost certainly won’t be shipping in Windows 7.

Panoramic stitching is easier said than done. When Microsoft shipped the first release of Windows Live Photo Gallery last November, I must admit I didn’t think too highly of the panoramic stitching feature they included in the application. I mean this is a free application, how good can it be?

To find out, I’ve put it under some rigorous testing with what I think are some extreme stitching scenarios. To my surprise, it easily surpassed my expectations and could even give the professional applications a run for its money. Have a look at just how well it did and didn’t.

The alternate stitching application I’m using is called Autopano Pro. It retails for about US$145 (that’s $145 more than Live Photo Gallery for those of you without a calculator) and is considered one of the most advanced professional panorama creation tools today. It holds the prize for stitching the world’s second largest digital panorama of 13 gigapixels.

The first test is a 8-piece panorama of a complicated beach scene with over an hundred boats being disassembled after a race. There’s people moving around, objects moving or being disassembled, boats moving in the water and waves splashing on the sand. So basically it’s one hell of a challenge. Each photo was exposed at different shutter speeds but with the same aperture and ISO, so the software will also have to compensate varying exposures.

Continue reading →

I would have never thought to find a beautiful user experience in an enterprise application, but recently Frog Design helped ship an application called “Lawson Smart Client” powered by Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) that I think changes the game for software user experiences both in and out of the enterprise. Obviously Robert Scoble wasn’t staring at this when he asked “Why enterprise software isn’t sexy“.

This has to be one the most polished, professional and immersive implementations of Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) I’ve seen so far. It almost looks like an alternative operating system until you notice the Windows taskbar. Every control from tabs to drop downs, text fields to lists is subtly refreshing from the Windows default, yet familiar enough to use without a two-week training program.

It’s nice to see for a change a WPF application that doesn’t try to break free from traditional UI paradigms when it doesn’t need to. The spinning 3D carousels are great, but it’s comforting to know WPF can still mean serious business.

Style-wise, this application is a pleasant step away from six shades of gray – the cliche of enterprise software, at the same time it also doesn’t overstep into the world of Barbie Fairytopia Rainbow Adventure. As icing on the cake, this application also allows users to customize the color palette of their workspace so just because the company CEO likes pink doesn’t mean every employee has to suffer.

One can only imagine what a nightmare this would have been to realize with traditional Windows graphics platforms like GDI. And that’s what WPF is all about actually. It’s not about what it can do more, but what it can do with less effort and less time. The creation and implementation of this design took only 4 months with a senior designer, a visual designer and a ‘technologist’.

“Enterprise applications are becoming increasingly more interesting from a user experience perspective.” says Cees Van Dok from Frog Design in Germany who worked on this project. Not surprisingly, Cees is also a former Microsoft designer who worked on Windows “Longhorn” and Vista where he has had plenty of experience working with WPF.

“Differentiation and better ‘ease-of-use’ will be key drivers in the competitive environment moving forward. The user experience of enterprise software is often ‘sub-optimal’ with many features and options on every screen and often lacking common UI best practices (like easy data entry, global search, flexible workflow support, silly inconsistencies between similar applications). The learning curve is often very steep and a lot of UI mechanism are often not very intuitive.”

I’ve always turned somewhat of a blind eye towards enterprise software for the very fact it is so depressing – and I feel the same for the people who have to use these tools day in day out – but now seeing what is possible I’m even a little jealous. Big props to Frog for reinventing the enterprise as well as relentlessly supporting for Windows Presentation Foundation. I hear there’s more WPF-applications in the pipeline. Can’t wait.