Don Box's Spoutlet

Consuming MGrammar output from C#

don-box — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 08:51:00 GMT

An MGrammar language is effectively a function from Unicode text to an arbitrary MGraph value.

Our runtime provides a fairly low-level mechanism for consuming (and constructing) MGraphs (IGraphBuilder), but it's a very wonky interface that is tuned for some pretty low-level usage (effectively for consumption by other runtime stacks).

Josh Williams (SpankyJ) and John Doty had built out an IGraphBuilder implementation that constructs XAML using some pretty straightforward rules. We couldn't get it into the PDC bits, but we were able to get it out as a sample.

See Spanky's blog entry on how to get it an use it.

Personally, this is the way I want to consume M values when I write C#.

This is even more true once we open up right-hand-sides of rules to more (hopefully all) of the M language.

MrEPL: REPL for M

don-box — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 07:01:00 GMT

Another Spanky gem.

Note that the PDC bits expose both the parsed and typechecked forms of an M module, so you can produce or consume M from the .NET language of your choice.

MrEPL is a fun exploitation of this capability...

Small Basic

don-box — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:45:00 GMT

My Oslo colleage Vijaye Raji has a passion around getting young people interested in programming.

During his not-so-copious free time, he wrote a self-contained BASIC environment to let people write little programs that do a lot.

Today, that tool got a public home on the just-launched DevLabs site.

Go Super Ninja!

Talks I want to see @ PDC

don-box — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 09:17:00 GMT

In looking at the agenda for the event, here are some talks I'd really love to crash:

Oslo: Building Textual DSLs - lots of geek porn appeal, and if internal usage is any indication, a highly addictive technology. I predict this will be the World of Warcraft of 2009.
Intro to F# - I spent a month living in F# early this year and had a great time. I'm dying to hear how Luca has made the leap from OO to functional programming.
ASP.NET and jQuery - OK, so the title on the details page doesn't match, but if this is a session on how MS is going to integrate jQuery into the arsenal of .NET devs, I want to hear it.
The Raymond Chen talk - Despite being a former columnist for MSDN Magazine (hi Joel), I like unmanaged code too and would love to see what we're doing in the land of HWNDs.
Steve Marx codes - If you want us to run your code in our cloud, go see this talk. Period.
Vasters on messaging services - If you want to run your code at your place but want us to help wire it up to the rest of the world, go see this talk. Period.
Dharma - to hear Dharma talk about his work is always refreshing, and the stuff he's been doing is pretty compelling.
The New XAML Stack - We're getting a XAML stack in .NET 4.0 that spans all of our technologies. No more XOML!
The UAC talk - OK, call me selfish, but I really want everyone to write apps that work for standard user accounts. Nothing would please me more than if we had to repeat this talk 3 times due to overflow problems in the room.
Miguel in blue - no longer relegated to ad hoc hallway presentations or using nearby hotel rooms, Miguel is donning a standard issue blue Microsoft speaker shirt, applying the Silverfox powerpoint template, upgrading his laptop to Windows 7, and giving a sanctioned PDC talk that even Richard Klees would approve of. OK, so I'm sure one or two of those statements isn't true, but I need to see it with my own eyes.

Paul Vick relocates to Oslo

don-box — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 05:54:00 GMT

Paul just joined my team to work on the Oslo language, specifically the parts covered in this talk.

I can't put into words how happy I am that Paul signed up to help us birth this baby.

Schlimmerblog

don-box — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:20:00 GMT

I just noticed that JeffSch started blogging again - he was at the VSX conference this week (conveniently right across the street from our building).

Go check it out.

eWeek piece on Oslo

don-box — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 05:13:00 GMT

Darryl Taft has written the best piece I've seen on oslo so far.

Bonus points to Darryl for being the first press person to get BradLo to talk :-)

Another Oslo talk

don-box — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 15:44:00 GMT

ChrisAn and GioDL's talk just got published this morning:

"Oslo": Building Textual DSLs

The "Oslo" modeling language can define schemas and transformations over arbitrary text formats. This session shows you how to build your own Domain Specific Language using the "Oslo" SDK and how to apply your DSL to create an interactive text editing experience.

With this one, the Oslo talks have all been published.

Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF) - now with source code!

don-box — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 17:12:00 GMT

Microsoft just shipped the MEF sources on codeplex.

It's fantastic to see the BradA's team getting this stuff into people's hands out-of-band with the big trains - very very nice.

Also cool is the fact that the source is there - I love this comment from Tuple.cs:

// NOTE : this is a TEMPORARY and a very minimalistic implementation of Tuple'2,
// as defined in http://devdiv/sites/docs/NetFX4/CLR/Specs/Base Class Libraries/Tuple Spec.docx
// We will remove this after we move to v4 and Tuple is actually in there

I love to see Tuple getting into the framework!

Oslo

don-box — Sun, 07 Sep 2008 00:33:00 GMT

As PDC ramps up, I find myself meeting lots of new people, many of whom have no idea what I do for a living (I work on the Oslo project btw). I decided to take a few minutes to write this post so I can stop giving the “what is Oslo” talk one person at a time.

Here’s the deal.

We’re building “Oslo” to simplify the process of developing, deploying, and managing software. Our goal is to reduce the gap between the intention of the developer and the actual artifacts that get deployed and executed. The approach we’re taking is to move more of the definition of an application into the world of data, where we (and you) can more easily make queries as to the developer’s original intent.

Microsoft has been moving in this direction for over a decade now – you can look at things like COM type libraries, .NET metadata attributes, and XAML as moving the dial increasingly towards “writing things down” directly as data vs. encoding them into x86 or IL. From day one of the project, I have thought of Oslo as the next step in that lineage.

With Oslo, we’re doing two things:

1. We’re making it easier for people to write things down in ways that make sense for the domain they are working in – the common term for this in the wild is modeling.

2. We’re making the things people wrote down accessible to platform components during program execution.

To make #1 as fluid an experience as possible, we’ve built a language that makes it natural to express models in text, which is medium that a lot of people (especially developers) feel comfortable with. Visual design surfaces are another medium a lot of people feel comfortable with, so we’ve built a design tool for working with the same information our text-centric friends produce and consume.

Even though we’re building a new language and tool, this is very much a platform play. That is, we’re making all of that modeling information that you either typed or drew available in a relational database at runtime. We’ve been busy schematizing various platform components so that I can write a service or an application by populating that database with the definition of my app or service. Our goal is to make it possible to build real apps purely out of data. For some apps, we’ll succeed – for others, the goal is to make the transition to traditional code as natural as possible.

I’m quite happy to finally be able to give people early bits next month at PDC – as Doug says PDC is the “end of the beginning” and the real journey starts then.

Elation

don-box — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 21:51:00 GMT

Lest the title of this post be interpreted as syncategorematic, let me say that I am elated that AlexSto’s dream has turned into a reality.

Today Alexander’s team got the first public release of the Microsoft Solver Foundation out the door.

I had the distinct pleasure of working with Alexander in the earliest days of what is now called Oslo, and it’s great to see his vision manifest itself as a DLL.

Bits are here: http://code.msdn.microsoft.com/solverfoundationfs1

Be sure to grab the new F# CTP (also went live today) here: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=61ad6924-93ad-48dc-8c67-60f7e7803d3c

Tito's Tacos

don-box — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:34:00 GMT

PDC is increasingly taking up my time, so I've got LA on the brain.

Having lived in LA for 39 years before joining the firm, I use PDC as an opportunity to visit my favorite haunts.

My first stop will be Tito's Tacos. Every time I go to LA (PDC or not), I go straight from LAX to Tito's.

For the PDC trips, I take as many people from my flight as possible.

My recommendation is some combination of Tacos (with cheese) and Tostadas. Skip the burritos - way too much food and you don't get that magical super-fresh lettuce/cheese combo happening.

Mary Jo's Codename Roundup

don-box — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 03:13:00 GMT

Ms. Foley has a call out for Microsoft codenames over at ZDNet.

I first read this on my phone and was busy coming up with names I thought would be interesting project names.

Unfortunately when I got home and read the blog, it was clear she was looking for actual names of existing projects, which I find way less interesting or fun.

At the risk of incurring the wrath of MJF, let me be perfectly clear that the names I'm listing here have no known correlation to any existing or future projects.

I just like the names.

Penultimate

Project Fifty Seven

Neville

Valhalla

Folsom

Cleveland

Loki

XK-4

Maybe once Oslo is behind me I'll get a chance to pick one of these up for my next gig...

Impromptu Vacation

don-box — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:37:00 GMT

For the first time ever, I took a completely spontaneous vacation by booking a flight Wednesday to head out to Martha's Vineyard to hang out with my wife & kids (and Sara Spalding's husband and kid).

I really like Martha's Vineyard - I also really like not having to make any plans.

Swimming in the Atlantic is also pretty cool - I forgot how much I like the ocean after 6+ years living near Lake Washington.

Wahoo - Microsoft Sponsors Apache Software Foundation!

don-box — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 08:21:00 GMT

http://port25.technet.com/archive/2008/07/25/oscon2008.aspx

This is great news in so many ways.

(Ed Note: Thanks to those who've pointed out that sponsorship and membership are distinct - the title is now correct.)