DevConnections Keynote w Jason Zander

I just attended an interesting keynote with Jason Zander. It didn’t really include a lot of new stuff as it was mostly focused around VS11, but it did bring up some things I hadn’t seen before, and I must say it is looking good.

It seems like the ALM stuff is taking another step in the right direction, adding in a lot of cool feedback stuff. Unfortunately, with the people I meet in the industry, it won’t be used as widely as it should. Everyone seems to have their reasons for not using TFS, but I keep coming back to the same point. If you look at the individual pieces of the TFS, like for example the source control, you will find better solutions out there. But if you start looking at the whole offering, you will see that it all integrates nicely giving you a very powerful suite of tools. I just wish I had more time to play with it and see what it can do…

They also showed off the new features for storyboarding in PowerPoint, which seems a little odd. I get the idea behind it, but it seems like a stab in the back for Expression Blend Sketchflow. And on top of that, it is PowerPoint…I’ll say that again…it is PowerPoint. I know that PowerPoint is already used for styling and theming in SharePoint, but I really don’t want it as a part of my development…even if I built a tool for using PowerPoint styles in Silverlight once upon a time… So, thanks, but no thanks. I much prefer using Balsamiq, even if it is static. If I want transitions and things, I still think Sketchflow is the way to go. Not PowerPoint…

And finally, I have one more thing to complain about. In VS11, while editing CSS, you now get a color picker when inserting colors. Cool idea, but no! The designer sets a specific color, which should be used correctly. He/She isn’t saying “use a blue color here”, he/she says “use THIS blue color here”. So a color picker wouldn’t be much help…

Sorry for my very negative tone in this post. I know that VS11 will be great, and I do know that the features Microsoft build are built based on demand. Once in a while, I just wish that Microsoft “forced” developers to do the right thing…

Comments (5) -

Jonas Cannehag 3/27/2012 10:21:54 PM

You know that the colorpicker is colors already used in your css-file right? I understand your opinion, bust your for clarification, its not just a colorpicker Smile

Jonas Cannehag 3/27/2012 10:23:14 PM

bust your....? "but just" could be the words i should have used Laughing

Is there really a color picker that pops up as you type inside you CSS files? I don't believe there is. I know there is if you use the Properties pane, but not a floating one while typing in the actual file...

OK...now I get what you are saying. It offers the ability to use pre-defined colors...but the problem is that it also makes it possible to pick a random color from a color swatch...

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