Hello, MS Marketing... what are you smoking?
Whatever it is I want some. Fast. Before you change another name.
Okay, awhile ago MS introduced us to a couple of cool cats. Indigo and Avalon. Just like naming your mail server Hermes and your primary domain controller Zeus, it’s cool (as in geek cool, not something you can pick up women with). Indigo. Avalon. Nice.
No, they don’t tell me what they are or what they do, but then Windows Professional 2000 didn’t either (and neither did Microsoft Bob for that matter). I am however still waiting for Windows 2000 Amateur Edition.
However they sound, they sound good. They look good on a slide deck. And they’re easy to remember. After all, developers can only remember two things.
So what’s the latest trend? What’s all the bruhaha now?
Those cool code-names that we liked and could remember became the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) and Windows Workflow (WF). And to make it easier to write (and remember) they were all packaged together into something called WinFX. Great, WinFx. I can remember that and it certainly fits on the slide. No problem.
Oh but wait, WinFX isn’t right. It doesn’t describe what it really should be and we need something better. So WinFX is now known as… The .NET Framework 3.0
Tada!
Huh?
Right, I get it. The current 2.0 framework is going away and a 3.0 framework that has a million other things in it (WPF, WCF, etc.) will replace it. Makes sense. 1.0 begat 1.1 which begat 2.0 which begat 3.0. I could live with that.
But alas, no.
The newly renamed .NET Framework 3.0 contains the (current) 2.0 CLR (which we call the .NET Framework today and have been since 1.0 days). The rename is to make the technology be named after what it represents, the next version of the developer framework.
Ummmm, yeah. There is a good blog that discusses and outlines it for those that are still scratching your heads. Check it out here. Personally it’s downright confusing. Yes, they’re all code names and code names (like Longhorn which begat Vista) are meant to be fleeting but this last change is just plain odd.
The current framework (can I even call it that now?) installs in the C:\WINDIR\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727 (or v1.14322) directory. So they’ll be a new “framework” installed under here in a “v3.0.1024” directory? But if the 2.0 CLR is part of the 3.0 framework and it’s in a different folder and you can’t be in two places at the same time…
Oh god. I think my head just exploded.
I’m with Sam on this and think that Microsoft marketers (or whoever is responsible for this and thinks it’s a good thing) have lost it. My next book is going to be called “Tips and Tricks of the .NET Framework 3.0 Gurus Featuring That Old 2.0 Framework That Has Been Around For Many Years Now”.