Should I Stay or Should I Indigo?
March 1, 2005 —
(Page 1 of 3)
The big news coming out of February’s VSLive conference in San Francisco was that Indigo, the service-oriented infrastructure that Microsoft hopes will unify interprocess communication, will be available in a Community Technology Preview by late March (“Even if it’s March 38th or March 43rd, we will deliver it in March,” promised senior VP Eric Rudder).
This was really the first time since Microsoft’s 2003 Professional Developers Conference that the community has had the coding model laid out for them. The programming model has evolved considerably since, and even in some of the presentations there were moments when presenters used outdated idioms.
There’s an old chestnut that any programming problem can be solved by adding another layer of indirection. I’ve long thought this to be true of Microsoft’s approach to modular systems. There’s been one approach for in-memory, in-process reuse of components, another approach for in-memory, but out-of-process daemons, another approach for external servers on the local network segment, a different approach for message-oriented middleware, and several different approaches for integrating with enterprise systems and trading partners.
While the simple description of Indigo is that it’s the evolution of the infrastructure for supporting Web services, it’s really quite a bit more ambitious than that—it’s an attempt to create a unified programming model for all systems that rely on out-of-process services.
Whether you think of this as “components,” “Web services,” “service-oriented architecture,” “connected systems” or other similar buzzwords, it gets back to the classic goals of reuse and integration: How do I elevate the power of my internally developed code? How do I manage systems that are made from cooperating webs of independently deployed, independently evolving components?
It would be massively na?ve to think that the soon-to-be-released Indigo bits represent anything like the final answer to these questions. Reuse and integration, like productivity and innovation, are existential issues of software development, not technical ones. The technical question is whether a programming model provides reasonable and flexible scaffolding that facilitates the currently known best practices. Also, I’m one of those who believe that the learning curve and teachability of a programming practice drives acceptance to a very large extent.
Share this link: http://sdt.bz/28454
Most Read Latest News Blog Resources
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
ComponentOne Releases a Collection of 40+ UI Widgets Powered by HTML5 and jQuery
ComponentOne has announced the 2012 release of Wijmo: a kit of UI widgets for HTML5 and jQuery development
|
|
Zeichick’s Take: Looking for the best of the best of the best
It's time once again for readers to send in nominees for the SD Times 100
|
Taking enterprise architecture to the business side
Startup Corso is bringing out a cloud-based planning platform that ties into business plans
|
|
Top five apps to manage your workload
Web applications offer new ways to track your “to-do” lists
|
|
Not so fast when it comes to testing in the cloud
Developers face outsourcing, virtual lab management and mobile devices as obstacles
|
|
Xceed releases UX-focused suite for Microsoft’s WPF
"Blendables" helps match user experiences to developer visions
|
Are you at risk for burnout?
Burnout is a severe problem and it can strike at any time. Here's how to tell if you are nearing the edge.
|
|
Agility, mom, and apple pie
If we're to evaluate the state-of-the-art in software development, we should start with the values espoused in the Agile Manifesto.
|
|
RIM woos developers with free tablet
How do you get more apps ported to the BlackBerry PlayBook? By giving every developer a free tablet, of course!
|
|
GitHire: Use Headhunters to Find Your Perfect Programmer
Are you a hiring manager tired of scouring the job boards? Check out this new service that will find 5 people interested in your jobs.
|
The Hidden Costs of Software Licensing
Moving beyond paper-based software licensing to more flexible, software-based licensing is a business decision. There is a growing trend tow...
|
|
Case Study: You May Need a Development Mechanic
As a contractor for a major financial player in Germany, SOBEGE, a German-based consultancy specializing in embedded IT and web services, wa...
|
|
Ensuring Software Quality at a Major International Bank
One of the world’s leading international banks has adopted AgitarOne technology for delivering generated unit tests for their Java software...
|
|
Load Testing Adobe Flex Applications
Adobe Flex applications may be different from applications you’ve worked with before. For classic HTML web applications, the server does all...
|