This month, we'd like to answer a couple of notes we've recently received. We get such a variety of letters that we thought we should compile a representative sample so you'll know what your fellow readers are asking. And yes, we have edited them so that we don't have to credit their authors. So straight from you, here are a couple of real, albeit heavily edited, letters and our responses.
Why don't you run more articles about Visual C++? I was hoping for several articles per month on C++ and Win32.
We try to cover the full spectrum of Microsoft's computing world in the magazine each month. Visual C++ is one important part of it. Right now there's so much excitement over so many emerging technologies (and languages) that we can't just cover one topic! Our goal is to keep as many readers as possible well-informed. Our C++ Q&A column is our longest-running feature; Paul DiLascia has written over 100 installments for us.
I wrote to you a little while back about the dramatic increase in C# coverage at the expense of ASP.NET and Visual Basic .NET. Will this trend continue?
We do try to keep our language coverage balanced as much as possible. Of course, C# coverage has increased dramatically in the past 18 months. After all, it's new! Everyone wants to see whether it's going to be a language that they'd better learn now. One factoid that's come out of our recent focus groups is that people are using it now in their projects, not just evaluating it.
However, there's been no intentional sidelining of ASP.NET or Visual Basic .NET. At the core of our content planning are two goals we try to fulfill: introducing new technology and investigating topics more deeply. When we do the latter, we ask the authors to use whatever language makes the most sense to them. In many cases, they'll use C++ to look at the internals of an operating system. It just so happens that many of our authors have been intrigued by C# over the past few months and have used it to investigate the concepts behind their articles.
We think that this will be less of an issue in the future because supporting the .NET Framework means that the guts of a program will be more recognizable across languages, and it will take less incremental effort to keep various languages current.
Why don't you design your Web site so that it prints out exactly the way I want, with two columns, automatic double-sided paper, and all the articles in one job?
Thanks for reading. You may be interested to know that we produce a full-color, preprinted collection of printouts of all the magazine's contents on beautiful, glossy paper every month. You can get it at finer booksellers in your area, or visit https://msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/subscribe.asp for more information!
I just finished reading your MSDN Magazine Editor's Note in which you made a sarcastic remark about Edmonton. Just wondering: is your editor from Calgary?
In fact, we have no editors from Calgary on staff right now, although we've wasted the past few hours watching the Islanders playing the Flames instead of writing the Editor's Note, which is why we now have to do the old "answering letters" trick. We certainly meant Edmonton no ill and salute the proud residents of this great city in ...uh...Canada, right? Thanks for reading!
If you're not one of those people who leaves the magazine on a pile for six months before reading it, there's still time to register for Microsoft Tech•Ed (https://msdn.microsoft.com/events/teched). This year, the show will return to New Orleans from April 9-13. As always, you'll get the latest technical information straight from the source. The best part of the conference is that the convention center in New Orleans is really heavily air-conditioned. It's great. As you may know, around April 1 of each year, New Orleans officially becomes uninhabitable. Alligators return to the city, Bourbon Street returns to its natural swamp-like setting, and the humidity is measured in pounds per square inch. But not in the convention center! This year's topics will include Visual Studio .NET, XML Web Services, and building secure applications. There are several pre-conference sessions planned, which will help you better understand .NET from the perspective of Visual Basic, COM, and Active Server Pages. What could be better?
|
.gif)
.gif){kind=small}