Editor's Note

Tech•Ed 2003 Offers Revealing Glimpse into Dev

When we arrived in Dallas for Tech•Ed in June, there was reason to worry. For a moment, we felt that familiar unease we once had as adolescents sent off to visit the grandparents down in Miami. How else to explain the "Happy 100th Birthday, Irving!" signs on the highway exit from DFW?

This weird feeling in the pit of our stomachs was more than just the prospect of spending time with family, however. As you probably know, the past couple of years have brought waves of caution and pessimism to our industry. There's no question that times have been tough out there. The slowdown has meant fewer available projects as companies tried to maintain what they have instead of funding new research.

So what does this have to do with Tech•Ed 2003, you may ask? We've watched the Microsoft .NET Framework from its introduction to its second rev, and our belief that it represents the future of computing has been reinforced by our coverage in the magazine over the past three years.

Meanwhile, we've looked for signs of renewed growth in the industry. At this year's Tech•Ed, we found many such signs. From the moment we hit the exhibitor area, we noticed a background level of buzz that had been missing from recent events. People sounded very upbeat and excited about everything that was going on at the show.

These feelings were echoed by many people we talked to during the show. New consulting projects that were taking months to land are suddenly going to contract in just a couple of weeks. Most importantly (to us), we saw a lot of activity around .NET. Companies that were just talking about experimenting with the Framework a year ago are now committing their resources to .NET-based projects. We were struck by the level of large-scale .NET deployment that's going on today, and planned for the near future.

One of the great things about a show like Tech•Ed is that it gives a good picture of where development is headed as a whole. You can always tell from the track overviews what's going to be on everyone's radar screens in the next year. For instance, security has been a much-discussed topic in the industry, and it was one of the major focuses at this year's show. Microsoft Office 2003 has many new features for programmers. Messaging is gaining momentum. There was some discussion about Yukon, the codename for the next version of SQL Server.

However, the biggest areas of interest we saw at the show weren't necessarily related to a single product. We regularly keep in touch with our readers at shows like Tech•Ed through both focus groups and on-floor discussions. In Dallas, we asked for and received many points of view about the magazine and the state of the software industry. One of the biggest topics on everyone's minds, without question, was architecture and best practices. Time and time again, people told us that they've spent a couple of years learning about the basics of the .NET Framework—properties, methods, and interfaces. With things starting to look up in the world of computing, it's now project time. There's no longer a question of what you can do with the Framework; the focus is now on the best way to do those things.

If you're working in the enterprise, building distributed and tiered apps, or creating high-traffic Web sites, you already know that 1/1000 second per call can make all the difference in a program. Security, performance, deployment, and robustness are all key considerations in your code, now more than ever. In the years to come, these factors are what will set your work apart from others.

Anyway, the show's highlight was the snack table setup between sessions. The luscious snack choices gave us the opportunity to cram our mouths full of creme-filled goodness, uncountable varieties of real fruit-flavored filling, and delectable preservatives. In case you're wondering about the photo, that is a smattering of real apples behind all the good stuff. Fortunately, those Granny Smiths were for appearance's sake only, as they were hollowed out and stuffed with Tootsie Rolls. Mmmmm. Tootsie apples. Isn't that really what the Developer Life is all about?

—J.T.

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