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"Longhorn" SDK Usage

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Hari posted about some of the features in the next version of the SDK, currently known as the “Longhorn” SDK. One feature is the ability to “target” the SDK based on the type of work you are doing or the type of information you want. We are currently debating how the “Longhorn” SDK will be used in this fashion. Some ideas being tossed around:

  • Different disciplines such as “ASP.NET Developer, DirectX Developer, Data Developer”
  • Based along current SDK lines such as “Platform SDK, .NET Framework SDK, DirectX SDK”

The idea being that if you indicate that you are a ASP.NET Developer, the SDK client would aggregate and present the topics that would be of interest to you or help you do your job better. Such topics may include reference documentation of ASP.NET, perhaps the ADO.NET reference documentation, all ASP.NET samples, all technical articles and blogs that relate to ASP.NET.

Part of this also implies that you can “componentize“ the SDK this way, so that you are only downloading and/or synchronizing the content you care about.

So the question is, do you like this idea? What level of granularity would you like? Do you just want to download the entire SDK, then filter on your own? Let us know!

Comments

  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2004
    From a granularity stand-point, you should be able to select which content gets downloaded and which content gets synced. So I could download the whole thing to have a full snapshot, but only get updates on the stuff I'm working with. I should also be able to check, similar to a windows update feature, which documentation is extremely out of date so I can go download the latest stuff in areas that I'm not actively syncing.

    I love the idea of disciplines, but a discipline is nothing more than a custom filter. If you do define disciplines, which I highly recommend, then don't add any hidden filtering features that aren't otherwise available. This is kind of a no-brainer, but a lot of MS product teams tend to do it anyway.
  • Anonymous
    February 06, 2004
    As long as there's an option to download it all at once and filter locally, I'd be happy with that. I like reading through the SDK and experimenting with new things not related to my current project.