Daily Archives: May 29, 2008

microsoft, software development, web authoring

Danny Thorpe back at Microsoft

Danny Thorpe, best known for his work on Delphi at Borland, is returning to Microsoft:

I will soon be jumping back into the Microsoft maelstrom, this time in the Visual Studio / Developer Division (devdiv) team. I will again be telecommuting from Santa Cruz. I’ll be part of a new incubation team composed of Chuck and a few other legendary devdiv veterans (I’m not sure I can say who yet) working on stuff to make accessing Windows Live services easier for developers.

I have had great respect for Thorpe ever since reading his book on Delphi Component Design, which despite its age is still a good read if you want to know how the Visual Component Library in Delphi hangs together. His career has been a bit butterfly of late – from Delphi to Google to work on Gears, then Microsoft developing Live Services, then working on browser plugins at cooliris (makers of PicLens); and now back to Microsoft.

If Microsoft is to bring its Live Services into wide use, strong Visual Studio integration is a must; I guess this may be what his new role is all about.

adobe, web authoring

Adobe Creative Suite 4 in public beta

Adobe has released a public beta of key applications from its popular Creative Suite 4, including Dreamweaver, Fireworks, and Soundbooth. The company says, “Neither the quality nor the features are complete yet,” which makes them alpha releases in the usual terminology, but they are called beta anyway. A few highlights:

Dreamweaver integrates WebKit for a new Live View, has better support for Ajax and Javascript, and integrates Subversion:

Once you’ve defined Subversion as your version control system, you can update your site to get the latest versions of its pages directly from within Dreamweaver; no third-party utility or command-line interface is required.

Fireworks has greater scope, supporting CSS, and allowing export to HTML with CSS, PDF or AIR. Now includes Adobe Type Engine.

Adobe has also been polishing its “universal user interface” across its product range.

The beta is for Mac and Windows, and is intended for existing CS3 users; others will find the beta timing out after 48 hours.

Downloading now…