Developer Week in Review: Are .NET programmers going extinct?

Microsoft embraces HTML5, selling a startup at 15, and a new version of Java looms.

After an adventure-filled return trip from WWDC (Southwest eventually did find my luggage …), it’s back to the regular grind, spanning the globe to bring you all the news you need.

Are .NET developers the next buggy whip makers?

So, you say you’re a ninja .NET guru, able to churn out WFC C# code in the blink of the eye, and you’ve got every obscure Microsoft API call memorized? Well, if recent rumblings from Redmond are to be believed, there’s a large asteroid heading your way called Windows 8.

To say that Microsoft developers are unhappy over the news that tablets running Windows 8 will use HTML5 and JavaScript as an app programming platform would be to say that Steve Jobs likes black turtlenecks. While Microsoft was clear to point out that old-style Windows programs will run on Windows 8, the message seems to be that spending years and years becoming a master of the arcane programming secrets that make Windows tick will no longer be necessary.

This is certainly good news for anyone who has ever taken one look at the phonebook-size manuals that .NET programming requires and ran away screaming. It also would seem to be good news for the HTML5 standard, although Microsoft’s history with standards is a checkered one. But if your claim to fame is knowing the Microsoft platform inside and out, the writing may be on the wall that your talents are no longer going to be in such high demand.

Sorry I missed gym class, I was managing my IPO…

You may feel pretty proud of your child, who just won the spelling bee or got an A on her last math test. Then again, you could consider young Daniil Kulchenko, who just sold his company to ActiveState at the tender age of 15. Kulchenko’s product, a tool for Perl development in the cloud, evidently caught the eye of the scripting IDE maker, and ActiveState both bought out the company and brought Kulchenko on-board as a part-time employee.

Forget feeling inadequate about your child. Kulchenko makes me feel inadequate.

OSCON Java 2011, being held July 25-27 in Portland, Ore., is focused on open source technologies that make up the Java ecosystem. (This event is co-located with OSCON.)

Save 20% on registration with the code OS11RAD

Get Ready for J2SE 7

It’s taken five years, but the Java Community Process (JCP) executive committee has finally put their seal of approval on Java v7. The vote was 13-1, with Google the lone holdout. However, if you look at the comments that accompany the “yes” votes from companies such as Red Hat and IBM, you’ll see that no one was particularly happy about Oracle’s insistence on retaining the licensing veto on Java implementations, a stand that drove Apache out of the JCP after Oracle refused to bless the Apache Harmony implementation.

Java 7 will include support for multicore processing, as well as a bunch of improvements to the language, such as being able to switch on a string value, and a better way to check for null values. The new standard faces a final vote before it becomes the law of the land.

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