Guys, the 2012 Roadmap has been published, where's the passion there used to be?

This used to the one of the highlights of the year, it would unleash a plethora of comments, and no-ones even mentioned it 

The fire seems to have died in these forums...

Martin. 

DXv2 :)

Well, I read the roadmap, I can't say there's passion - there's FEAR!  Where in the world are we going?  Where is Microsoft taking us?  Is "touch" really what we need to be focusing on as devs, as DX?  How is "touch" related to our business line of products?  We have core technologies we need to focus on, is the iPad really leading us down this path?  I am very concerned we have taken a very wrong turn and are headed down a very wrong path.  Someone PLEASE prove me wrong!

The steam seams to have gone out of this forum.

Hardly any reaction to DXv2.

Where has everybody gone?

Somewhere else?

We are still here, just I think (at least for myself) that we are all sitting back and waiting to see what becomes of Win8 and the new platform ecosystem being developed.

I know myself if I had a nice 24/27" multitouch screen infront of my keyboard and had applications more catered for touch I could see myself using it at times (heck even now I sometimes poke the screen due to the constant use of Phones and Tablets (although Android in my case not iControl devices).

Win8 is introducing a new OS with new UI with new architectures. Device manufactures are busy developing new hardware for this new generation of software.

This is similar to the thick client to web2.0 shift, I think alot of people sat back going, there is no way you can make a desktop client in a web browser, however in using services like Ontime or Picnik (image editing) the interfaces available through web are quite amazing these days, (I wouldn't say they equal desktop's rich interface, but it does a bloody good job to emulate it).

Touch is something that people don't think they will use for desktop.... but have you had a touch screen to use on your desktop? have you had software that allows for the use of touch?

This is what MS is trying to answer, they are recognising that touch has worked well in the mobile space, it works well in the surface project that they have been playing with and getting ideas from. So now the obvious path is to bring touch to the masses and see if it works.

The funny thing I find.... is that if Apple was doing this, everyone would be like,

"WOW it is so evolutionary and funky and so Apple to bring something that can make my life easier to the desktop, Microsoft are still stuck in the 90's with their "windows" *spits at them*"

So I think this is something we just have to wait and see, we have alot of tools already well established in our current spaces, sure we want more, but then again if this "touch" world takes off we will be screaming if we can't make anything that takes advantage of it.

So for now I stay quiet watching the grass grow and waiting to see what grows from it. The roadmap isn't exactly exciting as to be honest I don't think DX are even 100% sure what will happen this year with Win8, the new consumer preview comes out soon and might answer some more quesitons. But until we have some concrete target I think we are all a little "fearful" of this new technology which currently we don't understand nor think will work, but again, we haven't tried before, who would have thought a "locked down, basic" touchscreen phone would take off like the iPhone did?.

Well done and well said Michael!

I agree with Michael, and would go so far as to say that DevExpress almost said more than I expected. I couldn't imagine being a third party company and trying to make a roadmap that anyone could rely upon this year. They're going to have to have a lot of man hours spent doing R&D. And not just on what they can and can't do, but also trying to divine the future of this brave new world of touch being brought into regular operating systems.

Beyond that, Microsoft has been pretty silent the last year. DevExpress appears to have followed suit. Quiet before a storm?

-Ron 

I don't think anyone's going to prove you wrong Neal. And if they don't want to call it fear, I'm sure there are very similar terms that could be used. I think a number of us have been in this business long enough to know that with significant change some market leaders will make (in retrospect) some spectacularly bad decisions. I'm sure there's a lot of noodling at DevEx headquarters these days trying to make sure they make the right decisions and get a bold yet realistic plan of execution in place.

 Neal:

Sounds quite plausible to me.

What I would really like to see is lots more DevExpress involvement with more blogs and posts and code snippets, it all seems a bit depressing at the moment (maybe it's me!)

On a different branch of thought; has anyone seen anything about DevExpress components for Windows Phone? I know the DevExpress SL components are for version 5 and Windows Phone is version 4, has there been any change in the scenario?

Regards,

Martin. 

Michael Proctor [DX-Squad]:

The funny thing I find.... is that if Apple was doing this, everyone would be like,

"WOW it is so evolutionary and funky and so Apple to bring something that can make my life easier to the desktop, Microsoft are still stuck in the 90's with their "windows" *spits at them*"

 

May be there is a reason Apple haven't developed touch on the desktop ?

Michael Proctor [DX-Squad]:

So for now I stay quiet watching the grass grow and waiting to see what grows from it. The roadmap isn't exactly exciting as to be honest I don't think DX are even 100% sure what will happen this year with Win8, the new consumer preview comes out soon and might answer some more quesitons. But until we have some concrete target I think we are all a little "fearful" of this new technology which currently we don't understand nor think will work, but again, we haven't tried before, who would have thought a "locked down, basic" touchscreen phone would take off like the iPhone did?.

 I think Seth Godin summed it nicely today: http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2012/02/the-map-has-been-replaced-by-the-compass.html

I'm still here. And I agree 100% with Michael. Just waiting to see what Microsoft does to see what DX does.

Personally, I LOVE the new direction of DXv2. Touch and the Metro look in WinForms is something I've been looking to do for a while, so this worked out perfect for me.

 

Apple are actually porting over a lot of their iOS features to Mountain Lion but I don’t think its “going touch”.

 

I’m sure Metro would be great on tablets but that’s where it should stay. I hope it can be turned off because its not going to work well on a desktop/laptop in the enterprise. As it happens we develop a couple of touch applications but even after shelling out for new DX enterprise licences, my company is reluctant to even spend £200 on a touch screen monitor for easier development. I see the same situation for business end users and consumers- how many are going to pay out for the new OS AND a touch screen during a global recession? Unless there are must have app’s in the win 8 store, this release could very well be bypassed much like many dev’s seem to have bypassed WPF. Sure they’re going to shift copies via new hardware and volume licencing but there are a lot of satisfied Win 7 customers out there already. With so many people using alternative devices they picked up since MS dropped the ball, many are needing to develop on more than just an MS platform.