A year ago, I had the pleasure of delivering two talks at an architect’s forum in Helsinki. The first talk was about services and Microsoft solution for SOA. The second one was about models and Microsoft solution at that time with DSLs and Visual Studio Team Architect.
The reason I needed two talks is because those two topics were not really related to one another. During that time, I didn't really know that these two topics that I'm so passionate about would converge into a powerful solution called Oslo.
Oslo's first CTP will be available for the public during PDC two weeks from now.
Some of the components in Oslo are:
- A visual designer (codenamed "Quadrant") - A tool that helps people define and interact with models in a rich and visual manner.
- The modeling language (codenamed "M") - A language that helps people create and use textual domain-specific languages and data models. Oslo extends Visual Studio’s support for graphical DSLs, adds new textual DSL capabilities and provides a repository for models of all kinds. On a personal note, it is great for me to see that DSLs that I was evangelizing in the last three years are realizing their potential as the modeling foundation for Oslo.
- A "relational repository" - A relational repository that makes models available to both tools and platform components. Developers can use existing database tools such as Access, Excel, SQL Server Reporting or Analytical Services in addition to "Quadrant” to view and manipulate the models.
Figure - Screenshot of “Quadrant” from David Chappell's talk on Oslo during Tech-Ed Orlando
Oslo is also about services and it will make it easier to build service oriented solutions in organizations by providing models and DSLs for defining workflows and services. Over time, these models will be executed directly by the new Windows Server “Dublin” technologies, but that’s another topic for a different post. Isn’t it?
Did you know that Microsoft has a cool IDE for developing and simulating robots? I have had the chance to explore the Robotics SDK recently and found that it is so generic that it can be used not only for robots but also for a multi-sensor mission critical system.
The Robotics Studio was developed for research purposes by Microsoft Research and can be downloaded from http://www.microsoft.com/robotics.
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Figure - The Visual Programming IDE for Robotics Studio
If you wish to learn more, I uploaded a Technical Introduction to Microsoft Robotics Studio Presentation for you to learn from.
Recently, I have started to work with the universities in Israel and especially with the computer sciences faculties. One of them expressed specific interest in teaching Robotics as part of their curriculum.
So, in case you're a faculty or just someone who wants to learn more, you can download the following learning materials:
- Robotics Curriculum - 10 step-by-step exercises and activities for getting students started in the world of Robotics. Modules use the ER1 robotics kit. This curriculum guide is fully accredited and meets national science education standards.
- Computer Sciences through Robotics Labs - The robotics introductory courseware is a set of labs that can be completed individually or as part of an introductory course on robotics. The labs take you through common robotics concepts such as reading sensors, controlling actuators, designing simple behaviors, and having a robot interacting with its environment using Microsoft Robotics Studio.
And if you want to get excited about some of the interesting stuff we're doing worldwide with the academy specific to robotics, you'll find this short presentation pretty insightful.
