Microsoft"s Professional Developer Conference (PDC) 2005 has come to a close. Neowin has tried to cover it as thoroughly as possible. So what were the highlights?
First, there"s Windows Vista itself. Windows Vista is the first major overhaul of the NT code-base since..well ever. Windows NT was launched in 1994. In 1996, Windows NT 4.0 was released which contained some minor tweaks to it. In 2000, Windows 2000 was a significant update to NT 4.0 but still just an update. In 2001, Windows XP was released which was largely a cosmetic update to Windows 2000.
But Windows Vista is a truly new version. Microsoft announced a new API called WinFX to succeed the two decade old Win16/Win32 based APIs which included GDI for graphics and a hodgepodge of networking APIs.
WinFX is made up of 3 main subset APIs: Avalon (Windows Presentation Foundation) which rides on top of Direct3D to provide 3D accelerated graphics. Indigo to provide a secure and easy to use set of communication APIs (Windows Communication Foundation). And .NET, a set of managed APIs to make it easier to write software in general.
Read more for the rest of the wrap up, more sources linked below.