Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 19:21:40 +0000 From: =?utf-8?Q?Pivot=20Point?= <team@pivotpointresearch.com> To: =?utf-8?Q?*|FNAME|*?= <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: =?utf-8?Q?Pivotal=20Perspectives=20Newsletter=2D=20Microsoft=20developer=20evangelist=20responds=20to=20developer=20frustration?= Message-ID: <ca43e8b1f0e9c72628074f77581b96126c3.20141004192102@mail128.atl101.mcdlv.net>
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View this email in your browser (http://us8.campaign-archive1.com/?u=3Dca4= 3e8b1f0e9c72628074f775&id=3D754e57ea3b&e=3D81b96126c3) ** Microsoft exec addresses topic that is frustrating many software develo= pers ------------------------------------------------------------ ** ------------------------------------------------------------ Each month we encourage developers in the Pivotal Perspectives panel to po= se questions for other developers and industry leaders to respond to. Las= t month=E2=80=99s question came from US game developer Geoffrey Draper. http://www.pivotpointresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/geoff_draper.= jpg Geoffrey asked =E2=80=9CAre any other developers baffled by Microsoft= =E2=80=99s strategy? They say they want us to develop for their platform= =2C and then they deprecate XNA along with their System.Drawing API for 2= D graphics. The only supported options are to code the entire GUI in XAML= (too high level) or DirectX (too low level). Essentially they are making= it overly difficult for us to port our existing Android games to Windows= =2E Do any other developers feel my frustration? Or has everyone else figur= ed out a workaround?=E2=80=9D Geoffrey Draper- Software Developer We posed Geoffrey=E2=80=99s question to the Pivotal Perspectives panel th= is week and heard back from over 300 developers during the week of July 21= st 2014. According to Matt Foulon=2C Pivot Point Research Group analyst=2C =E2=80= =9Cthe poll results found that 37% of developers agreed that they share G= eoffrey=E2=80=99s frustration and 15% said they had figured out workaroun= ds; and 48% said they didn=E2=80=99t have enough experience to have an opi= nion one way or the other.=E2=80=9D http://www.pivotpointresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/poll-chart2.j= pg Comments from fellow frustrated developers: =E2=80=9CXAML is nice and declarative=2C and with better performance works= nice for some games=2C but doesn=E2=80=99t help with porting at all. Dire= ctX is way too level without using an engine.=E2=80=9D (United States =E2= =80=93 software architect =E2=80=93 game developer) =E2=80=9CI am working in a startup doing a new mobile messaging product wh= ich requires a very smooth reactive UI. We are baffled as to what to use o= n WinPhone so it=E2=80=99s coming a LOOOONG last on our roadmap.=E2=80=9D= (Australia =E2=80=93 start up developer) Comments from fellow developers who have figured out workarounds: =E2=80=9CDeveloping with HTML 5 & Javascript is the future. Device-indepen= dent=2C from Java Android to Javascript it=E2=80=99s not too far.=E2=80=9D= (Germany =E2=80=93 professional full time developer) =E2=80=9CI develop using marmalade sdk and don=E2=80=99t sweat the native= sdk=2C that=E2=80=99s my game engine providor=E2=80=99s problem.=E2=80=9D= (Canada =E2=80=93 game developer =E2=80=93 enterprise/business productivit= y developer) =E2=80=9CSeems now the only easy way to make games for Windows Phone is ei= ther Unity 3D or HTML 5.=E2=80=9D (United Kingdom =E2=80=93 freelance/cont= ract developer =E2=80=93 enterprise/business productivity developer) We then asked for a response from Microsoft=E2=80=99s developer relations= team and got the following perspective. http://www.pivotpointresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/derek-burney.= png Derek Burney- Microsoft GM=2C Technical Evangelism =E2=80=9COftentimes a big=2C long-term vision for a platform requires brea= king changes. With Windows Store apps=2C we cemented and refined our inve= stment for a secure=2C developer friendly=2C highly productive platform th= at will serve the needs of our customers for many years; we have a platfor= m that is touch first=2C mobile first=2C safe to deploy via our stores. W= ith games=2C we want a powerful platform that would meet the complexity of= today=E2=80=99s immersive games. Let me explain what I mean by that. We want the best games running on the= Microsoft platform =E2=80=93 inclusive of Phone=2C Windows=2C and Xbox. T= o accomplish that=2C we want to make available the best/most powerful APIs= and frameworks=2C and as much as possible we want to decrease the frictio= n to reuse (or port) existing games to Windows/Windows Phone/and Xbox. Here are a few examples on how we achieve these goals: * We are making investments to ensure all middleware engines like Unity=2C= Marmalade=2C Corona=2C etc. have a great offering on Windows. * We are contributing first hand to ANGLE=2C Cocos2DX=2C OpenCV and many o= ther OSS frameworks. All of these efforts make it easier to =E2=80=9Cport= to Windows=E2=80=9D from Android and iOS. These ports are built on top o= f DirectX technologies=2C so they offer unmatched graphics and media capab= ilities. Those frameworks access the power of DirectX without having to wr= ite against it directly. * Once you are on the Windows platform=2C we maximize your code reuse with= Universal apps that you can reuse on Windows=2C Phone=2C and in the futur= e=2C XBOX. I should mention that as part of the we are investing into all these middl= eware and framework offerings based on the demand we see in the market =E2= =80=93 if you think we should invest more elsewhere=2C let us know where (= and why). This leads to the XNA question. It is indeed not the focus of our future i= nvestments because today=E2=80=99s technology has outpaced the capabilitie= s of what XNA could ever expose. Today=E2=80=99s games are more complex= than what the XNA APIs were designed for (e.g. advanced shaders). Direct3= D and Direct2D have all the required capabilities =E2=80=93 which is why w= e are investing so much into offering a rich XAML UI platform for controls= =2C and seamless integration with DirectX in the same projects. While we a= re not investing actively on XNA=2C the evangelism team does work with Mon= ogame (the cross-platform=2C OSS implementation of XNA )=2C which itself= leverages the seamless integration of the UI platform referred to above.= For people that prefer to still use the XNA APIs=2C they can do so using= Monogame.=E2=80=9D We reached out to Geoffrey to get his reaction to Microsoft=E2=80=99s pers= pective: =E2=80=9CAt first I was surprised by Microsoft=E2=80=99s decision to inves= t in 3rd party tools=2C but as I think more about it=2C it makes sense. S= ince many of today=E2=80=99s popular game titles are written using Unity o= r Corona or other such tools=2C it follows naturally for Microsoft to ensu= re that Windows is supported by these tools =E2=80=94 rather than forcing= developers to port their titles to Windows from scratch. Personally=2C I= =E2=80=99ve always done all my development using each system=E2=80=99s pla= tform-specific APIs rather than 3rd party tools=2C but maybe it=E2=80=99s= time I give them a try!=E2=80=9D http://www.pivotpointresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/pivotal-persp= ectives-logo-with-trademark.png If you have not joined the Pivotal Perspectives advisory panel here is you= r chance! Just click below to register. http://www.pivotpointresearch.com/jointhepanel =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D= =3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D Copyright =C2=A9 2014 Pivot Point Research Group=2C All rights reserved. You registered for the Pivotal Perspectives program Our mailing address is: Pivot Point Research Group 40 Lake Bellevue Drive Suite 100 Bellevue=2C WA 98005 USA ** unsubscribe from this list (http://pivotpointresearch.us8.list-manage.c= om/unsubscribe?u=3Dca43e8b1f0e9c72628074f775&id=3D43183e145a&e=3D81b96126c3&= c=3D754e57ea3b) ** update subscription preferences (http://pivotpointresearch.us8.list-man= age.com/profile?u=3Dca43e8b1f0e9c72628074f775&id=3D43183e145a&e=3D81b96126c3= ) From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 4 23:29:10 2014 Return-Path: <owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2CDAB372 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Sat, 4 Oct 2014 23:29:10 +0000 (UTC) Received: from feeder.usenet4all.se (1-1-1-38a.far.sth.bostream.se [82.182.32.53]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 9C9FB3D8 for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Sat, 4 Oct 2014 23:29:08 +0000 (UTC) Received: from kw.news4all.se (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by feeder.usenet4all.se (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id s94NSnhj095071; Sun, 5 Oct 2014 01:28:50 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from bah@bananmonarki.se) Message-ID: <543082B1.10104@bananmonarki.se> Date: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 01:28:49 +0200 From: Bernt Hansson <bah@bananmonarki.se> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/31.1.2 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: doug@fledge.watson.org, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: checking out ports tree: was Downgrade a pkg References: <542E6E3F.9040405@cloverinformatica.it> <542FFBA6.5020508@gmx.de> <20141004162916.184709f7.freebsd@edvax.de> <alpine.BSF.2.11.1410041211580.20140@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <alpine.BSF.2.11.1410041211580.20140@fledge.watson.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions <freebsd-questions.freebsd.org> List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/options/freebsd-questions>, <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-questions/>; List-Post: <mailto:freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> List-Help: <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=help> List-Subscribe: <http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions>, <mailto:freebsd-questions-request@freebsd.org?subject=subscribe> X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2014 23:29:10 -0000 On 2014-10-04 18:14, doug@safeport.com wrote: > > On Sat, 4 Oct 2014, Polytropon wrote: > >> On the other hand, it should be possible to manually >> check out a specific version of the whole ports tree >> where the port version reflects the required older >> version number. This is mainly a SVN thing. Of course >> this involves building from source, as pkg, with its >> binary package approach, emphasizes the use of release >> or most recent packages. > > Will this get the old source? Old sources is here http://ftp-archive.freebsd.org/pub/FreeBSD-Archive/old-releases/
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