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Microsoft To Open Source Cloud Framework Behind Halo 4 Services
angry tapir writes Microsoft plans to open-source the framework that helps developers of cloud services like those behind Halo 4. Project Orleans is a framework built by the eXtreme Computing Group at Microsoft Research using .NET, designed so developers who aren't distributed systems experts can build cloud services that scale to cope with high demand and still keep high performance. The Orleans framework was used to build several services on Azure, including services that are part of Halo 4. The code will be released under an MIT license on GitHub early next year.
If it didn't lead to cargo cult programming I would maybe even agree. Sadly, that's exactly where we're heading. What encapsulation and abstraction SHOULD bring us is less reinventing of the wheel and more focus on the task at hand. What it DOES get us is more and more people who create software we depend upon who don't have the foggiest idea of just what they're doing.
This is actually an issue. And I'm not even talking about when you ask someone who claims to be a programmer why he chose this over that sort algo and he looks at you blankly, asking "what's the difference"? Or, my personal favorite, "'cause that one used one parameter less so it has to be faster".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
We've been asking for years now (decades, even) for Microsoft to become more open. Regardless of their motivation, this kind of behavior should be encouraged, rather than ridiculed. To my knowledge, none of the other platforms they've open sourced has 'taken back' by them, as some conspiracy theorists have anticipated. While I'm under no illusion that Office or Windows will ever be open sourced, I'm very happy that much of their other platforms are becoming more open and hope they continue to do so.