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Microsoft To Open Source Cloud Framework Behind Halo 4 Services

Posted by timothy on from the part-of-a-continuing-series dept.

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.

5 of 50 comments (clear)

  1. please keep closed! by Masked+Coward · · Score: 2

    Whatever it is that made Halo 4 (cloud-based or otherwise) should remain closed. Or better yet, incinerate it.

    1. Re:please keep closed! by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.
    2. Re:please keep closed! by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 2

      Well, yes, there are plenty of crappy programmers out there. And some developers always are looking for ways to make things simpler for everyone by creating all-encompassing frameworks, but in the end, almost invariably, it does lead to a lot of cargo cult programming practices with an over-reliance on frameworks and little understanding of how things work internally.

      That being said, there's nothing wrong with using higher-level systems and frameworks so long as you understand the tradeoffs you're making. I'm an expert C++ programmer (videogame development), but I always turn to C# / .NET for internal tools, because I'm so much more productive in that language. The tradeoff, of course, is that the tools tend to be much less efficient, as well as some extra work for writing interop with native code. It's not as much of an issue since I can assume we have more powerful development machines using those tools, and high-speed is less critical than efficient workflow, functionality, and safety.

      I think it's the same sort of tradeoff you'd be making when using this sort of framework. It's never going to be as optimal as a carefully tuned, custom crafted solution. As such, for extremely large or complex systems, or anything that absolutely demands extreme efficiency, you'd be better off with custom solutions written by experts. However, for projects with more modest goals, it could be that the requirements in productivity outweigh the costs of a custom, low-level solution. As long as the decision is made knowing these tradeoffs, it's fine.

      The problem is that the vendor never tells us about these tradeoffs. For years, Microsoft touted C# / .NET as the next big thing, and told us that "pretty soon" we were going to see performance comparable to native code. It never happened. Natively compiled C++ still kicks the crap out of managed code in real world scenarios. Most major client-side applications are still written in native code. I suspect it will be similar for this sort of platform. Yes, it will work, but it's never going to be nearly as optimal or flexible as a custom solution expertly designed and optimized for the particular task at hand.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Re:First they... by Guspaz · · Score: 4, Funny

    "Our words are backed with NUCLEAR WEAPONS!"
    - Ghandi

  3. Encouragement... by FearTheDonut · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.