Brennan’s Blog

The Guidance Automation Extensions (GAX) and Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT) are both going Gold. These packages are critical in creating software factories. These tools provide the base for tools like the Web Service Software Factory: Modeling Edition. I read the news from Tom Hollander. If you are not familiar with GAX/GAT think of these tools as Intellisense at the project level instead of the individual lines of code like normal Intellisense.

I have been experimenting with the software factories over the last year and have been anxious for the Gold release. As Visual Studio 2008 was released a stable version of WCSF for Visual Studio 2005 was released, but it was still built on a CTP release of GAX/GAT. A few weeks later a CTP of WCSF for Visual Studio 2008 was released. Now with a solid base I expect work on the software facotries to accelerate.

There has clearly been a lot of work put into getting these tools ready before the Microsoft launch events for .NET 3.5, Visual Studio 2008 and Windows Server 2008 that are starting at the end of this month. (see Heroes Happen Here for details on launch events) There are many projects on CodePlex for software factories and with a Gold release for GAX/GAT the projects should get a burst of activity.

I still think the UI for these tools need more work and there need to be many more training videos produced to improve adoption of these powerful tools, but the Gold release is the first step toward creating software in a new way.

You can read more details from Grigori Melnik, David Hayden and Jose Escrich. If you are interested in what happens next I suggest you subscribe to their blogs.