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Microsoft just announced new .NET Web Product roadmap. These are great news to us .NET/Windows developers! However, Scott didn’t tell about the products I tell you about in this post. This is exclusive information and remember: you heard about them here first!

Overview

Hard core programmers don’t like fancy GUI-tools for development. Especially people with *nix and Perl and COBOL background scoff at products like "Visual Studio" or "Expression Web" or "Expression Blend". If it is too easy, it must produce inefficient code.

With these new products Microsoft wants to gain more market share from those who normally avoid Microsoft development tools.

Microsoft Regular Expression Web

"This command-line version of the Expression Web makes creating appealing web sites to Lynx-users more complicated than ever. There is no graphical user interface – just a command-line application with hundreds of case-sensitive parameters and options. Resulting scripts should make even experienced regex-guys jealous!

The product outputs HTML 1.0 and is guaranteed to make unappealing web sites with gray backgrounds and no images for those with bloated eye-candy browsers."

Microsoft Internet Explorer 1.0 running a site made with the Microsoft Regular Expression Web. Notice how links to bloated images are automatically broken – just to make a point.

Microsoft ASCIILight

"Sometimes great movies like ASCII StarWars or Matrix make you want to create something cool of your own. ASCIILight is guaranteed to run on any device capable of displaying ASCII and there are no need for any plug-ins. Text-format makes compression over HTTP effective, so there isn’t buffering. Be sure to use our Microsoft Regular Expression Blend for creating the ASCIILight animations!"

Microsoft Regular Expression Blend

"Microsoft Regular Expression Blend allows you to create ASCIILight -animations from the command-line using our new syntax also used by the Microsoft Regular Expression Web.

Of course, all the parameters do different things, just to make development with both products bit more challenging. The more cryptic command or script, the better looking results you’ll probably get. After all, fitting all the code on one line is art form of it’s own."

Note: Please don’t take this post too seriously – whichever operating system, platform or development tool you support. There is room for all the platforms, languages and competition bla bla