Build Day 3: ASP.NET MVC, TypeScript, SignalR and Node.Js

So at this 3rd day here at Microsoft Build 2012, I'm actually getting lucky. Three great sessions in a row is obviously not something I've seen before. Hey, maybe I'll get to see four great sessions tomorrow. Anyway, with some of the technical debt from last night's Beerfest and a Halloween party in Bellevue, I managed to attend most of Scott Hanselman's session. Regardless of whether the content was new or not, each of his sessions are pure entertainment.

But the highlight of the day is most definitely the TypeScript talk by technical fellow Anders Hejlsberg. It's ironic to consider that the guy that is practically the embodiment of C# is now passionately selling JavaScript. But, all things equal, he managed to fully and utterly convince me. Those existing blog posts simply don't do justice to the power of TypeScript as was demonstrated in his (recorded) session. I think it's one of the best things since C#.

Apart from the content, a conference on this scale is an excellent opportunity to meet new people and enlarge your community network. As of today, my community even includes people from Romania. I also met the guy behind the SilverlightCream and WindowsDevNews. Since I don't blog about Silverlight anymore, he kindly reminded me of his renewed focus on anything Windows 8. Just in time to submit my plans for a Windows Store Cookbook…

I never really looked at SignalR before, so a level 300 session is quite welcome, especially if it is performed by two dudes that manage to keep the talk light and humorous. SignalR is pretty cool if you want to add some simple asynchronous communication between multiple browser windows, even if you use different browsers. It feels much more elegant than using DOM navigation to hack yourself from one window to another. And the best of this all is the fact that SignalR is a Microsoft supported open-source product with a really bright future.

In the remainder of the day I wandered from one session to the other, just to find something that interests me. One of them had a memorable intro that showed the Commodore 64 emulator running an infinite Basic loop. But that session was for the most part repeating the TypeScript introduction earlier that day. Looking at the large number of people leaving and entering the session, once again reinforced my suspicion that more people were looking for some decent content.

Well, at least we had the attendee party in downtown Seattle to look forward to.