Source Fource?

Let me start by saying that Microsoft Office is one of the Microsoft tools I use the most. This might sound strange seeing as how I am a C++ developer. However it turns out that I spend a lot of time on my project doing mundane activities like sending e-mail, reading and writing documents, and generating presentations.

This brings me to a weird marketing attempt my Microsoft Corporation: The Source Fource. To tell the truth, I am not exactly sure what Fource means. That is how they spell it. Could be a knockoff on the Force. Maybe they are combining that with the Source?

The Source Fource is a bunch of action heroes based on the Microsoft product line. Perhaps some interns and good graphic arts employees cooked this up. I do not know. I can say that the "Office Master" who represents Microsoft Office has the best action figure. LOL.

What will Microsoft come up with next? I am hoping for more free downloaded like Visual Studio Express Edition. But that is a story for another post.

Interesting Commands

While it is fresh in my mind, I thought I would list out the Windows commands that I plan to cover in future posts. They are listed here with one-liners describing their function.

ASSOC - Displays or modifies file extension associations.

AT - Schedules commands and programs to run on a computer.

CACLS - Displays or modifies access control lists (ACLs) of files.

FIND - Searches for a text string in a file or files.

SUBST - Associates a path with a drive letter.

If you can't wait until I write my next few posts, you know you can always type HELP at the Windows command prompt. This will give you a lot more information on the command usage.

Windows Command Prompt

I thought I would start at the very beginning. In my library are a couple books on scripting for Microsoft Windows. And at least one of these books emphasizes that you should not overlook the Windows command prompt. There are a number of commands available that have their origins in the Microsoft MS-DOS world. Typing "help" at the Windows command prompt provides you with basic information on the following commands. Note that all this stuff is most likely copyright Microsoft.
  • ASSOC AT ATTRIB BREAK CACLS CALL CD CHCP
  • CHDIR CHKDSK CHKNTFS CLS CMD COLOR COMP
  • COMPACT CONVERT COPY DATE DEL DIR DISKCOMP
  • DISKCOPY DOSKEY ECHO ENDLOCAL ERASE EXIT
  • FC FIND FINDSTR FOR FORMAT FTYPE GOTO
  • GRAFTABL HELP IF LABEL MD MKDIR MODE MORE
  • MOVE PATH PAUSE POPD PRINT PROMPT PUSHD
  • RD RECOVER REM REN RENAME REPLACE RMDIR
  • SET SETLOCAL SHIFT SORT START SUBST TIME
  • TITLE TREE TYPE VER VERIFY VOL XCOPY

If you have ever done any DOS batch programming, these will look very familiar. I intend to review a couple of these command to remind how useful some of them can be.

The Way of BillG

In the old days, the saying was "nobody gets fired for going with IBM". Then Microsoft took over and dominated the personal computer. So for a while the popular choose was to choose Microsoft for your IT needs. This included software development.

I want to reminisce about the many tools I have used from Microsoft. And also review where we are today with Microsoft's latest offerings. As if this were not enough, eventually I want to get an idea of what the future of Microsoft software development tools are.

Please join me in the software way of life known as Microsoft.
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