Introducing w3Schools, plus here comes the PDC

As I'm a fairly simple sort of person I'm always on the lookout for resources that explain things in really simple terms. I don't have much time and I have too many priorities (sound familiar?) so I when I need to understand something I want to get straight to the meat.

For some years I've used the excellent W3Schools site to do just that. It gives you a quick grounding in a wide range of topics in the web development space. It's not just Microsoft stuff - in fact there's plenty of non-Microsoft information - but I've always found the level great for getting that "ah so that's what it's all about" understanding. And it dives into source code and examples pretty quickly so you aren't left with just a mouth full of marketing fluff.

It's free to use and doesn't require registration, but obviously has a fair amount of advertising as a result. If you can get past that though, this is a great little resource.

No Vista stuff on there yet but it's only a matter of time. As we build towards Vista launch and we start seeing a proliferation of Express Apps and browser-hosted WCF applications the boundaries between web development (as covered by sites like W3Schools) and traditional Windows forms development will blur considerably. Which means we'll need sites like W3Schools to help people get to grips with the new capabilities available to them with Vista and WinFX.

On a separate note, the PDC is just 2 short weeks away and I'm looking forward to it. Not just because it's always a great event to attend but also because we'll be lifting the lid on a whole lot of exciting stuff, which means I'll get to blog about it. At the moment we're pretty restricted on what we can say about the stuff that's coming down the pipe but the PDC should signal the starting pistol for getting this information out there to you folks. I can't wait...

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