Welcome

Well, this is my first blog post. I really don't know what to say or what to write about, so first I'll give a little background about myself and work.

I first was introduced to Microsoft in 1995 where I worked in an IT group developing client-server software using VB4. I later joined Microsoft full time in 1997 in another IT group as a dev lead. I worked on client-server, three-tiered and web apps developing in VB4 through VB6; MFC and C++; HTML/XML/DHTML. I went through the original "shift" from client-server to web apps. I continued in the IT group till 2001 when I decided to make a career change by becoming a documentation writer for the .NET Client/Windows Forms team working on the 1.0\1.1 release. I later changed careers one more time in 2003 and became a Program Manager (PM) for the .NET Client/Windows Forms team working on the 2.0 release. As a PM I developed some of the new features to the TreeView and ListView controls. The main feature that I worked on is the new DataGridView control. Now because of when I started as a PM part of the DataGridView control was already designed by Mark Boulter, so I took what he had and for two more years worked to finish the DataGridView design. Since I've seen the original "shift", I'm excited about the change back to the smart client with technologies like Windows Forms and Windows Presentation Framework.

Any way, that is my work background. Personally, I grew up in Missouri and I'm married with no kids (EDIT: now 1 kid), but one dog!

My thoughts for this blog are to talk about the new DataGridView control and cool ways to customize it. Let me know if you have done some cool DGV customization or you are trying to. Also let me know if there is something else you want to know about!

-mark