Tony Goodhew on Visual C++ Developer Communication

Diego Dagum - MSFT

Tony Goodhew

Charles Torre, our C++ fan in Channel 9, just posted an interview he made a few days ago to Tony Goodhew: a Microsoft veteran in the Developer Tools Division who has returned home to his roots in VC++ after working as a product manager on VC6. One of Tony’s priorities is effectively communicating with developer customers who expect open and honest answers to ALL of their questions. How does this process work? How can you effectively communicate your plan if your plan is still being created?

You want answers, and Tony has the responsibility of ensuring that the answers we give to you regarding VC++ are in fact accurate and unequivocal. So when you ask, "OK. So, what’s the plan for the next version of VC++? Why did you decide to not support C++ feature x? What about y++? What’s going on here? When are you guys going to wake up?"

… Welcome to Tony’s world.

Charles brought his camera to Tony’s office to ask him about C++, Visual C++ the C++ Renaissance at Microsoft and a lot more. This is a very candid conversation about developer-oriented public communication and the delicate balance between promising too much and promising too little. At the end of the day, it’s all about what it’s being delivered.

Tony talks about how it’s decided how and when developers are told what our plans really are; how decisions are made and executed on; whether enough feedback is gotten from the community to ensure that developers will receive what they most want; and several other community-related questions.

To access the interview in Channel 9, please click here.

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