Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net business apps

By | July 16, 2010, 7:09am PDT

Summary: KittyHawk is another attempt by Microsoft to target “non-professional” programmers. This time, the idea make .Net programming more like FoxAccess programming, in order to attract more business-focused developers.

A year ago, I first heard that Microsoft was working on a rapid-application-development (RAD) tool codenamed “KittyHawk.”

Just recently, I finally heard more about KittyHawk — but not from Microsoft. The Softies aren’t willing to comment on anything pertaining to the tool. (I asked; no go.)

But here’s what I’m gleaning from my sources.

KittyHawk is an attempt by Microsoft to make .Net easier for those outside its traditional developer community. The company’s recently introduced WebMatrix tool suite is one way Microsoft is doing this. WebMatrix is aimed at those developing Web applications.

KittyHawk, on the other hand, is targeted at fledgling coders who are interested in building business applications. The idea, my sources say, is to bring the Fox/Access style of programming to .Net. (Remember Visual FoxPro? There is still a vocal and substantial Fox community out there who’ve continued to push Fox, in spite of a lack of much support from the Softies.)

“KittyHawk is targeting the corporate guy with some Excel/Access savvy,” said one of my tipsters, who asked for anonymity. “It is a drag and drop, template-driven, visual designer….It’s not code-based, but you can write code if you want to.”

Word is KittyHawk will produce Silverlight 4.0 and XAML code.

I think KittyHawk is going to end up as a new and separate Visual Studio SKU. Rumor has it Microsoft is going to share more about all this in August. (Maybe there will be a beta around that time?)

Anyone out there see a potential, untapped market for KittyHawk?

Kick off your day with ZDNet's daily e-mail newsletter. It's the freshest tech news and opinion, served hot. Get it.

Mary Jo has covered the tech industry for more than 25 years for a variety of publications and Web sites, and is a frequent guest on radio, TV and podcasts, speaking about all things Microsoft-related. She is the author of Microsoft 2.0: How Microsoft plans to stay relevant in the post-Gates era (John Wiley & Sons, 2008).

Disclosure

Mary-Jo Foley

Freelance journalist/blogger Mary Jo Foley has nothing to disclose. WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get). I do not own Microsoft stock or stock in any of its partners or competitors. I have no business ventures that are sponsored by/funded by Microsoft or any of its partners or competitors.

Biography

Mary-Jo Foley

Mary Jo Foley has covered the tech industry for 25 years for a variety of publications, including ZDNet, eWeek and Baseline. She has kept close tabs on Microsoft strategy, products and technologies for the past 10 years. In the late 1990s, she penned the award-winning "At The Evil Empire" column for ZDNet, and more recently the Microsoft Watch blog for Ziff Davis.

Got a tip? Send her an email with your rants, rumors, tips and tattles. Confidentiality guaranteed.

Talkback Most Recent of 84 Talkback(s)

  • ah man....
    that's the last thing I need...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    zdnet@...
    16th Jul 2010
  • RE: Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net busi
    This is distraction...actual tool will use visio and will produce real .net apps. Ms will cannibalize developers as soon as they can get away with it
    ZDNet Gravatar
    DiggityDoug
    17th Jul 2010
  • Reply
    @DiggityDoug I'd be happy if sohbet got rid of the ribbon and gave us chat users the pull-down menus that existed before Office 2007 for forum . I like getting Outlook for the portal . It has grown on me since my new Windows izlesene box had to use Outlook since chat sohbet was removed. sohbet odalari email client is mynet sohbet cinsel sohbet weak.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    timaeus
    19th Jul
  • ummm
    @DiggityDoug

    The same advertisers that brought us Seinfeld (lets play footsie and wiggle our shorts Bill), Laptop Hunters (that got all sorts of bad press for lies (incorrect pricing and customer never actually went into an Apple store) and portraying windows as "cheep"), And Windows 7 was Macs idea (where a college kid who can't get laid and get kicked out of his dorm room (by his Mac roommate) has to watch TV in the hall because he doesn't even have a friend whom he could visit).

    I bet Kinect will cinsel sohbet not be magical either.
    IE8 had multi-process architecture before Chrome launched, and in fact sohbet was the first browser to announce the feature. gay sohbet That's why both Chrome and IE use far more memory than the other browsers. mynet sohbet Chrome is a bit more strict than IE, IE will allow tabs with the same integrety level to mynet sohbet share a single process. mynet mynet sohbet Outside of that MS beat Google to the punch. mynet Good try though. indirmeden film izle If MS came out with touch UIs for at least Word, Excel, forum OneNote, and Outlook, with super slick, and highly youtube effective integrated virtual keyboards, that would be mind blowing! I think canli sohbet that would be like lighting a rocket under PC touch computing. bedava film izle
    ZDNet Gravatar
    exibir
    6th Aug
  • RE: Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net business apps
    @zdnet@...

    That's a quote from Chief Operating Officer Kevin Turner. And he bases that on? Amazon is approaching $300 million per year (if not surpassed) with its cloud computing products. MS is making how much yeni katil kamyon koca teker kamyon
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Arabaoyunlarimiz
    7th Jul
  • keciören kiralık daireler
    Ke??i??ren sat??l??k daireler veya ke??i??ren kiral??k daireler denince akla gelen ilk adres istevitrin.com, keci??ren satilik daireler 2011 y??l??nda en ??ok sat??lan daireler ve fiyatlar?? hakk??ndada ayr??nt??l?? bilgi alabiliriniz.
    ankara'n??n en ??ok talep g??ren b??lgesi olan ke??i??ren'de ortalama krize ra??men ge??en y??l ile bu y??l aras??nda daire fiyatlar??nda % 15 lik prim yapm???? olmas??n??n yan?? s??ra ke??i??ren yeni emlak projelerinin
    g??zdesi haline gelmi??tir. kecioren kiralik daireler i??in daha fazla bilgi i??in sitemizi ziyaret ediniz.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kirismin
    25th Sep
  • RE: Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net business apps
    @zdnet@... Peddie It sounds like you sir, are drinking araba oyunlari the Redmond Koolaid. I can't even find a dedicated Mobile araba oyunlari Computing research group at that site. They "talk" about "mobile computing" in araba oyunlari few research groups, but none of them focus on it solely. They even have a "health and well being" research group. Ridiculous. araba oyunlari They openly admit that araba oyunlari the computing araba oyunlari world is heading in araba oyunlari direction where mobile devices will be araba oyunlari THE personal computer... but it's like they're asleep at the wheel or something. Just as well by me. I haven't liked a mobile product from araba oyunlari Microsoft in a long, long time. Apple's iPhones and iPod Touches ( araba oyunlari ) have been around for a few years araba oyunlari and Microsoft doesn't even look like they're playing araba oyunlari catch-up. In fact, IT DOESN'T EVEN LOOK LIKE THEY'RE PLAYING AT ALL. Finally after 34 days and 183 rounds the 3G finally arrived on Indian shores!!!!
    ry including ? Government araba oyunlari Representatives, Operators, Handset manufacturers, VAS players, technology vendors, araba oyunlari analysts and definitely the Media. The forum will comprise of 4 araba oyunlari high end panel discussions wherein the bigwigs from the telecom industry would discuss, debate and deliberate on issues, solutions, strategies, etc relating to 3G In India. The event will be extensively covered and promoted across all araba oyunlari media platforms and araba oyunlari will have araba oyunlari exclusive ? hour event coverage in our business channel CNBC Tv18. araba oyunlari araba oyunlari araba oyunlari software" tend to see an initial spike in activity, but disengage over time.Customers who buy PBworks araba oyunlari to solve a specific problem (e.g. as social intranet, customer extranet, or client project management) tend to araba oyunlari take some time up front to weave PBworks deeply into their araba oyunlari workflows, but then display steady and continually increasing engagement over time. araba oyunlari Overall, Enterprise 2.0 is too generic to measure its effectiveness and value properly. Even as the space gains attention and expands, horizontal social software ?platforms? will continue to have a hard time showing hard ROI.
    Windows wasn?t really valuable until you had Word, Excel & Powerpoints ? the killer apps of the new platform. To understand the value of ?social? in business is to recognize that Innovation is the killer app for social software. araba oyunlari araba oyunlari araba oyunlari araba oyunlari First off... what the heck is enterprise 2.0 anyway? Talk about an overused term in our industry... yuck. Putting that aside, I think it is too early in the game to measure the value or hard ROI of business social tools. Many of the organizations that we work with at IGLOO Software are in the very early days of adoption. A big mistake that we see companies making - is not identifying the business problem they are trying to solve with social software and determining the potential business benefits to the company. If you start out blind... how can you ever measure ROI. araba oyunlari araba oyunlari araba oyunlari araba oyunlari
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Ayşem
    21st Aug
  • ZDNet Gravatar
    anthony.grace@...
    16th Jul 2010
  • ZDNet Gravatar
    OS Reload
    16th Jul 2010
  • ZDNet Gravatar
    ItsTheBottomLine
    16th Jul 2010
  • Just what we need...
    Another influx of clueless Morts to stink up corporate development departments and make businesspeople think programming is trivially easy. Access "programming" and Visual FoxPro were two of the WORST things in software development. You have no idea how many clueless "development managers" I've worked for who knew Access or FoxPro and thought that was real programming.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wayne62682
    16th Jul 2010
  • Yep
    @wayne62682

    Amen to that.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    rjohn05
    16th Jul 2010
  • RE: Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net business apps
    I hope there will be more successful your site is very wonderful site. sikis Thanks to the efforts of. porno
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kirismin
    21st Aug
  • Right on.
    @wayne62682
    I agree completely. They also think that would fit the entire spectrum of business that the enterprise dealing with.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Rama.NET
    16th Jul 2010
  • RE: Microsoft KittyHawk: A new tool to help non-programmers build .Net business apps
    @wayne62682

    As long as it outs you out of work its all good.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NoAxToGrind
    16th Jul 2010

Talkback - Tell Us What You Think

Formatting +
BB Codes - Note: HTML is not supported in forums
  • [b] Bold [/b]
  • [i] Italic [/i]
  • [u] Underline [/u]
  • [s] Strikethrough [/s]
  • [q] "Quote" [/q]
  • [ol][*] 1. Ordered List [/ol]
  • [ul][*] · Unordered List [/ul]
  • [pre] Preformat [/pre]
  • [quote] "Blockquote" [/quote]

The best of ZDNet, delivered

ZDNet Newsletters

Get the best of ZDNet delivered straight to your inbox

Facebook Activity

White Papers, Webcasts, & Resources