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Let's put my job in jeopardy

I’m not usually one to rock the boat, but I’m getting tired of having to hold this in.

Yesterday at my Denver MSDN Event, an attendee asked me if there were any plans to update Notepad for future versions of Windows.

I fed her a bunch of stuff about how I had “heard” that there might be some changes coming along and how, next to Avalon, WinFS, and Indigo, this is one of Microsoft’s top priorities.

I lied to her.

I didn’t give her the whole story. I didn’t even give her part of it, and now I feel like a scumbucket.

The truth is that I do have some inside information, and I’ll tell you this: For those of you who regularly read the Notepad team’s blog, you were going to be treated to a preview of the future sometime in the next three months, but I’m going to scoop them today. There’s a lot of internal competition between the IE and Notepad teams as they’re both vying for their products to become the information platforms of the future, and now that the IE team has announced IE 7, the Notepad team was prepping a Community Tech Preview of Notepad V.Next.

I realize that this is a crazy move, but something tells me this might be the right thing to do and that, if everything works out in the end, I might wind up being the next Mary Jo Foley. This is, like, the scoop of the century.

So here’s what I know:

– There is a new version of Notepad coming out

– It’s coming out in the Longhorn timeframe, but it’s going to be available for Windows 2000/XP/2003

– It’s going to revolutionize the way we view text files

I’ve been playing with a recent build that was leaked to me by a “friend on the inside.” I can’t reveal anything about my contact – not a name, a team, or even her gender, but I assure you that this is what’s coming down from Redmond.

I took some screenshots today of Notepad.Now and Notepad.Next running side by side. The shots were taken with the same text – just a little something I’ve been working on in my spare time.

See if you can spot what’s different between the two versions:

Notepad.Now

Notepad-now

Notepad.Next

Notepad-new

That’s right!

The observant among you will see that the next version of Notepad has a new icon with a substantial drop-shadow!

Here’s the new icon close-up:

Notepad-new-icon_detail

Yowza!

This thing is currently in the early stages of an Alpha release. I might really be asking for it here, but I heard a report that some testers, when confronted with the new icon, immediately threw-up and went into convulsions. Not sure, but this might be a major setback for the team, which is unfortunate given how much work has gone into this.

For some perspective on the sweat, blood, and tears that have led us to this major change, this release will bring with it Notepad’s fifth compilation since 1994. That’s not something to be scoffed at.

And now, my friends…

Now I pray that I have not said too much.

Published Friday, February 18, 2005 10:05 PM by Rory

Filed Under: ,

Comments

 

Ralph Loizzo said:

Lovely notepad, such a simple effective product.

Isn't the UI just a little too simple? I mean shouldn't we bog the user down with lots of buttons with strange icon images with no additional help provided?

Or even hitting a button on the right side of a toolbar, and the menu drops from a button on the left side?

We can call it a 3stooge UI.

Okay...maybe this isn't such a good idea to ask a Microsoft employee to comment on, but....

Is there any idea when SQL SERVER 2005 will be released?

This isn't one of those "put-on-hold" products that Mary Foley was talking about is it?
February 18, 2005 10:15 PM
 

Ralph Loizzo said:

February 18, 2005 10:16 PM
 

Brian Kuhn said:

Dear Mr. Blyth,

It has come to our attention via hidden monitor-ware installed in your laptop that you are disclosing valuable corporate secrets. This is a cease and desist notice to you to remove all content regarding said corporate intellectual property, as is our right by U.S Penal Colony Code J7459.11.03a.

On a personal note, you forgot to mention that NotePad.Next will have 5 new and improved fonts and any C# code in NotePad.Next can be compiled by selecting Shift-F7. If you are going to leak secrets, at least do it with the level of quality and effectiveness we expect from employees.

Sincerely,
Microsoft Electronic Overseer
February 18, 2005 10:26 PM
 

Sahil Malik said:

Your blog has gotten much better since you left DNR.
February 18, 2005 10:33 PM
 

Lawrence Pina said:

If it doesn't support multi-tab noting than it will never be as good as FireCoyote.

I hear it may be called Visual Notepad. Imagine how hard Visual Studio would be if you couldn't see it. Non-Visual Studio didn't sell well at all.

Rory didn't tell you about the different versions:

Minipad Express (free)

Professional Maxipad

Enterprise Notepad with Wings (and UML)
February 18, 2005 10:58 PM
 

Craig said:

All too funny that I actually use a free product called Notepad2 for everything I used to use Notepad for.

Would that make this Notepad3?

Actually, perhaps Notepadi would be better. (i being an imaginary number. Get it? Huh? Get it? :) )
February 18, 2005 11:14 PM
 

Haacked said:

Put the i in front and you have my attention. iNotepad.

Now with the new and popular SHUFFLE feature!

Life is random!

Why be subject to having words in the order you placed them on the page? Hit shuffle and have words randomly shuffled throughout your document.

Imagine how much more fun your applications will be when you SHUFFLE your .ini files.
February 18, 2005 11:25 PM
 

Denver Attendee said:

why wouldn't you just use NOtepad

after all isn't the new version of notepad Microsoft's feeble attempt to replace YAOSI(yet another open source initiative)

you had to be at the presentation to find the sick humor in this
February 18, 2005 11:30 PM
 

Anonymous said:

I'd like to file a bug report. The dropshadow is on the wrong side. In Windows, the light source is top-left. For this dropshadow, it's top-right. This is undoubtedly the cause of the convulsions and such.
February 18, 2005 11:54 PM
 

paul said:

So what happened to notepad.net?
February 19, 2005 1:17 AM
 

earthwormfanatic said:

Wasn't using 'her' disclosing 'her' gender? Or was that thinly veiled humor that I'm too gullible to understand?
February 19, 2005 2:57 AM
 

anon said:

Last I knew the notepad "team" was one guy. Because he was the last one to touch the code.
Lesson: Do not touch the notepad code.

Sometimes truth* is even funnier than drop-shadows**.


* or unsubstantiated rumor
** or the unsubstantiated rumor thereof
February 19, 2005 6:56 AM
 

Mysterio said:

Icon Shadow!! I feel a securty hole coming on here. GDI buffer overflow frolics.
February 19, 2005 6:38 PM
 

The P-Town Hacker said:



It seems like MS is just going to far with this new icon. It's just getting too complicated. There are many managers out there who rely on the simplicity of notepad to view code and introducing a radical new icon, such as the one displayed, could thwart their ability to look at any code whatsoever and limit their ability to pretend that they know anything about programming. This could be a disaster. Hopefully there will be a service pack, and a hotfix, to resolve this demonic little drop shadowed icon from hell.

February 20, 2005 9:09 AM
 

Ralph Loizzo said:

Hey Rory,

I got a few suggestions if you're really interested in pushing the envelope on losing your job:

1) Make a new song featuring what REALLY happened when Chris Sells went to Burning Man.

2) Cmon....release some source code for Whidbey.....

3) Install your new browser to replace the default browsers on Gates' computers.

4) Publish photos of Gates' real office showing the monitor displaying Netscape, and the linux OS.

5) At every future speaking engagement, address the audience as your slaves, and present a list of demands before you begin to "depart God given knowledge to the masses".

Whaddya think?

February 20, 2005 5:49 PM
 

P-Town Hacker said:



6) Serve Kool Aid at every event and make references to Aliens and Rapture every other sentence.

February 20, 2005 8:14 PM
 

Rory said:

Ralph -

"Isn't the UI just a little too simple? I mean shouldn't we bog the user down with lots of buttons with strange icon images with no additional help provided?"

I totally agree, but we want to make sure that the Notepad Platform is stable before we go adding a bunch of crazy features.

Plus, at Microsoft we're kind of at a loss right now as to what we'd add. Really - If you think about it, Notepad already does everything you'd want it to. What else could you possibly want from a word processor?

Anyway, we'll see how it goes with the icon first. Another few years of testing, and it might be time to add another button. Then, a few years after that, we'll put some code behind the button so that it actually does something.

One step at a time, my friend.

One step at a time...
February 21, 2005 5:20 AM
 

Rory said:

Lawrence -

"If it doesn't support multi-tab noting than it will never be as good as FireCoyote."

If you don't like the lack of tabbed noting, then just add it yourself using the Notepad SDK.

We have tons of third parties creating interesting and exciting add-ons for Notepad. It sounds like your idea might just fit right in.
February 21, 2005 5:22 AM
 

Rory said:

Anonymous -

"I'd like to file a bug report. The dropshadow is on the wrong side. In Windows, the light source is top-left. For this dropshadow, it's top-right."

Actually, the light source itself is the bug. It *should* be top-right. The icon just reflects changes made to internal builds of XP that are currently being tested.

We're hoping to have a fix for this in the next service pack.
February 21, 2005 5:24 AM
 

Rory said:

Paul -

"So what happened to notepad.net?"

We have a new team working internally on a managed version of Notepad, but they're running up against a lot of brick walls.

Right now, it's doubtful that the project is going to complete in any reasonable amount of time.

The .NET Framework lacks the power and features needed for Notepad.Net. There's a lot of back and forth right now between the two teams, but nobody's getting anywhere.

::sigh::
February 21, 2005 5:30 AM
 

Rory said:

earthwormfanatic -

"Wasn't using 'her' disclosing 'her' gender? Or was that thinly veiled humor that I'm too gullible to understand?"

The latter.
February 21, 2005 5:31 AM
 

Drake said:

I used to use No-Pad, but there's just soooo little room on your hand. And then when her-indoors makes you do the washing up, you lose your notes. I did try making backups but as I use both hands when washing up all this did was make the water all "inky".
February 21, 2005 12:38 PM
 

Benjimawoo said:

Notepad.next looks like a fine fine product, perhaps almost too fine. If Microsoft aren't careful, they'll have to start releasing versions of Windows without such a fine application bundled (Windows XP Restricted text-editing version).

but he real question is, where can I get a copy of the book that the text is taken from. Looks like fantasic bit of novellage if ever I saw one! Is this one of your pet projects? Any ideas when it'll be published?
February 21, 2005 4:45 PM
 

Trond Hindenes said:

Okay, notepad.next seems good, although a bit unfinished (as all alpha buils should). However, I've heard some rumors about a new Notepad Server, which is going to showcase the Microsoft vision of being able to send .txt files from one user to another, or better yet, be able to put it in a public place where other users can access it whenever they need? Is there any truth in this? Imagine the possibilities...

-Trond.Norway.
February 21, 2005 8:40 PM
 

SBC said:

Being a MSFT employee, you are obviously privy to a lot of non-disclosure items and one has to be careful. The way to deal with it in public situations (e.g., MSDN events) is with a certain, as the French call it - savoir-faire.
;-)
February 21, 2005 9:40 PM
 

P Town Hacker said:



Jeez, this new version of Notepad could spell more AntiTrust issues for Microsoft. It could take Sun and IBM many years to compete with such a radical step forward. And the Europeans are just gonna flip.
February 21, 2005 9:42 PM
 

P Town Hacker said:



"We don't ALL Lie to our Customers!"

I'd bet the tone of delivery made the customer completely aware of the joke and the speaker in question may be taking liberties here, for our entertainment. Maybe even the whole story was completely made up, for our entertainent.
February 21, 2005 9:56 PM
 

jayson knight said:

When I worked in PSS at MS a while back, I actually had a call from a team of engineers at Oracle demanding that the API for notepad be published...they wanted to automate notepad for one of their internal systems. Their reasoning behind this is that they were convinced MS had broken their previous app by releasing a new version of notepad in XP, and were demanding restitution. Of course they didn't realize that they could simply copy the older version of notepad over to XP (and vice versa)...they were shocked to learn that notepad is one measly .exe (what, no installer?). Needless to say, they were pretty humiliated. Silly Oracle.
February 21, 2005 10:40 PM
 

Bryce Milton said:

Jeez... This is really going to come as a shock to the Office Notepad 2005 team! They've been quietly preparing to release a Notepad upgrade that adds some nifty features that appear to be missing from Notepad.Next: http://bryce.milton.com/eecblog/miscellany/notepad.png

When will Microsoft ever get these x-team communications issues worked out?
February 22, 2005 1:06 AM
 

Ralph Loizzo said:

So I guess this means that I shouldn't use edit or edlin from the command line anymore, eh?

I know that all around the office we use edit and edlin, because management didn't want us to move to something BUGGY or REVOLUTIONARY like notepad.

I suppose we will have to make the move soon.

Lord help us.
February 22, 2005 6:00 AM
 

Anonymous said:

Mr. Blyth:

Once again you have done a fine job at diverting attention away from our true skunkworks replacement project for Notepad.

Sicromoft Development

http://vim.sf.net
February 23, 2005 6:48 AM
 

Anonymous said:

February 23, 2005 6:40 PM
 

Wade said:

I can't believe no one has commented on the genital warts story in the notepad screenshots. Ummm.... yeah.
February 25, 2005 5:42 PM
 

Chris said:

Rory - could you please start a rumor that Notepad is being released for the Mac. I'm hoping to manipulate the stock and make a killing. If the Apple masses found out that Notepad was coming, they'd most certainly buy a gazillion Apple and Microsoft shares, and I own both.

Hey... I just thought about something.

Disregard this comment.


http://blahgkarma.blogspot.com
February 27, 2005 7:38 PM
 

Chris said:

HEY, I HEARD ON SOME BLOG SOMEWHERE THAT THERE'S A NEW VERSION OF NOTEPAD COMING FOR THE MAC. DO YOU THINK IT WILL BE AWESOME? WILL IT DRIVE MICROSOFT AND APPLE STOCK THROUGH THE ROOF? HOW CAN I GET IN ON THE MAC-NOTEPAD PHENOMENON?

(sarcastically grinning)


http://blahgkarma.blogspot.com
February 27, 2005 7:39 PM
 

Leslie Hewitt said:

Notepad Enterprise Server 2006 has a good ring to it.
February 28, 2005 9:43 PM
 

Bil Simser said:

I'm having a hard time loading up the images in the browser. I fear that the product will have the same load-time problems so I hope this is only at an alpha stage and not even approaching RC yet. There is still much more to test.

PS I think calling it Notepad.Next is some kind of infrigment on NeXT Computer and the NEXTSTEP operating system. Please reconsider.
March 27, 2005 9:17 PM
 

Dr. Shim said:

Man, this blog post gives me vision. VISION, DAMN IT!

Just imagine it: Visual Notepad 2006 Distributed Team Server Studio Enterprise Edition, featuring Visual NoteSafe 2006 Personal Edition.

Wow. The possibilities. That drop shadow made me nearly blow chunks on my keyboard.
May 12, 2005 6:37 AM
 

Who Cares said:

If it was vector-based graphic using Avalon wouldn't it appear a little sharper on your "blowup"
May 12, 2005 9:01 PM
 

nunya said:

How about posting the nude photos of Jessi Napp?

Seriously though......
Good work on 'The Code Room'. I look forward to more episodes.
May 13, 2005 1:28 PM
 

AndyC said:

Typical Microsoft again, putting cool new features before security. When will you guys ever learn!

I seriously hope that Notepad.Next will undergo a radical security review before such extensive changes are allowed into the codebase.
May 13, 2005 6:55 PM
 

tj said:

Chris is right, what a knucklehead you are! :<)
September 3, 2005 7:38 AM
 

Ahmad said:

September 8, 2005 11:36 PM
 

Anonymous said:

>Would that make this Notepad3?
>
>Actually, perhaps Notepadi would be better.
>(i being an imaginary number. Get it? Huh? Get it? :) )

Why not Notepad++ :-)))
Seriously, it's a kick-ass open source software !
http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm
September 28, 2005 11:50 AM
 

Jeelz said:

WoW man - that icon rocks! thats one small step for NotePad but a leap for text editors :-)
October 28, 2005 1:19 PM
 

Anonymous said:

February 21, 2006 4:44 AM
 

TrackBack said:

A little laughter to complete the week
February 20, 2005 2:40 AM
 

TrackBack said:

New version of notepad
February 21, 2005 6:57 AM
 

TrackBack said:

We don't ALL Lie to our Customers !
February 21, 2005 9:18 PM
 

TrackBack said:

Rory's blog rocks...
February 23, 2005 5:53 PM
 

TrackBack said:

Rory's blog rocks...
February 23, 2005 5:55 PM
 

TrackBack said:

Chris Anderson's 11-Minute Avalon Overview
May 12, 2005 5:06 AM
 

TrackBack said:

Hilarious!
May 12, 2005 6:33 AM
 

TrackBack said:

Where is the transparency, and no, Avalon this doesn't concern you
May 17, 2005 4:12 PM
 

TrackBack said:

DO NOT RESIST THE EVANGELIST
February 3, 2006 2:31 AM
 

TrackBack said:

Why PowerPoint 2007 Rocks
May 15, 2006 7:03 PM
 

TD - IT - Christian Deger said:

April 12, 2007 11:29 PM
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