Recent Programming Windows Stories

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While this article series focuses on Windows, Microsoft’s empire was initially built on an even shakier foundation: The BASIC programming language.

In researching the history of Microsoft Basic, I realized I had forgotten something: We need to look at "hello, world" in Microsoft Basic too!

As a fun preview for the next several articles in this series, here’s “hello, world” in modern and classic versions of Visual Basic.

It's time to say goodbye to the Windows API, which was as hastily cobbled-together as the platform on which it originally ran.

A Windows-based take on “hello, world” neatly explains why Windows API programming was never going to take over the world.

The process of writing a Windows application with the native Windows API in the C programming language hasn’t changed a lot in the past 30+ years.

The original design of Windows was inexorably tied to that of the Intel x86 microprocessors on which it and MS-DOS ran. Yes, this is all IBM’s fault.

The book The C Programming Language from 1988 includes a simple introductory program called hello, world. It still works in Visual Studio 2019 today.

In the beginning, there was Windows. And a supporting Windows Application Programming Interface that came as part of the Windows Software Development Kit.

To fully understand why Windows was designed the way it was, we must go back in time. To before the beginning.

In 2020, Windows will celebrate its 35th anniversary. Here’s a rough timeline of each release, and how the app development model changed over time.

I’m starting a new series of articles that will examine how Windows application development has evolved over the years along with the platform itself.