First, let me start with the full disclaimer: I develop Windows .NET application by day (and by night too for ecto) and use Mac OS X at home for everything else. Before getting my Mac Pro last December I used to work on ecto using a second Windows machine, but since then I have been using Visual Studio 2005 in an XP virtual machine using Parallels.

Whether you love or hate Microsoft, you have to give them credit for popularising programming on Windows. While I was a junior programmer fresh out of college learning C++ and working on train control software, truckloads of CS/Engineering graduates were learning to program in Visual Basic. Whatever faults VB has, the way it allows even beginner or causal programmers to learn the craft and produce quick and dirty applications means that programming for Windows was no longer the eminent domain of the traditional CS/Engineering graduates, where FORTRAN and C/C++ rules. Microsoft continues this trend with C#/VB.NET and the .NET Framework, providing a lot of built-in functionality that used to require hand-crafted code or expensive third-party libraries, freeing up developers' time to concentrate on problem solving instead of mechanics.

With OS X, Apple began with Objective-C and Java as the programming languages of choice but ever since version OS X 10.3 Java had been put onto the back burner and is expected to be phased out eventually. Unfortunately, making Objective-C the sole language of the platform also makes it difficult and 'expensive' for Windows programmers, such as yours truly, to join the party. The difference in syntax (despite the 'C' in the name it does not have much resemblance to C or C++), difference in framework and API, difference in IDE philosophy, and the lack of refactoring tools (ReSharper, CodeRush, etc.) and unit testing tools (NUnit, JUnit, etc.) mean that some of the more open-minded programmers (mostly Java and .NET) will not take an active interest in Apple software development.

The upcoming Xcode 3 looks like it would make a big step in closing the gap, but the IDE still lacks the tools mentioned above to attract the time-constrained, less hard core developers from the Windows side of the world. The dark horse may be the combination of Eclipse IDE and Mono project. The Eclipse IDE is mature and has a flexible plug-in architecture so refactoring and unit testing tools can be integrated into the IDE by third party developers. Meanwhile the Mono project has been making lots of progress as far as compatibility with Microsoft's implementation is concerned. And the ability to take code written in Windows and runs it in Linux or OS X (with some limitation, of course) will appeal to Windows developers, at least as a starting point.

In fact, Eclipse/Mono may actually achieve what Sun tried to do with Java all those years ago. Remember 'Write once, run anywhere'?

A new Google Developer service is rumored to be in the works, and is aimed directly at the open source community.

Greg Stein at the Google Code Blog posts about how the new service is getting the final touches in time for the Open Source Convention (OSCOM) in Portland Oregon, July 24-28 2006.

A first thought by Garret Rogers had might have to do with some code tidbits he found earlier to suggest that Google was working on something called GWT, or Eclipse. He also dropped the "public code repository for developers" idea.

Greg's talk is on the 27th, so stay tuned to find out what this exciting new Google Open Source project could be!

I couldn't think of anything to add to the title of this post that wouldn't be redundant. EasyEclipse is what it sounds like: A prepackaged installer for the Eclipse IDE that makes getting up and running with Eclipse really simple on Windows, OS X, or Linux. It comes in a variety of flavors to match your programming language/environment of choice, including Java, LAMP, PHP, Python, and Ruby on Rails. Each distribution comes with preinstalled plugins to make your life easier, but the EasyEclipse web site also has a variety of other plugins that are packaged similarly for ease of installation. The project was inspired by the Eclipse download hell post on Simon Willison's Weblog which, a year and a half after its original posting, is still the third result for Google searches for "Eclipse download."

Adobe has released a beta version of Flex 2.0, its "complete solution for building cross-platform Rich Internet Applications within the enterprise and across the web." What the heck does that mean? Basically it's a development environment for creating Flash apps. While I'm rather skeptical of the idea of creating enterprise apps that run in Flash Player (yes, that Flash Player), I admit that Flex does look pretty cool. The IDE is based on open source gargantuan Eclipse and has built-in frameworks for rapid development. According to CNet, Adobe plans to "un-bundle" Flex and offer its components for lower prices, including a basic kit that will be available for free.