Codenames

In addition to talking about existing features of the language, I’m also planning on talking some about some future features. (I won’t, however, be revealing anything that hasn’t already been publicly announced, sorry.) Before doing that, though, it’s probably useful to talk for a moment about the various codenames for versions of VB .NET that I might unconsciously use:

  • RTM: This is what we tend to call Visual Basic 2002, namely because it didn’t really have a codename. “RTM” stands for “Release To Manufacturing,” which is the final milestone in any product. Given that the VB 2002 release was a long time in coming (some of the original groundwork was started before VB6 shipped, in 1998), this may also have been a bit of an unconscious choice…
  • Everett: This was the codename of Visual Basic 2003. Everett is a city north of Seattle.
  • Whidbey: This is the codename for the next release of Visual Basic, the one we’re working on now. Whidbey is an island north of Seattle (you go through Everett to get to the ferry to Whidbey Island). It’s also the place where I got married a number of years ago.
  • Orcas: This is the codename for the next release after Whidbey. Orcas is an island in the San Juan group of islands even further north of Seattle.

Assuming everything goes well, I’m going to spend a little time talking about some planned features for Whidbey. I won’t spend any time talking about Orcas because: a) we haven’t really announced anything about it, and b) it’s far enough off that I probably couldn’t talk accurately about details anyway.

In case anyone is wondering, there is no apparent rhyme or reason to whether a project gets a codename or to what the codename is if it does get one. About half the projects I’ve been on didn’t have codenames, the other half did. My favorite codename is, of course, the only one I ever got to pick. It was Access 97’s codename, Mach5. (I’ll let you figure out the reference yourself.)

7 thoughts on “Codenames

  1. paulvick

    The codename for VB6 was Vegas. Before that, I don’t actually know, although I think somewhere in there, there was one codenamed Thunder. I have no idea if we’ll continue on the geography kick or not… there are a bunch of islands in Puget Sound, so we’ve got plenty of names!

    (And the Mach5 was, indeed, Speed Racer’s car.)

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