This is my fault. Boom – there it is. No excuses, no lame attempts to laugh it off and blame Phil (even though it really is his fault). A lot of people have been messaging me via Twitter and leaving comments on my blog with the same question:
Dude, where’s the source! You promised 1-2 weeks! It’s been a month!
My response has been the same every time: the source will be ready by MIX. As you can imagine, people haven’t taken to this very well and have decided that:
- This is yet another, typical Microsoft project with flaws and endless delays
- This is just a marketing vehicle with no substance
- I must have better things to do and I clearly don’t care
I can understand the frustration – honestly I can because I told you something that’s not happening and that’s not cool. Well I’m here to tell you that nothing’s changed really – I still can’t load the source (but I’ll tell you why in just a second) – but it’s not for any of those reasons (obviously).
Good Things Happen
The Storefront was probably one of the most organic applications I’ve ever worked on – something that was allowed to morph and change based on community feedback and changes in technology allowed. It changed faces twice:
- When I decided to refactor with an eye on harnessing the complexity using DDD
- When I decided (recently) to refactor yet again, to reduce “concept count” and to massage out a bit of extra poof put in there by my initial attempts with DDD
What you don’t know is that a 3rd refactor has just happened – and for a good reason: Microsoft is taking this effort seriously and it is now my 100% full time commitment (as opposed to before – the Storefront was almost completely an extracurricular thing for me). Now I know what you’re thinking:
OMFG Great!1!1! Another Pet Shop or Fitch and Mather!1!1!
I have nothing against those sample apps – nor do I have an issue with Starter Kits. But this is neither of those things. It has changed, it has matured, and it’s becoming the application I wanted it to become when I started this effort last spring: it’s becoming relevant.
We’re not all evil here. It’s not always about marketing, and it’s not always about pimping our stack – sometimes Good Things Happen and I’m asking for your patience for just another 4 weeks, while we tidy this thing up and I get ready to show it off (and some other things) at MIX.
So Why No Source!1!1!
Because it’s not working yet and we’re still nailing out concepts – architectural shifts (slight, but awesome) that will make this thing work in a relevant way. It’s always been in the spirit of the Storefront to do these kinds of things in the open and to remain transparent – but we have a “concept shift” happening that I’ve been pushing for, and we’re “spiking it” right now to see if it makes sense (which I think it really, really does!) – it really helps if you can do these kinds of things in small groups.
So I’m taking this 45 days to work this thing and I’m asking for your patience – it’s coming together and I think it will rock at MIX. This has been a great experience in learning in every way, and if there’s something specific you’d like to know more about (in terms of patterns or code I’ve shown with the Storefront) I’m more than happy to show you and write a blog post on it. Someone just today asked for more information about the Presentation Model Pattern – so I’m working up a post on that currently.
I’m not playing you and I have no other agenda right now except to devote as much of my time as possible to getting this right. It could flop, or it could fly. I just need my head down right now with the rest of the team to nail this – and I’m asking you to be patient with me. It’s only another 4 weeks.
