Microsoft Starts New Developer Portal

DevLabs is an online portal where Microsoft plans to share some new ideas and let developers help shape the direction of projects. Developers will also get to use some early versions of tools in order to offer feedback.

 

Many of the projects will start with people who work in Microsoft's developer division, but they can come from other groups that may be working on projects geared toward developers.

The projects featured on DevLabs will be early ideas that haven't yet been hammered into exact products. Some projects could become features in existing products, others might be open sourced for the community and others may be trashed.

For now, DevLabs is featuring four projects, including Small Basic, first unveiled on Thursday. Small Basic is a development tool for beginning developers that could be used by kids or adults. It is inspired by the BASIC programming language and based on .Net.

Finally, developers can get involved with the creation of Chess, another software testing tool that Microsoft has been developing for a couple years and that it plans to reveal more about next week at its Professional Developers Conference.