We’re all familiar with MS’s “marketecture”, and its coopting of whatever buzzwords are hot in the newspapers at the time of announcement into strange acronyms. Generation X gave us “ActiveX”, the Human Genome Project gave us “Windows DNA” (WTF?), and the Internet gave us, well, Dot Net. MS is also famous for its creative names for everyday items. For the beginner, here’s an introduction to Microsoft speak, as deciphered by an outsider:
| Microsoft Term | Real Life Translation |
|---|---|
| Guide | Book |
| Resource Kit | Big book with a CD |
| Book | Guide published by someone else |
| Software Development Kit | Guide, downloadable as CHM file only |
| Help file | Confusion |
| Code Sample | Don’t do it this way, but here’s some code to make you happy, unless you program in the other language |
| Demonstration | Useful information in between technical difficulties |
| Level 100 | Lots o’ Powerpoint Slides |
| Level 200 | Less slides, some code samples (see above) |
| Level 300 | Fewer slides, some code samples, and some demos (see above) |
| Level 400 | One slide for the cover, and one slide to introduce 60 minutes of code samples and demonstrations |
I am seriously of the opinion that Microsoft’s marketing group stands much bigger in the marketing world than MS’s programmers do in the programming world.