Microsoft woos hobbyist, child programmers

InfoWorld | at | by Mike

Microsoft is hoping to lure hobbyist programmers and young children to the Windows platform through a Web site and forthcoming version of Visual Studio aimed at making Windows development easy and fun, a company spokesman said Thursday.

On a Web site called Coding4Fun, Microsoft is inviting third parties to submit content that will encourage developers who code for a hobby to build new applications using the .NET framework and Windows, said Daniel Fernandez, a senior product manager in Microsoft's developer division.