Microsoft's developer conference will have sessions on JavaScript tools, the Universal Windows platform, and building cloud systems At its Build 2017 developer conference in Seattle this week, Microsoft will put its Azure cloud and Windows 10 front and center with sessions ranging from cloud services to artificial intelligence to programming languages. The company will provide a road map for the Azure Compute platform and discuss how to use the cloud service for continuous delivery. Brendan Burns, co-founder of the Kubernetes container orchestration platform and the lead on Azure Container Services, will talk about containers redefining how reliable cloud systems are built, while another session will cover Windows Communication Foundation microservices in Windows containers for use on Azure. Build will also feature a session on linkage between the Node.js JavaScript platform and Azure. In fact, JavaScript will be a particular focus of Build 2017, with one session touching on building cross-platform applications with Facebook’s React Native framework. Microsoft’s tools for React/React Native, Relay, and Litho, such as the Visual Studio Code editor, will be covered, and another session will feature Google’s Angular JavaScript framework and its use of Microsoft’s TypeScript typed JavaScript superset. For developers, Microsoft will delve into its F# “functional first” language, particularly its importance to the .Net platform moving forward and tools for it in Visual Studio 2017. Linux and C++ development via the Visual Studio 2017 IDE will be featured as well. One session will cover the future of Visual Studio itself, including plans to extend it to new platforms and application categories, and another session will discuss the future of C#. Build will dedicate a session to the 2.0 upgrade of the ASP.Net Core platform for building cross-platform cloud apps, including details on the Razor Pages app model. The Microsoft Teams Developer platform will get bots, connectors, and new features at the conference. For Cortana, Microsoft’s personal digital assistant, Build will have a session on advanced architectures and development practices when engineering Cortana skills for multiple device types. Another presentation focuses on Cortana advanced language and skill design via the Cortana Skills Kit. Microsoft will cover how to use artificial intelligence and APIs to extract business insights from videos and improve consumer engagement. Predictive modeling using R scripts and SQL Server machine learning services will be discussed as well. On the Windows front, Microsoft will discuss the future of its new Edge browser, and Windows 10 and Universal Windows Platform for building multiform-factor Windows apps will be covered in a session about bringing desktop apps to UWP and Windows Store using Microsoft’s Desktop Bridge technology. Software DevelopmentCloud ComputingJavaScriptArtificial IntelligenceTechnology Industry