Promising to greatly reduce the need to code, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates describes an effort within Microsoft to transform development from a procedural approach to a declarative model. Gates explained that “we’re investing very heavily to say that customization of applications, the dream, the quest, we call it, should take a tenth as much code as it takes today.” The project has been referred to as the “D” programming language in reports, though Gates did not mention that name when speaking at the 2008 Microsoft Office System Developer Conference. Software Development