The Shape of Code

It looks like my prediction that Microsoft buys Github may be about to come true.

Microsoft has been sluggish in integrating their LinkedIn purchase into their identity management system. Lots of sites have verify identity using Github options (or at least the kind of sites I visit do), so perhaps LinkedIn identity will be trialed via Github.

A Github purchase will also allow Microsoft to directly connect lots of developers to Azure. Being able to easily build and execute Github code on Azure is the bait, customer data is where the money is; making Github more data friendly is an obvious first priority for new owners.

Who else should Microsoft buy? As a protective move, I think they should snap up Edison Design Group (EDG) before somebody else does. Readers outside of the compiler/static analysis/C++ standards world are unlikely to have heard of EDG. They sell C/C++ front ends (plus other languages) that support all the historical features/warts supported by other C/C++ compilers. The features only found in Microsoft’s compilers is what make it very costly/time-consuming for many companies to port their applications to other platforms; developer use of Microsoft compiler dependent features is a moat that makes it difficult for many companies to leave the Microsoft ecosystem. EDG have been in the business a long time and have built up an extensive knowledge of vendor specific compiler features; the kind of knowledge that can only be obtained by having customers tell you what language constructs they are using that your current product does not handle (and what those constructs actually mean).

What would happen if a very large company bought EDG, and open sourced its code (to make it easier for Windows developers to switch platforms, not to make any money off compiler related tools)? Somebody would have to bolt on a back-end, to generate code; but that would not be hard (EDG have designed their product to make this easy). A freely available compiler, supporting all/most of the foibles of the Microsoft C++ compiler, would tempt many Windows only developers to give it a go. A free compiler removes management from the loop, developers can try things out as a side project, without having to get management approval to spend money on a compiler (from practical experience I know how hard it is to sell compatible compiler products, i.e., there is no real money to be made by anybody doing this commercially).

Is this risk, to Microsoft, really worth the (relatively) low cost of buying EDG? The EDG guys are not getting any younger, why wouldn’t they be willing sell?