Editing Microsoft Developer Network (section)

== History ==
MSDN was launched in September 1992<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=IVEEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA8 Info World August 1992, bottom-left of page 8]</ref> as a quarterly, CD-ROM-based compilation of technical articles, sample code, and software development kits. The first two MSDN CD releases (September 1992 and January 1993) were marked as pre-release discs (P1 and P2, respectively).<ref>[https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MSDN_CDs_1-10.jpg Photo of MSDN CDs 1-10]</ref> Disc 3, released in April 1993, was the first full release. In addition to CDs, there was a 16-page tabloid newspaper, ''Microsoft Developer Network News'', edited by [[Andrew Himes]], who had previously been the founding editor of [[MacTech]], the premiere Macintosh technology journal.<ref>{{Cite news
  | title = Microsoft initiates Developer Network service
  | author = Stuart J. Johnston
  | newspaper = InfoWorld
  | date = August 3, 1992
  | page = 8
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=IVEEAAAAMBAJ
}}</ref> A Level II subscription was added in 1993, that included the MAPI, ODBC, TAPI and VFW SDKs.<ref>{{Cite news
  | title = Microsoft launches Network Level II
  | author = Stuart J. Johnston
  | newspaper = InfoWorld
  | date = November 29, 1993
  | page = 5
  | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_joEAAAAMBAJ
}}</ref>

[[File:MSDN LOGO.png|thumb|MSDN logo, 2001–2009]]
MSDN2 was opened in November 2004 as a source for [[Visual Studio|Visual Studio 2005]] [[Application Programming Interface|API]] information, with noteworthy differences being updated web site code, conforming better to [[W3C|web standards]] and thus giving a long-awaited improved support for alternative [[web browser]]s to [[Internet Explorer]] in the API browser. In 2008, the original MSDN cluster was retired and MSDN2 became msdn.microsoft.com.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/archive/2008/04/29/msdn-highlander-there-will-be-only-one.aspx|title=MSDN: "The Highlander" and there will be only one!|author=Larry W Jordan Jr|date=2008-04-29|publisher=MSDN Blogs|access-date=2009-05-28|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090531131720/http://blogs.msdn.com/innovation/archive/2008/04/29/msdn-highlander-there-will-be-only-one.aspx|archive-date=2009-05-31}}</ref>

=== Dr GUI and the MSDN Writers Team ===
In 1996, [[Bob Gunderson]] began writing a column in ''Microsoft Developer Network News'', edited by [[Andrew Himes]], using the pseudonym "Dr.GUI". The column provided answers to questions submitted by MSDN subscribers. The caricature of Dr. GUI was based on a photo of Gunderson. When he left the MSDN team, [[Dennis Crain]] took over the Dr. GUI role and added medical humor to the column. Upon his departure, Dr. GUI became the composite identity of the original group (most notably Paul Johns) of Developer Technology Engineers that provided in-depth technical articles to the Library. The early members included: Bob Gunderson, [[Dale Rogerson]], [[Rüdiger R. Asche]], [[Ken Lassesen]], Nigel Thompson (a.k.a. Herman Rodent), [[Nancy Cluts]], Paul Johns, Dennis Crain, and [[Ken Bergmann]]. Nigel Thompson was the development manager for Windows Multimedia Extensions that originally added multimedia capabilities to Windows. Renan Jeffreis produced the original system (Panda) to publish MSDN on the Internet and in HTML instead of the earlier multimedia viewer engine. Dale Rogerson, Nigel Thompson and Nancy Cluts all published MS Press books while on the MSDN team. As of August 2010, only Dennis Crain and Dale Rogerson remain employed by Microsoft.