Vista Bridge is a sample library for Windows Vista and - as the title suggests - this will be merely a preview of the Microsoft project with additional details to come in the future. Vista Bridge is a set of samples addressing managed code developers. The Vista sample library is designed to act as origin for further development via the operating system's Application Programming Interfaces.

"Each targeted API is wrapped in a totally .NET-friendly set of managed wrappers, with a rough goal of exposing anywhere from 50% to 100% of the native functionality provided by Vista. In a number of cases, we even provide a fair bit of value in the managed library above and beyond the native API, in an effort to make it fit with .NET library design requirements or to leverage additional functionality of the rest of the .NET Framework," revealed Jeff Chrisope, Microsoft Program Manager.

Chrisope even provides the key - or rather keys - to the functionality of Vista Bridge from the perspective of a Vista application development via managed code. And it all depends on the point of view. Vista Bridge can be regarded as an example of a .NET framework library describing the functionality of windows Vista, and in fact, the set of samples are very similar to a framework library.

"Or it could mean a library - a collection - of individual samples, to be used for study, inspiration, or tactical copy/paste into your own code. However, the operative word in both interpretations is "sample" - Vista Bridge is sample code, and therefore has all the legal disclaimers of any other sample code from Microsoft," concluded Chrisope.