Developer Tools Overview

The next major tools release comes in 2005, when Microsoft will ship Visual Studio 2005 (formerly code-named Whidbey) and update the .NET Framework run-time system. Major new features include a new team development system with features for source code control, bug tracking, application modeling, and load testing; ASP.NET 2.0, a substantial improvement to Microsoft’s Web programming framework with new features for Web content management and personalization; a much improved Visual Basic development environment which supports “edit-and-continue” (dynamic modification of code being debugged); and development support for server-side programming with SQL Server 2005 (previously called Yukon). The Visual Studio Tools for Office, which support development of Word- and Excel-based custom solutions, will get an update around the same time as Visual Studio 2005.

Beyond 2005 the next tools release is Visual Studio Orcas, which will support programming Windows Longhorn, which in turn will incorporate the .NET Framework and present a new API set (called WinFX). However, the late delivery of Visual Studio 2005 suggests that Orcas is unlikely to be generally available until after Windows Longhorn client ships. In the meanwhile, developers will be able to write for Longhorn using Whidbey, but they will lack important tools such as visual user interface designers.