Tools and Languages

Microsoft’s strategy for tools and programming languages is centered on its Visual Studio product, but also includes tools for graphics designers who work in application development, as well as foundation components such as the .NET Common Language Runtime. This chapter outlines the roadmap for all of those components and identifies recent and upcoming releases likely to be of interest to developers.

(For a graphical view of the tools and languages roadmap, see the illustration “Developer Tools Overview“.)

Developer Tools

The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) will continue to be an important way for Microsoft to support developers working with new features of its platform. Key features to be supported in Visual Studio include the new APIs of Windows Vista, the next version of Windows, and the new application and systems management technology Microsoft is developing as part of the Dynamic Systems Initiative. However, a Visual Studio version that supports these strategic features will not come until 2007 at the earliest.