Microsoft Visual Studio .Net 'Whidbey'

A useful upgrade that offers improvements in all areas.

Visual Studio is Microsoft's primary software development tool, which includes Visual Basic, Visual C# and Visual C++. It targets both Windows and web development and includes support for Windows mobile devices, including Pocket PC and Smartphone.

This is the second major release since Microsoft rebuilt its development strategy around the .Net Framework in 2002. It offers greater security and reliability than native code, but it has not been an easy transition. Visual Basic changed radically and there is no easy way to migrate a project from VB 6.0 to VB .Net. Another problem has been performance, particularly for Windows GUI applications. On the other hand, ASP.Net is already proven as a superb platform for web development. The Framework also makes it easy both to create and consume XML web services.

We looked at a preview of the 2004 edition of Visual Studio, codenamed 'Whidbey'. It is hard to review in isolation, because it is enmeshed with other Microsoft products. Whidbey compiles for the new version 2.0 of the .Net Framework. It also integrates with the next version of SQL Server - Microsoft's client-server database manager, which now hosts the .Net runtime, so you can write stored procedures and triggers in Visual Basic or C#, or define your own custom data types. Along with its other roles, Visual Studio is therefore the development tool for SQL Server.

The .Net Framework has some significant changes. One is support for generics, allowing the use of types as parameters. This enables better compile-time checking and more robust code. Another innovation in C# and VB is partial types, letting you define a class in more than one file. This sounds messy, but it is an advantage in cases where the designer generates code, for example, to define controls on a form. The generated code can be separated from the programmer's code, making for easier maintenance. This feature is not evident in the preview, but is promised for the final version.

ASP .Net has been revamped, with a richer and smarter class library. Websites with secure log-in are a snap to implement and there's better support for web browsers on mobile devices through self-adapting controls. Templates, skins and themes enable easy site customisation. Visual Studio provides its own integrated web server, so there is no need to run IIS or the dreaded Frontpage extensions for developing and testing.

In Windows Forms, new controls include a web browser and an ActiveX document host, letting you embed Office documents on forms. There are new data controls which provide the basis for RAD database applications, painfully missing in earlier versions. Flowlayout and Tablelayout containers offer automatic layout, echoing Java's approach. Winbar is a new toolbar control. What remains to be seen is whether Microsoft has eliminated memory leaks and enhanced performance in this version, two problems which afflicted earlier releases.

There are some interesting developments in the IDE (Integrated Development Environment) and tools. The visual designer has a handy snap-to feature, which snaps to the edges of other controls rather than a grid. In the editor is a new refactoring menu - refactoring is the business of improving code without changing its function and is an important technique in application development and maintenance. The preview has only a few basic refactorings, but more are promised. Another neat feature is Track Changes, showing you what edits have been made in the current session. The HTML editor has better code preservation along with XHTML compliance. There's also a command-line build engine, again echoing Java which has a build tool called Ant. The .Net tool will help particularly with large multi-project solutions.

Finally, not everything is .Net. Visual C++ remains a Win32 native code compiler, with the option of .Net managed code when required. It is not surprising, since most of Microsoft's own applications still do not use the .Net Framework. SQL Server is an important exception. Overall, Whidbey is shaping up to be a useful upgrade for Microsoft developers, although there is nothing here that is truly revolutionary. For that we await Longhorn, .Net Framework 3.0 and, of course, another Visual Studio.

Contact: Microsoft 0870 6010 100
www.microsoft.com

System requirements:
Not yet announced, likely to be similar to Visual Studio 2003, which are:

• 600MHz Pentium III
• Windows 2000 or XP
• 160MB Ram
• 4.2GB disk space

Not yet announced.