The .NET Platform
Development Tools
COM & COM+
Data Access
Web Development
XML Technologies
Windows Servers
Wireless & Mobile
Security issues
Design & Process
Career Development
Analysis & Comment
Disposable Objects
We found this book useful!
You are not logged in: login here to access all areas.
Visual Studio 2005 launches
November 7th saw the "biggest launch in Microsoft history" with the launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 across the world. Matt Nicholson was at the UK event.
Author: Matt Nicholson
Last updated: Nov 2005
Visual Studio 2005 To celebrate the launch of Visual Studio 2005, Microsoft is offering free places on a series of three-day courses entitled ‘What's New in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 for existing Visual Studio .NET Developers’ and ‘Developing Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Web Applications’ which are being run by third-party training companies. These courses are taking place at a variety of UK locations through to 20 Feb 2006, but book now as places are limited. See www.microsoft.com/uk/training/vs2005/whatsnew/ and www.microsoft.com/uk/training/aspnet/webapps/ for details. (1) Visual Web Developer Express Edition does include remote data access. SQL Server 2005 BizTalk Server 2006
Following Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's keynote in San Francisco (right), Alistair Baker, Managing Director of Microsoft Limited in the UK, described the launch of Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 as “The biggest in Microsoft history”. However for many, 7th November represented a fairly arbitrary line in the sand as they had already been running mission-critical software on these products for some time.
It could also be seen as a fairly flexible definition of the word ‘launch’ as neither BizTalk Server 2006 nor Visual Studio 2005 Team System (specifically Team Foundation Server) will actually be available in a final release version until early 2006.
Nevertheless, this is an impressive range of products. Visual Studio 2005 sees a considerable expansion of Microsoft’s developer toolset, which according to Microsoft already has 60 percent of the developer tools market. At the bottom end the Express Editions provide full-blown developer environments for Visual Basic, C#, C++ and J# at a nominal $49, although Microsoft announced that all the Express editions will be available as free downloads for the first year after launch, after which the policy will be reviewed.
This is particularly significant for Web developers as the combination of Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition with SQL Server 2005 Express Edition (already available as a free download) makes for a powerful platform for developing and hosting database-driven ASP.NET applications.
Moving up, the Standard Edition adds support for mobile devices, remote data access and Click Once deployment, and includes the graphic Class Designer. Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition is available stand-alone or in combination with one of the new MSDN Professional or Premium subscriptions. Existing MSDN Professional subscribers will be upgraded automatically to the new Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition.
Also new to this version is Visual Studio 2005 Team System (VSTS). This comes in three ‘role’ editions targeting Software Architects, Software Developers and Software Testers which each integrate with the new Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server to provide a complete environment for managing the software development lifecycle. Top of the range is the Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite which includes all three editions in the box.
For more coverage of Visual Studio 2005 on DNJ Online, click here for Alex Homer's introduction to Visual Studio 2005. Click here for information on Visual Studio Team System, and here for details on migrating to Visual Studio 2005 from your existing products.
Microsoft has also announced new certification options for Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005. See www.microsoft.com/learning/2005/ for details.
Features
Building Windows and Web Form applications
Remote data connections
Mobile device support
Class Designer
XSLT support
Deployment tools
Visual SourceSafe support
Full IDE (3)
Crystal Reports
Remote debugging
64-bit compiler support
SQL Server 2005 integration
Project Management, testing and additional design tools
Full price (GBP)
Free (4)
£201
£536
£3,670 (5)
Upgrade price (GBP)
Free (4)
£134
£368
£1,543 (5)
(2) Supports Click Once deployment only.
(3) Express and Standard Editions have a subset of the full IDE.
(4) Free download for the launch period at least.
(5) For a single 'role' edition. Includes MSDN Premium Subscription.
SQL Server 2005 is the first major update of Microsoft’s SQL Server product for five years and represents yet another step in Microsoft’s efforts to have it recognised as enterprise-ready, able to compete on an equal footing with Oracle and IBM. To prove its case, Microsoft has assembled an awesome battery of third-party reports demonstrating that SQL Server 2005 is many times faster, more scalable and more reliable than its predecessor.
Aside from performance enhancing innovations such as the ability to partition tables, SQL Server 2005 offers a sophisticated array of business intelligence (BI) reporting tools. For the developer there is the embedded .NET 2.0 runtime, allowing server-side procedures to be written in managed code as well as T-SQL. There is also enhanced support for XML through a dedicated data type and the ability to mix SQL and XQuery in a single query.
For more on SQL Server 2005, See Mark Whitehorn's Inside 'Yukon' series.
Although BizTalk Server 2006 is not due to ship until next year, Microsoft did take the opportunity to release a new beta version. BizTalk Server 2006 includes a more powerful Administration Console that allows you to package entire BizTalk solutions into a single unit for deployment. The Business Activity Monitor (BAM) now allows access to BAM information through a Web interface. There is a new Flat File Wizard that makes it easier to work with flat files, together with built-in adapters for POP3, SharePoint Services and MQSeries.
Click here for our Privacy Statement. Copyright © Matt Publishing. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced without the prior consent of the copyright holder.
