Software

• Ideal for the part-time or occasional developer to develop and deploy client-server based Windows, Web, SmartPhone, and Pocket PC applications
• "Drag and drop" user interface designers for virtually every type of application; Master Pages support for maintaining a consistent look and feel across Web applications
• Edit and Continue for simple, intuitive debugging; integrated ClickOnce support

• Develop for Windows and the Web. Now you can easily build the smallest ActiveX controls,

• Complete development environment with comprehensive application development features, including improved visual designers, code editors, and programming languages for optimum productivity.
• Build tools that extend the Visual Studio Integrated Development enviroment using the Visual Studio Software Developers Kit.
• Visual designers, code editors, and programming languages for optimum productivity.

The strength of the Visual C++ Integrated Development Environment (IDE) is its overall usability and polished user interface. From top to bottom it provides a robust set of code management tools, plus built-in debugging abilities. To get started, the AppWizard tool lets you generate skeleton code for a wide variety of project types, including building applications that take advantage of the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), a powerful C++ class library. In just a few minutes, we generated the "skeleton code" for a full-featured Windows application.

Other wizards help simplify development throughout the project development cycle. The ClassView tool makes it easy to browse source your C++ code. (Instead of worrying about the files that your code resides in, you can treat your C++ code in a truly object-oriented manner.) A big win for any Visual C++ user is Microsoft's excellent instant pop-up help system (called IntelliSense). As you write code, the IDE gives you a list of all available C++ methods and properties so you can minimize typing.

Another wizard that simplifies many aspects of development is the ClassWizard, used for deriving new classes from old ones automatically, as well as attaching MFC code to Windows messages (like clicking a mouse or pressing a key). Other integrated tools include the ResourceView tool for designing visual resources like dialog boxes and bitmaps.

Once you have written your program, you will need to debug it. Visual C++'s powerful debugger makes it easy to test your code. Besides setting breakpoints, you can view variables easily using watch variables. Standout features here include being able to highlight variables and inspect their contents within the code source window. You can also drag and drop variables to the watch window, a timesaving feature.

With its rich array of features, Visual C++ continues to be the compiler of choice for Windows development pros. The Standard Edition provides an affordable, entry-level version of this topnotch C++ tool. --Rich Dragan

• Streamline Web-based development

Extending visual design capabilities to the server is easier than ever with Visual Studio .NET 2003. The Component Designer provides a canvas for building and instantiating business logic components using the familiar drag-and-drop paradigm. In addition, the Server Explorer delivers direct access to server-side resources, including databases, message queues, event logs, Windows Services, Crystal Reports, and performance counters.

Visual Basic .NET 2003 delivers the most productive route to professional application development. Familiar Visual Basic syntax, expressive coding constructs, a powerful background compiler, and unsurpassed support for productivity within the code editor enable you to crank out software in record time. The fully modernized Visual Basic language supports Structured Exception Handling and optional power features including object-oriented constructs and multi-threading.

In XML, Visual Studio .NET developers can build data-driven applications using built-in ADO.NET tools that target a variety of databases, including SQL Server, Oracle, or any other XML source. With support for XML, ADO.NET enables developers to share data across computing platforms. Additionally, Visual Studio .NET includes the Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE), a SQL Server-compatible database that provides programmers with a viable development database and natively supports XML.

Visual Studio .NET allows programmers to create and deploy critical server-based programming. With Visual Studio .NET, developers can visually compose middle-tier components using the Visual Component Designer (VCD). The VCD enables developers to drag and drop nonvisual objects such as message queues, timers, and event logs to a design surface, automatically discovering all necessary server-based resources and configuring required components.

The common runtime is language-neutral so, for example, Visual Basic programmers can use components written in C# and vice versa. Other languages, such as COBOL and FORTRAN, can plug into Visual Studio, and Microsoft provides a version of the Java language called J#.

Overall, Visual Studio .NET is a radical break from the past for Microsoft. C# is an entirely new language, aimed at C and C++ programmers looking for something safer and more productive. Visual Basic .NET is a new twist on the old Microsoft favorite, losing compatibility with earlier versions, but gaining full object orientation as well as access to all the .NET libraries. These two languages, along with J#, have full support for the visual design tools in Visual Studio .NET. Also included is JScript .NET, Microsoft's version of JavaScript, although this comes without a form designer. Visual C++ is similar to earlier versions and is the only compiler included that can build old-style Windows executables. With a compiler switch, it can also target .NET, making it particularly flexible.

Visual Studio .NET has two distinct form designers. Windows Forms are for traditional Windows applications, but managed by the common runtime. Web Forms are ASP.NET pages, which means they run on Web servers and work over the Internet. Microsoft has made designing and coding Windows Forms and Web Forms as similar as possible so that both types of applications can share components and much of the complexity of coding Web applications is kept hidden. Another key feature is Web services, which lets developers create an XML interface for an application so that it can be called across the Web or from any platform or language. XML support generally is strong, with a range of classes for parsing and transforming XML data. There is also a visual designer for XML Schema.

There are a few points against Visual Studio .NET. One is that, like earlier versions, it only creates applications that run on Windows. Web applications are a partial exception, in that they support cross-platform clients, but deployment requires a Windows Web server. Another factor is that, with its multiple compilers and mountains of documentation, Visual Studio .NET eats up gigabytes of disk space, and the IDE tends to be slow with less than around 384 MB RAM. Serious developers will take this in stride, but casual users could have difficulty. Fortunately, the applications created have more modest system requirements, although Windows 95 is not supported. Finally, developers coming from earlier editions face a lot of learning due to radical changes in both Visual Basic and ASP.

Despite these minor issues and a steep learning curve, Visual Studio .NET is an extremely versatile, sophisticated, and capable development tool. --Tim Anderson, Amazon.co.uk

Visual C++ .NET contains new and enhanced features that enable developers to create and consume XML Web services and Web applications. Developers of all skill levels can take advantage of such features as application and class wizards for generating boilerplate code, IntelliSense for efficient and accurate coding, dynamic help for quick access to relevant documentation, a debugger, and a compiler, offering advanced options for code generation.

Managed extensions enable the C++ developer to target and consume the many services of the .NET Framework. ATL Server classes provide foundation infrastructure for creating Web sites and XML Web services. C++ attributes simplify development by minimizing repetitive boilerplate source code.

• Complete development environment with comprehensive application development features, including improved visual designers, code editors, and programming languages for optimum productivity.
• Build tools that extend the Visual Studio Integrated Development enviroment using the Visual Studio Software Developers Kit.

• Work with a complete set of development languages Visual Basic.NET, Visual C++.NET, Visual C#.NET and more
• Share your source code and design documents more easily with Visual SourceSafe