Software

Five main development tools comprise Visual Studio:

• Visual Basic 6.0 helps you create applications quickly. Visual Basic excels at creating attractive graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and custom front ends for databases. It's also an easy way to create component object model (COM) resources. Visual Basic is a popular, relatively easy-to-learn tool for general-purpose Windows programming.

• Visual C++ 6.0 is Microsoft's low-level development environment for C and C++ software. Oriented around the Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC), Visual C++ puts the least overhead between your programs and Windows, meaning they will (if properly designed and implemented) run faster than programs written in any other Microsoft environment. It's great for games, device drivers, and other solutions in which top performance is more critical than ease of development.

• Visual J++ 6.0 allows you to write software in a variant of Java tailored to the Windows environment. Visual J++ stand-alone applications aren't platform-independent as true Java applications are, unless you're careful to avoid the Windows-specific classes, which is hard to do. Some developers prefer its object orientation scheme to that of other Windows development languages.

• Visual FoxPro 6.0 supports the FoxPro language, with which you can build applications that refer to databases. Because this environment supports COM and distributed COM (DCOM), it's possible to build FoxPro applications that access databases and other computational resources across a network.

• Visual InterDev 6.0 is the ultimate tool for developing Internet resources that fit the Microsoft Document Object Model (DOM). While Visual InterDev's power really shows when you're writing for an intranet based on Internet Explorer 5, you can use it to create platform-independent pages suitable for open Internet sites. You'll be happy with Visual InterDev as a means of creating browser interfaces for your back-end databases, COM objects, and other Microsoft componentry.

On top of the primary development tools (which are well integrated by common interface elements and an ability to share components), Visual Studio ships with a considerable supporting cast of goodies. Visual Studio Installer enables you to write installation scripts for your software. Visual SourceSafe helps development teams manage large projects by managing code check-in and check-out chores. Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE) is a freely distributable Structured Query Language (SQL) server that's compatible with Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, so you can build distributed SQL applications for growing workgroups without having to buy SQL Server right away. You get quite a bit of documentation and training material too.

To put it simply, Visual Studio 6.0 is the best tool you'll find for efficiently creating Windows applications that can interact with the network resources as well as the Windows environment. This is the tool of choice for working inside Microsoft's COM framework. If you're familiar with the Microsoft architecture (or know you want to learn it) and want the latest tools for building within it, this is the most cost-effective way to outfit your workstation with everything you need. --David Wall

When you're building such elaborate systems, you need specialists. Which means you--the architect--need to make your specialists work as a team. You need to make each specialist aware of how their piece fits into the larger system, and allow each expert maximum room for creativity while ensuring that they comply with quality standards and documentation rules. The best tool available for marshaling specialists toward a comprehensive .NET application of professional quality is Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect (VSEA). It gives project leads the tools they need to think big thoughts while remaining sufficiently close to the coding to ensure their proper implementation.

To begin, VSEA incorporates the new Visual Studio .NET development environment completely. All of the tools in Microsoft's latest IDE--code editor, debugger, object browser, database browser--are present in this edition. If you have implementation responsibilities of your own, or if you're one of those project leads who goes hands-on to solve low-level problems, VSEA provides you with the tools you need.

VSEA also ships with the goodies that come with Visual Studio Enterprise Developer: Visual SourceSafe and developer-licensed copies of Windows 2000 Advanced Server, SQL Server, Exchange Server, Commerce Server, and Host Integration Server. VSEA owners will get .NET Server when it's released. In addition, VSEA tops Enterprise Developer's offerings with a developer's edition of BizTalk Server.

There's also an attractive set of utilities for designing applications, roughing out application framework, and publishing standards for use by specialist programmers. This is where VSEA really shines, and where it earns its premium price. If you put the architectural tools to good use, your organization stands to realize a great return on investment in the form of increased team efficiency, higher quality, and satisfied deadlines.

VSEA allows you to use Microsoft Visio to design your applications and the databases that underlie them. It's true that you can generate Unified Modeling Language (UML) and database schematics in the standalone version of Visio Professional; but VSEA provides enormous time savings by allowing you to convert your diagrams into actual code. You can create a UML diagram in Visio, then use it to generate a code skeleton--all required class outlines, with inheritance, properties, and methods in place--in C++, C#, or Visual Basic. You can then publish the generated skeleton to your programming team for fleshing out. This is the role that Rational Visual Modeler plays (or used to play) for many developers.

Database modeling in VSEA is even cooler, because you can either export your schematic diagrams as Data Definition Language (DDL) code, or hook into an actual database server via an ODBC or OLE DB connection and generate the tables you've modeled in Visio. It's extraordinarily efficient. In fact, VSEA blurs the lines that have traditionally separated design, implementation, and documentation.

VSEA supports an XML-based language called Template Description Language (TDL), with which you can dictate characteristics of project files in more junior programmers's Visual Studio .NET environments. You can use TDL policies to turn off elements of the Visual Studio workspace, for example. Similarly, policies allow you to preset properties of code elements (such as database connections) that programmers can include as modules in their projects. You can also use TDL to describe the contents of team members's New Project windows, adding code snippets and reference materials alongside starter projects with policies attached.

Be aware that TDL policies may only be interpreted by users of Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Developer; they're not meaningful to users of standalone Visual Studio .NET. Also, be prepared to edit the TDL files manually, as Microsoft hasn't provided good tools for writing and modifying them. Setting up developer environments is a big job that has a huge effect on the later success of your project. It's sort of like tooling up a factory before a production run, so be prepared to spend some time setting policies, writing reference material, and configuring your TDL policies.

Is VSEA worthwhile? The answer depends in part on how well you set your policies, and on your development team's eagerness to use centrally managed reference materials and design advice. Embraced wholeheartedly by a large team, VSEA is not just the only show in town for team development of .NET applications--it's a powerful tool for realizing the vision of a software designer. --David Wall

Amazon.com Product Description:
Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect 2002 simplifies the development of XML Web services and Web solutions. It has many enhancements and new features such as a single, integrated development environment, object-oriented features in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, and Web development tools. In addition, Visual Studio .NET Enterprise Architect includes core capabilities for building scalable and reliable applications in a team development environment.

Design XML Web services visually with application architecture using UML modeling that can generate code in Visual Basic, Visual C++, or Visual C#. Take advantage of support for database modeling, including conceptual, logical, and physical diagrams. Use the BizTalk Orchestration Designer to model business processes and communicate application functionality.

Create application starting points that include reusable components and can increase developer productivity while also ensuring architectural guidelines are followed. Define and communicate development policies within the Visual Studio .NET environment, making it easy for developers to implement the right technologies when building applications.

The pleasant surprises that await you extend farther than the familiar feel of the Borland development interface. Right off the bat you'll find that installation is easy and includes several applications in one sitting. Unlike many other applications, Borland's JBuilder Pro 4.0 offers a tip of the day that is actually useful, offering hints, shortcuts, and development-related advice (rather than warning you that plaids and stripes don't match). The programmer's documentation is thorough--examples and tutorials will lead you toward a higher understanding of common tasks like database work and graphical interface design. And to top it all off, JBuilder Pro 4.0 has the uncommon feature of letting the developer switch easily between different versions of the Java Developer's Kit (JDK).

But the most impressive feature award must go to Swing Integration--the latest thing for GUI design in Java. This feature has lots of built-in goodies for customizing the look and feel of your application and makes it easier overall to connect to the database. Take the wizards for a spin and see how easy and simple this can be.

And you won't be able to overlook the Enterprise Java Bean (EJB) Builder, which also offers good integration with the database and makes things a lot easier to handle. You'll also find wizards in this area that streamline some of the more common tasks.

The getting started guide will give you a great introduction to the application and to Java. And if you're coming in with experience from a different application, this guide will have you off and running with a good array of sample code. Between this tutorial, the documentation, and the wizards, you'll find 90 percent of the developer's basic tasks covered. And for those intermediate-level users, you'll probably be more impressed with what's not missing rather than the flashy bells and whistles: the hot keys are all in the right places, the buttons are where you'd expect to find them, and you won't be forced to learn a dramatically different set of commands or menus.

And when you're ready, printing in JBuilder is unusually nice. If you're someone who cringes at the thought of code in printed form, you'll be delighted to find plenty of features that let you pick how you want your work to look. Options like color-coded text and optional line numbering are definite plusses and make peer code reviews easy. --Emilie Dirks

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