Features:
- Rapidly build next generation Internet applications
- Single, unified, fully-customizable environment
- Intuitive tools for working with XML and XSD files
- Cross-language, cross-process, and remote debugging
- Statement completion and syntax notification for HTML and XML tags
Product Description
Visual Studio
.NET is a superb, next-generation development tool. At its heart is the .NET Framework, a runtime engine and class library
that enables rapid application building for both Windows and Web applications. The runtime engine handles housekeeping tasks,
like memory management, while also providing fine-grained security and version awareness. The class library reduces the code
needed to build rich applications. Visual Studio .NET also provides a slick visual environment, with features like tabbed
and docking windows, dynamic online help, and automatic code completion and hints.
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
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Windows XP / 2000 / NT