In a bid to push forward its .NET initiative, Microsoft Corp. Monday rolled
out two new versions of its Visual Studio.NET rapid application development
tool.
The Visual Studio.NET RAD is geared to the creation of Web applications and
XML Web services, key ingredients in Microsoft’s plan to transform itself
from a creator and vendor of shrink-wrapped software into a provider of
Web-based software-as-a-service.
The versions released Monday were both enterprise-level tools for the
fulfillment of mission-critical projects. Both new versions — Visual
Studio.NET Enterprise Architect (VSEA) and Visual Studio.NET Enterprise
Developer (VSED) — include updated versions of the Visual Basic and Visual
C++ programming languages as well as the first version of C#, a programming
language specifically designed for building Web-based software.
Both packages will also feature enterprise frameworks and templates to give
developers a starting point and architectural guidance; UML-based modeling
features for displaying application architecture and requirements; and
performance, load and functional testing tools.
“Microsoft has worked very hard to deliver on its vision for development and
integration of Web services,” said Daryl Plummer, group vice president and
research director at GartnerGroup. “The Visual Studio.NET Enterprise tools
will be one of the first Web services toolsets offering integrated project
life-cycle tools and open, extensible APIs. These tools and Web services
provide developers with an opportunity to reduce the time it takes to move
an application through the development and deployment process.”
VSEA packs in additional modeling features that help non-technical
executives and managers work with their programmers by creating graphical
representations of software.
“Companies are embroiled in a race to create and deploy the very best
applications and Web services, and do so at Internet speed, all with a
limited amount of resources,” said Tom Button, vice president of .NET Tools
Group at Microsoft. “The new features in VSEA and VSED help development
teams take an application from vision to production in record time.”
