Visual Studio 2010 (first look)..

pablop — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 19:18:00 GMT

I am sharing an interesting article that gives a first look at what is coming in Visual Studio 2010.

The complete article is available here.

I am pasting some points that I consider pretty relevant:

Overview

Microsoft is offering a first look at the next version of its Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) and platform, which will be named Visual Studio 2010 and the .Net Framework 4.0. There's a lot promised in the new release (expected to ship, duh, in 2010), from improved software testing tools to software engineering modeling capabilities to integrated development and database functions for the application lifecycle management (ALM).

Application Lifecycle Management

A key goal in VSTS 2010, says Microsoft, is to help democratize ALM by bringing all members of a development organization into the application development lifecycle, and remove many of the existing barriers to integration.

For the IT manager or CIO, says Mendlen, VSTS will give clarity and visibility into the state of the project throughout the lifecycle, using Team Foundation Server-enabled dashboards customized for her role.

Agile Tools, Built-In

Visual Studio 2010 also will sport features to integrate Agile methodologies into the tech stack using Team Foundation Server.

The result of right-clicking on a method in the VS text editor, selecting "Generate Sequence Diagramâ¬¦". A UML 2.1.1 sequence diagram depicting the call chain originating from the selected method.

Putting Quality Earlier in the Development Lifecycle

In Visual Studio 2010, he says, tools will help create a direct relationship between unit tests that must be run and the code a developer is writing. This "must-do" testing feature, called test prioritization, will get the developers to check their code against at least the highest-priority unit tests.

So, new in Visual Studio 2010 will be a video-capture feature recording what's going on as the QA professional tests the software.

This isn't only video capture. These tools (which internally the VSTS team currently calls "Tivo for debugging" but surely will have a marketing-approved name by release time) also record the state of the application as the tester is testing it.

In other words, when the QA person clicks "Create new bug," the video and rich debug log become part of the record.

Merging of Developer, DBA Roles

Microsoft is merging the database professional edition.

As Microsoft sees it, the roles of the database-centric developer and "regular" developer are less distinct than they once were, so the company is merging its VSTS database and development products. As of October 1, those who belong to the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) and currently own Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition or Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition will receive for free the Visual Studio Team System 2008 Development Edition, Visual Studio Team System 2008 Database Edition, Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Software Developers and Visual Studio 2005 Team System for Database Professionals.

OSLO, see you in October …

pablop — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 19:58:00 GMT

Microsoft seems to be making good advances in modeling-based development. OSLO three primary components are proof of that:

- A modeling tool

- A repository

- A declarative programming language

A bit far yet to know details about of these components, it was announced that in October it will be available the first CTP of the series J.

The news here:

http://www.infoworld.com/archives/emailPrint.jsp?R=printThis&A=/article/08/06/03/microsoft-readies-oslo_1.html

Some key notes:

- The modeling tool will be a graphical tool for building any kind of application. It will feature schema design and be leveraged by Microsoft products such as Visual Studio and BizTalk.

- The repository, based on Microsoft's SQL Server database, will provide a single view of an application across different products, such as Visual Studio Team System application lifecycle management platform, Microsoft System Center, and BizTalk.

- The declarative language is intended to leverage declarative concepts to make it easier to customize applications and reduce the need to write code. It is to be used within Visual Studio and the BizTalk integration platform.

- Also at TechEd, company officials noted plans to support Unified Modeling Language (UML) in the planned "Rosario" release of Visual Studio Team System

- Microsoft at the conference also will release a second beta version of its Silverlight 2 browser plug-in technology for rich Internet applications.

Microsoft also plans to release its Sync Framework in the third quarter of this year. The company at TechEd announced a CTP of Sync is available for the Windows Mobile platform.

Pablo Peralta's Blog : Rosario

Visual Studio 2010 (first look)..

OSLO, see you in October …