Microsoft Developer Tools Roadmap 2004-2005

In February 2002, software developers and architects worldwide were introduced to Visual Studio .NET and the Microsoft .NET Framework. This landmark release, four years in the making, offered a unified development environment and programming model for constructing a range of software solutions. With the recent launch of Visual Studio .NET 2003, customers gained the benefits of enhanced tool and framework functionality, as well as increased performance, security and scalability for building enterprise-critical software.

As the needs of businesses continue to evolve, Microsoft remains committed to ensuring the success of its customers by providing innovative developer tools that meet these ever-changing requirements. To help organizations plan future software development efforts, Microsoft is providing a roadmap to the following planned releases of its developer tools:

• Visual Studio code name "Whidbey" (2004). This release of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework will offer innovations and enhancements to the class libraries, common language runtime (CLR), programming languages, and the integrated development environment (IDE). In addition, this product will provide deep support for SQL Server code name "Yukon" by enabling developers to write stored procedures using managed code.
• Visual Studio code name "Orcas" (2005). This version of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework will provide tools support for the Windows operating system, code name "Longhorn."

Figure 1. Developer Tools Roadmap 2004–2005

Microsoft developer tools have always been built to enable developers to take advantage of the latest advances in the Windows platform. As shown in Figure 1, Microsoft will continue this tradition by providing tools that support upcoming versions of SQL Server and the Windows operating system.

Read more on MSDN...