Headline Feeds
Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) has laid out a road map for its Visual Studio developer tools and the .NET framework through 2005, promising developer productivity gains, built-in community support, simplified data access and better security, among other improvements.
Specifically, the Redmond, Washington-based software company outlined the next version of Visual Studio -– code name "Whidbey" -– slated for release in 2004. It will feature increased SQL Server support, enhancements to class libraries, improved architectural support and better mobile application development tools.
Microsoft also plans a new version of Visual Studio .NET to coincide with its new Windows operating system, known as Longhorn, that will be released in 2005. The company said this version -- code-named "Orcas" -- will support managed interfaces, enhanced security, a new development model, integrated data storage and innovations in presentation and media.
With these updates, Microsoft is focusing on making its development tools easy to use, according to Forrester research fellow Rob Enderle. "It's another release of what has been a very powerful product in their portfolio," he told the E-Commerce Times. "It isn't revolutionary. When we talk about the Longhorn timetable, we're talking about revolution -– strides in security and in performance online and offline."
Deep Data
Microsoft said its Visual Studio tools for Office, currently in beta, will help developers write managed code that responds to events within the Word and Excel automation models. The company also said the Office development tools will offer the Visual Studio "familiar coding experience" and will help developers write programs in the company's proprietary Visual Basic or C# code that have full access to Word and Excel object models.
The upcoming Visual Studio tools -- which include improved .NET security as well as simplified deployment and maintenance with automatic downloads for customization -- will be released later this summer, shortly after the debut of Office 2003. As for the next version of Visual Studio, or Whidbey, Microsoft said language innovation, improvements to the .NET framework and extended support for enterprise development will help deliver productivity gains.
Whidbey also will provide what the company is calling "deep integration" and will offer support for Yukon, the next generation of SQL Server code. The company said developers will be able to write procedures in Visual Basic and C# to reduce the time required to develop data-centric applications.
"Just as Windows Server 2003 integrates the .Net Framework into its release, SQL Server Yukon will incorporate language runtime functionality into its database engine to bring a new level of integration between database and tool," Microsoft said in a statement.
No Strings Attached
Forrester's Enderle said Microsoft has a history of producing new technologies that do not require developers to seek additional training and experience. "Microsoft's strength is the ability to add new capabilities without necessarily adding new overhead to their tools," he noted.
Enderle also said developers are anxious to connect online work with their offline projects. He added that expectations associated with the upcoming improvements to Visual Studio mostly center on freeing the software from the Internet connection.
"Performance is uneven [online compared to offline]," Enderle said. "Getting around that is where a lot of folks are hoping these new tools will take them."
Open Threat
Microsoft's biggest challenge seems not to be technology -- adding features that its community of developers wants and needs -- but rather the negative perception of its software propagated by the open-source community.
"[Open-source proponents] are doing a very good job of disparaging Microsoft products," Enderle confirmed. "It's a perception problem, but it is very pervasive."
He added that despite developer acceptance and technological advances, Microsoft is still failing to address its image problems.
"They have to start looking a lot more friendly than they do," he said.
Web Services Still Fuzzy
Also, Yankee Group senior analyst Laura DiDio said that despite support for the latest Web services, higher performance and improved data handling in the newer versions of Visual Studio .NET, there is still uncertainty about Web services in the corporate IT world.
"There is not a mass movement so far to go out and implement an end-to-end Web services framework architecture," she told the E-Commerce Times. "There's a perception right now in the industry that Java and Java 2 Enterprise Edition ... are more mature."
DiDio said Microsoft has acknowledged that not enough of its targeted developer community has migrated to Visual Studio .NET. She blamed seemingly lackluster interest on the current conservative environment in IT.
Talkback: 
