Microsoft Rolls Out Key Development Tool Betas

REDMOND, Wash.— Within the next few days, Microsoft will release key development technology to help developers build applications across a variety of platforms, including the Web, desktops, servers and mobile devices.

In an interview with eWEEK at the Microsoft campus here July 25, S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of the developer division, said Microsoft was about to release Visual Studio 2008 beta 2, the .Net Framework 3.5 beta 2, and Silverlight 1.0 RC (release candidate), "and were going to make available a Visual Studio add-in so you can use Visual Studio to target Silverlight 1.0, the RC version."

"All of these things are coming out and were putting on the very, very final touches," Somasegar said. "Were going to provide Go Live licenses both for Silverlight 1.0 RC as well as for Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 betas, so that as you as a customer or developer or early adopter want to take a bet on any of these technologies and be able to build and deliver experiences and applications in a production environment. You can do that with these products and we will work with you on that."

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To read about Microsofts introduction of Visual Studio 2008, click here.

Microsofts Go Live licenses mean the company will support customers who use the early versions of the Microsoft technology to build and deploy projects into production.

"The story is the same in the sense that we want to have a consistent programming experience," Somasegar said. "We want to have a consistent toolset that can target multiple environments, so that you as a developer can learn one programming model, and learn one set of tools, and then you should be able to use your knowledge and skill set and be able to go back and forth and create client applications, Web applications, applications on the cloud, or for the device. But no matter what you are doing, you can reuse your skills a great deal."

Microsoft is pushing the mantra of "same people, same programming model, and same toolset," he said.

In addition, beta 2 of Orcas—also known as Visual Studio 2008—is fully feature complete, unlike the first beta, he said.

"We feel really good about where we are, the functionality that weve built and the scenarios that were enabling. And the quality is pretty good, but we want to get it out to our customers and listen to the feedback so we can work on the fit and finish."

Somasegar said Microsoft will ship Visual Studio 2008 and the .Net Framework 3.5 by the end of this year. The company is also on track to ship Silverlight 1.0 later this year.

"Soon after Visual Studio 2008, we want to be able to deliver the add-in so that people can target Silverlight," he said.

Next Page: Microsoft has made progress in how it develops its products.

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