Application Development: Microsoft's Visual Studio 2012 Toolset Arrives: 12 Reasons to Work With It
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Microsoft released Visual Studio 2012 and .NET 4.5 to the web on August 15. Visual Studio 2012 and .NET 4.5 are the tools that form the backbone for developing applications on Windows 8 and Microsoft has released them more than two months ahead of the release of Windows 8 on October 26 to give developers a head start on building apps for the platform. Jason Zander, Microsoft's vice president of Visual Studio, said MSDN Subscribers can download Visual Studio 2012 immediately at the MSDN Subscriber Download Page, and volume licensing customers will be able to download starting August 16 from the Volume Licensing Service Center. Developers also will be able to find Visual Studio the product in stores in the next month or so, as well as some availability to purchase through the Visual Studio product Website in the next few days, Zander said. Moreover, to evaluate the free trial versions or download Microsoft's free Express products, developers can go to the Visual Studio product website. "With Visual Studio 2012, we're delivering a productive and powerful development experience, one that makes it easy to develop on your own or as part of a collaborative team, all the while building apps that target the latest platforms," said S. "Soma" Somasegar, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Developer Division, in a blog post. Meanwhile, Microsoft's Zander laid out a list of reasons why developers should download VS2012. This eWEEK slide show borrows from Zander's list.
To Develop for Windows 8
Visual Studio 2012 contains all the tools you need to develop apps for Windows 8, from templates, to designs, to testing, to debugging. Blend now comes with the Visual Studio installation providing visual tools for creating Windows store apps using HTML/CSS and XAML. Using these tools, you'll find everything you need to develop a great app and submit it to the Windows Store.
