Microsoft is readying not one, but two, service packs for its Visual Studio tool suite.
The company is readying simultaneously SP1 (Service Pack 1) for Visual Studio 2003 and SP1 for Visual Studio 2005, blogged Scott Wiltamuth, Visual C# product unit manager.
Both are expected to ship in the first part of 2006.
The specific target for Visual Studio 2003 SP1 is April 2006.
Wiltamuth offered no further details on the planned timing for SP1 for Visual Studio 2005.
Wiltamuth made the particulars regarding Microsofts Visual Studio SP plans public on Monday, the same day that Microsoft officially launched its Visual Studio 2005 product, as part of its application-platform unveiling in San Francisco.
Just days before Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006, some developers reported on their blogs problems they were encountering with the final Visual Studio 2005 IDE (integrated development environment) code.
While Microsoft officials maintained on Monday that the company stood by its code, they also acknowledged that the company was working on a first service pack for Visual Studio 2005.
But they declined to provide any further details, such as the ship target for Visual Studio 2005 SP1 and/or specific bugs that it will fix.