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Microsoft Corp. on Monday announced the final beta of its Visual Studio .Net 2003 product—formerly known by the code name “Everett”—and released its .Net Compact Framework and a new Web service with Kinkos Inc.
Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft made the announcements at the Comdex show in Las Vegas.
“With Windows .Net Server 2003 and Visual Studio 2003, Microsoft is delivering the ultimate developer platform,” said Dan Hay, a Visual Studio .Net lead product manager at Microsoft.
And with the release of the .Net Compact Framework, Microsoft is targeting device developers. “Were rounding out the platform so developers can target cell phones and handhelds, all the way up to the enterprise,” Hay said.
Microsoft will ship the final version of Visual Studio .Net 2003 with Windows .Net Server 2003 early next year, with a formal announcement in April, Hay said.
However, the version of the .Net Compact Framework going out with the final beta of Visual Studio .Net 2003 is the final code for that technology, said Chris Flores, also a lead product manager for Visual Studio .Net 2003 at Microsoft. Flores said beta customers of Visual Studio .NET 2003 will be able to run applications based on the .NET Compact Framework via a Go Live license. Microsofts Go Live license will lift the beta software license restriction on deploying production applications, he said.
With the .Net Compact Framework, developers “can write the core pieces of the application once, and the mobile controls in Visual Studio .Net 2003 will automatically detect characteristics of the device and add the markup language for the device.”
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Hay said Microsoft is targeting three sets of developers with this release of the Visual Studio product: enterprise developers, professional developers and device developers. He said the company has added enhancements to assist developers in each category.
For enterprise developers, Microsoft has integrated the .Net Framework into Windows .Net Server 2003 and added support for new Web services protocols including WS-Security, WS-Routing and WS- Attachments, Hay said. The product also will feature Microsofts Enterprise Instrumentation Framework, which helps enterprises monitor their systems.
Enhancements for professional developers include enhancements to Microsofts C++ implantation, including increased standards support and the integration of Visual J# .Net into the Visual Studio .Net platform, Hay said.
Pricing for Visual Studio .Net 2003 is $29 for developers who are registered users of Visual Studio .Net 2002, and free for subscribers of the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). The company said it would release full pricing for new customers at a later date.
Meanwhile, Neil Charney, director of Microsofts .Net Strategy Group, said Microsoft announced a new Web service that Kinkos will be building called “File, Print… Kinkos.”
The new service will be built with Microsofts .NET platform and will use XML-based Web services to enable customers to print directly from Microsoft Office to any U.S. Kinkos location, he said.
“Kinkos is committed to building this with the .Net Framework,” Charney said.
He added that some of the Microsoft-sponsored advanced Web services protocols, including WS-Security and WS-Attachments “become very important in this scenario.”
The scenario features a user on a home computer or laptop in a hotel sending a file for printing at a local Kinkos using the service.
Other Microsoft technologies involved in the prototype the companies built include Microsoft Visual Studio .Net, the .Net Framework, .Net Alerts and MapPoint .NET, Charney said.
He added that the service would come out in the middle of next year.