Close
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Logo
Logo
  • Latest News
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Networking
  • Cybersecurity
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Storage
  • Sponsored
  • Mobile
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Applications
    • Applications
    • Development
    • IT Management

    Microsoft Ships Volta Web Development Tool

    By
    Darryl K. Taft
    -
    December 5, 2007
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Microsoft is releasing its experimental tool to help democratize Web development as an early preview for developers.

      Microsoft announced Dec. 5 a Community Technology Preview of Volta, an experimental developer toolkit that enables developers to build multitier Web applications using the .Net libraries, tools and techniques they already know.

      Volta comes out of Microsoft’s Live Labs division and will run as an add-in to Visual Studio 2008, said Alex Daley, group product manager of Microsoft Live Labs.

      As reported here earlier, Volta offers a specialized facility for partitioning functionality across client and server via declarative tier-splitting, said Erik Meijer, principle architect of Volta.

      “Volta extends the .Net platform to distributed software-plus-services applications, while allowing for the utilization of existing and familiar tools and techniques,” Meijer said. “As such, Volta makes it possible for the developer to postpone irreversible design decisions until much later in the development process, making it faster and cheaper to adjust architectures to accommodate evolving requirements.”

      He said that with the concept of tier splitting, programmers can insert explicit declarations into their source code, stating the tiers on which certain classes and methods should run. Then, “volta automatically inserts low-level communication and serialization code and moves the annotated code to the appropriate tiers,” Meijer said.

      Daley said the significance of tier splitting “is huge in the long term. It takes all the accidental complexity out of the equation.” The tier-splitting capability enables the developer to focus on having a single code base rather than to have to focus on client-side or server-side code.

      “Volta allows us to reuse investments in server-side code and client-side code,” Daley said.

      For instance, Microsoft’s Patterns & Practices team wrote a block of code for input validation, he said. “Their code was written to run on the server, and we’re able [using Volta] to take that code and move it to the browser with no changes.”

      “Developers are able to seamlessly step from one tier to another through code, set breakpoints on any tier and trace flows of control across distributed systems,” Meijer said.

      In addition, Volta integrates an end-to-end profiling mechanism known as Rotunda. Rotunda enables developers to get a view of the overall performance of their application and gathers trace data on where bottlenecks may occur so the developer can troubleshoot them.

      Rotunda came out of Microsoft Research, from a project headed by Ben Livshits. Meijer said he saw Livshits’ work last spring and began courting the researcher to deliver an end-to-end profiling capability for Volta. The effort picked up in earnest in August and resulted in Rotunda being integrated into the Volta CTP in December.

      It was an excellent collaboration between Microsoft Research and what was essentially a product team, albeit an experimental one, Meijer said.

      He said Volta will do for Web development what Visual Basic did for client-side development, which is to bring it to the masses.

      “The vision of Volta is ultimately pretty big,” Daley said. “It’s to change the way people build Web apps. Volta takes the same level of abstraction required to deliver distributed applications as VB did for client applications.”

      Volta also brings to light the importance of asynchronous programming on the Web, Meijer said. “You can make responsive applications that are able to deal with long delays before a call returns,” he said.

      Check out eWEEK.com’s Application Development Center for the latest news, reviews and analysis in programming environments and developer tools.

      Darryl K. Taft
      Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Big Data and Analytics

      Alteryx’s Suresh Vittal on the Democratization of...

      James Maguire - May 31, 2022 0
      I spoke with Suresh Vittal, Chief Product Officer at Alteryx, about the industry mega-shift toward making data analytics tools accessible to a company’s complete...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      Visa’s Michael Jabbara on Cybersecurity and Digital...

      James Maguire - May 17, 2022 0
      I spoke with Michael Jabbara, VP and Global Head of Fraud Services at Visa, about the cybersecurity technology used to ensure the safe transfer...
      Read more
      Applications

      Cisco’s Thimaya Subaiya on Customer Experience in...

      James Maguire - May 10, 2022 0
      I spoke with Thimaya Subaiya, SVP and GM of Global Customer Experience at Cisco, about the factors that create good customer experience – and...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      GoodData CEO Roman Stanek on Business Intelligence...

      James Maguire - May 4, 2022 0
      I spoke with Roman Stanek, CEO of GoodData, about business intelligence, data as a service, and the frustration that many executives have with data...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Yotascale CEO Asim Razzaq on Controlling Multicloud...

      James Maguire - May 5, 2022 0
      Asim Razzaq, CEO of Yotascale, provides guidance on understanding—and containing—the complex cost structure of multicloud computing. Among the topics we covered:  As you survey the...
      Read more
      Logo

      eWeek has the latest technology news and analysis, buying guides, and product reviews for IT professionals and technology buyers. The site’s focus is on innovative solutions and covering in-depth technical content. eWeek stays on the cutting edge of technology news and IT trends through interviews and expert analysis. Gain insight from top innovators and thought leaders in the fields of IT, business, enterprise software, startups, and more.

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Advertisers

      Advertise with TechnologyAdvice on eWeek and our other IT-focused platforms.

      Advertise with Us

      Menu

      • About eWeek
      • Subscribe to our Newsletter
      • Latest News

      Our Brands

      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms
      • About
      • Contact
      • Advertise
      • Sitemap
      • California – Do Not Sell My Information

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      © 2022 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×