Microsoft Releases Beta Code For Whidbey Visual Studio .Net, Indigo Web Services

At VSLive in New York, the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant gave its first demonstration of the next-generation Visual Studio platform for Microsoft's upcoming "Yukon" database.

Eric Rudder, senior vice president of servers and tools at Microsoft, said improving data access and simplifying development on the Yukon wave of products are major goals of the Whidbey release, which is expected to coincide with the release of Yukon in late 2004.

The new Windows client application development data and user interface controls and ASP.Net controls in Whidbey will reduce code development in common situations by as much as 70 percent, Rudder said, adding that the efficient code development capabilities will enable developers and solution providers to get business solutions to market more quickly.

For instance, the integration of another new capability--the "My Classes" set of abstractions--will enable Visual Basic Developers to access database resources more easily, Rudder said. "We're trying to reduce the code developers have to write," he said.

During the 15-minute "sneak preview" of Whidbey Beta 1, another executive in the developer organization showed off a new ability for developers to drag and drop tables into forms and click on Microsoft's SmartTags feature to access the database.

"Visual Basic understands the relationship between data tables in the database," said Visual Studio .Net Product Manager Ari Bixhorn. "You can add tables to the user interface without writing a single line of code."

Microsoft also showed a community IDE and XML document modeling capabilities.

Bixhorn hit two bugs when showing off the early code's new features, including new controls for data access and enhanced debugging capabilities.

However, he regained favor with the development crowd by announcing that the company would return its "Edit and Continue" feature back into Whidbey, which generated a round of applause. That feature was removed in the Visual Studio .Net 2003 platform.

Microsoft's next-generation development platform, code-named Indigo, shipped into beta testing this week, Rudder said.

Sources said the Indigo distributed application layer for Web services and network-based computing, along with the Visual Studio product beyond Whidbey known as Orcas, is due in the Longhorn time frame in 2005.

In a brief interview with CRN, Rudder said Microsoft is enhancing Visual Studio to simplify development for small and midsize businesses.

Rudder also confirmed an earlier CRN report about new technology being integrated into Whidbey, code-named Whitehorse. He said the new modeling paradigm that will simplify "how corporate developers and business decision makers" work together on applications.