San Francisco, Calif. - Microsoft Corp. chief software architect Bill Gates February 13 officially launched Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework, the application development tool and platform for .Net applications, at the VSLive! 2002 Conference in San Francisco.
San Francisco, Calif. – Microsoft Corp. chief software architect Bill Gates February 13 officially launched Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework, the application development tool and platform for .Net applications, at the VSLive! 2002 Conference in San Francisco. Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework are the first software projects entirely overseen by Gates as Microsoft’s chief software architect and represent a major milestone in bringing Microsoft’s vision of XML Web services to reality.
“Launching Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework today underscores Microsoft’s long-term commitment to developer success,” Mr. Gates said. “We view Visual Studio .Net as the key to the next big wave of developer opportunity, creating the XML Web services that will soon become the basis for all major new software development.”
With these products, developers can create and deploy XML Web services. With support for more than 20 programming languages, these products enable developers to extend their existing skills to embrace the new world of XML Web services.
More than 3.5 million copies of Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework were distributed during beta testing. Since its availability in January to MSDN developer program subscribers, more than 350,000 customers have received the released version of these products.
Additionally, a new .Net international user group association was announced earlier in the week with the creation of the International .Net Association (INETA) of User Groups. As a charter sponsor of INETA, Microsoft will provide training for the INETA Speakers Bureau and support in providing content to its members.
In his keynote address, Gates highlighted several of more than 1,000 new customer deployments on .NET, including those from Autodesk, L’Oreal, and Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc. These new customers have already experienced productivity gains and improved application development cycles.
Autodesk has built a new application development platform for the rapid creation of design visualization applications on the Microsoft .NET platform.
L’Oreal built a new e-commerce system in just four months to flexibly integrate with its partners worldwide.
Merrill Lynch consolidated all of its 800-number lines serving more than 25 million customers into one master telephone service, improving maintenance, fault tolerance, and performance.
Gates also announced three new partners that will provide developer tools integrated with Visual Studio .Net: Computer Associates, Groove Networks, and SAP.
Additionally, Gates announced Groove Networks and SAP joined the ranks of 70 other Visual Studio .Net Integration Program members including Rational Software, Compuware, and Crystal Decisions. Microsoft’s VSIP partners include tools, language, and component vendors, independent software vendors (ISVs), academics, and researchers.
In addition to vendors choosing to integrate into the Visual Studio .Net environment, two prominent application development companies announced their tools for the .Net Framework. Borland Software Corp. announced that Delphi and C++Builder would target the .Net Framework, and Macromedia Inc. announced that Dreamweaver UltraDev would target ASP.NET.
Microsoft also announced the Microsoft .Net Component Builder Program, providing component vendors resources to effectively build and market components using the latest Microsoft .Net technologies. The program will be jointly run by Microsoft and the Component Vendor Consortium (CVC), a non-profit organization representing ‘third party’ ISVs and is a recognized authority on component quality.
Visual Studio .Net and the .Net Framework make up Microsoft’s first full IDE for building XML Web services and next-generation Internet applications on the .Net Platform. Visual Studio .Net is Microsoft’s rapid application development (RAD) tool, enabling developers to create and deploy broad-reach Web applications for any device and any platform. More information about Visual Studio .Net can be found at https://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio . The .Net Framework provides the programming model of the .Net Platform, making it possible to deploy and run XML Web services and other types of applications, including client-, server- and service-based applications. More information on the .Net Framework can be found at https://msdn.microsoft.com/netframework/default.asp .
Pricing and General Availability of Visual Studio .NET
Visual Studio .Net is offered in three editions:
Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Architect enables software architects and senior developers to build large-scale applications for infrastructure development. The suggested retail price for Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Architect is $2,499.
Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Developer enables development teams to build enterprise applications for any Internet device and any platform. The suggested retail price of Visual Studio .Net Enterprise Developer is $1,799.
Visual Studio .Net Professional enables developers to rapidly build XML Web services and next-generation applications for any Internet device. The suggested retail price of Visual Studio .Net Professional is $1,079.
Standard editions of Visual Basic .Net, Visual C++ .Net, and Visual C# .Net are available for for a suggested retail price of $109.
Control Engineering Daily News DeskGary A. Mintchell, senior editor [email protected]
