Visual Studio 2005 provides developers with enhanced functionality across a wide range of areas allowing developers to build richer, more powerful applications with decreased development time.
With a single fully integrated development environment for all types of development including Windows, Office, Web, and Mobile applications, Visual Studio 2005 provides a wealth of benefit to the developer.
Visual Studio 2005 provides individual developers and development organizations a number of new and improved features:
A comprehensive tools platform - Visual Studio 2005 offers productive developer tools for customers of all stripes, from the novice programmer to the experienced enterprise development team. With Visual Studio 2005, developers enjoy comprehensive tools that offer a development experience tailored for their unique needs.
Reduced development complexity - Visual Studio 2005 enables customers to more easily deliver a broad range of .NET Framework-based solutions, including Windows, Office, Web, and mobile applications.
Improved team communication - Visual Studio 2005 Team System offers productive and integrated lifecycle tools that increase communication and collaboration among participants in the IT lifecycle.
A vibrant third-party ecosystem - Take advantage of over 300 products from over 150 Visual Studio Industry Partners program participants and enjoy a comprehensive array of third-party solutions that augment Visual Studio 2005.
Visual Studio 2005 - A Comprehensive Tools Platform
Microsoft will ship four different "levels" of products in Visual Studio 2005:
The Express products. Lightweight, easy to use, easy to learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students who want to learn how to program or evaluate the .NET Framework.
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition. The entry-point developer tool for professionals looking for a streamlined development experience and the ability to create robust client/server applications using the .NET Framework.
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition. The professional developer tool for individual programmers or those working in small teams who are building mission-critical, multi-tier smart client, Web, and mobile applications.
Visual Studio 2005 Team System. Productive, integrated lifecycle tools that help teams communicate and collaborate more effectively as they deliver modern, service-oriented solutions on the .NET Framework.
The Express products
Software development today is out of the reach of most beginning and hobbyist programmers. When they use most professional development tools, they often appear too complicated, too confusing, too disjointed, and with too many buttons, menu items, and choices to comprehend all at once. While every individual possesses the potential to master these tools, the tool's complexity is often a barrier to both understanding and enjoying programming.
The new Express products expand significantly on Microsoft's demonstrated successes in delivering highly productive tools, by offering hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students the lightweight, easy to use, easy to learn tools to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites. With the Express products, users can:
Learn how to program using a streamlined, lightweight development environment with built in tutorial content
Evaluate the .NET Framework for Windows and Web development
Create fun and interesting applications for their personal enjoyment or to share with their friends
The Express products consist of:
Visual Web Developer 2005 Express Edition, a lightweight tool for building dynamic Web sites and Web services
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, a streamlined programming tool for beginning programmers to learn how to build exciting Windows applications
Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, and Visual J# 2005 Express Edition, targeted programming tools for students and enthusiasts who wish to learn the fundamentals of Computer Science
Microsoft also ships SQL Server 2005 Express Edition, an entry-level database for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and student developers
These products are only the beginning. Microsoft has also worked with a number of content providers and community groups to build out a healthy ecosystem of content, forums, and resources to enable users to be more successful, including:
Content providers, delivering plug-ins and Starter Kits to the Express products
Community resources, offering users, newsgroups and forums a place where they can congregate, exchange ideas and get assistance from fellow users
Training and learning partnerships with book publishers, training vendors, and more to assist users in taking the subsequent steps beyond being a tinkerer to becoming an IT professional
Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition:
Visual Studio Standard Edition is an entrypoint professional development tool that maintains the simplicity of the Express line but delivers access to the powerful development tools necessary to construct data-focused client applications, n-tier applications (Connected Systems) using Web services, and rich Web applications. Visual Basic 6.0 developers moving to the .NET Framework will find that Visual Studio 2005 Standard Edition combines the productivity enhancements coming to Visual Basic 2005 such as My, IntelliSense, Code Snippets, and Edit and Continue with the power that they require for constructing line of business applications and migrating to a modern development environment.
Visual Studio Standard Edition also provides Web developers who are building line of business applications with a full-featured development environment for constructing advanced data-driven, dynamic applications, while still keeping a slimmed-down, Web focused IDE. Visual Studio Standard Edition includes advanced Web development features, such as pre-compilation of Web sites, full debugging tools, richer data-access, Section 507 and WCAG accessibility checking, and simplified support for site localization.
Visual Studio Standard Edition also includes support for extending the development environment with over 300 tools from over 175 Visual Studio Integration Partners (VSIP) program participants.
Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition:
Microsoft offers Visual Studio 2005 Professional Edition for professional developers working alone or in small teams who build mission-critical, multi-tier applications. The Professional Edition expands on the Standard Edition feature set to include tools for remote server development and debugging, SQL Server 2005 development, and a full, unconstrained development environment.
Professional developers will enjoy unfettered access to the .NET Framework 2.0, a robust, fully functional development environment, that provides support for creating tools that extend the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment, and tools for creating multi-tier Windows and Web applications.
Visual Studio 2005 Team System:
Today's software systems are comprised of numerous distributed services, spanning platforms, protocols, and programming languages, all with significant impact on the operations environment. Moreover, teams have become increasingly specialized and geographically distributed. Successful deployment of modern solutions depends on bridging the communication gap between development and operations so that the entire IT department is represented early and often throughout the software lifecycle.
The new Visual Studio Team System expands significantly on Microsoft's demonstrated successes in delivering highly productive tools, by offering businesses tightly integrated and extensible lifecycle tools to increase the predictability of their software development process. With Visual Studio Team System, organizations can:
Reduce the complexity of delivering modern service-oriented solutions that are designed for operations
Facilitate collaboration among all members of a software team, speeding development time and ensuring the predictability and reliability of the development process
Customize and extend the Team System with their own internal tools and process frameworks, or choose from over 450 supplemental products from over 190 partners
Visual Studio Team System consists of:
Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, an extensible team collaboration server that enables all members of the extended IT team to effortlessly manage and track the progress and health of projects
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects, visual designers that enable architects, operations managers, and developers to design service-oriented solutions that can be validated against their operational environments
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers, advanced development tools that enable teams to build reliable, mission-critical services and applications
Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers, advanced load testing tools that enable teams to verify the performance of applications prior to deployment
Visual Studio Team Suite, a bundle of Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Architects, Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Developers, and Visual Studio Team Edition for Software Testers
Proven process guidance, prescriptive architectural guidance, and solution accelerators that assist organizations in improving the predictability and reliability of delivering mission-critical solutions
