Microsoft has announced the release of Visual Studio 2010 and .NET Framework 4.0 Beta 2 and has detailed the planned release versions and pricing. Jason Zander, General Manager, Visual Studio, Developer Division details the different versions:
- Visual Studio Express: the free Express SKUs for C++, C#, VB, and Web have been updated and released with this version and give you the basics for writing applications
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Professional with MSDN: professional development tools as you are used to today with the addition of source control integration, extensibility, etc.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Premium with MSDN: Premium has everything in Professional plus advanced development (including profiling and debugging), advanced database support, coded UI testing, etc. Rather than buying multiple “Team” SKUs, you can now get this combination of features in one box.
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate with MSDN: Ultimate has everything in Premium plus additional advanced features for developers, testers, and architects including features like Intellitrace (formerly Historical Debugging), the new architecture tools (UML, discovery), etc. All of the scenarios we’ve talked about are supported with this version of the product.
Scott Hanselman lists what he feels are the best new .NET Framework 4.0 features:
- Quicker to Install - A smaller Client Profile with a much smaller initial download (down to 0.8 megs from 2.8) for bootstrapping .NET client apps faster than ever)
- Side by Side - .NET 4 is a side-by-side release that doesn't auto-promote, meaning you won't break existing apps and you can have .NET 2.0, 3.5 and 4 apps on the same machine, happily.
- Side-by-side CLR support for managed add-ins inside of apps like Explorer or Outlook. Again, new and existing apps in the same process, chillin'.
- For more details on Application Compatibilty, check out the AppCompat Walkthrough for .NET 4 on MSDN.
- Dynamic Language Support - The DLR (Dynamic language runtime) ships built-in with .NET 4 so you can mix-and-match your solutions and pick the best language (or languages) amongst C# and VB.NET as well as F#, IronPython and IronRuby. This includes better support for COM (yes, COM! People do use COM and it's even easier with the new dynamic keyword in C# these days.)
- More Web Standards Support - Better support for WS-* and REST making interop easier. (I love ADO.NET Data Services, but you know that already, Dear Reader. I'm a bit of a RESTafarian, these days.)
- Plugins Galore - Visual Studio 2010 uses MEF and WPF to enable a whole new world of clean managed extensions as well as an Online Gallery (there's an extension for that!)
- Multi-Framework Multi-targeting
I have not looked at VS 2010. One thing I hope Microsoft includes is T4 templates for Windows Forms and WPF applications similar to those for ASP.NET MVC. The days of creating applications by dragging a few buttons onto a form should be behind us. Real applications need proper structure from the start.