(Made public as of October 6, 2004 since this is now available on MSDN)
I was able to meet with a couple Microsoft consulting developers today about Whidbey. I was unable to attend the last PDC in Los Angeles due to forest fires that shut down incoming air traffic to LAX. Instead, I spent the entire day at the airport trying to get another flight. The majority of the PDC agenda was focused on Whidbey, and I was not as excited about the new version of Visual Studio .NET 2.0 as many others were. At least not at this point in the game. But, today I very much enjoyed my 2.5 hours with a couple Microsoft consulting developers.
The two Microsoft developers I met with are currently using Whidbey for a client on the Whidbey Early Adopter Program (EAP). In short, Whidbey is truly an exciting new version. Believe me when I say that Microsoft is truly building a complete development platform. There has been talk of us get on the EAP for Whidbey, but it is only talk at this time. I doubt anything will come of it. Anyhow, you could easily spend several days covering the "Whats New" list for Whidbey. Here are a few of the items I found to be valuable from an enterprise and architectural perspective.
- Integrated Source Control (not sure what the official name is)
This is the first I've heard of a new source control tool from Microsoft. I say it's about time, but better late then never may be a better approach. Say goodby to Visual SourceSafe. This is supposably a very complete source control package. I know what you are thinking - I'll see it when I believe it. I have the same opinion. Yet, Microsoft has self-admitedly been very over-due in providing an updated version control package. Microsoft will have to deliver a solid product here in order to save face with the developers. The Microsoft consulting developers seemed to be pretty happy with it. I can't wait to see it. Wouldn't you guess, we just purchased Star Team at work so we could do away with VSS. Oh well.
- Integrated Coverage Analysis Tool
We are seriously looking into a code coverage tool at work, and are nearing our purchase.
- Integrated Profiler
I expect this will contain much of the functionality provided with the recent CLR Profiler 2.0. I understand Microsoft is a large client of the DevPartner product. I wouldn't be surprised to see some familiarity between the products.
- Load Testing - didn't hear much about this, but it would be nice to have at least a basic package.
- Unit Testing (i.e. NUint)
Who needs to unit test any way. Apparently I do.
- Builder Tool
Many of you are probably familiar with NAnt or are even using it. The new builder is an XML based format.
- Dual (multiple/concurrent) Debugging Sessions - This allows you to load more than one instance of the IDE and place both in debug mode (i.e. debuging web service or client/server debugging).
- IIS not needed on the developer box - Whidbey comes with a fully functional web server built into the product.
- Master Pagers - We currently use a home-grown PageBase (Master Page) technique, but these can dynamically be determined at run-time if that is what is needed. Pretty cool.
- Caching (Enhanced) - Cache values can now be tied to Cache Dependencies like changes to a file, sql result set, or a custom defined cache dependency.
- Generics - these will be usefull in created strongly typed collections without having to code all the particulars for each and every typed collection you create.
- Partial Classes - This allows you to keep the code for a single class in two seperate files. This will be nice in allowing you to seperate any generated code from custom code for the same class.
- Expansions - like a code snipet insert tool. You can use existing or create custom snipets.
- much, much more!
I have only scratched the surface here. When you look into the new features and functionality, you will see that developer productivity was the primary focus of this new version. I was not that excited about Whidbey before today. Im, not sure when it will be released, but I expect it's about 12 months away.