VS2010 and .NET 4.0 lay the foundations for the next epoch of .NET development and correct a number of omissions. I consider that we can divide the changes under four main headings:
• Efficiency
• Maturation of existing technologies
• Extensibility
• Influence of current trends
Let’s take a whirlwind tour of these now.
Efficiency
One of the first things you will notice in VS2010 is the shiny new WPF-based IDE. The IDE contains some great features available previously only in add-on products such R# and Refactor (note there is already a VS2010 version of R#, yay!) IDE highlights include box selection, snippets, class stub creation, call hierarchy, and quick search.
There are also some great language enhancements that can make code cleaner, such as optional and named parameters, dynamic functionality, and changes to variance. Some of these changes will also assist developers working with COM, who frankly need all the help they can get, poor guys and gals (a moment of respect, please).
Maturation of Existing Technologies
Many .NET-based technologies, such as ASP.NET, have been around for some time now and haven’t changed hugely in this release. Microsoft has, however, fixed a number of long-term omissions in ASP.NET and introduced some useful tweaks.
Toward the end of 2008, Microsoft announced that future versions of Visual Studio would include the popular JavaScript library, jQuery. Although not strictly a .NET change, jQuery is a very useful framework that you will defiantly want to make use of in your web applications. The enhancements to Microsoft’s own Ajax libraries, which make it very easy to bind to data with client script.
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) are much more closely integrated in this release. WF undergoes a radical overhaul with a much-improved designer, introduction of new activities, and easier customization. WCF becomes simpler to use and also introduces new service discovery functionality.
WPF has some great additions, with an improved designer, multi-touch, and Windows 7 task bar support. I will also be taking a quick look at Silverlight 3. Even through Silverlight is not a .NET 4.0 technology, I believe it is an important release. If you have never used Silverlight before, which contains a brief introduction to Silverlight. Entity Framework received much criticism when it was first released, and the team has attempted to address these criticisms in .NET 4.0.
Extensibility
VS2010 is your flexible and extensible friend. You may have already heard that much of the IDE is now written using WPF and can be customized with the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).
Influence of Current Trends
Software is not developed in a vacuum, and certain trends have undoubtedly influenced VS2010 and Microsoft’s product line.
Multicore Shift
Due to various physical limitations, CPU manufacturers are now concentrating on releasing multicore processors. Writing programs to run in parallel is difficult, but fear not: VS2010 and .NET 4.0 have fantastic new parallelization constructs and debugging facilities..
Unit Testing and Test-Driven Development
Unit testing and test-driven development are becoming increasingly popular in software development. VS2010 contains a number of IDE enhancements to assist with these strategies. Other related changes that may be of interest are the new dynamic features and the DLR and ASP.NET MVC. OK, ASP.NET MVC isn’t .NET 4.0, but again it is an important interim release.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing must win the buzzword of the year award for 2009. It is becoming an increasingly popular way to reduce costs and simplify management of infrastructure. Windows Azure is Microsoft’s entry to this area, and I take a look at its capabilities and potential uses. Note that if you purchased Visual Studio with MSDN, you even receive free Azure time.
Source of Information : Apress Introducing dot NET 4.0 with Visual Studio 2010
• Efficiency
• Maturation of existing technologies
• Extensibility
• Influence of current trends
Let’s take a whirlwind tour of these now.
Efficiency
One of the first things you will notice in VS2010 is the shiny new WPF-based IDE. The IDE contains some great features available previously only in add-on products such R# and Refactor (note there is already a VS2010 version of R#, yay!) IDE highlights include box selection, snippets, class stub creation, call hierarchy, and quick search.
There are also some great language enhancements that can make code cleaner, such as optional and named parameters, dynamic functionality, and changes to variance. Some of these changes will also assist developers working with COM, who frankly need all the help they can get, poor guys and gals (a moment of respect, please).
Maturation of Existing Technologies
Many .NET-based technologies, such as ASP.NET, have been around for some time now and haven’t changed hugely in this release. Microsoft has, however, fixed a number of long-term omissions in ASP.NET and introduced some useful tweaks.
Toward the end of 2008, Microsoft announced that future versions of Visual Studio would include the popular JavaScript library, jQuery. Although not strictly a .NET change, jQuery is a very useful framework that you will defiantly want to make use of in your web applications. The enhancements to Microsoft’s own Ajax libraries, which make it very easy to bind to data with client script.
Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) are much more closely integrated in this release. WF undergoes a radical overhaul with a much-improved designer, introduction of new activities, and easier customization. WCF becomes simpler to use and also introduces new service discovery functionality.
WPF has some great additions, with an improved designer, multi-touch, and Windows 7 task bar support. I will also be taking a quick look at Silverlight 3. Even through Silverlight is not a .NET 4.0 technology, I believe it is an important release. If you have never used Silverlight before, which contains a brief introduction to Silverlight. Entity Framework received much criticism when it was first released, and the team has attempted to address these criticisms in .NET 4.0.
Extensibility
VS2010 is your flexible and extensible friend. You may have already heard that much of the IDE is now written using WPF and can be customized with the Managed Extensibility Framework (MEF).
Influence of Current Trends
Software is not developed in a vacuum, and certain trends have undoubtedly influenced VS2010 and Microsoft’s product line.
Multicore Shift
Due to various physical limitations, CPU manufacturers are now concentrating on releasing multicore processors. Writing programs to run in parallel is difficult, but fear not: VS2010 and .NET 4.0 have fantastic new parallelization constructs and debugging facilities..
Unit Testing and Test-Driven Development
Unit testing and test-driven development are becoming increasingly popular in software development. VS2010 contains a number of IDE enhancements to assist with these strategies. Other related changes that may be of interest are the new dynamic features and the DLR and ASP.NET MVC. OK, ASP.NET MVC isn’t .NET 4.0, but again it is an important interim release.
Cloud Computing
Cloud computing must win the buzzword of the year award for 2009. It is becoming an increasingly popular way to reduce costs and simplify management of infrastructure. Windows Azure is Microsoft’s entry to this area, and I take a look at its capabilities and potential uses. Note that if you purchased Visual Studio with MSDN, you even receive free Azure time.
Source of Information : Apress Introducing dot NET 4.0 with Visual Studio 2010
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