Is Microsoft's new toolkit worthwhile?

Last week Microsoft had a launch of 3 new software suites in Hanoi. The trio includes: Visual Studio 2005, SQL Server 2005 and Biztalk Server 2006. So, are these new software really attractive, powerful, and reliable as Microsoft has "promoted"?

Here are the salient features of these software packages:

Visual Studio 2005

If you're an IT person, the name Visual Studio (VS) is no stranger. Like previous Visual Studio .Net versions, Visual Studio 2005 version also supports new object-oriented programming languages ​​such as C #, VB.Net, J # and "super-powerful" programming language, C ++. .Net, all have significant improvements. Visual Studio 2005 is a powerful set of software development tools with attractive features:

Interface design, coding support

If you used Visual Studio .Net, you must be very interested in the support of writing IntelliSense code. IntelliSense not only helps you write code faster, but also helps new developers get used to .Net more quickly. In particular, VS 2005 is also capable of reusing sample code. Not only that, VS 2005 allows creating applications with an attractive interface similar to Outlook's.

Build Web applications faster

VS 2005 included a new Web development tool called Visual Web Developer. This tool allows creating Web applications written in ASP.NET 2.0. With Visual Web Developer, there are about 50 newly integrated Web controls that make developing Web applications faster and simpler. The major improvement in ASP.NET 2.0 is the support for creating a Master Page and allowing other pages to inherit the Master Page. Another great advantage of Visual Web Developer is that it is easy to create a very simple Web project project. Previously, when creating a Web project, you had to specify a vitual directory in the IIS Web server (Internet Information Services) and when copying this project to another, it was "tiring". But with VS 2005, creating Web applications does not require these operations, and is as simple as creating a normal Windows application.

Support application development for mobile devices

Programming on mobile devices is becoming a trend. It's not just the development of applications for these devices, but the development of mobile games is also booming. Developing applications for mobile devices, especially mobile phones, is becoming more and more attractive, and revenue is also higher and faster. In this area, Microsoft has been "slower" than Sun. Most applications on mobile phones and mobile devices are written in J2ME (Java 2 Micro Edition), allowing applications to run on devices with small screens, low number of colors, and memory capacity. limit. However, Microsoft quickly realized that the field is a "lucrative" market, full of potential. Therefore, this "giant" software company has built a medium for developing .Net Compact Framework applications as small as J2 ME but simple and easy to use as .Net. This application development environment can work on mobile phones, devices that use Windows CE, Windows Mobile OS .

Package and deploy applications

Visual Studio 2005 allows for easier and simpler packaging and deployment of applications. Thanks to the new ClickOne application and packaging technology, you'll easily deploy those applications on Web servers, or file-sharing networks.

Supports 64 bit applications

The trend of 64-bit processors and multi-core processors is growing strongly and also makes it difficult for software developers. NetFramework 2.0 as well as Visual Studio 2005 provides good and optimal support for 64-bit computing.

Diverse products

Visual Studio 2005 was released not only as several versions: Standard, Pro, Premium . like previous versions. Microsoft releases not only many categories but also various products for different purposes of users. But most notable are 2 versions: Visual Studio Express and Visual Studio Team System.

Visual Studio Express is a free version and limited to 1 year of use. Because this is a free version, some attractive features will not be available: packaging and deploying ClickOne application, not supporting mobile device programming, not supporting Office development programming, documents little support . However, Visual Studio Express is still a great choice for students, amateur programmers or simply you are a technology enthusiast and want to explore. Visual Studio Express can be downloaded at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express

Visual Studio Team System is the most powerful toolkit in the Visual Studio product family. Visual Studio Team System is suitable for businesses and especially software manufacturing companies. Visual Studio 2005 Team Foundation Server is a server system that allows managing all projects, as well as assigning to each development department. The workstation system is a set of products that can serve the needs of each individual development department such as Software Architects, Software Development (Developers), software testers (Software Testers) . If you want to have a full client version for the above components, you can use Visual Studio Team Suite.

Details of the Visual Studio product suite are available at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products

SQL Server 2005

Currently, Oracle is still the leading database management system in the world. Although, over the past few years, Microsoft has consolidated many new services, offering bug fixes for SQL Server 2000, but the database management system has not yet passed Oracle.

SQL Server 2005 is Microsoft 's "enthusiastic" database system. New SQL Server version improves performance, reliability, simple programming capabilities and is easier to use than SQL Server 2000. SQL Server 2005 focuses on the ability to handle OLTP online transactions ( large-scale online transactional processing, e-commerce applications (e-commerce applications) and data warehousing. In addition, significant improvements in SQL Server 2005 are adding new services such as Reporting Services reporting service, Service Broker and significant change in Database Engine.

In particular, in this version, SQL Server 2005 includes a SQL Server 2005 Express version that is provided free of charge and without any time limit. You can download and use this version here. Visual Studio 2005 will take full advantage because it supports very well for programming especially the .Net environment.

Biztalk Server 2006

Biztalk Server is a software suite that helps to build, manage and automate business processes in a distributed manner. Like the Biztalk Server 2004 version, the new version allows users to manage the entire business processes of the company, the ability to manage and create simple business rules.

Biztalk Server 2006 is built on the architecture of Biztalk Server 2004 so upgrading from this old version to the new version does not encounter any difficulties. In addition to the more powerful new features, Biztalk Server 2006 is integrated and works very well with Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005 tools. For more information about Biztalk Server 2006 visit: www.microsoft.com / balktalk

In short, Visual Studio 2005 software development toolkit has more attractive and powerful features than many older versions. If you love programming and want to get familiar with Visual Studio and .Net, download and use the free Visual Studio Express toolkit. To develop database applications on Windows environment and combine with .Net environment, SQL Server 2005 Express is also a wise choice. If you need more powerful features, consider SQL Server 2005 with more powerful versions. Biztalk Server 2006 is a great upgrade for businesses in managing business processes, and especially if businesses have used Biztalk 2004, Biztalk 2006 is a good choice. If you want to upgrade or refer to the prices of all 3 products go to: www.microsoft.com/vietnam/licensing/pricing for more details.

Minh Phuc (sum up)