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by Sam Gentile.
Original Post: The New Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta Products and MSDN Product Feedback Center
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As I start to break these down for you, I will give you a mixture of pre-announcement official messaging I have been given and personal opinions. The first thing to note is the new MSDN Product Feedback Center, formerly codenamed Ladybug (also see Sara's post on this). Ladybug is a really cool thing as it heavily involves you/us, the community. The Product Feedback Site is going to be a total replacement for Betaplace. The MSDN Product Feedback Center is a public suggestion and bug database for Microsoft products, starting with Visual Studio 2005 and the .NET Framework 2.0 Beta. Developers can track suggestions and bug reports online, get email notification of fixes, and interact directly with Microsoft product teams during product development. It is my opinion/observation that Microsoft in the last 2 years has totally revamped their whole public face to the development community and has made interaction astronomically better. This is a fantastic feat.
Also new is the Visual Studio 2005 Express Beta Products. These products are a brand new edition to the Visual Studio 2005 product line and reflect Microsoft realizing that there are distinct needs for beginning hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students who want to get started programming with the .NET Framework. The Express products are lightweight, easy to use, easy to learn tools for hobbyists, enthusiasts, and students who want to build dynamic Windows applications and Web sites.
Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, a streamlined programming tool for beginning programmers to learn how to build exciting Windows applications and targeted programming tools for students and enthusiasts who wish to learn the fundamentals of computer science
Visual C# 2005 Express Edition, a simple, lightweight, integrated development environment designed for beginning programmers and non-professional developers interested in building Windows Forms, class libraries, and console-based applications.
Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition, may be the C++ entry point to the full power of Visual Studio 2005, but Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition isn't necessarily lacking in power or capability. With a professional-grade compiler, code editor, debugger, project system, and more, Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition packs a lot of punch! New and experienced C++ developers alike will find that Visual C++ 2005 Express Edition delivers the tools and libraries they need to write all sorts of programs, from school assignments to game mods.
Visual J# 2005 Express Edition, targeted programming tools for students and enthusiasts who wish to learn the fundamentals of computer science
The first thing to say is the one that knocked my socks off last June in Redmond, and I was never able to blog even after PDC, is the Visual Web Developer (Venus). I am not sure if I saw a “full“ version or the Express edition but this tool absolutely rocked! It seemed like Web Matrix, done right combined with some of the best features of Visual Studio. Actually, as Kent captures it, “Think Web Matrix, but with Intellisense.” It's lightweight, easy to use but powerful enough to rapidly create Web sites, applications, and services. The great thing for me, shared with the ASP.NET 2.0 features is ending the whole crapola of having a solution and requiring IIS and Front Page Extensions. Want to deploy and run from a local file directory? Just do it!
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