Free Windows 8 desktop app development is dead
The next free version of Microsoft’s Visual Studio programming suite won’t build normal Windows desktop apps, it has emerged.
Visual Studio 2011 Express edition will only allow developers to build touchscreen-friendly programs for the new Windows 8 Metro UI, according to the software's product page here. Read more...
Leap-day Visual Studio beta provokes ‘passionate’ response
The early details of Microsoft's latest Visual Studio beta build, notably its changes to the layout and working environment, has provoked a storm of responses just days before its February 29 release.
"There's a lot of excitement about this release and a lot of passion about colors, designs, styles and icons. Know that we are listening to all your comments here, across social media. Keep the comments coming, both good and bad. We are reading them all," reads an update to developer user-experience director Monty Hammontree's introductory posting on the Visual Studio blog. Read more...
Visual Studio 2011: Developers’ first reactions
With Microsoft readying a beta version of Visual Studio 11, the next major upgrade to the company's IDE, developers are interested in HTML5 backing as well as in basic functional fixes. Visual Studio 11, available as a developer preview since last month, is set to feature accommodations for the upcoming Windows 8 OS, as well as the Windows Azure cloud computing platform, along with capabilities such as code cloning and enhanced unit testing. No release date is yet scheduled.
"I do like the HTML5 stuff they're showing and also some of the intelligence enhancements they have for CSS [Cascading Style Sheets] 3," says Joel Padot, a developer at Florida Farm Bureau Insurance. His company is looking at HTML5 and Web applications as way to support mobile devices. (HTML5 features are planned for the HTML editor in Visual Studio 11.) Padot also praised code review capabilities planned for the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server application lifecycle management server. Read more...
Microsoft previews new Visual Studio, .NET
Microsoft has given MSDN subscribers access to a preview version of Visual Studio 11 and a new version of .NET as well as developer version of its upcoming Windows 8 operating system.
The company announced the new developerware on Wednesday at its BUILD conference in Anaheim, California. The Visual Studio preview provides tools for building Windows 8 Metro applications in HTML5, JavaScript, C#, Visual Basic and C ++, and it includes new tools for code analysis and review as well as extension management. At the conference, Microsoft demoed a visual image editor that allowed coders to highlight a single pixel and instantly find the line of code responsible for it. Read more...
Microsoft slates 22 patches for Windows, IE next week
Microsoft today said it will ship 13 security updates next week to patch 22 vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer, Windows, Visio and Visual Studio.
Next Tuesday's patch lineup is larger than July's on the update count, but matches that month's vulnerability total. That's unusual, since the company usually delivers a heavier load in even-numbered months.
"Twenty-two [vulnerabilities] is not a big month, it's more in the medium range, what with the larger numbers we've seen so far in 2011," said Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Security. Read more...
Visual Studio infected with HTML5 by ‘rogue faction’
There's nothing to stop you working with HTML5 in Visual Studio. Except for the fact that you can't use many of the features that polish the .NET-editing experience.
That wasn't a problem for Microsoft until it decided HTML5 was the future of coding on PCs, devices, and the web, unveiling a very Web- and HTML-centric next version of Windows.
Eyes have been turning slowly to the next of Visual Studio, to see how Microsoft's tooling story plays out. Read more...
Microsoft adds customization to Visual Studio LightSwitch
Microsoft plans to issue on Tuesday a second beta release of its Visual Studio LightSwitch development tool that is intended to enable nonprogrammers to build Windows business applications via a drag-and-drop design interface.
This second beta release will also feature integration with the Windows Azure cloud platform and the capability to customize via extensions, which will provide such functionality as pivot table controls or a better application appearance. Extensions can be built via the Visual Studio Professional IDE. In this vein, Infragistics is offering UI and data visualization controls for LightSwitch with the second beta. Read more...